I Trained Like A Chess Grandmaster
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00:00 chess players in the world.
00:01 And at the end of this video, I will be competing in PogChamps
00:04 3, an actual chess tournament against some of the biggest
00:08 streamers on the platform.
00:10 Challenge accepted.
00:11 -Hi, Michelle.
00:19 -Hi.
00:20 -My name is Levi Rosman.
00:21 I'm an international master, and I'll be your coach through
00:23 this challenge.
00:23 So I've been playing chess since I was five years old.
00:26 I played my first tournament when I was seven.
00:28 I've been in the top five for my age in the United States
00:31 for basically my whole childhood.
00:33 And I was number two in the country when I was 12.
00:36 How much chess have you played?
00:38 -I know how the pieces move.
00:41 I know the knights go in the L, and the rooks go--
00:46 -Like that.
00:46 -Here and here.
00:47 And then the bishop goes here on the diagonal.
00:50 And then the queen is just like a baller who goes wherever.
00:53 -Why don't you and I just play a game?
00:55 It's not necessarily a fair fight.
00:58 -So I will wear a blindfold.
01:00 -For the whole game?
01:06 -Yep.
01:07 -Pawn B3.
01:15 -Larsen's opening.
01:16 Maybe you aren't such a beginner after all.
01:18 I'll go pawn to E5.
01:21 -OK, I hope I'm doing this right.
01:24 OK, my turn.
01:27 How about knight goes from B1 to C3.
01:32 -I'll play bishop to C5.
01:33 -Bishop, C5.
01:39 You go so fast in your blindfold.
01:42 You know what?
01:42 OK, how about this?
01:44 Pawn A4.
01:46 -I'll go pawn to D5.
01:49 -OK, knight goes from G1 to F3.
01:53 -You're attacking my pawn.
01:54 I'll push that pawn from E5 to E4.
01:56 -Knight, E5.
01:58 -Queen to F6.
02:00 -Pawn, F4.
02:01 -Queen takes pawn.
02:02 -Bishop, B2.
02:04 -OK, so I could take your knight with my queen.
02:07 But I think a better move is queen F2, checkmate.
02:11 -What?
02:19 That's it?
02:20 -I think the real problem is that you didn't push your
02:22 central pawns, so you couldn't really fend off my pieces out
02:26 in the open.
02:27 -Respectfully?
02:28 What the [BLEEP]?
02:30 -My name is Ikara Nakamura.
02:31 I'm a grandmaster at chess, five-time United States chess
02:33 champion, and the number one ranked
02:35 blitz player in the world.
02:36 The hardest thing for Michelle is probably dealing with
02:39 failure at the start.
02:39 I think it's going to be very difficult to get into chess.
02:41 I expect her to lose quite a few games at the start.
02:44 I think the most important thing is that she focuses and
02:46 realizes that it's about the end result.
02:48 It's not simply about the first couple of games.
02:50 -The game of chess is split into three phases.
02:53 We have the opening, the middle game, and the end game.
02:56 -How many openings are there?
02:58 -Many hundreds, maybe in the thousands.
03:01 -Am I going to win one?
03:04 -Well, we should start with the first move, yes.
03:07 -I'm going to choose to move the queen's pawn.
03:09 -If I play also with my queen's pawn, you have the
03:12 option to play the queen's gambit.
03:14 -Like the show?
03:17 Oh my god, we're already there!
03:18 We're doing the queen's gambit!
03:20 -The global Netflix hit, "The Queen's Gambit," follows the
03:23 rise of fictional chess prodigy Elizabeth Harmon,
03:26 checkmating her way to victories in
03:28 the male-dominated sport.
03:30 The on-screen matches igniting a new off-screen
03:33 interest in the game.
03:34 -The queen's gambit just completely
03:37 changed chess forever.
03:38 The opening that I wanted to show you is called "The
03:41 London System."
03:43 -They all have different names.
03:44 -A lot of them have different names either after
03:47 people or places.
03:48 And then some have meme names, like the Bond Cloud.
03:54 -So the Bond Cloud is an opening where both players
03:56 move their pawns to start the game, pawn to e4, pawn to e5.
03:59 And then the player with white will move
04:01 their king up one square.
04:02 You don't play it seriously, because it
04:03 violates every principle.
04:05 Not only do you block your development, you also move
04:07 your king into the center of the board.
04:09 -The more memes in chess, the better, because that way we can
04:12 piss off everybody who's gatekeeping it.
04:14 The whole way "The London" starts is with the move
04:16 bishop to f4.
04:17 Getting your dark-squared bishop to the
04:19 center of the board.
04:20 Controlling the center in chess is extremely important,
04:22 because from the center, your pieces are the most mobile and
04:25 active, so your next move might be pawn to e3.
04:28 But see, if I do the same move that you just did, you'll
04:31 notice that I blocked in my bishop.
04:32 So now my bishop can't come out as far into the territory as
04:35 your bishop.
04:36 Develop your king's knight to f3.
04:38 Now finish your pyramid of pawns.
04:40 And the reason you do that is so that you can park your
04:43 light-squared bishop in the small house
04:45 that you built for it.
