Thursday, February 6, 2014

Pestaño: Carlsen beats Bill Gates in nine moves

Chessmoso
Thursday, February 6, 2014

NEWLY-CROWNED world chess champion Magnus Carlsen took just nine moves to checkmate Bill Gates in a blitz game played the other week.
In the popular television chat show hosted by Fredrik Skavlan in Stockholm, Carlsen challenged fellow guest Microsoft founder Gates to a chess game. Showing he was a good sport, Gates agreed to the challenge, even though he admitted there was a “predetermined outcome.”
The second-richest man in the world (net worth $78 B), 58, had two minutes to make his moves against 30 seconds for Carlsen.
In just over a minute, the billionaire was quickly beaten, as Carlsen took less than a second to make several moves. “Wow, that was fast,” Gates said.
However, a look at the sequence of moves showed that Gates was not easily beaten. The real reason Gates lost to Carlsen so quickly was because “he fell for a “trick” 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 fact, according to an analysis later in chess.com, Gates was “winning” just one move before he resigned.
In other words, Gates lost because he took the bait. If Gates had not done so, “then Magnus would be in trouble,” said Grandmaster Antony Kovalyov.
According to some websites describing the match, Gates has a rating of 1200, which is wrong .I know for a fact that Bill is a good player and I estimate his rating to be between1600 and 1800. Carlsen’s rating is 2872.
Carlsen later said that he violated one of his own principles, and used a “cheap” trick. “He was a bit unlucky and eventually fell to my tactics, but he otherwise made good, healthy moves. I think with a little more time, he could certainly be a pretty good player.”
Carlsen has also played Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook and also a billionaire, and was impressed. “I think Gates is a better player, but Zuckerberg had a lot of talent for it.”
Tournaments. Our guest journalist KC Morala sent in this report.
“USC warriors Felix Shaun Balbona and I and University of Cebu’s Jhoronnie Bontes reigned over fellow Cebuano chess players in the PNG Qualifying Chess Tournament held in Abellana last Feb. 1-2.
Balbona sealed the victory against Romulo Pialan in the last round, carting away the title in the Open Category with 6.5 points.
His draw against Mark Cimafranca in the sixth round was the only speck on his record , which included a win against NM Merben Roque, who took second place with 6 points.
Carlos Moreno III settled for 3rd place.
In the 5-round Ladies Category, I scored three straight wins before losing to Queenie Cablao in the fourth round, Cablao finished second, while Marvie Abucay, also from UC, took solo third place.
The top 3 winners of both the Open and Ladies categories will qualify for the Philippine National Games.”
The 2nd VMA- Power Open - Valentines Edition will start tomorrow at Colonnade Mall.
The format is nine rounds Swiss with time control of 25 minutes plus 5- second increment. The champion will receive P6,000, while the second and third placers will get P4,000 and P3,000. The fourth and fifth placers will get P2,000 and P1,000 respectively, while the rest of the top 10 will get P500 each. Those who make the top 20 will get P400 and those who make the top 30 will get P300.
The top performer for the Cepcan, Junior, Kiddies and ladies divisions will get P500
each.
Registration Fee is P200 and players may sign up starting at 9:30 a.m. at the venue. For inquiries: text Marvin Ruelan 0926-735-2951
This tournament is sponsored by Engr. Marvyne “Suntzu” Guardiana of MVA- Power Group of Companies in coordination with Cepca. Marvyne is the current vice-president external of Cepca.
(boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com)

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