MVL's Takedown of Magnus - Key Takeaways

In my last article, A Conversation w/ MVL, Maxime mentioned the importance of giving his best when playing Magnus. And in 2023, MVL had quite a few key wins against the world #1, including back-to-back wins to clinch the AI Cup and handing Magnus his only loss of the World Blitz Championship.

With that in mind, I wanted to take a closer look at some key moments from MVL's win in the thirteenth round of the World Blitz Championship and point out some takeaways that you can use to improve your chess games.

Prophylactics vs. Development

For those unfamiliar with the term, prophylactics just means "preventative measures." It involves identifying your weaknesses and making moves to protect them before they are attacked.

This was the first key moment in the game. Magnus played Be7, which appears to be a normal and solid developing move for the bishop that opens the door for castling.

However, Magnus overlooked a weakness that MVL exploited on the next move. See if you can find the weakness and guess what MVL played to guarantee an early advantage.

Next, see if you can find a move that would have been better for Magnus to play.

Below, see if you can find the move that MVL played to exploit the weakness in Magnus' position.

Little Moves, Big Pressure

Look at the sequence of moves below and notice what the mistakes and best moves all have in common.

Each of these moves revolves around either placing pressure (black) or defending (white) the a5 pawn. Each of the mistakes are ultimately failures to keep up the pressure or defend properly. This is a key lesson for players looking to improve their game. Oftentimes, it is seemingly small moves that are easily overlooked that create the pressure that ultimately causes your opponent's position to crumble. You do not always need to look for the flashy sacrifice that breaks apart your opponent's defenses. Oftentimes, small moves that create continuous pressure is what is needed.

Missed Tactic

After an inaccuracy, Magnus had a chance to equalize with a nice tactic. See if you can find what he missed.

The move that MVL should have made was Qa2. This would have prevented the tactical shot, Nxd5 because if after Nxd5, from Qa2, white can chase away the black queen with Rd3, removing the threat to the white bishop on b5, thus losing the knight for black after cxd5.

Know When to Simplify

Having successfully defended his pawn advantage, MVL found the perfect opportunity to simply and force queens off the board. 

As you can see in the image, Magnus cannot move his queen away because it would leave the knight undefended. 

Therefore, the queen exchange was secured. This move gets the game close to an end game with a solid advantage for white.

A Brilliancy to Secure the Win

Why does this exchange sacrifice work? For two reasons: first, it ends all counterplay opportunities black has with the knight and the e pawn. Second, it secures a 4-on-2 (and the 2 are disconnected and weak) pawn majority attack which will prove unstoppable after further rook simplification.

Wrapping Up the Win

Here is how the rest of the game finished.

Summary

This win for MVL came down to three keys.

1. He saw Magnus' weak a7 pawn which Magnus failed to defend and exploited it, giving him a slight advantage.

2. He secured his advantage by countering Magnus' pressure on the a5 pawn, and was helped by Magnus' missed tactical shot on move 21. Then he simplified at the opportune time to go into a winning end game.

3. The rook sacrifice for the knight came down to knowing that his strength (the four connected pawns) could not be stopped by Magnus' two rooks and king, largely because of Magnus' broken pawn structure. In other words, he knew the value of his strengths and the limitations of his opponent's pieces. The rook he sacrificed was not key to that strength, so he used it to take away the only real option that Magnus had for trying to stay in the game.

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Jon is the Founder of Chess Tales and the author of Across the Battlefield: A Pawn's Journey. The Chess Tales books are written primarily for a 6–12-year-old audience. You can find Across the Battlefield: A Pawn’s Journey on Amazon.