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Comment by tentboy | Hacker News Reader

Magnus Carlsen has been streaming for a little while!

sometimes doing silly things then absolutely wiping the floor of his opponent like in this clip

https://m.livestreamfails.com/post/36320

I remember a match where Magnus seemed to be behind, and then suddenly with 20 seconds on the clock he was like "oh, I'm running out of time" and checkmated the other guy in the next 10 moves.

It was crazy watching that. Carlsen's play is out of this world.

Watching GMs play bullet can be fun, and Carlsen is crazy good, but in that clip Carlen's opponent simply blundered his queen in one. Based on how quickly the rook move was, it might have been a premove. Either way, the other guy just wasn't thinking.

Exploiting premoves in online chess is a common "dirty" way to win, such as when FM Lefong Hua plays Bh6 after his opponent plays g6.[1][2] Even Carlsen has been tricked by this, such as when GM Andrew Tang got him with it in a Lichess tournament.[3]

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTPLX8h-KBY&t=8m25s

2. https://clips.twitch.tv/TemperedDeafTortoiseTriHard

3. https://clips.twitch.tv/TacitRelatedBeeHotPokket

It's not dirty, it's part of the metagame in ultrabullet to do stuff that breaks the other player's premove. It's kinda cool, actually.

That's why I put dirty in quotes. I think it's hilarious.

Magnus Carlsen is obviously insanely good, that goes without saying. But he tends not to explain what he’s doing in the same way other streamers do. I find it more fun to watch when there is commentary on the reasons behind the moves being made.

I think it depends on when he's streaming and which platform he's on. I've found that many of his BanterBlitz sessions on YouTube are super interesting and accessible.

I think it also depends a lot on your level of chess and what you're looking for. I think the chess24 team (Gustafson, Svidler, sometimes Magnus) is maybe less accessible but more interesting for higher rated players.

Yes. I often find the Gustavson/Svidler combo too high-level to follow (especially when Grischuk shows up), but Magnus solo is often better, especially when it's already recorded so I can pause.

That's funny that he can casually do that against a grandmaster. Still far ahead of the field.

Well, at 13 years old, Carlsen (#700) was already giving Kasparov (#1) a run for his money while looking kind of bored and casually checking out the other matches around them [0] so I'm fairly sure a GM rank on a website isn't really something he worries about that much now that he's spent 120 months as world's #1 and holds the record for highest rated player in chess history.

Kasparov still holds the title for most time spent at #1 at some impressive 255 months though. [1]

[0] https://youtu.be/WjEmquJhSas

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_FIDE_chess_world_numbe...

He was also drinking a lot in this stream. He would routinely break out "The Transvestite Opening"* for fun. And still mauled gms.

* https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-openings/the-transves...

This is the point, I think. That's great content.

It's a grandmaster vs world champion match. It's silly and fun. "Feats of chess" like simultaneous or blindfolded matches have always been popular. All that packed into a 2 minute bullet game.

Tbh he won there because the other guy missed a silly threat. He got lucky.

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