Shadowing Practice: UNBELIEVABLE CHESS DRAMA!!!!!! - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the 2026 Chess Olympiad.
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This is one of the most insane events that we have seen in quite some time.
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Through seven rounds, the local heroes, Team Uzbekistan, are undefeated.
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Nobody, not even in a match, in a game, nobody's lost a single game.
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And they have defeated the Titans.
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They defeated India.
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They defeated China.
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And this round, they play against Germany.
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This is a generational Olympiad.
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The drama is immense, and this is perhaps the most exciting round.
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We're going to get into it.
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Back -to -back days, I actually have to go.
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I cannot sit here and wait for every single game to finish.
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I would be making this recap four or five hours later, and I simply can't.
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80 % of the games are done.
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We've got to get into these games.
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Here we go.
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So, first things first, we are going to kick it off with a candidates rematch between the challenger to the World Championship,
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Javakhir Sandarov, and Matthias Blubaum.
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So he knows that Blubaum plays very solidly.
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He plays actually a Vienna.
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This is my course.
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Kind of unbelievable.
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My very, very first course that I ever made on the Vienna and here are castles, Be6.
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And now you take on d5 and you play this move f4.
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This is straight up my course, which is amazing.
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And then this move f6.
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Now, all of this has been played before.
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The best move here is fe.
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Practically, I like f5 as well.
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But this is just, you know, this is black knowing everything which is rare at sub -2000 level, but at GM level is very normal.
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And we have a capture, and Dravakir takes back, builds up this nice little pawn structure, and plays like this.
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Now, what's funny is he has completely followed the top line of the computer.
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This is exactly how you are supposed to play this position.
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And here, Black is supposed to castle, leave this pawn just there on c6, and has equalized.
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That's not very human.
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Instead, Matthias plays this, which is a much more natural move.
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And then after this move, he takes this pawn with the queen.
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However, the problem with this is that now he is going to have a lot of long -term pressure against this king.
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He is not going to be able to easily castle.
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Okay, he decides to do that literally immediately, with the idea being that after rook e7, queen c5 check, rook e3, he has this move, g5.
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And it seems like he is going to be at minimum winning the piece back
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because the bishop has to guard the rook.
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But Dravakir was ready for this.
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And after King h1, which is given a brilliancy, but that's ridiculous.
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I mean, again, game review doesn't know who's playing.
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It just, you know, if you play King h1, it would be like you're the smartest person in the world.
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He's the challenger to the world championship.
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He has to lose his bishop.
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And now he has this position.
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And black is just worse here, right?
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So Matias does not make it out of the opening.
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As far as I'm concerned against Sundarov, He had one very practical decision that he needed to solve in this position.
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He thought for nine minutes.
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He clearly had calculated this position here after this and didn't realize that he is actually in a lot of danger.
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His king is very weak, and every endgame he will also have problems because these two are not the same as these two.
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They are both weak, right?
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And because white has so much activity, this is the last thing that you want to do against Javahir.
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We have seen Javahir obliterate people before in dynamic positions.
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And what does he do in this game?
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Matias does not defend himself correctly.
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Here, he needs to be brave and run out with the king, and that he manages to do.
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But it's a constant, you know, minefield that he has to walk through.
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And the explosions are being heard all around Uzbekistan, right?
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Queen goes back.
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Queen centralizes.
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You know, black is still playing accurately, but he has a minute.
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Drava here is slowly breaking down the spirit and the soul and the body.
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And b6 is played, and the queen is forced away.
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And now Rh4 is winning you move the queen out, you give another check.
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If he had gone here, then there would have been queen f3 and probably ladder mate, right?
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That was the whole idea.
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You have to check the king, king goes here, and queen a check.
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And now you have both rook g8 as an idea, and now you have this, and the queen hunts the king out into the open,
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and Javahir Sandarov continues his demolition in this tournament, he is now 5 .5 out of 7,
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and his rating is 27 .85.
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This man is one of the highest -rated players in human history already.
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This is ridiculous.
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He might get to 2 ,800 by the end of the tournament if he keeps winning.
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A world championship challenger at 2 ,800.
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Haven't seen that since, I don't know, the Norwegian guy whose name is Magnus.
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You might heard of him.
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So Sundarov wins another game.
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Uzbekistan, well on their way to a gold medal, to an absolutely dominant finish.
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Oh.
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Really?
