Was Gates winning against Carlsen?

Bill Gates Was ‘Winning’ Against Chess Champ Magnus Carlsen–Before He Lost
Jan 27, 2014 9:56 am
Games

The simple way to describe the recent speed chess game between Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and 23-year-old World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen is to say that Carlsen checkmated Gates in a mere nine moves.

But that description, while technically correct, fails to capture or convey the fact that Carlsen did not beat the billionaire software developer by a stunningly short sequence of forced maneuvers.

In fact, according to an analysis by the chess gurus at chess.com, Gates was “winning” just one move before he met his demise. The obvious problem was that Gates didn’t know he was winning.

The real reason Gates lost to Carlsen so quickly is because he fell for a “trick” employed by the Norwegian grandmaster when Gates — on his ninth and last move — used his knight to capture a knight that Carlsen offered up as a freebie on a center square.

In other words, Gates lost because Gates took the bait.

If Gates had not done so, “then Magnus would be in trouble,” said Grandmaster Antony Kovalyov.

But Carlsen correctly banked on Gates not knowing that he was being set up.

The commentators at chess.com suggested that Gates should have moved his rook, thereby giving his king a flight square, instead of capturing the knight with his knight. Did it make sense for the world chess champion, who is also the highest rated player in the history of the game, to play in a way that’s technically not sound?

“I think he did the right thing,” Kovalyov said, explaining that Gates’ body language and the way he moved the pieces during the game — recorded on a European talk show called Skavlan — suggested that he was playing “insecure.”

Dan Lucas, Director of Publications at the United States Chess Federation and editor of Chess Life Magazine, also said that Carlsen — who agreed to play with only 30 seconds on the clock while Gates was time-odds of two minutes — correctly sized up Gates’ chess acumen, or lack thereof.

And what to make of the fact that Gates was technically “winning”?

“Yes, they are saying he is winning and may be technically correct with a Fritz evaluation,” Lucas said in reference to the popular computer program that players use to analyze various chess positions.

“They’re not taking into account the clock, time control, and beginner versus world champion,” Lucas explained, referring to the pressures of playing a speed game against a much stronger opponent. “This was a perfect time for Carlsen to play the opponent and not the board,” he said.

Source: http://blogs.wsj.com