Slashdot Mirror
23-Year-Old Chess Grandmaster Whips Bill Gates In 71 Seconds
MojoKid writes "There's no disputing that Bill Gates is blessed with a brilliant mind. Sure, he dropped out of Harvard College, but he got accepted into the elite institution of higher learning in the first place. Leading into his college career, Gates scored 1,590 out of 1,600 on the SAT. The rest is history — he went on to co-found Microsoft, built a net worth that's in the billions ($76.8 billion at last count), and now spends his time on his philanthropic efforts. Regardless, it took 23-year-old Magnus Carlsen, a "grandmaster" Chess player since the age of 13 and new world Chess champion, just 71 seconds to defeat Gates in a friendly game of Chess on a Norwegian television show. It takes longer to heat up a cup of water in the microwave."
Your microwave sucks
And about as long as it takes Windows to blue-screen...
He should have brought a Chess computer.
But i bet Bill would have won at minesweeper and solitaire.
He lost to someone who spent much of their life practicing the game. That doesn't really mean anything. To be a chess grandmaster requires a great natural aptitude - but it also requires devotion to practice and study within that very narrow field.
The definitive example of 'News' is 'Man bites dog'. If Carlsen had established a business empire to rival Microsoft in 71 seconds, that might be news.
Succeeding in business is about being in the right place at the right time. Some do it buy luck others do it by maneuvering into position. Bill did the latter as did Jobs, they had a gift of vision knowing where they needed to be with what product offering. Sure he made some missteps latter but nobody has a perfect record if they play they game for long, overall though it's real clear Bill has a strong business sense, If anyone could do it today, and now that the industry has matured I am not so sure they could, it would be Bill.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
The most intelligent person in the world would not stand a chance versus an experienced, serious chess aficionado. Being good at chess not only requires raw intelligence, but also strategic and tactical insights that just can't be developed on the fly no matter how intelligent you are, and especially not during a speed chess match.
Reminds me of the story of world-class poker player Tom Dwan (who has won millions at poker and is likely very intelligent) losing > $50k in misjudging his chances of beating chess International Master Greg Shahade, who was starting the game down a rook (an insurmountable difference when players have remotely similar skill).
If you place all of your pieces in the right place you can get out of this TV show quicker .
I'm sorry, but first off - Magnus Carlsen has been an extremely well known chess player since 2004. Justin Bieber was discovered when? 2008?
Secondly, while Bieber is famous for being famous.. Carlsen is famous for using his brain and becoming the world champion of chess. He built his career around his brain. Yes, some fashion agency also discovered his good looks and started sponsoring him and using him as a model - but that's not his main work. It's a hobby thing on the side. Good for him.
For those slightly interested in chess, but not interested enough to normally follow ratings and such - take a look at: http://2700chess.com/ for the up to date live ratings.
Aronian is doing a massive jump these days due to Tata Steel. I'm guessing the next WCC match will be between Carlsen and Aronian. They're typically rather evenly matched.
"Rune Kristian Viken" - http://www.nwo.no - arca
I'd like to live just long enough to be there when they cut off the head of Bill Gates and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some software comes with too high a price. I would look up into his lifeless eyes and wave, like this. Can you and your Utilities arrange that for me, Mr Norton?
Modern chess grandmasters frequently play whats called "lightning" or "bullet" chess with a time control of 60 seconds for each player for all of their moves is the entire game. In this time control, a player who uses 71 seconds has already lost on time.
... 3:1 advantage = 0.75 expected value) His rating is over 2800, so against an average opponent with a 1200 rating his advantage is over 6500:1.
Clearly someone who suggests "scholars mate" here such as yourself would not understand that these GM's actually play extremely strongly even with so little time on the clock. While this speed of chess was popularized by computer interfaces and online chess servers, its actually played OTB as well
Magnus Carlsen is the highest rated chess player ever. The standard ELO chess rating system is set up such that a +200 point difference in ELO equals a 3:1 advantage (a games score is 1.0 for a win, 0.5 for a draw, or 0.0 for a loss
"His name was James Damore."
An annotated game record is available here:
http://en.chessbase.com/post/carlsen-mates-bill-gates-in-79-seconds
The interactive way to Go -- http://www.playgo.to/iwtg/en/
> He should have brought a Chess computer.
Well, he was confident he could bribe the opponent's king into making a burning platform speech saying the only way out is to scrap all strategies and ask Gates directions, but the pawns did not buy it.
---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
It was not. It was an attack using two knights and the queen, while busily sacrificing material as a smokescreen. Very elegantly done.