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We'll see if Fredrik Svane has anything to say about that.
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He takes on Nojubek Yakubojev.
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This is a Sicilian defense.
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all right nice little sicilian little imbalanced anti -sicilian game very weird position
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and right here is a critical moment of the opening knight to e5 completely and utterly losing the knight
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if it's taken right not by the queen
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that would be really magical the queen would take the night
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so he is transforming the position like this yakuboyev thinks
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and defends this knight with this knight and leaves the knight hanging
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and the boys here spend a combined
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if you combine both of their time spent they spend over like an hour
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and 20 minutes on these two moves each now instead of
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moving the knight this way right to get it out of danger
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or play knight g4 frederick plays g4 This is a breathtaking move.
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This is actually like very, very, very genius.
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He voluntarily doubles his own castled king pawns because in the ensuing position of pawn takes,
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pawn takes, he has a very useful pawn break, pawn to f4, which would open up his attacking chances.
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And if black were to castle, White would just go king h1, and he is faster to generate an attack, like king h8, queen f3,
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rook g8, rook g1, bishop d7, rook g2, rook f8, rook g1.
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This is literally what can happen.
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The move g4 is, I've never seen a move like that, really.
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To push a same -side pawn and double your own pawns, and that's just better for you.
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And Noderbergh did not like this move.
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He did not like it because he reacted in a way that allowed a knight's sacrifice.
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And then instead of playing king f7, he really did his very best to not mess with the position too much.
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But he overdid it, and here came f4 anyway.
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He spent all his time, almost all his time after the move 95.
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He had 45 minutes on the clock.
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Now he has nine minutes remaining.
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And Frederik Svane is just pummeling the punches, just one after the other.
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I mean, Fredrik, the thing about Germans, like Vincent Keimer, right?
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Like Matthias Blumbaum.
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They are very good, very practical, very positional players.
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It's just the way that they play, all right?
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For them to have a guy like Fredrik, who is clearly a brawler, like he has really expanded his playing style.
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I played against him, and both he and his brother, like, again, very good positional, maybe not so comfortable in dynamics as much as positional play because there's a lot of risk.
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This is insane.
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And the way that he plays here...
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Well, I shouldn't praise him too much for the move a5.
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He needed to continue to rip open the position.
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I mean, he just couldn't resist.
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Again, he's a very positional player.
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He needed to play the move a5 because that would...
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I don't know.
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Maybe he's trying to go bishop a4.
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Whatever.
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A5 is a mistake.
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Doesn't really matter because Nojubek loses his way anyway.
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Here, Nojubek had to lock the position.
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And he went here.
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And White just got back to doing what he had to do, which is opening the position.
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Kaboom.
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sacks the bishop, takes here.
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If you take, there's queen f3 check.
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And Noderbek goes here and loses himself at c.
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Frederick just takes the pawns, knight c4, knight d6, knight b6.
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And for the first time in the entire tournament in 30 games, Uzbekistan has lost.
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Noderbek Yakuboyev goes down.
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He is, by the way, up to like 2715.
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They now have another 2700.
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They have two Noderbeks.
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It's not fair.
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No other country has a single Noderbek.
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And they have two.
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I don't actually know.
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Is there a single feet -a -rated player in...
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Is there a single chess player in the world named Noderbeck who's not from Uzbekistan?
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Like, just, like, a random Noderbeck somewhere, like, in Switzerland?
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Anyway, I don't know if Noderbeck is a strictly Uzbek name.
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Like, I don't know if in Kazakhstan there would be somebody named Noderbeck or in...
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I don't know.
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Somewhere else.
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Kyrgyzstan. But anyway.
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Yeah, it's fascinating.
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Frederick is a machine.
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Six and a half out of eight.
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Performance rating, 2 ,800 with wins over Hans Niemann, Isik, Isik Can from Turkey, and Nojubek.
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And we go to board 4.
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And on board 4, Shamsidin Vokhidov, who's also having a completely amazing tournament, plays the scotch, plays a very solid line.
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Actually, this is my scotch course, believe it or not.
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Not even joking.
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Bishop d3, very chill position, and you trade, you castle, and you can put your pieces like this, and I think it's a very easy and chill position to play, like, if you're master level.
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um, he plays it a bit differently, uh, he actually just, like, I don't know, I mean, I, I don't think he was playing extremely ambitiously in this game,
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he just, like, uh, played solid, and black played a little bit more dynamic with his knight and bishop,
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uh, and bishop e4 just straight up lost the game.