04:46 -Oh, that's so cute.
04:48 Look at it.
04:50 Already, I feel like I can see how to move
04:53 better across the board.
04:54 -So for the following week, I spent at least four hours a
04:57 day playing chess online, doing puzzles, analyzing my
05:00 games, and taking lessons with some of the best chess players
05:03 and coaches online.
05:04 And after only a week, I am already mentally obliterated.
05:08 -It's two moves, three moves, sacrifices.
05:10 Your threat is g5, which will kick the knight during the
05:13 time of Queen Isabella, actually, in Spain.
05:15 -You're going to find somewhere else to slip.
05:16 -Yeah, and I apologize if I went a little too fast or
05:18 sometimes I get excited.
05:20 -I'm just going to destroy you.
05:22 -And before you know it, you're speaking chess.
05:24 -What we'll do for this lesson is just kind of start
05:28 training our tactical vision.
05:29 This is standard, right?
05:30 Like the most universal first move, black plays e5.
05:33 Generally, what you want to do, if you can, is put two
05:36 pawns in the center.
05:37 And you can take back with the queen.
05:39 But you do not want this.
05:41 -Because--
05:42 -OK, so Queen f6.
05:44 This is offering a queen trade.
05:46 Why?
05:46 Because if we take the queen--
05:47 -They take back.
05:48 -They can take back with the pawn and the knight.
05:50 Now, bishop here.
05:52 So this is a super important concept.
05:53 If you go queen here, now the bishop does come out to
05:56 attack the queen.
05:57 Is it protected?
05:58 -Yes.
05:59 By the pawn.
06:00 Oh, god.
06:01 Oh, my god.
06:02 By the--
06:03 Oh.
06:03 Oh!
06:04 So then the queen has to just retreat or
06:06 go elsewhere anyways.
06:08 -Yeah, but it can't.
06:09 Because look who's on the same diagonal.
06:12 -Oh, my god.
06:13 -So that's something called a pin.
06:16 It's the fourth move of the game.
06:17 And we've lost our most powerful piece.
06:18 -No!
06:20 -What would you take this with?
06:22 -You would take it with the bishop.
06:23 Because then the king has to take that pawn.
06:25 And bye bye.
06:27 Bye bye.
06:29 Because the queen's there.
06:30 -Yes!
06:31 -However--
06:32 -Oh, no.
06:33 -However, queen is better.
06:36 But why?
06:37 -The king can escape if it's a bishop.
06:40 -Oh, my god.
06:40 -Very good.
06:41 -Yes, the queen boxes the king in like this.
06:44 That's what you have to remember.
06:45 All these squares are occupied.
06:46 And it's checkmate.
06:47 You win the game.
06:50 -OK, again.
06:51 D4 here.
06:54 Bishop, c--
06:55 oh, [BLEEP]
06:56 OK.
06:56 Today I wanted to sit down and just practice some of my
07:00 techniques at a physical board.
07:03 Because I got really sick of using the computer.
07:05 When you play on the computer after every game, it tells you
07:08 move by move what you should have done.
07:11 And while that's an incredible tool, it can be very
07:15 exhausting and makes me feel like an idiot.
07:20 -Checkmate.
07:22 Checkmate.
07:24 -There is a perceived stereotype that people who play
07:28 chess are very smart.
07:30 Therefore, if I'm bad at chess, I'm stupid.
07:34 -Chess is historically associated with the highest
07:37 degree of intelligence.
07:39 Yeah, that's absolute bull [BLEEP].
07:41 Checkmate, bitches.
07:44 -Every single high school movie would portray the
07:47 nerdiest, most socially awkward
07:49 people as the chess team.
07:51 And that was the stereotype that everybody who liked chess
07:54 had to deal with.
07:55 -I didn't like sharing with people that I was a
07:57 competitive chess player and that I was spending every
07:59 weekend competing.
08:00 Because I felt like, oh, they would see me differently.
08:02 The great benefit of this online outlet is that you can
08:05 see there is really no stereotype for what type of
08:08 person a chess player should be.
08:09 -I have no clue how I'm going to do this at a tournament in
08:12 like a month from now.
08:15 -Two weeks.
08:16 -Two weeks from now?
08:17 -My name is Anna.
08:18 I'm a chess international master.
08:19 I've been playing chess since I was four years old.
08:22 And my dream was to be on the Olympic team of Hungary, which
08:24 I finally achieved at the age of 20.
08:27 What we're going to do today is to simulate a game that will
08:30 be about the level of a POK champs competition.
08:33 And what I need you to do, every move, you're going to
08:36 talk us through your thought process.
08:38 And you will also analyze my moves.
08:40 -So I will just do pawn D4, because I've
08:44 been practicing London.
08:45 -I'm going to copy you and push this pawn.
08:48 -I'm going to go bishop F4, just to continue
08:51 my trip to London.
08:53 -I'm going to make this move.
08:55 Do you think the knight is all right here?
08:57 -I probably would have gone knight C6 to at least protect
09:01 the king and also be more centered in the board.
09:04 -Very good.
09:04 Which means that now my knight is stuck on the edge.
