Magnus Carlsen blindfold simul in Vienna

World Champion Magnus Carlsen played 5 opponents simultaneously with only 12 minutes on the clock!
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[@BagaJr]

He only lost on boards 2 and 3 because of the terrible time rules. His timer should only go after his opponent's move is announced. They also straight up didn't move his piece for quite a while and he had to repeat it, which happened at least twice.

[@TDMFAN]

Pretty much, he shouldn't lose time due to the assistants. They should announce the board number and the move then he responds. I think they did do that later on, while also reducing his overall time, because it makes so much more sense.

[@-_Nuke_-]

23:19 That's why Magnus is the best. He's top class, the announcers made him lose on time by not announcing the moves and not moving his pieces... Someone else in his place would have been furious, I mean how dumb can an announcer possibly be to mess up on such a simple task? But the guy is calm and friendly. I salute Magnus for he's a good sport. Really top class and excellent on everything that he is doing. Go Magnus.

[@hugokloeppel3596]

Yes

[@twoking10]

I agree, this was not well organized. a couple of changes would be in order. Keep it in a circle, the way a simul should be played, not opponents move whenever. When the person doing the simul comes to your table, that's when that player moves. Then the player doing the simul moves, then wait until he comes back to your board before moving again.

[@demianschultz3749]

Yes, what a lack of organization!

[@Felix-rc4wv]

Announcers speaking at the same time and interrupting Magnus as he's speaking....can't they do a better job?

[@BlackRose3610]

It's funny that he can play five games of chess blindfolded and the idiot commentators can't figure out how to A) not breathe into the mic B) keep up with two chess games C) not talk over carlson

[@mauriciolandos4712]

most of us wouldnt be able to keep up with 2 chess games

[@solfeinberg437]

Yeah, that breathing - I was waiting for Magnus to ask him to hold the mike further away when he wasn't talking.

[@sebu1301]

I have to admit that I can't keep up with all the boards without pausing the video. To play that fast while blindfolded is really something different

[@TheSLK66]

17:05 Carlsen: Kf8!? When did the rook move... Shit, shit shit... Awesome jajajaja XD

[@Unknown-hr3xb]

lol

[@steelyspielbergo]

Lots of players have done blindfold simuls, but not timed and taking moves in random order

[@schoenbaard]

+tim nic Entertainment is the only purpose of chess.

[@ertzor]

+schoenbaard there is also serious competition, titles, prestige, money, fame etc. at high level chess. In this case the only purpose was entertainment, and to do something that hadn't been done before.

[@JackassJimbo]

+tim nic Not true, If he didnt play for prestige or for titles he would never have become this good. Have you ever seen his reactions to his own bad moves, blunders or lost games? if he was simply playing to entertain he wouldn't care about losing. Obviously he's in it to be the best, suggesting otherwise is just plain silly.

[@schoenbaard]

+Jimbo Holo That somebody tries to be the best at something doesn't change the essential characteristics of the activity. Chess is a game, and you play for entertainment. The few that devote their life to be the best at it earn their money by entertaining others, just like professional football players are working in the entertainment industry. Naturally, like any other game or sport, the element of competition is a crucial aspect for the quality of entertainment. For me, Magnus Carlsen is endlessly entertaining. Sometimes inspirational through his determination when competing evenly matched opponents, sometimes awe-inspiring by his blindfolded prowess. This all doesn't change the fact though that chess is merely a game. A beautiful game.

[@JackassJimbo]

schoenbaard So you you honestly believe that he plays chess because the rest of us find it entertaining? If we stopepd watching do you think he would stop playing because noone would be entertained if noone was watching? Of course not. Yes chess is a game to you and me, but to these top players chess isnt a gme, it's their life! anyone who has devotes themselves wholeheartedly to anything like these guys have to chess will want to be the best at the game/sport/whatever they love. They dont play simply to play, they play to be best. So of course they want the titles and the prestige.

[@9MRSG]

if you miss a move as a helper, Magnus should get additional time.

[@DrakePitts]

There is no reason not to have a dedicated piece-mover at each board. Magnus lost a good 50 seconds from 11:54 to 12:46 because of the distracted piece-mover.

[@sebu1301]

This is really poorly organized for being such an extraordinary feat. Carlsen deserves much more respect

[@schoenbaard]

For a better time management they should move in order of the boards, pause the time when the opponent moved, and start the time of Magnus only when the host announced the board number and the move. When Magnus says his move, start the time of the opponent again and go to the next board.

