Magnus Carlsen Wins the Freestyle (Chess960) World Championship

Post by baumy » Mon, Feb 16, 2026, 5:22 AM UTC

nilslindemann wrote: post #76

Taek wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes modern AIs have an entire opening database and generally have cached the first 20+ moves of the game (for most common openings) from a database of very deep searches identifying the best move. This is absolutely a form of opening prep for AIs. That said, even without that database a modern AI will completely topple the best human at every common chess variant. Humans cannot defeat modern AIs in chess like games.

Like my answer below, that's wrong. Even I have achieved a few draws or even wins against Stockfish in training games, and I am FM strength. From time to time you are happy to reach a simple rook endgame which happens to be won and the engine doesn't anticipate that (horizon effect). You still draw or lose 90% of those but you win 10%.

Post by Quarrel » Mon, Feb 16, 2026, 5:30 AM UTC

purplejacket wrote: post #103

Magnus is just so tenacious. From a lost position he snatched a victory. Take a look at the five hour mark (plus or minus) for the crucial moments of the key game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6ey5Up4S7w

Post by ThrowawayTestr » Mon, Feb 16, 2026, 5:37 AM UTC

Post by nilslindemann » Mon, Feb 16, 2026, 5:41 AM UTC

josephg wrote: post #117

nilslindemann wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

@josephg (for reasons I do not know there is no reply link below your post) Sure, some people are cheaters. Some are not. There is no personal win in cheating against Stockfish. Usually strong players do it for training purposes, or to entertain their watchers when they stream. I actually remember having seen one who did that, and he drew. That was a party.

Yes. I hear this claim from above: "Some humans can beat stockfish." Evidence given: "There exist some small number of games on lichess.org played against stockfish where the user won." My counter argument is that games on lichess against stockfish don't imply a human beat stockfish. It could just be that stockfish (or other bots) can sometimes beat stockfish. And some humans surely use bots to play on their behalf i…

Post by smnscu » Mon, Feb 16, 2026, 5:46 AM UTC

hyperbovine wrote: post #79

saucymew wrote: post #9

It feels like the cohort GM player pool is mentally cooked against Magnus. Youngsters like Lazavik during the Speed Chess Championship or Sindarov in Freestyle were the most recent convincing wins against Magnus, but the historical mental edge that Magnus comes into each game after beating the brakes out of everyone is hard to overcome. Magnus' time will come! But not today.

Same exact thing happened in tennis. There was a whole "lost generation" of amazingly talented players who just basically shat the bed whenever they stepped onto the court with Djokovic, Federer, or Nadal. It wasn't until much younger players like Alcaraz and Sinner came on the scene, who weren't quite as overpowered by the aura of the Big 3, that the playing field finally leveled. (And now they themeselves are turni…