09:07 We have a saying at chess that a knight on the rim is dim.
09:10 If I want to move this knight again, what would be an all
09:13 right move for me?
09:14 -You just have to retreat back?
09:16 -Yeah.
09:17 That's really sad when you need to retreat to the square you're
09:20 coming from.
09:21 -I don't want to retreat.
09:22 -I know.
09:23 You need to think of every turn as a time unit.
09:26 You want to make sure that you use that time for the benefit
09:30 of your pieces.
09:31 And if I have to keep moving the same piece, I'm wasting time.
09:34 When you make a forcing move, and forcing moves are checks,
09:37 captures, and threats.
09:38 If you give me a check, I have to respond to the check.
09:41 If you capture a piece of mine, very likely I
09:44 have to take back if I can.
09:46 If you threaten my queen, most likely I have to move my queen.
09:49 So forcing moves are a category of moves
09:52 that are some of the strongest.
09:53 -When you're making a move or a sequence of moves,
09:56 your opponent is kind of forced to react to them.
09:58 You win a tempo or a move on your opponent's position,
10:02 and you improve your position at the same time.
10:04 -With rooks, there are two things you oftentimes
10:06 will aim for-- to get them to the seventh or second rank,
10:09 depending on which color you play with, and to double them.
10:13 Why do you think a rook on the seventh is strong?
10:16 -Because it's trapping that king in there, eventually.
10:21 -Even cooler if you have two rooks on the seventh.
10:24 Something that doesn't even have a separate name.
10:26 I think it should have a name.
10:27 -A rook on the seventh?
10:29 Like, that's such a lame name.
10:31 Of course no one cares.
10:32 That's not how cool kids are called.
10:34 -Castlemania.
10:34 -A rook on the seventh.
10:35 -Castlemania.
10:36 [ROARING]
10:40 -It's an interesting way of renaming an already known
10:42 theme.
10:43 Normally what we call it is doubling or tripling
10:46 on the seventh rank.
10:47 -First time I heard the term Castlemania, I was like, huh?
10:52 But then, I was like, you know what?
10:53 This kind of makes sense.
10:54 If it works, I could care less.
10:58 -The tournament is just in a few days,
11:00 and I'm kind of embarrassed because I still
11:05 don't have an opening or plan playing with the black pieces.
11:10 -I think it's important to remember that white and black
11:13 have totally different openings.
11:15 Usually, when you play with black,
11:16 you are reacting to your opponent.
11:18 -How do you feel like everything has been going?
11:20 -I'm really trying to figure out still
11:22 what a good plan is with the black pieces.
11:24 It's like a completely different game.
11:25 It's really weird.
11:26 I don't like it.
11:28 -I play the Sicilian, and I play C5 here.
11:30 -Someone in my chat said that they recommended Sicilian
11:34 Dragon in an earlier stream.
11:35 -Yes, that's the one I'm going to show you.
11:37 -Oh.
11:37 See, that just sounds cool.
11:39 -The Sicilian defense is one of the most confrontational
11:41 openings in chess.
11:42 It's played from the beginner level
11:44 all the way up to the highest grandmaster level.
11:46 And the Dragon Sicilian is one of the major subsets
11:49 of the Sicilian defense.
11:50 It's certainly not something that the opponents
11:52 are going to be preparing for in PogChamp,
11:54 so they're going to be very unfamiliar with it, which
11:56 definitely is a big advantage.
11:57 The idea of going C5 is that you want
12:00 to take control of the center.
12:02 So when you're going C5, you're protecting the D4 square.
12:05 -Then they play the ace, take with the pawn.
12:07 -Protecting the center.
12:08 -They take with the knight, and we leave it.
12:10 -And this is when you go for the dragon.
12:12 So you can sort of think about it as this being a dragon tail,
12:15 this whole diagonal.
12:16 -With the knight as the head of the dragon, right?
12:18 -Yes.
12:20 Then you place your bishop on G7,
12:21 and this bishop is going to be one of your best pieces.
12:24 This bishop is very strong in this diagonal.
12:27 Whatever they do, if they bring the knight out,
12:29 or they go bishop E3, you're going to go D6.
12:32 And the idea of going D6 is to stop White from going E5
12:35 whenever you place your knight on F6.
12:37 -OK, so I just got the email from PogChamps.
12:41 Rainn Wilson?
12:42 Rainn Wilson is my first game?
12:45 Rainn Wilson only has one completed game on his account.
12:50 Against Magnus Carlsen.
12:52 -Magnus Carlsen is the best in the world
12:55 in a sport played by 500 million people.
12:58 -You're the number one chess player in the world.
13:01 I'm pretty much the number one actor in the world, right?
13:05 -How can I disagree with that?
13:06 -I know I've seen the game against Magnus,
13:08 and he'll probably be a very tough competitor.
13:11 But I think that anything can happen.
13:13 And it's very unusual that there's
13:15 an opponent in a competition who is unknown.
13:17 -I pulled up everything on Google
13:19 I could find about Rainn Wilson.
13:20 I found an architectural digest tour of his home
13:23 to see if we could find any clues in his lair.