[@stefanholbek2449]

+schoenbaard Simple and logic! But as Mr. Carlsen mentioned: "We all learn here!" I dare say ... I am speechless! BLINDFOLDED SIMULTANEOUS ... Rapid time ... audience ... plus: The moves just coming at him randomly ... Oh dear! ;O)

[@poryg5350]

He said that he can handle jumping like that himself, so why?

[@joseguedes1421]

+schoenbaard Or better yet, instead of being blindfolded he could just look at five screens that always showed the last moves made by his opponents and have access to keyboards where he could type his moves. It would essentially be the same as being blindfolded in the sense that he would still have to keep track of all the positions, it would just remove any problems with the commentators and would still have the added difficulty of time not stopping between each of his opponents actions

[@ujsujsson3630]

+schoenbaard But then if Magnus runs low on time on board 2, he can just think about that position while on a different board's clock.

[@caocao3578]

+schoenbaard хорош

[@bailinnumberguy]

He played a different opening on each board. Very cool.

[@TheToshark]

+Randy Bailin and helpful aswell. Played once a bildfold against 2 friends and made the mistake of trying to achieve the same opening on both boards. it gets alot more difficult to memorize 2 seperate boards if they are to similar. alot easier if the characteristics are totally different. for example if you play the ruy lopez on both boards and then one is playing their bishop to c5 and the other to e7 its difficult to track on which board they played which move. Alot easier when you have a scotch on one board and a queens gambit declined on the other or something like this.

[@kevinspies4559]

+Toshark ahh seems legit

[@ieorlich]

All i can say about this annoucers and the way they did this event is: 17:10

[@bailinnumberguy]

I'll never understand how he does it, but he must have mental photographs that he can constantly update to reflect the current position on every board.

[@damianocarraroli254]

yeah yeah sure ,champion

[@elpoulpo5563]

Most of the time the player remembers the moves played to recreate the board from the opening if needed

[@2FadeMusic]

@@rainbowcatvideos obviously he's visualizing the board

[@ninjamaster224]

he fking starts each board with a different opener

[@mercylessplayer]

I think that actually makes it easier so all of the games are different so you can tell them apart

[@loluoresegun5844]

Please... it's openING.

[@fedess3647]

That's what i thought, i would play all 5 games completely differently just to be able to remember them a bit better

[@headchip26]

love that he just layed into them all so bluntly at the end lol

[@pavliv]

amazing how Magnus can keep al the stuff in his head while those guys cant remember a single move he made "board 4 what what repeat please" haha

[@DKomnicide]

This might be one of the most incredible feats anyone has ever accomplished

[@claudiov5554]

Alekhine played against 32 oponents blindfolded and only lost 2 games and the record is against 48 players blindfolded made for a russian chessplayer in 2016

[@TheSlanchorMan]

when these are done, there needs to be more preparation with how the moves are done, he lost on time on one of the boards because Jan didn't move a piece

[@Truwarier14]

+tim nic He's played against like 10 players blindfolded before and won all of them. The guys making the moves just fucked him over

[@TheSlanchorMan]

i understand that, but it should still have some sort of organisation behind it.

[@danlewis5381]

+tim nic actually one GM played blindfold simul on 48 boards and won 35, but this was without a clock

[@ashliski]

It's pretty handy because gms can play chess together without needing a board. They can just talk to each other

[@sebu1301]

You don't have to be a gm to do that, but a cool thing nonetheless

[@BB-dv8nu]

Magnus time sholud start when he is told the move

[@Liebas98]

omg that mic breathing from one of em...

[@jameswilson755]

They should just put Magnus in a room with 5 clocks. When his opponents press their timer it will light up that clock and it will start to count down. At which point Magnus can ask what move was played. This prevents a lot of confusion seen in this experiment. Plus Magnus could properly manage his time between opponents.

[@daydreamer7756]

I cant even remember where i put my phone with my eyes open

[@takappar]

He approves his Champion and Chess Prodigy title! No words. Just WOW! Cheers! More simuls from Magnus!

