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Magnus Carlsen is World Chess Champion

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Re: Magnus Carlsen is World Chess Champion

#191

Post by baq »

aaronetz wrote: post #24

Does anyone know some good alternatives to chess, as a game that mixes deep thought and aesthetic variety? I tried Go, but found it somewhat boring compared to chess, because of its uniformity (which, on the other hand, has the advantage of beautiful simplicity and symmetry.) On another note: it is unfortunate, in my opinion, that chess has a special standing among board games. I would love to see some more variety i…

Arimaa can be played using a chess set: http://arimaa.com/arimaa/. it's specifically designed to be hard for computers to play.

Re: Magnus Carlsen is World Chess Champion

#192

Post by flud43 »

RRiccio wrote: post #127
flud43 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should really give No Limit Hold'em or Pot Limit Omaha a try. Poker is a game of astounding complexity once you start taking it seriously and it's quite fun. Combine that with the ability to take a small bankroll, $100 or whatever you're comfortable using as seed money, and turn it into a roll sufficient for high stakes poker (with enough dedication and time) and it truly does become quite an amazing game to play…

I used to be a professional poker player, and although I agree that especially in the beginning -- while you're quickly evolving -- it's a lot of fun, after a while you do it for the money. It's very different from MTG, where me and my friends would play for the thrill of it, spending whatever little money we had to play. The easy test here is: would you play a poker tournament just for fun, if there was nothing at s…

If you aren't enjoying it anymore, you probably shouldn't be playing any longer.

I didn't advocate playing only for the sake of making money. I suggested it because of how complex a game it is. How much time it takes to master. And because the potential rewards once you do are quite significant, which is a nice added bonus.

And I'm not sure when you stopped playing (pre black friday?) but I don't think there's a single point at which I've ever stopped improving. I know many heads-up professionals as well and not a single one of them ever stops learning and improving their game. Stagnation in poker is death. As such, I don't know why you feel like it was a lot of fun at the start but lost that later on. There is always another level deeper you can go.

The point of any game is to win. The metric that determines the winner of a game is different in every case. In poker, it's how much money you're making. But that doesn't have anything to do with the game itself. It merely depicts how well you're playing.

Learning to maximize expectation with true mathematical finesse while factoring in accurate opponent profiling and gameflow is one of the most challenging things I've ever had to do gamewise. I've played chess since I was 5, Counter-Strike very seriously for five years, WoW for the first 3 years before it went to shit, and have been getting into Go. And in none of those games have I achieved the level of mental satisfaction as I have from poker.

Edit: Was your stars alias RRiccio as well? Were you a cash player? You only have ~750 tournaments recorded on sharkscope.

Re: Magnus Carlsen is World Chess Champion

#193

Post by whtrbt »

primitivesuave wrote: post #178
edias wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will be interesting to see if Chess, or other boardgames for the matter, will benefit from streaming services as much as video games have. I've seen the Chess-Network on twitch.tv break 1k viewers which is tiny compared to the 300k League of Lengends and Dota 2 tournaments but still a substantial amount regardless.

I get really annoyed with the commentators on Chess Network, they have a tendency to overanalyze and talk way too much. The best commentator I've found is an Australian named Mato: youtube.com/matojelic

Austrian?

Re: Magnus Carlsen is World Chess Champion

#194

Post by hrkristian »

McUsr wrote: post #182

I am Norwegian and fucking proud of it right now, due to Magnus Carlsen. He comes from a Nation consisting of 5 mill. people, compared to Anand's billion people. This is probably the greatest sports achievement our country will ever make, as there are really no comparable sports achievements in the world, not now, anyway. IMHO: They should knight him the second he gets of the plane when he returns home. Because no ot…

To clarify: While theoretically the title of knight is attainable in Norway, it's not something that is practiced, and has not been for at least 150 years.

Were there such a title I'd be happy to see our government/King knight him, though.

