Shadowing Practice: He Beat A Super Grandmaster In 9 Moves!! - Learn English Speaking with Video

The game you're about to see ended in nine moves, featured two brilliant moves, but what makes it so interesting is that it was played between two Super Grand Masters,

and most of those games do not end in nine moves.

Let's take a look at exactly how this happened.

So, White is Fabiano Caruana.

He's playing against Aliriza Ferruja in the Crunch Lab Masters Tournament.

This is a 10-minute game with two-second increment.

He plays C4, which is the English opening, and after c6, knight to f3, d5, we're off to a normal game, and it's not looking like anything special is going to happen.

He plays the move g3, and then bishop to g4 happens.

Now, this is a book move.

You can see that, but it's kind of a weird move, right?

You're not really following the opening principle of develop the knights before the bishops, and you're kind of immediately putting some pressure on white, and if you do nothing,

then maybe you take this and you mess up the pawn structure, but of course, white could just play bishop to g2 if they want, and the game goes on.

I don't really know the theory here, but white plays knight to e5, which looks like a pretty natural move because you get away from the attack, and you attack the bishop.

Now, bishop to f5, and queen to b3.

So one of the drawbacks of bringing out the bishop early before the knight is

that you leave this pawn on b7 undefended, and so Fabiano says, okay, let me play queen to b3 and attack it.

And at the same time, he's putting some pressure on the center.

Notice the knight is hitting the F7 pawn.

And so maybe in some cases, if these pawns somehow disappear, you could even get checkmate on F7.

Obviously the Super Grand Masters are not just going to let you get checkmate, but I'm just pointing it out.

It does exist as a threat in the position.

So Faruja plays the move queen to B6.

Good move, countering the threat on B7 and offering a queen trade.

And you could take here and then black takes, but it opens up the rook, which maybe isn't what you want.

The same thing could happen if black takes you.

It opens up your rook.

Okay, things to keep in mind.

So what does Faruja do?

I'm sorry, what does Fabiano do?

He plays D takes here, or C takes D5.

Now, this just looks like, all right, we're just trading some pawns.

We're going to trade some queens.

It's looking like a super boring game at this point.

Like, what could possibly happen?

Watch this.

Queen takes, which messes up the pawn structure, and then Verugia plays a move which, at first glance, looks pretty good.

Bishop to e4, because you're forking these pieces.

And white obviously has to do something with the rook, and then you're going to take the pawn.

And these are double isolated.

I mean, it looks like white's position is falling apart, honestly.

However, white played a very surprising move in this position.

What do you think Fabiano played here?

Well, if you have chance to look at that, the move is D takes C6.

And you can see there, it is the first brilliant move.

By the way, this is move eight.

And if you remember what I said, the game ended on move nine, which means the game is about to be over.

Now, you might be wondering how in the world is the game about to be over when we just started, and White's losing a rook?

What's going on?

Well, if you want to pause again before I give you the solution, how do you think White is finishing off the game after this move, which, by the way, was played in the game?

Well, if you had a chance to look at that, there's one thing that you should notice about this position.

There is a pawn on the sixth rank, which is only two squares away from becoming a queen.

Okay, cool.

And obviously, of course, let me just point out, you can't take here trying to get the rook because the bishop is still sitting there and would simply capture the pawn.

But you could push forward.

However, there's a big problem with that.

The knight's just going to move, and guess what?

The rook is guarding the square, and you can't get a queen.

And now black's winning, okay?

But what you can do instead, and what was played in the game is the second brilliant move.

Rook takes a7.

And what I just showed you, the rook was the piece that stopped the pawn.

So by sacrificing here, if black takes you, guess what?

c7.

And there is no way for black to stop this queen.

You can't use the rook.

You can't get there in time.

