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.<p>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:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bzrap8Vtyq8" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bzrap8Vtyq8</a>
As a kid I played a lot of chess with one of my childhood friends. I was always (almost?) winning.<p>Imagine my surprise when in high-school I played with a guy who learned to play chess as a kid.
He beat me just as fast as Bill Gates got beaten.
Then he beat me, but slower in subsequent 7 games that day and then some over the following months. But one day I finally beat him. I guess he got a little careless after all that wins and I learned good bit from him.<p>Interestingly I beat his ass in checkers every time. Also interestingly roughly about the same time I played chess with an actual math genius (distance between two lines of his reasoning required whole page of careful explanation for me) and he was making dumbest moves I've seen because he barely ever played chess before.<p>Games are not about thinking. By thinking long and hard you can get to 5-10% of skill of a master. The rest is learning from books and stronger opponents.<p>I had another friend. He had played significantly more unreal tournament than quake, I just the opposite. I was kicking his ass 50 to 1 in quake even on a slower computer with smaller monitor and crappier mouse, but he was kicking my ass 50 to 1 in Unreal Tournament and I wasn't bad at that game. I was as good as any of my friends except for this guy.<p>I guess my point is that skill is very specific to the game and must be earned.
Carlsen visited Google last week and played 10 simultaneous games against Googlers. Chessbase did a writeup here:<p><a href="http://en.chessbase.com/post/carlsen-google" rel="nofollow">http://en.chessbase.com/post/carlsen-google</a><p>TL;DR: Carlsen went 10-0 with only one close game, against the highest rated player (2168)
There is a Derren Brown (UK Illusionist) piece where he plays
seven opponents at once, walking round in a big circle, and amazingly wins 4 out of 7.<p>Afterwards the explanation is simple - he played 6 masters or grandmasters, and one guy off the street. And simply (!) memorised the moves of player A and made them against player C, B to D etc. All he had to do was play a decent game against the guy off the street and he would always beat 50%
Make me appreciate Go that much more - to me, Go seems a much more enjoyable game when the opponents are mismatched.<p>Even though I'm pretty good at Go, it's enjoyable to play with a beginner. You don't have to trounce them to find satisfaction.
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.
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.<p>Would someone competent at chess be so kind and explain what did Bill do wrong? Does this class of mistakes (castling "locking" the king in the corner) have a name?
It's funny because you know that in there somewhere Bill Gates must still have his former extremely competitive self, and getting beat so badly has got to be humbling. He's a great sport about it though.
I watched the Skavlan show tonight, and found the whole thing very fun. The true story of Irish adoptions was particularly harrowing, but the chess match lightened the load.<p>It didn't seem that Bill knew he was going to be asked to play chess, and he seemed to take it in good humour.<p>Bill prefaced the game with apologies that nobody should expect much and that he was a much better Go player.
Respect for Bill. That was impressive.<p>I'm not an avid Chess player but to play at that speed with his obviously gifted opponent and last that long is respectable.
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.
> "Wow, that was fast," he said to Carlsen, whose rockstar appeal has won him the moniker the <i>"Justin Bieber of chess."</i><p><i>"Justin Bieber of chess."</i><p>really?
Seeing as I went 16 moves against Kasparov as a complete noob to chess, does that make me better than Bill Gates? My programming ability and checkbook seem to disagree, however. :/
Bill Gates also famously plays cards and other one-on-one games with Warren Buffet. I would love to have an insight into the conversations that take place during those games.<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP1nAvi85g0" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP1nAvi85g0</a>
Best commentary of the match, by Jerry!
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0QdI0rVoHA&feature=em-uploademail" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0QdI0rVoHA&feature=em-upload...</a>
When you have all the openings memorised, as the champs do, it is not really playing until 10 or 20 moves in. It is not really playing a game in this situation, it is Magnus going through the motions.
Well, when I was a child, my chess playing future was taken down in flames by the chess program I had. In the easiest setting, I would lose in a few moves. That proved not to be very motivating.
What did people expect? For Bill Gates' bodyguards to break both of Magnus arms and Bill taunting him "whatsamatter bitch? are you gonna move? tick-tock".<p>Why is this on HN?
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)