13:27 -Welcome to our house.
13:29 -Hi, AD.
13:31 -Does anyone see a chess set in this frame?
13:33 I don't.
13:34 OK, moving on.
13:34 No chess set.
13:39 But I do love the animals.
13:40 [MUSIC PLAYING]
13:43 -Oh, anyone see-- ah!
13:44 There it is!
13:45 I told you!
13:45 What did I say?
13:47 What did I say?
13:48 -We Zoomed.
13:48 We enhanced.
13:49 The entire Twitch chat was going crazy
13:51 because we thought maybe, just maybe,
13:53 Rainn Wilson had left the board in a unique position.
13:57 No, the art department reset it.
13:58 It was just a normal board.
13:59 No opening, no information.
14:01 But it was a nice board.
14:04 -Welcome, welcome, welcome, everyone.
14:06 It's PogChamps 3.
14:07 And boy, are we excited.
14:09 In addition to even bigger names than we've ever had,
14:12 we also have bigger prizes.
14:13 It's $100,000 cash now.
14:15 It's hard to even quantify how big
14:16 this is going to be for guys like MrBeast to throw down.
14:19 With XGC, you've got Ludwig, you've got Moist Critical,
14:21 you've got PokeyMane.
14:22 And then we have Rainn Wilson making
14:24 his debut versus Michelle Karré.
14:28 -We went on Architectural Digest and watched your home tour.
14:31 We saw the chess sets.
14:32 We Zoomed.
14:33 We enhanced.
14:34 And unfortunately, did not get to see your opening
14:36 or anything.
14:37 -I played the Cockroach Palace.
14:41 -That could be real.
14:42 And I would believe it.
14:44 Mr. Wilson, let me introduce you to Castle Mania.
14:47 -Don't call me Mr. Wilson.
14:48 I know I'm old, but please.
14:49 -No, it's not because you're old.
14:50 It's because I respect you so much.
14:53 -Oh, damn you and your Sicilian.
14:55 I hate the Sicilian.
14:56 -Oh my god, he knows the names.
14:59 -Uh-oh.
15:00 -Uh-oh is right.
15:00 -Oh no, Michelle.
15:02 Michelle.
15:03 -I think she'll figure it out.
15:04 Yeah, that's a good move.
15:05 Actually, this is a very nasty kind of opening choice
15:07 by Rainn Wilson.
15:08 -This is very good.
15:09 He's not even just developing his pieces.
15:11 He plays E5 and hits the knight.
15:12 -Oh no.
15:13 -Oh no.
15:13 -Of course he does.
15:14 -But--
15:16 -Oh my god.
15:18 I don't even know how to recover from this.
15:20 -The worst part is that she has done some preparation here
15:23 in the dragon, and now you're game right out of the gate.
15:27 -I just kind of lost control of everything.
15:31 It was not pretty.
15:32 It was not the game that I had trained to play.
15:35 -OK, I know this isn't the right move,
15:36 but I literally have no idea what else I'm supposed to do,
15:39 because I can't go here.
15:40 I can't go here.
15:41 I think I have to just take this pawn.
15:43 -Oh my god.
15:44 No!
15:45 Oh my god.
15:46 This is so embarrassing.
15:48 -It's already very nerve wracking
15:50 to play chess in a serious competition.
15:53 And it's even more intense when there's
15:55 tens of thousands of people watching you.
15:58 Even just knowing that there's an audience
16:00 makes it feel like your mistakes are amplified.
16:04 -Brutal first game.
16:05 Oh my gosh.
16:06 Harsh.
16:07 -There are many positive takeaways from Michelle.
16:09 You blundered in your first PogChamps game,
16:11 and that's OK, because now you've got a second one.
16:13 -All right, here we go.
16:14 Castle Mania.
16:15 -No.
16:16 -Oh my god.
16:19 I cannot believe he just did that.
16:22 -Not even a moment to breathe.
16:24 -OK, well I'm going to go knight D2.
16:27 -Good, good, good.
16:28 -To open up my queen.
16:29 -Yes.
16:31 -God.
16:31 -She is clearly overmatched, but she's still
16:34 finding good moves.
16:35 -Yes.
16:35 -Like, bishop B5 is a very, very good move.
16:37 -Yes.
16:37 -So the first game didn't go my way, but in the second game,
16:40 something crazy happened.
16:42 -OK, not the best move, but I mean, again--
16:45 -Oh!
16:46 -Oh!
16:46 -Queen takes-- what?
16:48 Queen takes queen?
16:49 What?
16:49 She doesn't even see it.
16:54 She's only looking at her rook under attack.
16:55 -Oh my god, wait.
16:56 -Oh, oh, she's-- I think she spotted it.
16:59 She took its game on!
17:00 -Oh.
17:01 -Rain played the old Botes Gambit.
17:07 -The Botes Gambit is where you drop your queen for free
17:10 and get nothing back.
17:11 -But you call it a gambit, so it doesn't
17:13 look like you're very dumb.
17:15 -It's fun.
17:15 It's like a meme for more casual games.
17:18 -He's played very, very well, but I
17:19 feel like Rain at critical moments has made some mistakes.