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this very chill move which doesn't look like I mean what's the blunder right
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he just blundered queen takes queen and 92 check insane right queen takes queen
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and you're gonna lose a piece and he took 92 and maybe he just like
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forgot his rook was hanging I don't know
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I can't I don't know he might have just like saw his bishop was protected and forgot his rook was hanging
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and for that to happen at the Olympiad is wild I mean luckily they're still completely in contention for a gold
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and this was still a very tense game make no mistake Like, Rasmus was stressed, bro.
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He was stressed.
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He got down to 50 seconds.
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This is probably the biggest game of his career.
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Maybe he had a game to get a GM norm or something.
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But for Rasmus, I mean, he really made it stressful.
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He got really low on time.
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Both guys got into a massive pawn race.
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But because Black Queen first, he continues the attack, and he ends up winning the game with a Queen check.
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And, I mean, this was just suffering for Shamsidhan.
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Like, he just had to sit there for three hours after his opening mistake.
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I mean, that is just shocking.
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And poor guy.
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And that happens.
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And as I'm filming this, I started filming this 11 minutes ago.
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They are down 2 -1, and it's not looking good on board 1.
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Board 1 should be a draw. And it did.
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It did end as a draw.
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I didn't want to have the game open.
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And board 1 is a draw.
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And, I mean, it was a draw throughout the game.
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It was an interesting attempt.
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It was actually a very interesting position.
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But right around here, I think Noderbeck, this Noderbeck, started realizing, whoa, we're down.
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And I'm not really in a position.
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Like, I need to keep pieces on the board because you got to realize I got to win.
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Like, the mindset is crazy.
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But he can't win.
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I mean, he can't win.
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There's nothing you can do.
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Like, Vincent's looking at his teammates, and he's like, we're up 2 -1.
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I'm just going to keep the game very chill.
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There's nothing to risk.
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There's nothing that Black can attack here.
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Noderbeck is a magician, but you can't win positions that are unwinnable.
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And this is not a winnable position.
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Actually, he kind of tried to lose.
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There was a moment here that, you know, he clearly was, like, trying to win.
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Just, I don't know.
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He was trying to go out on his sword.
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And I actually think Vincent put him out of his, like, Vincent could have won this game.
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He could have actually played for a win.
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He was winning.
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But he just took a draw because, I don't know, good sportsmanship in some ways.
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Like, he probably was just like, I mean, obviously, Nodibrek would not be playing like this normally.
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Uzbekistan loses.
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Germany wins.
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Germany beats Team USA and Uzbekistan.
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This is one of their greatest runs in recent memory.
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Certainly a whole lot better than their World Cups.
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Anyway, you know, maybe too soon.
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So Uzbekistan just lost, and Germany ties them for first place.
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And now it's a free -for -all.
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Now everybody can catch Uzbekistan.
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Okay?
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So we go to Team USA.
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Actually, first I'm going to show you this game, because this is one of the best games I've ever seen in my life.
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Yo, Wei Yi is so good.
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It's ridiculous how he played at the candidates, because that tournament just, like, brings the worst out of players.
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This is Gumulars, who's a, I was going to say young man, but at this point he might be 25 with a family.
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When I knew about Gumulars, he was a 16 -year -old teenager.
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Maybe he's, like, 19 or 20 now.
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So he plays this solid line against Wei Yi, and I think, you know,
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Wei Yi played this position and developed his pieces and played this line where you don't castle and white doesn't castle,
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and white is not supposed to play d4 because black just chooses this line not to castle.
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It's a line where you are completely waiting for this move and it just never comes, right?
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You could play d4, but if you are uncareful, which he was not careful, the knight ends up just planting itself on the e4 square
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and black is able to launch an attack because you have to castle at some point.
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And what happens in this game is he castles and the way he looks at him and is just like,
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h5 f6 and a couple moves later g5 it's over rook g8,
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knight f8, takes takes bishop takes kaboom,
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kaboom kaboom, the rook is trapped g4 and the viciousness with which way he wins this game is sickening.
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It will make you physically unwell.