[@jordandavies1255]

I have never played Chess before so I have no idea what is going on, but I know this is absolutely insane! Utter genius

[@geraltdirivia8278]

I play chess every day, I am not a pro but I understand what is happening on each board and I can tell you: this is really crazy, and the stromger you are the crazier it gets

[@erangigunasena1127]

​​@@geraltdirivia8278Absolutely the fact that I understand magnus's moves while me being a 2000 lvl elo makes it even crazier to think how he can pull out those Op moves while being blindfolded and playing multiple games at the same time.Magnus truly is Genious

[@erangigunasena1127]

​@@geraltdirivia8278true

[@CarlDidur]

He turns his head to focus on each imagined board quite consistently. I find this interesting!

[@sebu1301]

Of course the boards need to be in order. Can't have the boards on top of each other for example, it would be difficult to tell them apart

[@CarlDidur]

I imagined the process more like calling each board up from RAM one at a time as opposed to a mental table with all games on it. I still find it interesting! @@sebu1301

[@jsap399]

My mind can't accept the fact that he remembers the 5 boards and still wins the majority of the games, I mean I can't even remember what my last move was

[@MohMoh-mw9ml]

world record is 48 games actually by GM Timur 2016 .. breaks a former record 46 games 2011 that broke GM Najdrof record 45 games 1947 , so...

[@winstonsmiththethird7627]

@@MohMoh-mw9ml blindfolded?

[@MohMoh-mw9ml]

@@winstonsmiththethird7627 yes, google it

[@manuelp7472]

@@MohMoh-mw9ml But not with clocks running on all of them and in no order. You can't just compare one number

[@sebu1301]

@@manuelp7472 48 is still a lot of boards

[@SpiderWaffle]

They could have one dedicated move caller that views every board via display, say a projection behind and just above and the other players that audience can see too, while the caller is maybe off to the side such that he can face Magnus and view the projection. Then you could have 1 piece mover dedicated for each board that shouldn't need to talk much if ever.

[@ritalate]

+SpiderWaffle problem solved.

[@Tremaine26]

Also Magnus' time shouldn't start when opponent plays move but only once move if called out.

[@lilleshy2644]

Magnus low-key roasting them all lol

[@RohanDalvi90]

"We are all trying to learn" hats off to that spirit!!

[@andrewboyd3373]

What they need is for the person who's running the board for him is to have the clock stop for both white and black until that person can call out the move and as he's calling out the move he then hits the button to start the clock for Magnus. There should be one person doing that for each board and to be courteous to the other people calling out board moves to avoid confusion or one person dong that who knows what he's doing. You can't have all of them blurting out moves at the same time and expect to Magnus to hear those moves and for the game piece movers to hear Magnus call out his moves. Magnus did great to even keep his head straight on all of that. I'm not even a good "900" player using both eyes on one board. I love to watch chess and events like this because it is so impressive to me. Amazing!!!

[@Mathview]

This is Astounding! TY Chess24 for posting.

[@enigma9306]

Who the fuck disliked this?

[@benjohnk622]

People who can play 20 boards blindfold simaltaneously..!

[@BreatheManually]

ENiGMA The person tried to like the video blindfolded

[@oleksandrafanasiev2279]

I agree, however it was mainly the guy on the right, who ruined it. on 8:50 he forgets the move Carlesen played on board four and then forgets to press time button until reminded by player on board five. Embarassed he starts breathing heavily in the mic, which is annoying to listen to

[@animefreak2438]

There should be a new level higher than GM. Called "Magnus"

[@PCsuck92]

23:40 He tried to use the headphones as glasses?

[@donmryga7551]

XDDDDDD

[@thegorn]

The guy is a freaking genius

[@strangevideos3048]

carlsen have oculus rift behind that rag....

[@brabhamfreaman166]

Truly astonishing esp with all 5 in middle game. Funny moments like "I played b4 AGES ago."

[@summergiorgi5456]

carlsen shouldnt have lost on time on one of the boars he said pawn to e5 and the guy didnt make the move for him and then let his time run down to 1 minute and the told him ibplay pawn e5 long ago

[@RobinTeuwens]

Seems like a total waste of opportunity to win on time against a blindfolded world champion. Get the real experience and play out a full game!

[@yggdrasil9039]

Moves should be announced one at a time so Magnus doesn't have to keep asking for the moves. Magnus asked for them as they come, but not before he'd replied to the last one. They should have established this rule beforehand.

[@dyanabuda8112]

This dude ... ☆

[@danielwacek]

It will be much better if magnus can look on screen when it will be displayed only time and code of last oponent move like d5.