Mielipiteet omiani - Opinions personal, facts suspect.
Reminds me of an old saying:
Every person you meet is always better at something then you are...
Life starts at the end of your comfort zone.
Thanks for that helpful comparison---without it, I would have had no clue how long 71 seconds actually is.
Liberty in your lifetime
Guy who is really really good at chess beats quite smart guy of unknown chess-playing ability at chess.
This is news?
Regardless, it took 23-year-old Magnus Carlsen, a "grandmaster" Chess player since the age of 13 and new world Chess champion, just 71 seconds to defeat Gates in a friendly game of Chess
What do you mean, "regardless"? There's no "regardless" about it. It's like comparing a guy who won a gajillion dollars on a scratchcard to Warren Buffett (except for the fact that you could never get richer than Warren Buffett with any scratchcard). There is no comparison.
Or are we really now meant to re-appraise Bill Gates's intelligence and business acumen in light of this spectacular failure to hold out against a chess grandmaster?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Chess is a very specialized skill, unrelated to pretty much everything that matters in life. Yeah, it's not surprising that an expert level chess player can win against a business tycoon. He'd probably also win against a Nobel prize winner or mathematician.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
And he SURE PLAYS SOME MEAN PINBALL.
(vote up if you get this reference)
you are right that it is unsurprising — as is the result of a game between a tennis champ and an amateur — but you are wrong in saying that the skills one squires in chess are unrelated to everything that matters in life.
you obviously have never taken up the sport, or you would soon see how it disciplines and trains the mind to meet everything else in life with more and better discrimination — just like science enables one to cut out a lot of the crap that people superstitiously believe — chess teaches your mind how to think clearly in a better way than anything else. it shows you how to overcome superstitious instincts, and train them towards better results — and this helps in almost every area of life.
As Benjamin Franklin wrote in 1750 in his article, The Morals of Chess — The Game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement; several very valuable qualities of mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired and strengthened by it, so as to become habits ready on all occasions; for life is a kind of Chess... By playing at Chess then, we may learn:
1st, Foresight, which looks a little into futurity, and considers the consequences that may attend an action.
2nd, Circumspection, which surveys the whole Chess-board, or scene of action—the relation of the several pieces and their situations...
3rd, Caution, not to make our moves too hastily...
two cents from toronto island
j
Are you saying he's deaf, dumb & blind? That's harsh.
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
Much of his 23 year long life. Still couldn't have been very long. I've spent more time taking a crap than he's been alive.
I guess being good at chess isn't an indication of anything when it comes to real life. For all its relevance, they may as well have played tiddlywinks. I appreciate chess myself, but I have to laugh when people crow about how good they are. You beat Bill Gates. Great. Go build an empire now.
Gates played in a 'think only of one move' mode, he has no strategy and doesn't even try to look at the board from POV of his opponent, so this was childs game.
Well, nobody really can strategize in the first few moves - that's why all the serious players memorize books full of opening positions. Any intuition they do have usually just is the result of having studied. There are some strategies that can be employed like steering towards more open/closed play and such, but again it all goes back to the book. Everything is empirical.
Disclaimer - I'm not all that seriously into chess, so I'm certainly open to enlightenment by somebody who is.
My takeaway is that if you're playing one of these grandmasters in a show game, go for an early exchange of queens. He'll probably pull it back, but you can make him dance around.
I don't thk so. A GM can happily play without a queen, meanwhile you've lost your best piece.
I'm not being snarky here, I've played against GMs and had my ass handed to me each and every time. So I speak with authority :)
There's no disputing that Bill Gates is blessed with a brilliant mind.
Sure there is.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
A young chess grandmaster, who has being practicing chess every single day for 10 years, quickly defeats Bill Gates, who is now an old man with little chess experience.
I wonder why this is a news.
I've been looking for someone to finally make this point.
Let's also consider that the attack Magnus used on Bill was a class speed chess method. He sacrificed his front row, took a small gamble that Bill would play regular chess and be protective of his front row. As a result, Magnus came out fast and hard with his knights and queen. I have seen this precise game played (move for move) many time growing up by the old jewish men in the park in Brooklyn. In fact, I'm almost sure I played it against other people several times.
Speed chess is rarely about skill or beauty. It's about patterns. The difference between speed chess and an opening moves book is that the speed chess games build a start to finish tree of possibilities in 10 moves or less.
Want to talk about impressive? Bill was smart enough (just before moving his bishop in a "protective" measure) to recognize that he'd lost already. Watch the video and you'll see. My wife was laughing because I was telling her the game and how it would be played from the second Bill too Magnus's pawn.