17:22 -She's also evolving throughout this game, it feels like.
17:24 -That's it.
17:25 Walk the king.
17:25 There it is.
17:27 -Congratulations.
17:27 -Wow.
17:28 -Oh!
17:28 [CLAPPING]
17:30 -Oh my god.
17:31 I have no feeling in my hands.
17:33 [LAUGHTER]
17:35 -Castlemania!
17:37 -And in honor of the hottest new tactic in chess,
17:40 you can now purchase your very own limited edition Castlemania
17:44 t-shirt and hoodie.
17:45 So be sure to check out the link below.
17:46 OK, back to the tournament.
17:49 -Going into my game against Logic,
17:50 I had something which I did not have against Rain,
17:53 and that was data.
17:55 Levi, in the middle of the night before the game,
17:57 sent me a secret video decoding exactly what
18:01 I needed to do to beat Logic.
18:03 -They are off.
18:04 A symmetrical London.
18:06 Not unexpected.
18:07 I did mention to her that C4 is good against these setups
18:10 when the bishop is out, because then you
18:12 can play queen B3, queen B7.
18:13 Everything is going just as the plan.
18:15 I move that pawn out to D4.
18:18 I get that queen out on the B file.
18:20 -Don't just go queen B7.
18:22 That's the very tricky thing here.
18:23 -I'm still going to do it.
18:24 Is that crazy?
18:25 Is recruiting a bigger threat?
18:29 This is probably a bad idea, but whatever.
18:30 Bam!
18:31 We take the pawn.
18:32 And then he moves his knight, which we had not planned for.
18:36 -Ah, Michelle!
18:38 Oh, don't take the knight.
18:39 The bishop sees it.
18:40 Oh, this could be so bad.
18:42 I'm so scared.
18:43 -Anna is drawing an arrow toward the knight.
18:46 -Oh, but then he takes back.
18:47 -Oh, she's on!
18:49 Oh, she's on!
18:50 Oh, sorry.
18:50 -Move this gambit.
18:51 Prevented.
18:52 Well done, Michelle.
18:53 -She's now looking for a way out to at least get
18:56 some material for the queen.
18:57 -I guess I'll just take the rook.
18:59 I don't know what else to do.
19:00 -See?
19:01 See?
19:01 -She's got tunnel vision.
19:02 -You've got to look at everything.
19:03 Look at everything you can take.
19:04 -Oh, and she took the rook, Anna.
19:06 -After that, I had no idea what to do.
19:09 So I hung my queen.
19:10 -There are certain types of mistakes
19:12 that are impossible to recover from.
19:13 For example, if you lose your queen,
19:15 I would say it's very hard to come back.
19:17 -I had a blast.
19:18 And I want you to know you're a great player.
19:20 Thank you so much.
19:21 -Thank you.
19:21 I learned so much playing both of those games.
19:23 So many face palms during both of them.
19:25 -In that first game, it seemed like you
19:28 found this knight A5 idea to kind of trap her queen.
19:30 You've never seen knight A5?
19:32 You just came up with that, like, over the board?
19:34 -Yeah, I just saw it.
19:35 I was like, that'd be a vibe.
19:37 You know?
19:38 I was sick.
19:39 I like to have fun.
19:40 I kind of like, you know, freestyling a little bit
19:43 and just having a good time.
19:44 I don't want to be like this Arnold
19:45 Schwarzenegger computer guy.
19:47 -He plays chess like he likes to write music, which is for fun.
19:50 And he doesn't want it to feel like a chore.
19:53 And I realize up until this point,
19:54 I've been kind of making chess a chore.
19:56 So for my next match against Tubbo,
19:58 I wanted to have a little bit more fun.
20:00 -Let me bust out my distractional musical
20:03 instruments.
20:04 -What?
20:05 -How do you like this thinking?
20:07 You're thinking?
20:07 How's your thinking going?
20:09 -Tubbo, he likes to have a lot of fun when he's playing chess.
20:11 He plays a lot of music.
20:13 He really puts on a show.
20:14 [MUSIC PLAYING]
20:20 -I'm losing my mind.
20:22 -You're actually pretty good at it.
20:24 -My main strategy when it comes to chess
20:26 is to talk as much as possible and be distracted.
20:29 -OK, well, I might mute you at some point.
20:31 [LAUGHTER]
20:34 -And we got Michelle starting off with a London system.
20:37 -I feel like she's learned the moves.
20:39 She's smiling.
20:40 She seems to be pretty confident with this opening.
20:42 -Oh my god, I can pin it.
20:44 I can pin the horse to the queen.
20:46 -Usually when your pieces are intact,
20:48 the first reaction is to just move them.
20:49 But Bishop to G4 is a very strong move.
20:52 Uh-oh, Tubbo played too quickly.
20:54 -No, damn it!
20:55 I should have taken that.
20:56 I got too trigger happy.
20:58 -He doesn't need to beat himself up over that move.
21:00 It was still perfectly fine.
21:01 I want to see if he realizes it's made in one.
21:04 He was so busy being upset.
21:06 Are we going to see this?
21:08 It's been played.
21:09 -Oh my god.
