World Chess Championship 2013

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DNS
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Re: World Chess Championship 2013

Post by DNS »

Yesterday Magnus officially received his check (about $1.6 million USD) and his award trophy.

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Mkoll
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Re: World Chess Championship 2013

Post by Mkoll »

Modus.Ponens wrote:I found this truly amazing!

Agreed! Magnus is clearly a genius. 10 games at once without seeing the board... :jawdrop:

Poor Bobby Fischer. That is really sad.
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
chownah
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Re: World Chess Championship 2013

Post by chownah »

In the 60 Minutes video Magnus says he likes to see his opponent suffering and if he loses a game he likes to seek revenge. I can see why chess is popular with many people. Should we encourage our children to emulate him?....and cultivate a taste for delighting in others suffering and revenge? Just wondering.
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Re: World Chess Championship 2013

Post by DNS »

Magnus is not a Buddhist; we shouldn't expect him to act like one or to extend metta to his opponent. In [other] sports you find similar attitudes for how athletes or players in other games and sports feel about their opponents.

Just as in other activities, one could play chess without 'wanting to see the opponents suffer' but merely playing for a win and avoiding blunders and still have good sportsmanship regardless of the outcome.
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Re: World Chess Championship 2013

Post by chownah »

I, for one, do not expect him to act in any way other than the way he does act. I don't have expectations as to him behaving in any particular way. He has himself said that he enjoys his opponent's suffering and that he seeks revenge. I have no expectations other than that this is what he experiences when he plays chess sometimes. From this I can see how many people enjoy the game. My question still stands, do we want our children to learn to enjoy their opponent's suffering and to seek revenge? It's not like these attitudes are obscure and difficult to find in people....think about where and when in the world these attitudes are seen......it's scary.....

Revenge is sickness.....it is a major major problem in the world.....the examples are endless and are found in every region of the world and all throughout history. I think Magnus is probably a reasonably nice person but when he says he likes to get revenge then I say we should turn him off when the children are present and seriously ponder the reasons and meanings for his sickness when they are not.

Anything tending towards revenge as acceptable at any level is the spreading of perhaps the worst sickness of humanity.
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Re: World Chess Championship 2013

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Not to excuse thoughts or speech of revenge at all, but having played tournament chess as a kid I will give two cents. When they compare chess to "war" and "revenge", that's close to the truth. "All warfare is based on deception." -Sun Tzu. You make moves that trick your opponent into getting into a position where you can crush him. You move your pieces to deceive, to lie, to set traps, entice your opponent with baited hooks, to get your opponent to bite so you can catch him and destroy him. I wasn't that great a player but those people I could beat I usually beat via trickery or waiting until they made a mistake and then punishing them for it. Chess is merciless.

I personally agree with you about the abhorrence of revenge and here is my take on the reasons of revenge. Revenge is accepted in politics, e.g. 9/11. One could also argue that revenge is basically ingrained in the human psyche; see this wikipedia page about vendetta in modern times. So from both the higher, political end and the lower, inherent end there is a tendency towards revenge. Often, those extremely gifted and high performing individuals like Mr. Carlsen don't give themselves time to reflect on themselves because they are so deep into their work.

Of course, the Buddha addressed the reasons for something like this. I forgot the sutta and the exact wording, but the Buddha basically traces the chain of events leading to such reprehensible actions. I'm mangling it, but it went something like: desire leads to seeking, seeking leads to finding, finding leads to affection, affection leads to protecting, protecting leads to clinging, etc. If someone knows which sutta, I'd be glad to know it; it may have been in the Digha Nikaya.
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa
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Re: World Chess Championship 2013

Post by Samma »

Yea I basically agree with chownah. Chess is a game of conquest and conquered. Like any game really it can tend to breed enmity and misery. I guess its possible to play a game just for fun in a good hearted manner, but this seems pretty rare. In my experience playign some games at semi-competitive levels, and I have a hard time seeing the point anymore of taking an arbitrary game so seriously. When you get right down to it he is just engaged in constant mathematical problem solving.
Ddh 201: Conquest begets enmity; the conquered live in misery; the peaceful live happily having renounced conquest and defeat.
http://www.tipitaka.net/tipitaka/dhp/ve ... ?verse=201
Another question...what is the chance of Carelson going mad someday? Obviously he has an exceptional brain, and well, that often seems to come along with mal-adapations and other difficulties.
However, high IQ is not always beneficial. Terman’s study of the highest IQ group among his cohort revealed that more than one third grew up to be ‘maladjusted’ in some way: for example having significant problems of anxiety, depression, personality disorder or experience of ‘nervous breakdowns’.
http://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/20 ... gh-iq.html
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