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h3, he moves the, h2 check, okay, maybe the king is safe, yeah, maybe not, d4, now the diagonal is open for black's light squared bishop,
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the bishop goes to d2, d3, taking more squares away from the white king, the queen goes up, and we pulls out the sword and just,
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and just slices Simon, like, knight c5,
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disconnecting the white communication with the rook and
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if the rook takes the queen comes in and goes to g1 so white goes here
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he takes the rook he takes the knight maybe for a brief moment gumularis can relax
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and then wei sacrificed the queen because after takes takes the pawn is promoting White goes king f2,
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but the king is not safe.
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Rook to f8, a quiet move, and white cannot take the pawn on c7 because he's blocked by his own pieces.
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He goes e4, and Wei Yi stops the rook from seeing the square by playing bishop to d1,
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discover check, and white resigns.
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Wei Yi beat Gumularz in this game.
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Like, Gumularz was his arch rival.
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Like, this was the culmination of a years -long saga.
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I don't think they've ever exchanged the word.
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This man took his soul.
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Gumularz needs to take a shower after this game.
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Like, I mean, what?
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This man eviscerated this poor soul.
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Like, Wei Yi is a crazy chess player.
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He is so good.
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He is so freaking good and China beat Poland, but barely.
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I think this was the only decisive game.
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Now, Team USA, Team Serbia, we have Caruana Serrana.
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This is a matchup that happens all the time in online games, and he was just actually recently at the Esports World Cup as well.
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Fabi in this game playing a sideline variation of the Knight of Sicilian.
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I haven't seen G3 in a minute.
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And then Knight D5 is obviously some sort of modern cutting -edge idea.
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You trade off some pieces, then you play H4, obviously then you, you know, it's a horseless game and you will basically just have positional pressure on black's structure, right?
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You know, black tries to fight back here, get a little bit more central control.
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Fabi plays in a very aggressive way, gives away the pawn on g3.
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Serrana takes it and obliges in playing this complicated game.
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Then he just like sacks his rook because white's dark squared bishop is apparently even stronger than that piece.
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Queen e2 played, rook g1 and the bishop comes back, bishop to h3 and Fabi just generates an absolute bulldozer,
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sacrifices his rook, bishop to f5.
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The queen just has to be sacrificed.
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It's a defensive sacrifice.
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You got to take it.
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And in the resulting position, Fabi has a queen for a rook and a bishop.
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A queen can sometimes fail against the rook and a bishop, but not when it has a lot of help and the opposing side has a lot of weaknesses.
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And as you can see in this position, there are quite a few weaknesses.
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The king is weak and I'm going to try to promote a pawn.
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I mean, it's still a very stressful game to play, but Sarana just gives up because he can't leave.
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He can't push anything because if he pushes just a5, he's never going to be, he doesn't have any counterplay.
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He can't ever move his rook or his king.
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He can only move his bishop back and forth.
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Fabi wins a very nice game.
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Definitely playing himself into form at the Olympiad.
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Hans Niemann, Hans Niemann was trying to be subdued in this game by Indic.
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I mean, Indic played a very innocuous Queen's Gambit he sacrificed material
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and he actually played c5
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and trapped hans's queen indich clearly switched up here he was
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like i'm not gonna play low risk i'm actually gonna try
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to take his head off hans tried to fight back
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and now white has to play knight to b1
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and queen c1 here is maybe a good attempt to trap
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the queen queen c1 is the idea instead he goes here
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and hans goes here and like this
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and indich spent 30 minutes on the move knight b1
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which is i don't know what on earth he was thinking
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about to be honest with you uh probably he was calculating
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maybe the move b4 is also possible uh yeah he he was like okay maybe we'll make a draw
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and then he didn't he didn't make a draw he could
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have probably repeated moves i mean i i don't even think
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there was a way out of it i think maybe you can go here
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but then there's knight a4
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and then i don't know i feel you're gonna get your queen trapped
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but anyway um so he he doesn't do the repetition
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and tries to play for a win and then goes for knight c3 and hans sacks his queen
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he gives the queen away for the two bishops
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and he has a bishop and a rook
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and two pawns he's actually up material
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so white is up a queen hans is up 20 minutes on the clock
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and like when you are up a queen
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but have no targets it's very different right in the previous in the fabi game the opposing king was weak
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and didn't have a lot of support around this is a very different story
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because now we have bishop a6 right there's a lot of pieces here and the white queen can't do anything.
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The white queen can't take any pieces.
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The white queen is quite stuck.
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Here comes bishop b5.
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Here comes rook c6.
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The queen now has to get out of the position.
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Hans Niemann wins his pawn back.
