Bill Gates claims to be good at Go - who knows his rank?

[lemon]

I have tried to reconstruct the chess game from the video:

1.e4 Nc6 2.Nf3 d5 3.Bd3 Nf6 4.exd5 Qxd5 5.Nc3 Qh5 6.O-O Bg4 7.h3 Ne5 8.hxg4 Nfxg4 9.Nxe5 Qh2#

BTW, he played horribly - probably (hopefully) far below his potential.

Well, 3 Bd3 looks weird but it is at least not a direct blunder. In fact, we have a direct blunder in this game by Magnus Carlsen, namely his 7. move Ne5. After 8. hxg4 Nfxg4 9. Re1 there is no immediate danger for white, and black is simply a piece down. After the game, Magnus confirms exactly that and explains that his move 7 was meant as a kind of trick move.

I can't tell if you're seriously saying Carlsen didn't see he was losing a piece. Obviously he played trick moves because he was handicapped very severely (30 seconds with no increment on his clock). And Bd3 is a blunder, albeit not a tactical one. It's terrible positional move that beginners frequently make - blocks your central pawn, misplaces his bishop, makes further development harder by hemming in his queen and dark square bishop.

IMHO such thing wouldn't happen, if a Go professional played against an amateur in a public video.

Seriously ? You honestly believe that go professionals would never make a trick move in a friendly fun game under a huuuuuuge handicap?

[schawipp]

...because he was handicapped very severely (30 seconds with no increment on his clock).

That was the detail, which I overlooked. Well - under these circumstances - forget my previous post

[SmoothOper]

For what it's worth: In the Kido Yearbook that reported on my five-dan rank (gained by winning six out of six games in a grading tournament against other prospective five-dans in the Nihon Kiin, and a very pretty piece of paper it is too...), there's a report of an honorary five-dan diploma given to a certain ウィリアム・ヘンリ・ゲイツ (William Henry Gates). To add insult to injury, they spelled my name wrong.

Note that the Japanese astronaut who played through a famous game while in orbit was granted a one-dan diploma.

That could possibly explain the Nihon Kiin's funding of the Seattle go center, No?

[oren]

That could possibly explain the Nihon Kiin's funding of the Seattle go center, No?

No. That had nothing to do with it.

[Nyanjilla]

That could possibly explain the Nihon Kiin's funding of the Seattle go center, No?

No. That had nothing to do with it.

...and wouldn't the money be in the opposite direction, if so?

[Boidhre]

Gates is a complete beginner in chess (think 25-30K in go terms). No one who has any idea about the game would play white's third move no matter the opponent or how nervous they are. From my personal experience in both chess and go 1600 chess ELO would be roughly equivalent to high SDK ranks.

Yeah, ok, Bd3 was very strange, I'll admit having ignored the moves in the chess game for the most part (because it's years since I played it and it was blitz ) but he didn't say when he was a 1600 player though, so maybe that's it?

As an aside, by high sdk ranks do you mean 2k or 9k?

[skydyr]

As an aside, by high sdk ranks do you mean 2k or 9k?

I seem to recall a thread on this in which no one could quite agree. I try and avoid the nomenclature now, and use strong for maybe 1-3k.

[Drew]

Bill Gates is on Twitter. Perhaps someone could simply ask him what his Go rank is?

/me is not on Twitter.

[Abyssinica]

As an aside, by high sdk ranks do you mean 2k or 9k?

I seem to recall a thread on this in which no one could quite agree. I try and avoid the nomenclature now, and use strong for maybe 1-3k.

Strong and week seem better for describing ranks.


£5 on Gates being 17k.

[SmoothOper]

That could possibly explain the Nihon Kiin's funding of the Seattle go center, No?

No. That had nothing to do with it.

...and wouldn't the money be in the opposite direction, if so?

Well, if you had a wealthy donor, wouldn't it be nice to maintain some visibility in his community?

[skydyr]

Bill Gates is on Twitter. Perhaps someone could simply ask him what his Go rank is?

/me is not on Twitter.

I thought it was pretty clear that we has 5d :p