
Iranian teen shocks Magnus Carlsen to win $14k prize - radkapital
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/17/sport/alireza-firouzja-beat-magnus-carlsen-iran-chess-spt-intl/
======
searchableguy
:) I wonder how good a random person from HN will be at chess. Let's figure it
out - [https://lichess.org/0wzDnVfy](https://lichess.org/0wzDnVfy)

update: better than me. lol

Created a hn tournament (finished):
[https://lichess.org/tournament/rWPYf1fK](https://lichess.org/tournament/rWPYf1fK)

Created a second tournament:
[https://lichess.org/tournament/Wg6CHtmp](https://lichess.org/tournament/Wg6CHtmp)

~~~
1337shadow
Thanks for playing ! Can't believe I made it 2nd, first podium of a tournament
for me xD

Another haxor created a team we can all join to keep in touch:
[https://lichess.org/team/hacker-news](https://lichess.org/team/hacker-news)

GLHF ;)

~~~
ngold
This is great timing. I was thinking about playing some chess again after
reminiscing about 286 Battlechess. Thanks.

------
freeflight
This reminds me very much about a documentary I saw a while back about
competitive fighting games [0].

A Pakistani newcomer ended up taking everybody by surprise in a big Tekken 7
tournament trough his unconventional way of playing.

This was apparently the result of Pakistani arcade culture existing in its own
isolated underground niche, in which a completely independent meta for playing
the game evolved.

International top tier players even traveled to Pakistan to learn and train
that style of playing with local players to incorporate elements of it to
their own.

[0] [https://youtu.be/m-fZciAKvho](https://youtu.be/m-fZciAKvho)

~~~
pknerd
Wow thanks for sharing. Being a Pakistani I loved how he actually won the
games.

~~~
achow
Then you would much enjoy reading this (I did).

 _The secret Pakistan masters of Tekken: Pakistani players seemingly came out
of nowhere to dominate the classic fighting game this year._

[https://theoutline.com/post/8447/tekken-pakistan-lahore-
figh...](https://theoutline.com/post/8447/tekken-pakistan-lahore-fighting-
game-community?zd=1&zi=qmen5rf6)

------
amsully
For those interested, the POVs from each player are uploaded on youtube.

Magnus POV:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJtyQLkmRsU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJtyQLkmRsU)
Alireza POV:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb9RtOBuLm0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb9RtOBuLm0)

Best moment:
[https://youtu.be/rJtyQLkmRsU?t=3958](https://youtu.be/rJtyQLkmRsU?t=3958)

Of the many spectacular moments and reactions, the best was Magnus winning a
lost position and believing it won him the match (and implying Alireza has
much to learn before being able to beat him). Magnus was still a professional
when defeated, but emotions were running high at the point in the match.

~~~
amsully
Also, if you watch the game right after the Magnus victory, Magnus once again
declares 'This is just game' before Alireza masterfully turns an amateur
position into a victory over the world chess champion.

------
throwaway6575
Chess is one of the few fields where dominance can easily stretch into several
decades - if you're a young prodigy you may breach into top level in your
teenage years and last well until your 50s or 60s. Of course you won't be #1
this whole time (check out Lasker's longevity though) but you will always
remain a top contender.

~~~
ganeshkrishnan
I would like to differ on this. It's getting harder and harder to maintain
dominance. Kasparov was the one to hold the longest. Magnus, even though he is
one of the best ever, is already losing out to Alireza in bullet, blitz and
even almost in classical.

Chess theory has a new Renaissance due to neutral networks and we will see
newer GM's adapting to it.

~~~
vpa10
This is not how I see it. Carlsen lost _one_ insanely long online bullet match
on lichess.

He narrowly lost an online _banter_ blitz match. This is not blitz, since also
you have to talk while playing, which does not seem to suit Carlsen's
personality.

In classical, you can often "almost lose", except that Carlsen does not
"actually lose", as exemplified by his ongoing record non-loss streak.

~~~
jquery
People are reading a bit too much into this loss. It is a big deal that
someone was able to beat Magnus Carlsen at _any_ time control, especially in
this era where Magnus has seemingly reached a new level of chess skill, but
bullet is by far the the easiest for a champion to make a mistake or series of
them. Magnus is ridiculously strong at bullet but I’ve watched his live-
streams and sometimes he blunders really badly, that’s just part of bullet.
Although he is _incredibly_ strong at bullet, probably 50-100 points higher
than the world #2. Anyone not a high ranked GM wouldn’t stand a chance of
beating him in a series of more than 5 games. But I’ve seen him lose to
players he is obviously better than. He’s the #1 so they try their hardest.
Nothing comes easily for Magnus.

~~~
freyir
> _" probably 50-100 points higher than the world #2"_

He can't be 50-100 points higher than himself. Hikaru is #1.

[https://ratings.fide.com/top.phtml?list=men_blitz](https://ratings.fide.com/top.phtml?list=men_blitz)

~~~
Taek
That's blitz. Bullet is a faster time control

~~~
freyir
Oh, you're right. Google pulls up FIDE's blitz rankings when you search for
bullet chess rankings.