[@TDMFAN]

Jan must have been nervous as hell, probably why he unfortunately missed quite a few moves. It almost seemed like a few games were sitting there for at least 10 seconds at a time before he was made aware of the move.

[@Ben-cm9nc]

Exactly richard urbanec, at 2:25 Magnus says to tell him the moves as they come in!

[@ritalate]

Glad the commentator takes "most of the blame"... How about all of it buddy?

[@00bikeboy]

Holy crap, I had trouble keeping up with the games!!

[@fedes9626]

Miguel najdorf has the record with 45 boards, but this was blitz

[@Imperiumtw]

I think time should only start for Carlsen when they speak it loud to him..

[@Mr.Feckless]

My word.

[@maxmantycora5132]

Human brain is amazing.

[@Waldemord]

szok... power of mind

[@upgrader99]

This kid is amazing. Amazing isn't really the word for it though.

[@TheToshark]

+tim nic i wouldnt be so sure. jan is a really strong gm aswell. i think magnus would still be the favorite, but jan also has a chance in a normal game, so ofc he would have a chance in a bildfold. (he is nearly top 100 in the world)

[@upgrader99]

has jan ever played magnus? It would seem that among GM's that blitz games would be very commonplace - maybe not?

[@maycolsj]

You know what is very interesting and fun to do? Close your eyes and try to follow the games up as MC plays. I just could followed them for the first 3 mins.

[@isylium1110]

le 3eme board souffre à 16:00 et pourtant c'était le meilleur, il a hésité sur plein de positions magnus pour ce plateau :)

[@SpencerFcp]

What...the..actual..fuck....I don't even know how this is humanly possible. Even with a photographic memory.....this is impressive as hell.

[@palmarius104]

The challenge here was the time management, not the memory. For example Alexander Alekhine, the 3rd world champion, once played against 40 people simultaneously, blindfolded.

[@adityasejpal7340]

what is the level of the players i mean he didnot take the rook at 15.42

[@Landauh]

+Aaditya Sejpal They all seem to business men, probably millionaires who would have gave a lot of money to play Magnus. It would not be fair if any of them were titled considering Magnus was blindfolded and against clock.

[@thelittlehelper12]

+Aaditya Sejpal isn't it obvious? If he took the rook magnus would have move his bishop to attack the other rook, it would be not only a rook exchange but carlsen would be nearing the checkmate to that person. This people are good players. You're the ones who aren't.

[@ImaginaryHuman072889]

if Bxa1 then magnus would play Nc3, completely blocking the bishop from getting back in the game. if black then captures the knight with his bishop, magnus would recapture with his queen and afterwards magnus could play Bb2 and then Qh8#. there are ways that black could stop this but it would not be good news for black to have white's queen AND bishop aiming directly at the white king with no black bishop on g7 to defend

[@user-yj1on3bf1v]

ImaginaryHuman072889, idiot, in this position white must lose. Black can easily repel this attack and at the same time they will have two rooks. The reason is that Magnus must win. Because it's a business project, that's all.

[@MrAreas2]

ImaginaryHuman072889 Nah, f7 stops this easily and Magnus is down a whole Rook.

[@lenigaussgauss2428]

this man is not a human

[@mitsukiuchiha1109]

5 different opening its so hard!

[@solfeinberg437]

New rule - just say the move of one board at a time - Magnus can't simultaneously picture two or three boards at the same time - to consider moves. Somehow he can remember them - but they should take turns saying moves - Magnus and one board at a time.

[@iblue9686]

these people needs to stop calling out and go in order holy

[@stevesullivan1202]

WOW!!!! l just love this guy

[@user-tw8kn3fl7r]

Why u couldn’t show us the big boards and to switch them before move

[@VinnyG_Music]

What would Magnus' rating be if he was only as good in a normal game as he is in this video? (Apart from the fact that the commentators floundered abit) Say 2350? Something like that?

[@solfeinberg437]

I think switching boards is confusing - they should let him reply on a particular board before announcing other moves.

[@lewsalonowy]

Cut the long story short Pride of Norway.

[@isylium1110]

quel talent

[@deejy232]

Jeez the announcers were messing this up

[@SaLkokriger]

damn, i wasnt able to follow 2 boards simoteniously he played 5 of them blindfolded :O

[@teoman5249]

how is that even possible

[@theminesweeper1]

How much time each board?

[@walterremigio3150]

Carlsen should have 1 assistant per table, to avoid losing on time.

