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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

#101

Post by haberman »

GraffitiTim wrote: post #90
haberman wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bzrap8Vtyq8 I'm going to go for the most pedestrian, naive chess commentary ever by noting that at 0:20 it looks like there is a road through the middle of the board.

If you mean the vertical line (horizontal from camera perspective) of squares with no pieces on it, that's called an open file, and it's an important concept in chess. Rooks on an open file are generally more powerful.

That makes sense, though I was looking more at the diagonal formation that starts at the bottom left, goes up and into the middle, and then down back into the right corner. It looks like a tree-lined boulevard with a bend in it. :)

Re: Bill Gates loses to Magnus Carlsen in 9 moves

#102

Post by tedsanders »

georgemcbay wrote: post #45
deletes wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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-c…

I used to play against a chess master, with 5 minutes on my clock and 30 seconds on his. He routinely crushed me.

I also used to play against some amateur chess players with 30 seconds on my clock and 5 minutes on theirs. I routinely crushed them.

Even with 30 seconds, a significantly better player will still almost always win.

Re: Bill Gates loses to Magnus Carlsen in 9 moves

#103

Post by tedsanders »

oldstrangers wrote: post #65
markhelo wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree. In 30 seconds Carlsen has a much higher recall of the vast number of boards he has played than an average person. This is a mismatch even if Bill Gates is really smart. So in 30 seconds whatever plans an average chess player can conjure up, Carlsen has already seen them 10 moves ahead.

From my other comment: If I was Bill I would've played a very passive game, shutting down the middle of the board as quickly as possible. Create as complex a middle game as possible, and let Carslen go all in on sacrifices or whatever he'd need to do to break the board open. Deny as many exchanges as possible, win on time. Carlsen quickly realized Bill was a push over and started parking all his pieces on white's kin…

But to execute this strategy well, Bill would have to be much better than he is. Carlsen will crush Bill every time, even if Bill knows ahead of time to play a passive, closed position.

Re: Bill Gates loses to Magnus Carlsen in 9 moves

#105

Post by tedsanders »

mikehearn wrote: post #24
tedsanders wrote: post #11

How is this news? Magnus Carlsen is good at chess. Bill Gates is bad at chess. How does this story add value to anyone's life? What was learned here? (sincerely curious)

Most of the time when people achieve world-class ability in something, they end up exclusively competing against others that have a similar talent level. It's worthwhile (and fun) to be occasionally reminded just how much of a talent gap there is between them and the average person.

I see. I guess what's obvious to me - that a grandmaster can crush a chump in 30 seconds - is not obvious to all. I'm glad that so many people find it interesting.

Re: Bill Gates loses to Magnus Carlsen in 9 moves

#107

Post by pzxc »

raintrees wrote: post #76
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…

My dad once challenged me (again) and I really didn't want to play, so I ran Fool's Mate on him (I had read it in some book of chess challenges). He never asked again, it was kind of ruined for him... Gotta watch those teenagers, I wasn't nice sometimes when my free reading was being interrupted. Edit: glad I grew up some...

Not to nitpick, but I'm sure you mean Scholar's Mate, where you attack the pawn in front of the king's bishop with two pieces (usually queen and bishop/knight) and win in 4 moves or so. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scholar%27s_mate

Many people erroneously call this fool's mate, but fool's mate is actually the shortest chess game possible (win in 2 moves), which is virtually impossible (you'd have to be playing against someone that really doesn't know what they're doing AND they'd have to move the two specific pawns to allow it). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fool%27s_mate

Re: Bill Gates loses to Magnus Carlsen in 9 moves

#110

Post by solutionyogi »

jsyedidia wrote: post #47

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 cloc…

That video you linked is insane. I couldn't even see what moves they are making. It reminded me of chess between Joey and Phoebe. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n_zq_M9OGk Thank you for sharing.
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