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A comment on Magnus Carlsen – “I am chaotic and lazy” (2010). Parent comment

Re:Magnus Carlsen – “I am chaotic and lazy” (2010) by boomlinde on Thursday December 11, 2014 @04:22AM (#8733912)
If by "playing perfectly" you mean making the right moves, not really. If the goal of chess is to win, the perfect player can't lose. If a person plays perfectly and loses, what does that make the winning player?

The point here is obviously that Magic has an element of chance that chess lacks.

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Re:Magnus Carlsen – “I am chaotic and lazy” (2010) by muyuu on Thursday December 11, 2014 @06:12AM (#8734177)
In real terms it does happen, since branching factor makes true perfection impossible in chess.

You can play theoretically superior chess and calculate more positions than your opponent and still lose the game, although it's very unlikely. Both player have a horizon and sometimes they can bump in a position of clear superiority for one side that none predicted.

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Re:Magnus Carlsen – “I am chaotic and lazy” (2010) by kissickas on Thursday December 11, 2014 @10:03AM (#8735057)
I'm not sure I understand. Wouldn't this mean there is a sequence of moves I can memorize that will result in a winning game, every time?

If such a game could be foiled by the other player making a "bad" move, then it would by definition not be a bad move.

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Re:Magnus Carlsen – “I am chaotic and lazy” (2010) by Traubert on Thursday December 11, 2014 @05:50AM (#8734123)
Maybe the winning player is white and chess is a win by force for white. Or the same could even be true about black! (Probably not.)
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Re:Magnus Carlsen – “I am chaotic and lazy” (2010) by boomlinde on Thursday December 11, 2014 @08:57AM (#8734685)
That is a good point. White has an advantage at least statistically, and in a match I think that your color is decided by chance.
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Re:Magnus Carlsen – “I am chaotic and lazy” (2010) by lmm on Thursday December 11, 2014 @09:30AM (#8734861)
At grandmaster level a match will consist of a large number of games, sometimes an even number, with the players alternating between white and black.
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