Magnus Carlsen's Mind-Blowing Memory! World Chess Champion tested

chess24Cited 3× on HN, 2021–2022

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demo · general · evergreen · 2021–2022 on HN

Grandmaster David Howell tests Magnus Carlsen by showing him chess positions and asking which famous games they come from. Carlsen recognizes many almost instantly.

HN commenters cite it as an example of expert memory built on context, such as Carlsen identifying players, tournaments and moves from positions.

Chess, board games & puzzles Psychology & human behavior #magnuscarlsen #chess #memory #patternrecognition

3 comments from Hacker News

@ninethirty2022-12 · in “Ask HN: Is your memory as bad as mine?”

Not enough context. Do you only watch football once every four years? Probably you don't care enough and have enough context of strategic moments to create memories. The more you care + context, the better the memory will be, see LeBron + Magnus. { link , ▶ this video }

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@lysp2022-09 · in “Dear Chess World”

I saw a video a while ago. ▶ this video They put a number of mid-game positions on the board, and Magnus was able to guess the players, tournament, game number, who won, what the next few moves were. Who was playing on the table next to him. What their moves were.

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@matsemann2021-10 · in “How long does it take ordinary people to get good at chess?”

There are videos of Magnus Carlsen being shown various positions, and he can instantly tell which games they are from. Like their brain has an index on postions or something. Not only that, but also can tell how the game continues. One example ▶ this video

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