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And you know who's going to win the game for Hans?
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The pawns.
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He has just simply more pawns than his opponent.
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He will push these pawns through, and white is going to have to defend them with the pawn, with the rook, the knight, and the queen.
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The queen is not a defensive piece.
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The queen doesn't stand on the board to protect.
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We just saw what happened in the Fabi -Sarana game.
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The queen was protecting, and it became a target for the attack.
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It just can't work.
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The knight goes here.
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Pawn goes here.
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F3.
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Hans just slowly makes improving moves.
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Indic is going to get low on time at some point.
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He's going to get below 10 minutes.
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Now your heart rate is elevated.
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Here comes rook C3.
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Now you have seven minutes.
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You're trading off the pawns.
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You are losing your lines of defense.
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You lost the B pawn.
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You're trying to win that pawn back, but the counterplay is now going to be pointed directly at your king.
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Takes, takes.
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B3.
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That's it.
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The promotion square is covered.
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Mate is covered this king is safe.
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These pieces are just juggernauts.
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They are straight up stronger than the queen.
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And Hans Niemann wins a beautiful game.
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Invests in his pawns, protects his king, fights against this king, and Team USA takes down Team Serbia.
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I think board four was not done yet, but this is a massive win because they were two points behind Uzbekistan, I'm pretty sure.
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Maybe they were three points.
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Now they are one point away because they actually, yeah, they only drew yesterday.
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Insane, insane scenes.
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Havhanesian versus Jordan van Forrest.
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This one was incredible.
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Every single game so far has been just a certified banger.
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I am going through these a little bit quickly because back -to -back days I've got to go.
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We have the h4 variation, a6.
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I've actually played this myself with black.
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White plays the best way.
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That's the best move, c5, dc5, knight c6.
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Now the best move is bishop d3.
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He knows that.
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And queen d7.
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And now white is going to go for a think.
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I actually have this position in my notes.
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This is actually also my preparation.
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The best move here for white is the move knight to f3, bishop g4, and rook to h4.
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If you don't know that off the top of your head, you're probably not playing that over the board because rook h4 looks like you're straight up a moron.
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The line is knight f3, bishop g4, rook here, bishop takes, queen takes knight takes queen takes knight takes c takes
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and then black has to play f6
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so like you really i mean you really got to know this line he goes here
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and that's just bad that's not even just like like like
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bad uh it just gives black a an almost direct path to equalizing the position
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because he gets to play this move d4
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and white just has problems white just can't move any piece now he can go knight b6
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but that would take the eye off of the c5 pawn when the when the plate is too hot, there's a very high chance that you drop it.
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Both Confucius and Gotham Chess have said that.
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Queen to e2, knight b4, long castle, we have takes, takes, knight to f5, the knight is getting into g3, the knight is getting into e3.
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This game is, you know how like there's like graffiti art
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or there are paintings
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and like you end up knowing who it is based on
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the style i i bet you i could look at a game
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and just tell you there's a good chance it was played by uh jordan
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because he has a trademark his trademark is like a controlled chaos
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when he's on form it's kind of a beautiful thing
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and in this game he just got an advantage from a very dynamic carl khan he applied pressure
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and we are talking about the usa killer right i mean like hafanasian destroys team usa every olympiad
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and in this game he had no answer for the relentless.
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I mean, bro, come on.
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Like, this is Jordan 101 right here, you know?
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He had no answer.
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He had no answer, you know what I mean?
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Takes, takes.
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He's just up a rook, and he wins.
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He wins before his own king can get attacked.
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GH7, King H7.
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He is up a rook.
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Hafkhanesjan plays on a little bit because he thinks Jordan is a moron
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and doesn't know how to beat him with an extra rook.
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I'm actually joking.
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He probably thought he had some perpetual check chances.
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He doesn't.
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The king's gonna run out to the side of the board uh
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and uh the netherlands i do believe beat armenia
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or maybe they i gotta check oh no no no no
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no no no no no no no no no no no no they were winning
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but sean sargassian with the black pieces was a hero
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and i mean it's kind of nuts
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because the netherlands have a guy playing with the black pieces
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who's a marauder like he's he's a pirate i mean jordan's
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just a pirate like you know what i'm saying he'll steal your booty pause uh and uh he you know he
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he gets these amazing winning chances with black.
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And I mean, this is like also an amazing game by Luke.