You can't use your king because this knight, which moved earlier to e5, is stopping you.

you can't go there, this knight can't do it, the bishop is out of place, and white simply gets a queen, next move, and on top of that, your king is in a bad situation, you're going to get checkmate,

okay, you have to play like e6, try to run and hide, but it's a winning position for white, there's maiden 14, it looks like from here,

okay, and if you don't take the rook, and you do something else, like take the pawn well then you're losing your rook

and you're still in a losing position watch this after knight

to d8 what do you think white can play here well according to stockfish the best move uh

and i'm not sure i totally understand why e4 i guess

it has something to do with bishop to b5 is the best way to play this

but i was thinking you could probably even just take here and then get a fork and you're coming out up material.

Okay, so this is one way to do it, but if you really want to be precise and follow the stockfish route, you would play e4, threatening to go here, and it looks like after this,

bishop b5 check, king goes here, d3 letting the other bishop in, and basically white's pieces are all over the place.

So game is over, and black actually resigned in this position after the second brilliant move because they realized what was happening.

It's a fascinating trap.

I've never seen this before.

And when I saw that, you know, Ferruja lost in nine moves, I thought, no, there's no way.

How did that happen, right?

He's 2,800, almost 2,900.

And it's a nice reminder, right, that everybody makes mistakes.

And they're even at the top level.

There are particular traps and tactics that they're unfamiliar with, right?

Now, I'm sure he'll never fall for this again.

But it was interesting, and I wanted to share that with you guys.

So congratulations to Fabiano for this amazing win.

I don't usually cover games like this, but this one was really special and I felt like you guys would appreciate

that little pawn sneaking by to become a queen.

So, see you next time.

Thanks for watching.

Stay sharp.

Play smart.

Take care.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “He Beat A Super Grandmaster In 9 Moves!!”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: pawn, bishop, rook, queen, knight. This video has 96 sentences and 1229 words to shadow. The speech runs for 6:11. The speaker talks fast, about 199 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 85% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
pawn noun	/ˈpɔːn/	The most numerous chess piece, or a similar piece in a similar game. In chess, each side starts with eight; moves are only forward, and attacks are only…
knight noun	/ˈnaɪ̯t/	An armored and mounted warrior of the Middle Ages.
checkmate	/ˈt͡ʃɛkmeɪt/	Word called out by the victor when making a move that wins the game.
stockfish noun	/ˈstɒkfɪʃ/	Cod (or similar fish) having been cut open and cured in the open air without salt.
fork noun	/fɔɹk/	A utensil with spikes used to put solid food into the mouth, or to hold food down while cutting, or for serving food.
trap noun	/tɹæp/	A machine or other device designed to catch (and sometimes kill) animals, either by holding them in a container, or by catching hold of part of the body.
drawback noun	/ˈdɹɔˌbæk/	A disadvantage; something that detracts or takes away.
fascinate verb	/ˈfæsɪneɪt/	To evoke an intense interest or attraction in someone.
increment noun	/ˈɪŋkɹɪmn̩t/	The action of increasing or becoming greater.
undefended adjective		Not defended.
isolate verb	/ˈaɪ.sə.leɪt/	To set apart or cut off from others.
unfamiliar adjective	/ˌʌnfəˈmɪli.ə(ɹ)/	Strange, not familiar.
maiden noun	/ˈmeɪdən/	A girl or an unmarried young woman.
glance verb	/ɡlæns/	To turn (one's eyes or look) at something, often briefly.
bore verb	/boɹ/	To inspire boredom in somebody.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
mess up verb	To make a mess of; to untidy, disorder, soil, or muss.
open up verb	To open.
bring out verb	To elicit, evoke, or emphasize (a particular quality).
fall apart verb	To disintegrate, to break into pieces.
finish off verb	To finish completely.
point out verb	To identify among a group of similar subjects, or in a scene where the subject might not be readily seen or noticed, with a gesture of the body.
push forward verb	To continue to act or do something, especially with a lot of effort

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

Let's take a look at exactly how this happened.
I'm sorry, what does Fabiano do?
We're going to trade some queens.
The knight's just going to move, and guess what?
You can't use the rook.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	was played
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	nine, which means · rank, which is
Past continuous was/were + -ing — an action in progress at a moment in the past	was thinking · was happening
Superlatives the -est / the most … — the top or bottom of a group	the best

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 31 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, can't, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like pawn, knight, checkmate.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

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