Magnus Carlsen Takes the 100 Endgames Test!

On Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020, I had the incredible opportunity to film with World Champion Magnus Carlsen in Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands! I recently completed a nearly 20 hour video course for GM Jesus de la Villa’s 100 Endgames You Must Know, and Magnus agreed to take the 26-question Basic Test in the course. It was a pleasure to sit and chat with the World Champion as he explained his thought process on these endgames problems, described his approach to endgame study, and shared his tremendous insight into the game in general. Enjoy!

Full 100 Endgames You Must Know course:

Check out the free 100 Endgames You Must Know bootcamp:

Support the channel: or via PayPal:

Follow me on Twitch:

Follow me on Twitter:

Add me as a friend on Chess.com:

My London System (1.d4 and 2.Bf4) Course on Chessable:
My Scandinavian Course (1.e4 d5) on Chessable:

Recommended chess books and equipment:
1950 Dubrovnik reproduction set (Bobby Fischer’s favorite!) on Chess Bazaar: … You can use coupon code JOHN30 for 30% off!
Wood board:
Tune Your Chess Tactics Antenna:
Amateur to IM:
Life and Games of Mikhail Tal:

800 Comments

  1. It is more of a test for the test itself than for Magnus

  2. How is exercise 1 a draw, king can just move closer to the horse 🐴, sorry, knight

  3. Do they have an English language version of this?

  4. This may very well be one of the most informative and solid crash courses in Chess understanding and I've ever seen. Thank You gentlemen.

  5. Magnus at the beginning with that serious faceπŸ˜…

  6. Watching this it occurred to me how chess is such a good tool for showing how unreliable intuition is.

  7. The fact that I’ve watched this more than 5 times already and not to get endgame instruction is a mighty weird phenomenon.

  8. "Short diagonals, long solutions" He is actually pretty funny.

  9. Carlsen is such a good embassador of our modern chess. Thank you for being that way!

  10. I know I can beat Magnus. I’ll just be be able to add β€œat chess” to the end of that sentence.

  11. He just gets chess lol. Insanely unfair 😭

  12. Magnus thinks he is special he forgets its just a stupid game

  13. It is awesome how intuitive Carlsen is when solving these endgames. Most of us are looking at these endgames and analyzing the corresponding squares, key squares, mined squares, etc. He just bypasses all this and just seems to know the solution naturally

  14. Quite interesting how humans spend so much time moving idols around on a board and they think it a challenge.

    –Alien observer

  15. Thanks for showing the lines under discussion on the smaller board it is difficult to visualize without that

  16. this clowns so uncomfortable during the end questions that i cant help but feel his guilt for cheating to become "who he is"….. he doesnt answer a single question with a rational thought, it's all dodging the questions…. just look at the way he looks at the camera, he might as well bite his nails because he knows how clueless he is… you can literally see where the host died inside and no longer expected an actual answer… he might as well just say the chess speaks for itself.

  17. I don't know. You should just tell me. I have a wicked imagination. Playing the guessing game gives wicked people wicked ideas.

  18. πŸ† What πŸ† is πŸ˜„ difference πŸ† between πŸ† the πŸ˜„ gm πŸ† and πŸ† I'm πŸ˜„ the πŸ† gm πŸ† lost πŸ˜„ with πŸ† praganananda πŸ† and πŸ˜„ Arjun πŸ† I'm πŸ† is πŸ˜„ better πŸ† than πŸ† magnus πŸ˜„ i πŸ† think πŸ†πŸ†πŸ˜„

  19. The level of knowledge is just breath taking. I've never been good at endgames but this just makes me feel even less competent. I doubt I'd of gotten any of these right. Probably #13, the Rook skewer I've seen before.

  20. How he remembers most game(if not all) he played. Tf. Photographic memory? I dont even remember my last game.

  21. John, I loved the video. However, I can't understand why the board did not always have a1 in the lower left.

  22. i do not understand, in the 3 puzzle, why is the move Qb3? Is that not a ez draw for black with pond takes on b3?
    edit: lol, looked 1 more time and realised that the black pond on c2 was moving the other direction

  23. 3:13 Does he not know the "TreppenmanΓΆver" (didn't find the proper English term – literally it would be "stairway maneuver")? Can't be, right?

  24. So how many points did the Endgame test get in this test?

  25. I’ve mastered the 2 rooks 2 bishops 2 knights 8 pawns king and queen endgame

  26. i love him just non stop shitting on the program when it didn't like his move lmao

  27. "Short diagonal long solutions" … indeed, those "alternative" moves should have all been "correct"

  28. Im so confused. It seems like in the first 2 games (that I watched so far) he keeps placing his pieces in places where the pawn can eat them. And somehow no one acknowleges that. What am i missing?

  29. It's exciting to know that Magnus is not regular chess-nerd, he doesn't know much chess terms he just plays amazingly

  30. 3 problems in, "your program is broken"
    guys heart sinks…

  31. Is it just me or GM tends to have plenty of space for frontal-cortex ?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *