Comments on: A chess prodigy explains how his mind works
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- It wasn't 60 minutes.
Can Magnus beat the computer ? If he could beat 'The Times software' version, It'd be nice. - Reply to this comment
- Magnus Carlsen is a chess genius. I bet you he was raised on Norwegian wild salmon that has a high protein content. Oh well I might just have given away his trade secret of how he became so brilliant!
I envy him and tomorrow (Friday) I will be eating wild red salmon and corn on the cob just like Magnus!! - Reply to this comment
- Sure, the chess masters could all play blindfolded. I think the statement being made in this story is that for someone who doesn't know anything about chess, or are challenged by it (a lot of people in the world), it's pretty amazing to see a young man with his ability and who has been able to play chess this way since he was a young child. I thought it was a great piece.
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- Yes, it is laughable how this interviewer makes it appear that playing 10 people blindfolded is something far out of the ordinary for accomplished chess players. In fact, almost all grand masters can do it easily. My old friend George Koltanowski, now deceased, played 56 blindfold games at 10 seconds per move in 1960 at the age of 57. He won 50 and drew 6, which I believe is still the simultaneous blindfold record. Sure, to the average person it seems remarkable be able to play even one blindfold game. But a little research might have let the interviewer know that he what he was witnessing was not some never-before-seen miracle of genius. This is not to take anything away from Magnus Carlson. He is indeed a chess genius with remarkable playing ability. Whether he is the equal of Bobby Fischer is difficult to say but certainly he would have been a strong opponent for Bobby in his prime.
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- They didn't mention if he won all 10 games.
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- People, people, it's just a GAME for cripes sake! Get a grip. Yeah, the guy has a great memory, but he's just a chess "savant" for lack of a better term. They didn't mention whether he is good at anything else. So what?
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- We are happy to see this chess-related story here. Chess is exciting and not for nerds--regardless of what some TV sitcoms would have you believe.
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- really like playing chess but far from being really good at it. it's the quiet, the contemplation, the focus of it that appeals to me and an occasional win is gravy. it's like zen.
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- Magnus Carlsen is definitely one of the best, if not the best, chess players in the world. But everything else that was said about Magnus Carlsen in this piece could be said of hundreds of other chess players. Is it difficult to play 10 people essentially blindfolded? Of course! But it has been done before by others. In fact, there is a tournament that is played every year in which half of the games are played "blindfolded" by both players. And the other players are just as successful at remembering where the pieces are and are just as capable of playing at their normal strength as Magnus is. It is totally normal, even for weak tournament players, to be able to analyze a chess position in their head without the aid of a board. I wish the media would stop trying to entertain people and get back to hard news. This 60 minutes piece is completely misleading.
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- Bobby Fischer, Samuel Reshevsky, Harry Pillsbury - all of these chess greats had incredible memories. Pillsbury once played 22 blindfold games simultaneously, and later the same year (1902) another 21 blindfold simultaneous games.
I once played against Samuel Reshevsky in a 50 person simultaneous match. He was not blindfolded, but he was 70 years old and he did not take more than a second or two at any board. If I remember correctly, he lost one game and won 49. Were it not for WW2, he would have been world champion.
Bobby Fischer would play five minute chess tournaments and would introduce theoretical novelties on the fly. - Reply to this comment
