M2M Day 335: Attempting to defeat world champion Magnus Carlsen at a game of chess
This post is part of Month to Master, a 12-month accelerated learning project. For October, my goal is to defeat world champion Magnus Carlsen at a game of chess.
Today, I begin the final month and challenge of my M2M project: Can I defeat world champion Magnus Carlsen at a game of chess?
How am I going to do this?
The most immediate question is “How will you actually be able to play Magnus Carlsen, #1-rated chess player in the world, at a game of chess?”
Well, Magnus and his team have released an app called Play Magnus, which features a chess computer that is meant to simulate Magnus as an opponent. In fact, Magnus and team have digitally reconstructed Magnus’s playing style at every age from Age 5 until Age 26 (Magnus’s current age) by using records of his past games.
I will use the Play Magnus app to train, with the goal of defeating Magnus at his current age of 26. Specifically, I hope to do this while playing with the white pieces (which means I get to move first).
My starting point
My dad taught me the rules of chess when I was a kid, and we probably played a game or two per year when I was growing up.
Three years ago, during my senior year at Brown, I first downloaded the Play Magnus app and occasionally played against the computer with limited success.
In the past year, I’ve played a handful of casual games with equally-amateurish friends.
In other words, I’ve played chess before, but I’m definitely not a competitive player, nor do I have any idea what my chess rating would be (chess players are given numeric ratings based on their performance against other players).
This morning, I played five games against the Play Magnus app, winning against Magnus Age 7, winning and losing against Magnus Age 7.5, and winning and losing against Magnus Age 8.
Then, tonight, I filmed a few more games, winning against Magnus 7, Magnus 7.5, and Magnus 8 in a row, and then losing to Magnus 9. (There’s no 8.5 level).
It seems that my current level is somewhere around Magnus Age 8 or Age 9, which is clearly quite far from Magnus 26.
As reference, Magnus became a grandmaster at Age 13.
An extra week
While every challenge of my M2M project has lasted for exactly a month, this challenge is going to be slightly different — although not by much. Rather than ending on October 31, I will be ending this challenge on November 9 (Updated to November 17).
I’d prefer to keep this challenge strictly contained within the month of October, but I think it’s going to be worth bending the format slightly.
Later in the month, I’ll explain why I’ve decided to adjust the format. For now, I can’t say much more.
If anything, I can use the extra training time, especially since this challenge is likely my most ambitious.
Anyway, tomorrow, I’ll start trying to figure out how I’m going to pull this off.
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