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Like here, he can probably just go queen d4.
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probably just go queen d4 trade off target the outside pawn
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and then if he wins the outside pawn he has an outside
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but like queen d4 you know magnus carlson plays queen d4
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five seconds probably i mean he right it's just like it
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but luke is like no i'm not gonna let him you
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know put pressure on me rook f2 fine he's still you know he's still doing good
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and this was correct by shunt he got some counterplay he sacked the rook for some counterplay
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and it worked out man i mean it worked out like
439
white went wrong f4 is a very powerful move it's a very nice counterpunch it's a defensive move
440
but then the rook is also stuck
441
and after rook c3 this trade knight comes into c4
442
and black is just dominating black's pieces are better than white's pieces uh
443
and uh we've seen some games in this olympiad when the
444
when the pieces are the heroes and not the rooks
445
and sean sargassian with such an important comeback i mean it is
446
so difficult to to state how uh how important this is for Team Armenia.
447
D2, and just in time, bro, just in time, with Bishop A4 mate, mate on the board.
448
Luke didn't miss it.
449
He's a gentleman.
450
He allows it to happen.
451
And Armenia and the Netherlands fight to a tie after Jordan pulls off a win.
452
And Luke had a very dominant position.
453
But just this little shift, this little defensive shift in the middle game caused everything to fall apart, this Queen C1 and F4.
454
Iran -France at the time that I'm recording this is two to one, and their games were just unfathomable.
455
So this is Mahdi Golami -Orimi, an Iranian grandmaster.
456
That's Etienne Bakro, a legend of French chess, and the game just gets going quickly.
457
Boom.
458
The knight is sacrificed.
459
The king is brought out and just attacked.
460
Goes back to his home square.
461
e4 attacking in the middle of the board.
462
35 minutes spent on this move by Bakro.
463
Not the best move, by the way.
464
That's human chess.
465
And he takes on h7.
466
Bishop g6 is checkmate it's mate
467
but that's why he goes here to free up the d
468
file for the king he goes queen f3 attacking his rook
469
the bishop counter attacks the bishop checks on g6 this entire
470
game is a sprint queen gets out of danger pawn goes to c2 rook is trapped
471
and the rook cannot go to d1 he takes the no
472
he doesn't take the pawn plays bishop to d2 attacking the
473
knight on a5 the knight moves now you can bring a rook to the middle
474
or you can go back
475
and take the pawn back row sacks the knight over here what even what even is
476
that move how do i even explain
477
that you can just play rook fd1 in this position right yes
478
but then i go queen g4
479
and i offer you a queen trade defended by the knight
480
that is hanging and you can't take this because queen h4 here
481
and then there's like all sorts of mating ideas
482
so the knight is on h2 there are multiple brilliant moves
483
rook d1 he just slides the king cool as a cucumber
484
out of the way back row playing a legendary game
485
but here he makes a mistake two minutes on the clock
486
he plays this move with 11 seconds this is a panic move and before you know it, actually, by the way, that wasn't even the best move, before you know it, two blunders in a row,
487
rook h7, queen g4, the nerves just got to him, he had calculated probably bishop takes h7, but he had forgotten about bishop f5 check,
488
and he doesn't lose the rook for the bishop, he straight up loses a rook, he just loses a rook,
489
and in the skirmish, Golami defeats Etienne Bacro, but the other two French boards won, and I think it was two to one,
490
and we're going to check in with the standings uh in a moment uh
491
and this is a person
492
that is having having a heroic tournament i i am a
493
big alua fan we are big alua fans we're also big
494
vishali fans on this channel it's india it's kazakhstan uh
495
and it was a very symmetrical
496
and very chill little queen's gambit bishop takes a lot of
497
pieces were getting traded black transformed the structure the position got dynamic
498
and you know what happens when the plate gets hot right
499
you might drop it you might drop it bishop c6 was
500
it was a bad move it allowed alua to connect her
501
pawns you know you never allow a wrestler to connect their
502
hands those who know queen e4 the pawn keeps moving forward
503
the bishop is doing a good job blocking the position
504
but it's all about the pawns here alua breaks apart the
505
bind she's gonna play a takes b5 at some point rook
506
d4 there's a takes b5 rook c5 the bishop is getting chased around the board the knight is coming in
507
and white just cannot stop the pressure here.
508
The pawns are split.
509
She wins material.
510
B6.
511
It doesn't matter because the pawn is promoting.