Re: Magnus Carlsen is World Chess Champion

#195

Post by sanoli »

primitivesuave wrote: post #176
GavinB wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since computers play chess (better than humans) by looking at moves and ranking them as advantageous or disadvantageous, I would think it would be relatively straightforward to use a computer to decide whether a move is a mistake or not.

You can't definitively say that a computer's move is best, the branching factor of chess means that searching the game tree until finding a checkmate is nearly impossible. It leads to the horizon effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizon_effect but recent advances in AI like in Deep Blue have introduced branch extension, where branches of the game tree with statistically similar rankings are searched further unti…

This applies in the earlier stages of the game. In the endgame, when there are fewer pieces, computers can find the best move. There are many instances where say, you reach and endgame with some nine pieces, and the computer will find a mate in 18 moves.

Re: Magnus Carlsen is World Chess Champion

#196

Post by sanoli »

McUsr wrote: post #182

I am Norwegian and fucking proud of it right now, due to Magnus Carlsen. He comes from a Nation consisting of 5 mill. people, compared to Anand's billion people. This is probably the greatest sports achievement our country will ever make, as there are really no comparable sports achievements in the world, not now, anyway. IMHO: They should knight him the second he gets of the plane when he returns home. Because no ot…

You should be proud, Magnus is awesome! I'm Brazilian, and I would trade one of our World Cups for a chess World Championship. Hell, I'd even trade two-for-one :)

Re: Magnus Carlsen is World Chess Champion

#197

Post by pawn »

kadabra9 wrote: post #10

Reading more about this match and Magnus in general, I learned of a measure termed "Nettlesomeness" which has been used to measure which players do the most to make their opponents to make mistakes. Magnus, with his highly creative style of play and unexpected moves, not surprisingly ranks the highest in this measure. He seems to have this remarkable gift of making moves which aren't just strong, they get inside his…

I've tried a few techniques to try getting in a person's head while playing, but I wouldn't have any idea how to measure it. Some techniques are on the board, but some aren't.

One thing I've tried is just staring at the player. I've also tried just barely glancing at the board and making the move on my turn while actually doing my studying on their turn.

The funniest thing that someone tried against me was playing a guitar while also playing chess. This was in a local tournament in college. Half way into the game, he stopped and exclaimed "What am I doing??" and tried to play serious from that point forward. Luckily for me, he waited too late.

Re: Magnus Carlsen is World Chess Champion

#198

Post by ubernostrum »

phaus wrote: post #104
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Magic: the Gathering? It's a game of infinite possibilities and strategies and has a big meta game around it, too. Plus collectibles. Plus cool artwork. Plus good apps.

In some ways, the internet ruined games like MTG. I still like to play, but the widespread availability of tournament decklists stifles creativity. There are still formats where you see a wide variety of decks, but T2 play normally involves picking one of maybe 5 or 6 viable options.

In some ways, the internet ruined games like MTG. I still like to play, but the widespread availability of tournament decklists stifles creativity.

In some ways, the printing press ruined games like chess. I still like to play, but the widespread availability of opening books stifles creativity.

(I have a lot of experience with MtG, and a fair bit with chess, and this is my go-to analogy. I could also probably write a lot more on how the "netdeck" attitude signals someone is missing out on an unbelievable amount of strategic depth, but that's for another day)

Re: Magnus Carlsen is World Chess Champion

#199

Post by nebffa »

whtrbt wrote: post #193
primitivesuave wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get really annoyed with the commentators on Chess Network, they have a tendency to overanalyze and talk way too much. The best commentator I've found is an Australian named Mato: youtube.com/matojelic

Austrian?

He is European-born but has lived in Australia for some time now.

Re: Magnus Carlsen is World Chess Champion

#200

Post by wglb »

qq66 wrote: post #166
selmnoo wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anand is a total class act. All the other top chess players only ever had good things to say about him. And Anand is one of the people who coached Magnus. He's known to be focused strictly on the game and never do mind tricks to throw an opponent off. A lot of top players respect him for this.

What do you mean by mind tricks?

Things such as Emanuel Lasker's cigar: http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/nimzowitsch.html

and other such stuff.

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