21:11 Oh no!
21:13 -Oh my god, that was so brutal.
21:15 I'm so sorry.
21:16 -No!
21:17 You did awesome!
21:18 Oh my gosh!
21:19 -I've lost every match I've played so far.
21:27 It doesn't matter what group it's in.
21:28 It's embarrassing.
21:30 I know I'm a lower rating than everyone else.
21:34 Other people have more experience.
21:35 I get it.
21:36 But I feel like I'm known online as the girl who will take
21:40 on any challenge, work really hard, and somehow get it done.
21:45 And here I-- I'm failing.
21:51 -Michelle actually has a much better chance
21:53 to thrive in the consolation bracket
21:56 because the players are starting from more equal footing.
21:59 For the first round, Michelle will
22:00 be playing against Mr. Beast.
22:02 -I hope I don't get destroyed too bad.
22:05 Have you been training?
22:06 -A little bit.
22:07 -That's an understatement, but OK.
22:10 -Oh, oh gosh.
22:11 -If you pull any tricks, I'm muting you, Jimmy.
22:14 -We have Mr. Beast taking on Michelle Carre.
22:16 I really don't know who's going to win.
22:18 I feel like this one is a true coin flip.
22:20 This should be a great developing move.
22:22 94 is on the agenda.
22:23 I already like Michelle's position.
22:24 Look at the clock.
22:25 She's up more than a minute.
22:26 -Yeah, and of course, I mean, I bet my points on her.
22:28 So she's got to win the match.
22:32 -You bet your channel points?
22:34 -Yeah, I bet quite a few of my channel points.
22:37 -OK, well, there you go.
22:38 -I noticed in Mr. Beast's other games in the tournament,
22:41 he struggled a bit with time management.
22:42 So I thought, maybe if I just move faster than him,
22:46 I could end up winning.
22:47 -Very, very nice play so far by Michelle.
22:49 I think she's got a great position.
22:51 -The speed at which she's playing here
22:53 shows she has an intuition now at this point,
22:55 that she has a feel for where to put the pieces early in the game,
22:57 right?
22:58 -What does one do?
23:03 -So--
23:05 -Every move that she has played so far has been perfect.
23:09 And I'm feeling very confident in my bet.
23:12 She found 9C3?
23:14 Oh, man.
23:15 -I deserve that.
23:17 Yeah, I bet you Hikaru's going, oh, well, there's the fork
23:20 that I was just telling you about five seconds ago.
23:22 I guarantee that's what he's saying.
23:24 -Oh my god, let's go.
23:26 -Uh-oh, the pawn can't be soft.
23:27 Jimmy doesn't realize it.
23:29 Oh, Jimmy doesn't realize.
23:30 -If only I had more time to think.
23:32 All right, I could have solved this.
23:34 But I've been moving so quick the last few turns.
23:36 All right, so how do I-- how do I do this?
23:39 -Does she know how to mate with King and Rook is the question.
23:41 Well, she realized that you can use the King.
23:43 -She's going to play it.
23:44 She does.
23:45 I think she's going to gobble those pawns.
23:47 -Oh my god.
23:48 OK, no stalemate.
23:50 -Oh my gosh, he just resigned.
23:52 -He ran out of time?
23:53 -Oh my god.
23:54 -No, he resigned.
23:55 -We have our next two players ready,
23:56 Pokimane and Michelle Karrade.
23:58 -Michelle's already made a blunder here.
24:00 She took on D4 with the knight instead
24:02 of taking with the pawn and keeping the pawn structure
24:04 intact.
24:05 -In this game, Michelle's getting much more confident.
24:08 When she makes a mistake and she blunders,
24:09 she doesn't get defeated by it, but she
24:11 continues to play on and fight back for the advantage.
24:13 -It's not about who makes the first blunder.
24:15 It's about who makes the last blunder,
24:17 who makes the last mistake.
24:18 -And she blunders the back ranker.
24:20 -You have to wait.
24:21 -Boom, boom, boom, boom.
24:24 -Yeah.
24:25 That's game over.
24:27 -Oh my god.
24:30 Jesus.
24:32 -The first game, even when I was up a knight,
24:35 it still felt very, very equal.
24:38 So yeah, I hope Michelle's really, really proud
24:40 of how well she's playing.
24:42 -Oh my gosh, I reflect the same back to you, Poki.
24:44 -I can tell by the way that you were playing.
24:46 It was very anti-London, and I haven't really
24:48 practiced against that or looked it up.
24:49 So good on you for preparing.
24:51 -You did so awesome.
24:52 I was sweating hard over here.
24:55 -Congrats.
24:56 I'm excited to see you play in the finals.
24:58 -I'm so proud of Michelle.
25:01 She's played so well.
25:02 4-0 in a single day.
25:05 She's going to the finals.
25:09 -For the finals, Michelle is going
25:11 to be going up against Niko.
25:13 -She has been playing chess on her streams
25:15 already months before she even knew
25:17 she was going to be in Puck Champs.
25:18 Niko, of course, is a TikTok sensation.
25:21 She's had great games in terms of overperforming her elo.