[@kristianronold6210]

Amazing how Jan and Espen mess up Magnus´moves! Should be a simple task dont you think?

[@icemanzeke]

I know right! I noticed that during some of the moves he played, the announcers either delayed his moves or made wrong moves. i don't understand how they didn't hear what he was saying. he should have won all five games.

[@almazonly]

from which planet is this guy?! unbelievable....

[@JimmyVermeer]

yeah, that loss on time on board 2 was total B.S. because he made a move and the assistant waited like 2 minutes before playing the move Magnus said. He shouldn't have been penalized for their mistake.

[@Nova-Rift]

what happened to games 2 and 3?

[@Not-LonelyPerson]

he aim for fast mate...woow😳

[@mr.invisible3770]

It's impressive enough to not be timed.

[@greatestturk3047]

Why the hell would anyone dislike this video?! I cannot understand...

[@Allrounder00975]

Disliking your comment

[@do9026]

Also, I find it kind of unfair how some of the opponents play. You can clearly see that the opponent on board 2 (Kimmo) is aware at minute 12:00, that Magnus made a move but the piece-mover did not move it. Yet, he didn't say anything or made him aware of it. No wonder Magnus lost due to time on some boards. He almost lost one whole minute!

[@imranhq13]

superhuman stuff!

[@EduardoGarcia-eh2rn]

Unbelievable

[@maheshmahadar3525]

Even i. Cant concentrate on 5 board to watch only ...and he is playing .... chess machin magnus

[@brabhamfreaman166]

Quick, he's blindfolded: add 5 extra boards!

[@jortmanshanden6722]

it shouldve all been in order the whole time I think, that way you also don't speak over Carlsen the whole time.

[@reaganabroad4952]

I would hate to have a game against Magnus ruined by a flawed format. If it was me, I would have given him time just to keep the games going. With the time issues, I feel like both players lost.

[@hazezw9804]

My head hurts

[@kimmyurii]

lol Magnus is savage

[@liloheinrich8659]

The clock should only restart once Magnus has been told the move, and his moves should make the move within 5 seconds of him saying it. Otherwise why is there a clock?

[@derda3209]

C8 M8 best ending ever

[@cr0mag732]

Wtf on board 2. He clearly said e5

[@joew8435]

very nice mag

[@jackrabbit1704]

Why not give him a screen that only shows his ports? Ruin the whole blind fold getup?

[@tmpqtyutmpqty4733]

Board2 h5 Carlsen: Board2 d4 after 10 minutes: Sorry I didn't hear you and you are out of time. Good game.

[@AlphabetCookie]

Go Norway!

[@davitjanashia9344]

16:11 board 3 why black played H6?! Could take a rook on A1

[@Gregoryt700]

The announcers really need to work on seamlessly announcing moves. Their job is not that hard, and there seems to be unnecessary quasi-confusion now and then. Breaks Magnus' rhythm

[@naldebol]

These gentlemen should learn that you should never ever interrupt the blindfolded player as he is speaking his moves out. Let the player finish talking and only then present him the moves. Second, the gentlemen should not be talking one over the other. So, if one of the presenters is speaking out the moves for one board the other presenter should remain silent until that presenter is done reciting. A lot of time was wasted by managing or correcting the communications between each.

[@Jason-np4rl]

It doesn't take away from how impressive Magnus is, but I don't know why Jan says this has never been done before. In 1858 Morphy played a blindfold simul against the top 8 players in Paris, 6 wins 2 draws. In 1924 Alekhine played blindfolded against 26 players, with 16 wins, 5 losses, 5 draws. I don't know what the time limits (if any) were in the cases I mentioned, but I don't think the time restriction is really increasing the difficulty for Magnus here. He's playing pretty much instantly, as I'm guessing Morphy and Alekhine probably did too.

[@tgwnn]

How hard would it be to add a 5-second increment? Also, probably it would be better to have 1-2 announcers but 5 full handlers so as not to forget some moves.

[@poryg5350]

Why do you all complain about the cross move announcement? Well, have to say that the only real problem is that the moves get yelled out and it makes it messy, but he himself said that he can handle that. Just look at that again from the beginning. The games go systematically till he says he can handle this sort of move announcement.

[@robyspeed22]

superb!!

[@alsansoni5321]

Announcers/board handlers were horrible in every aspect, they should have more clue how to handle such an event. Magnus was great.