512
Both sides look like they're going to queen, but only one side is going to land the check.
513
Check.
514
Check.
515
Check.
516
And she is going to check her until she wins her pawn, and Vaishali resigns, and Alua is on pace to make a grandmaster norm for
517
Team Kazakhstan at the Olympiad insane absolutely insane on the women's
518
side China also had a very clutch win on their last
519
board for the women's side Netherlands lose to Uzbekistan Kazakhstan India
520
draw China is in the lead right now I think tied
521
with Mongolia Armenia is about to take down Team USA
522
so right now China is winning Mongolia Kazakhstan are a point
523
out with three rounds to go China a hero on board four and for the open for the open section It's Uzbekistan,
524
Germany, and then a, oh my God, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, seven teams are a point away.
525
Uzbekistan is probably going to play US because the US must have the highest rating now, right?
526
It's probably Uzbekistan, USA.
527
I don't know.
528
It's probably Germany, they play China.
529
Yeah, Germany, I don't know, guys.
530
The Olympiad has been blown open.
531
Let's go.
532
We are going to have an incredible finish to this tournament.
533
I'm hyped.
534
I am very hyped.
535
And this might actually change, but I think all the games are done.
536
Nuts.
537
Get out of here.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 537 sentences and 5572 words to shadow. The speech runs for 30:50. The speaker talks fast, about 181 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. Only 79% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| knight noun | /ˈnaɪ̯t/ | An armored and mounted warrior of the Middle Ages. |
| bishop noun | /ˈbɪʃəp/ | An overseer of congregations: either any such overseer, generally speaking, or (in Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Anglicanism, etc.) an official in the church… |
| 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… |
| castle noun | /ˈkɑːsəl/ | A large residential building or compound that is fortified and contains many defences; in previous ages often inhabited by a nobleman or king. Also, a house or… |
| insane adjective | /ɪnˈseɪn/ | Exhibiting unsoundness or disorder of mind; not sane; utterly mad. |
| sacrifice noun | /ˈsæk.ɹɪ.faɪs/ | Originally, the killing (and often burning) of a human being or an animal as an offering to a deity; later, also the offering of an object to a deity. |
| chess noun | /t͡ʃɛs/ | A board game for two players, each beginning with sixteen chess pieces moving according to fixed rules across a chessboard with the objective to checkmate the… |
| 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. |
| chill verb | /tʃɪl/ | To lower the temperature of something; to cool. |
| rat noun | /ɹæt/ | Any of the numerous members of several rodent families that usually have short limbs, a pointy snout, a long, hairless tail, and a body length greater than… |
| sack noun | /sæk/ | A bag; especially a large bag of strong, coarse material for storage and handling of various commodities, such as potatoes, coal, coffee; or, a bag with… |
| defend verb | /dɪˈfɪnd/ | To ward off attacks against (something or someone). |
| luke adjective | /l(j)uːk/ | lukewarm |
| defensive adjective | /dɪˈfɛn.sɪv/ | Intended for defence; protective. |
| dynamic adjective | /daɪˈnæm.ɪk/ | Changing; active; in motion. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. | |
| get out of verb | To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of. | |
| fight back verb | /faɪt bæk/ | To defend oneself by fighting. |
| go back verb | To return to a place or state after having been there at a previous time. | |
| take down verb | To remove something from a wall or similar vertical surface to which it is fixed. | |
| work out verb | /ˌwɝk ˈaʊt/ | To calculate. |
| break apart verb | To dismantle something into its base components. | |
| break down verb | To stop functioning. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 103 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, can't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: bishop /ˈbɪʃəp/, variation /ˌvɛəɹiˈeɪʃn̩/, shock /ʃɔk/, capture /ˈkæp.(t)ʃɚ/, promotion /pɹəˈmoʊʃn̩/
- Long words — get the stress right: ridiculous /ɹɪˈdɪk.jə.ləs/, complicated /ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/, preparation /ˌpɹɛpəˈɹeɪʃ(ə)n/, differently /ˈdɪf.ə.ɹənt.li/, legendary /ˈlɛd͡ʒ.ənˌdɛɹ.i/
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 knight, bishop, pawn.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | if you play King h1, it would be · if black were to castle, White would just · if in Kazakhstan there would be |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have seen · have defeated · has been played |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are undefeated · are done · has been played |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | course, which is · everything which is · this, which is |
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.