25:25 Niko's amazing with time.
25:27 It blows my mind.
25:28 -Honestly, it was like, who the [BLEEP]
25:30 is she playing so well so fast?
25:31 -It's like one of those assassins who just comes in,
25:34 gets the job done, and gets out.
25:36 -While Niko has been playing chess for longer than Michelle,
25:39 Michelle has proven to be one of the best performers
25:43 in the consolation bracket.
25:44 I think Michelle's the underdog, but she certainly
25:46 has chances to win this.
25:47 -Niko moves very quickly, and she has a very unique opening.
25:51 However, Castle Mania.
25:53 -Watching some of her other games,
25:54 I learned that she plays the bird opening.
25:57 So I had an entire lesson with Anna Rudolph
26:00 to prepare the best black response to the bird opening.
26:04 -Oh my god, I'm nervous!
26:05 I'm not nervous, I'm fine.
26:06 It's just another game of chess.
26:08 Here we go.
26:09 -Niko plays her first move, and it's not the bird opening.
26:14 -Sometimes chess feels like you're
26:15 studying for a science test.
26:17 You walk in, and it's history.
26:19 And then you panic.
26:20 You spend the first half an hour thinking, oh god,
26:22 what am I going to do?
26:23 And then scribbly writing down the wrong answers
26:25 for the latter half.
26:27 If Michelle can keep her nerves together,
26:29 that's really the big key for anyone
26:30 who played against Niko, being able to control the tempo
26:33 and not panic and get flustered when she'd make these moves
26:35 in like two to three seconds.
26:36 -Oh wow.
26:37 -OK, yeah.
26:37 Now unfortunately, after they trade,
26:40 now I think Niko is almost certainly going to spot
26:42 Rook takes Bishop here at the end.
26:44 -Oh wow.
26:44 -But again, I think the problem for Michelle is also,
26:46 I suspect she did not expect to be in this position.
26:48 And so I think she's also very nervous as well.
26:51 Now E7, and it's game over.
26:52 -And it's even worse because the pawn on B5
26:55 accidentally guards C6.
26:56 So there's not even a way to stop B8 if you wanted to.
26:58 -Yeah.
26:59 The only trick is Rook G2, Rook takes G3.
27:01 That's the only way here for Michelle
27:02 to try and stay in the game.
27:04 Very impressive game by Niko.
27:05 -But right now Michelle doesn't even see that and locks herself
27:07 in the checkmate.
27:08 -Damn.
27:09 OK.
27:10 Definitely not my best game, but that was really hard.
27:13 Good job, Niko.
27:14 -Michelle is now in win or go home territory.
27:18 What has she got to do in game two as white and make it happen?
27:20 -I think Michelle needs to be calm, just stick to her opening,
27:23 and play relatively quickly for the first like 10 moves.
27:27 Niko's got a great position.
27:28 I mean, the problem for Michelle,
27:29 and this is why I also sometimes don't like the London opening,
27:32 is if your opponent does not play a traditional pawn D5,
27:35 pawn E6 setup, the ideas are completely different.
27:37 The black king is so safe here.
27:39 To her credit, Michelle finds Bishop E4,
27:41 which is actually a great move.
27:42 Because the only weakness this black has here
27:44 on the queen side, that's it.
27:46 Nothing else.
27:46 It's a tough position.
27:47 -Michelle also down three minutes,
27:49 so it's going to take a lot for her to keep this consolation
27:51 and her top champ's dreams alive.
27:53 -Yeah, it's going to take some kind-- oh, no.
27:56 Oh, no.
27:57 -Oh, my god.
28:01 Oh, my god.
28:02 Ugh.
28:04 -Poor Michelle, but also very well played by Niko.
28:07 Multiple ways for mate in one, choose your flavor.
28:12 -Oh, my god.
28:13 Wow.
28:14 I just got my ass handed to me.
28:17 Holy cow.
28:18 -Yeah, this is just brutal.
28:19 Just fall apart with one move, and--
28:21 -You can't even be upset if you're Michelle.
28:23 You just tip your hat, because that
28:24 was a grand master level game.
28:25 Niko, seriously, what a day here.
28:28 You just came out.
28:29 You played fast.
28:29 You played well.
28:30 What can you say?
28:31 -So honestly, I was actually really nervous
28:33 when I was going to play against Michelle today,
28:35 because you guys told me that she played very methodically.
28:39 So I was very-- I was actually very nervous the whole time
28:41 I was playing against her.
28:43 -Niko was streaming chess before.
28:44 It was cool to stream chess, so I
28:46 think it's just only fitting that Queen Niko takes
28:49 her throne.
28:50 -Michelle, thanks so much.
28:52 -Hi, Anna.
28:57 Thanks so much for meeting with me today.
28:59 So I wanted to talk to you because I
29:01 have something to tell you.
29:03 -What is it, Michelle?
29:05 What is it?
29:06 -For the first time ever in Challenge Accepted,
29:09 I'm going to continue my training
29:12 after finishing the challenge.
29:15 -No way.
29:16 -I have to do it because I know I can do better.
29:19 And I really want to hit that goal of a 1,000 rating.
