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Bill Gates loses to Magnus Carlsen in 9 moves

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Re: Bill Gates loses to Magnus Carlsen in 9 moves

#41

Post by NAFV_P »

goldenkey wrote: post #7
avenger123 wrote: post #5

Respect for Bill. That was impressive. I'm not an avid Chess player but to play at that speed with his obviously gifted opponent and last that long is respectable.

There's nothing super special about an amazing chess player that would let them check mate you in 9 movies unless you play horrendously. Grand Masters are not super heros of chess. They are 'comprehensive.' Lets be real rather than gaudy. I should mention that I am a chess master and have played GMs online.

Have you ever played against a formidable electronic opponent? I've heard they sometimes use unusual tactics.

Re: Bill Gates loses to Magnus Carlsen in 9 moves

#42

Post by baddox »

birken wrote: post #21
avenger123 wrote: post #5

Respect for Bill. That was impressive. I'm not an avid Chess player but to play at that speed with his obviously gifted opponent and last that long is respectable.

Just to put this in context, any game in which you checkmate your opponent in under 20 moves is considered to be an incredibly quick game, where your opponent must have helped you by playing a really horrible move. The game is over before it has even started to develop. To be checkmated in 9 moves means you basically were making the worst possible move many times. It would be easy for any marginally skilled chess pla…

I wonder how many moves a random valid move generator would be expected to survive against a master.

Re: Bill Gates loses to Magnus Carlsen in 9 moves

#43

Post by deletes »

oldstrangers wrote: post #36
elorant wrote: post #22

The amazing part for someone like me who knows just basic chess is how aggressive Carlsen was. It’s scary seeing him coming on you with all those pieces and instantaneous moves. It also gives you a measure of his grandeur. It seems BillG got panicked given the little time he had to think his moves; at least I’d do.

Carlsen had a 30 second clock. Even an average player should've been able to put Carlsen into time pressure at that point, assuming you didn't fall into any silly traps like Gates did.

It is a trick actually. The more time the opponent has, the easier it is for Carlsen, as he uses his opponents turn time to think. An average player doesn't have the skill to put him under pressure.

+edit: you also usually get an extra second or two ( depending on the total time ) per move.

Re: Bill Gates loses to Magnus Carlsen in 9 moves

#44

Post by sklivvz1971 »

samolang wrote: post #10
tspiteri wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was not about judging, it was just a bit of fun.

I know. I just thought this was a good illustration of this commonly stated aphorism.

Some fishes climb trees. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p003c3jk

Re: Bill Gates loses to Magnus Carlsen in 9 moves

#45

Post by georgemcbay »

deletes wrote: post #43
oldstrangers wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Carlsen had a 30 second clock. Even an average player should've been able to put Carlsen into time pressure at that point, assuming you didn't fall into any silly traps like Gates did.

It is a trick actually. The more time the opponent has, the easier it is for Carlsen, as he uses his opponents turn time to think. An average player doesn't have the skill to put him under pressure. +edit: you also usually get an extra second or two ( depending on the total time ) per move.

Yeah he has time to think when the opponent is moving, but 30 seconds just isn't a lot of time if you consider there is a minimum practical time per move just based on the physical reality of being a human that has to move the piece and hit the clock, as illustrated pretty well by Carlsen's move where he knocked over a piece and burnt something like 3 seconds on one move.

I think any decently skilled (but non-world-class) chess player could have run him down just by playing defensively. Of course, that would have been terrible tv, so we got someone who probably only plays casually getting steam-rolled by the "Justin Bieber of chess".

Re: Bill Gates loses to Magnus Carlsen in 9 moves

#46

Post by pjmorris »

The Gates biography 'Gates' by Stephen Manes recalls that Gates used to play chess against Paul Allen a great deal in the early days. IIRC, Gates would play very aggressively, leaving lots of opportunities to be attacked, and Allen would usually win the games. He was more of a poker player though.

Re: Bill Gates loses to Magnus Carlsen in 9 moves

#47

Post by jsyedidia »

Actually, Carlsen was playing for tricks (as might be reasonable when you have just 30 seconds). Bill Gates had a winning position on the 9th move. If instead of 9. Nxe5?? which allows an immediate checkmate, he had played 9. Re1!, he would have had a huge advantage. I'm an international master, and more importantly, my computer backs up my opinion.

I'm surprised Carlsen played a game with just 30 seconds on his clock; it's easy to lose in that situation since you simply don't have enough time to make more than about 30 moves. And by the way, the best player in the world at ridiculously short time controls ("bullet chess") like 1 minute for the game is Hikaru Nakamura, the top-rated American player, not Magnus Carlsen. Nakamura tends to play soundly in these time controls. Look at this video for a game where Nakamura plays against Grandmaster Max Dlugy (another bullet chess expert) with kibitzing by Grandmaster Ben Finegold: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bzrap8Vtyq8

Re: Bill Gates loses to Magnus Carlsen in 9 moves

#48

Post by RoboTeddy »

goldenkey wrote: post #7
avenger123 wrote: post #5

Respect for Bill. That was impressive. I'm not an avid Chess player but to play at that speed with his obviously gifted opponent and last that long is respectable.

There's nothing super special about an amazing chess player that would let them check mate you in 9 movies unless you play horrendously. Grand Masters are not super heros of chess. They are 'comprehensive.' Lets be real rather than gaudy. I should mention that I am a chess master and have played GMs online.

If an amateur had 10 hours to think about each move of a chess game, and the GM he was playing against had 1 second for each move (and couldn't think on the amateur's time), the GM would still _crush_ the amateur. GMs kind of are super heroes of chess.

(it is true though that 9 moves is a silly short game. most amateurs would last longer)

Re: Bill Gates loses to Magnus Carlsen in 9 moves

#50

Post by Bootvis »

stiff wrote: post #18

Surprisingly this has brought some memories, I remember my father beating me in a chess game exactly the same way in just a few moves, back when I was a kid, my chess knowledge to this day sums up to knowing how the pieces move, and my father I think knew some more chess theory regarding strategy, but wasn't even a competitive player, so my laymen impression is that this was a really unremarkable game. Would someone…

In general, castling is a good thing. In this case, and in retrospect, it was unwise. Carlsens pieces were aiming at the king side so further development and then castling queen side would have made more sense. I think Gates' first mistake was 3. Bd3. It blocks the d-pawn and the bishop isn't very active at Bd3. The computer gives white a small advantage after 2. .. d5 but a disadvantage after Bd3. It prefers to just take the pawn.

With low depth the computer also plays Gates 4th to 6th move. So despite the threads on the king side castling seems possible. 6. h3 is not recommended but it thinks Blakcks response 7 .. Ne5 is a blunder. However, with his last move, allowing the mate, Gates really blunders. If he would have played Re1 instead the computer gives an advantage of almost 3 pawns.

Note: the computer was Stockfish

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