~~~
ganeshkrishnan
Bullet games are not officially rated

------
awal2
It's unfortunate that Alireza isn't mentioned by name in the headline and top
photo accompanying the article is of Magnus alone holding a trophy.

~~~
betterattrib
Better here:

[https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/apr/16/chess-
magnus-c...](https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/apr/16/chess-magnus-
carlsen-shocked-by-16-year-old-in-banter-blitz-cup-final)

------
achow
_Chess fans won 't have to wait long to see a rematch between the pair, as
they face off once again on April 20 in the $250,000 Magnus Carlsen
Invitational. The competition, hosted by Carlsen, will pit eight of the
world's best players against each other for the record prize._

Anyone knows if this can be watched Live?

~~~
sfusato
[https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tournaments/magnus-
carlsen...](https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tournaments/magnus-carlsen-
invitational-2020/2/1/1)

------
decasteve
I had been following Alireza's rise over the past year on Chess.com. It's not
entirely surprising. He often plays against Hikaru Nakamura, one of the best
blitz players in world, who streams many of the games on Twitch. The gap
between them had been closing and I think it's pretty much closed now.

~~~
lgl
Hope he matured since this whiny moment:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPysTEW0YZU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPysTEW0YZU)

~~~
__s
That didn't seem so bad. You can see with how much he was toppling pieces that
he was having trouble with nerves, which would make the situation all the more
frustrating. When players have an increment to play with rules should be
decisive on "loss on time is a loss, doesn't matter the position". But here we
have some edgecase which settles on some crazy sequence for black to ever win
(if white didn't have pawns, the game would've been declared a draw)

Basically have some empathy, losing is rough & in a tournament most players
are losing, for all we know he just needed to sleep on it & came around the
next day

~~~
jon_elbrook
>Basically have some empathy

Why doesn't the person im supposed to empathise with instead empathise with
his opponent and not throw a tantrum?

~~~
__s
That'd be ideal, but you only control yourself. Empathisizing with someone
doesn't mean you have to agree with them. It just means you don't need to call
them out on it months later on a random HN thread when they've come around
with a nice result. Maybe it'd be relevant if this article was about another
argument with event moderators

~~~
__s
Also, here's Carlsen having a mature response to it:
[https://youtu.be/2sWVmVhBKSw?t=157](https://youtu.be/2sWVmVhBKSw?t=157)

------
ajharrison
My favourite part is how the “Iranian teen” won the match but the first thing
you see in the article is a picture of Magnus.

CNN is trash.

------
keymone
Magnus wasn't shocked, he has very high opinion of Alireza's skills.

------
mcv
I'm not sure "shocks" is the right word. From what I understand, Carlsen
already considered him his most dangerous opponent. Or at least a future
rival.

------
dzonga
hopefully, one day geopoliticism will go away. so called sanctions etc affect
regular people. the teen can't even fly easily or represent iran due to
sanctions

------
yewenjie
Request: would anybody higher rated than me (my Lichess classical rating is
~1670) be kind enough to mentor me in Chess (for as less as 1 hour in a week)?

~~~
birksherty
Not the answer you wanted but there is an app called Magnus Trainer and some
others by the man himself.

[https://www.playmagnus.com](https://www.playmagnus.com)

------
redis_mlc
This appears to be some kind of speed chess, not chess.

~~~
Fezzik
Huh? Variants of lightning/blitz/fast chess have been around since the late
19th Century. They are very much games of chess. I’m not sure what the quibble
is? Is untimed chess, which is uncommon for competitive play, the only real
form of chess? Or is timed chess, which almost all competitive matches are, an
acceptable form of chess, so long as the duration allotted to each player is
__________?

[https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/fast.html](https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/fast.html)

~~~
keiferski
Blitz chess is not ‘standard’ chess. This is not a controversial fact.

~~~
keymone
There is no time format that is called “standard”, if anything, if somebody
told me about “standard chess” I would assume they are talking about standard
ruleset, in which case this article is definitely about standard chess.

I think you meant “classical chess”, which is a time format.

------
tmalsburg2
Why is Alireza Firouzja being referred to as "Iranian teen"? He's an
international top player. I doubt that Carlsen was referred to as "Norwegian
teen" when he was ranking in the top 25.

p.s: As always: responses > downvotes.

~~~
MattSteelblade
That was trivial to disprove

[https://i.imgur.com/tfL5u0i.png](https://i.imgur.com/tfL5u0i.png)

~~~
starik36
I think the OP's point may have been that Alireza had to flee Iran to play
international chess. He's been living in France for the last 7 years afaik.

~~~
DiogenesKynikos
Nakamura is described as an American player, but he lives in Napoli. Levon
Aronian is Armenian, but he lives in Berlin. Players often don't live in the
country they represent.

~~~
starik36
But Alireza does not represent Iran, period. The other players are playing for
their respective countries.

Btw, I think you are mistaken about Levon Aronian. See recent tragedy with his
wife. Occurred in Armenia. He might be living in Berlin part time as its
closer to all the action.

~~~
DiogenesKynikos
Aronian at least used to live mainly in Berlin, which is where his family now
lives, I think. I don't know where he spends more time now.