29:23 -This is the best news I heard today.
29:26 Thank you so much for sharing it with me.
29:28 -I went into this challenge really
29:30 wanting to overcome my fear of not being smart enough.
29:35 A lot of this, I feel, has been me self-doubting
29:40 my own ability.
29:42 And I just wasn't expecting so much love and support
29:45 from this community.
29:46 I've never experienced it to this degree in any challenge
29:49 I've done.
29:50 And I think I owe it to you and to Anna Kramling
29:54 and to Levi to achieve the goal we set out from the beginning.
29:59 -If they offer you the second pawn, I wouldn't take it.
30:01 I wouldn't take it.
30:02 But you can play something like C6.
30:04 -If they make your queen abandon the B2 pawn, then they--
30:10 -No!
30:10 Put it away.
30:12 -Give me the--
30:13 [MUSIC PLAYING]
30:15 -After six grueling months, I finally
30:33 hit what chess professionals refer to as the chess plateau.
30:38 -A certain point after you start out,
30:40 you hit the wall where your ranking stops improving.
30:42 -That happens to everyone in chess.
30:44 Everybody plateaus.
30:45 You might plateau at 500, 800, 1,200.
30:47 I personally have had that multiple times.
30:50 I think the most obvious, I was 2,000, Elo, at the age of 12.
30:54 And then I quit for three years.
30:55 Because I got to a point, I could beat no one above me
30:58 consistently.
30:59 -Fucking hell.
31:00 Are you fucking kidding me?
31:01 I hate chess, y'all.
31:03 Hate it.
31:04 Little fucker.
31:05 I'm so pissed right now.
31:08 I hate chess.
31:10 -One week ago, you tweeted, I love chess, and I'll cash it.
31:15 -Every time I lose a game, my rating drops.
31:17 And what I needed was a big win against someone
31:20 who was higher rated than me.
31:22 This time, moving the bishop to defend the knight on d3.
31:26 What?
31:27 Who is this girl?
31:29 And where does all this chess knowledge come from?
31:33 A knight fork, now winning even more material.
31:36 -Oh, I didn't expect that.
31:38 -And this is a real sign of Michelle's excellence,
31:42 that she finds the way to get the rook onto the second rank.
31:46 She now is attacking all of the pawns of Kuaglan, all of them,
31:49 to now free the way to her a-pawn.
31:52 She's pushing it.
31:52 She's one square away from promotion.
31:54 And Kuaglan cannot stop it.
31:56 Queen incoming for Michelle.
31:57 And now, if the queen moves, and he has to,
32:00 he has to move the king to the edge of the board,
32:02 he has to do it.
32:03 It's Castlemania.
32:04 It's Castlemania.
32:05 If she finds it, the rook check.
32:07 The rook check. Checkmate!
32:08 She did it!
32:10 She did it!
32:11 Oh!
32:13 Castlemania!
32:15 -You had 96.8% accuracy.
32:18 That's insane.
32:19 -She beat an 1100-rated opponent
32:22 with a lot more experience than her,
32:24 and she converted this game from top to finish so perfectly.
32:30 When I finally beat Kuaglan,
32:31 my goal of 1,000 elo was finally within reach.
32:35 Here I go.
32:36 Just another game.
32:38 [ Sighs ]
32:40 Ah!
32:44 Oh, shoot.
32:48 Oh, my God. Anna's here.
32:50 And I'm trying to win this game.
32:52 I'm at 996.
32:54 Here, here.
32:56 Here, take rook.
32:58 Is that crazy?
32:59 Ah!
33:01 I'm gonna do it.
33:03 What could they do?
33:05 I have to move the king or the pawn.
33:07 Come on. Use your time.
33:10 Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
33:12 Five, four, three, two, one!
33:17 Oh, my God! I just hit 1,000!
33:25 Nothing about this milestone is truly revolutionary
33:28 except that I didn't think I could do it, and we did it.
33:32 Oh, my God. This is so crazy.
33:35 I'm shaking.
33:36 And Gareth had to deal with all my bullsh--
33:39 complaining about chess.
33:43 And he stayed with me, you guys.
33:45 That's real love.
33:47 Now I need to give a thank-you speech.
33:49 Can I play the national anthem?
33:50 Is that copywritten?
33:52 It's been an eighth-month battle, a war, if you will,
33:57 not just against my opponents across the board,
34:01 but against the woman I am inside.
34:04 Could I do it?
34:05 At times, the answer was no, but today it was yes.
34:10 I would like to thank chess.com, Danny Wrench,
34:14 Levi Rosman, Gotham Chess,
34:17 Anna Rudolph, Anna Kramling.
34:20 For all of the hours you guys sat with my ass
34:24 teaching me this game, it all paid off today
34:28 when someone abandoned their game
34:30 because they were scared of our tactic, baby!
34:33 You know what? It still counts, so go home.
34:36 [laughs]
34:38 We hit 1,000, baby!
34:40 What? 1,003.
34:42 [music]
34:47 [music]
34:52 [music]
34:57 [music]
35:02 [music]
35:07 [music]
35:12 [music]
35:17 [BLANK_AUDIO]