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For being the headline, they sure hid his age pretty well. Not at the opening paragraph nor end of the article, nor photo captions near the top or bottom. cmd
by hbn 2y ago
For being the headline, they sure hid his age pretty well.
Not at the opening paragraph nor end of the article, nor photo captions near the top or bottom.
cmd+f "years" 0 results
cmd+f "age" 0 results
And scanning for numbers is useless since most of the article is chess moves written out.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- pmcl 2y ago[flagged]
- gnaman 2y agofor anyone wondering hes 18
- Jorge1o1 2y agothank you!
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- boringg 2y agoSeems like its not that big of an accomplishment relative to the way the headline makes it (obviously a big personal accomplishment). I figure 18 year old chess should have the mental abilities and maybe experience at that point to be able to rise to the top...
- nottorp 2y ago... but you can infer from the HN post title that it's unusual.
- boringg 2y agoAgreed. I think all the people who don't like my take i offer this. Blasting a headline like that typically implies like a 13-14 year old. This is impressive but its not some massive upset - 18 is a grown adult for all intents and purposes (brain still developing true…)
- roughly 2y agoAll intents and purposes not requiring the brain, then. Which one is chess? The only people who consider 18 year olds fully grown adults are 18 year olds.
- willy_k 2y agoNo one said very young. Youngest is a comparison, and having 6 years on the previous youngest is massively impressive.
- boringg 2y agoIs it though? You can play so many more games now with computational aid and speed up your learning rates. I'm impressed but this isn't the same as coming from another era -- this feels like technology pushing the learning rate for younger people.
- monooso 2y agoGukesh rarely plays online (he prefers OTB), and only began using computers for opening prep four years ago. Does that make his achievement suitably impressive for you?
- borski 2y agoHe’s only been playing chess for 11 years. That’s very impressive.
- robertlagrant 2y ago18 is young. It's impressive.
- zanellato19 2y agoHAHAHA Only an HN comment could call the youngest person ever to do something would be said to "not that big of an accomplishment". How would you change that headline?
- dtquad 2y agoTo really put it in perspective right now is the hardest and most competitive chess era in history thanks to computer-aided practice and international popularity.
- chatmasta 2y agoIt’s not the most competitive world championship though, since Magnus opted out of playing it. If previous champions had similarly opted out of defending their championship at the age of 30 then maybe the average age of champions would have trended downward and this wouldn’t have been the first 18 year old champion.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- smus 2y agoNot nearly as big of an accomplishment as that guy reducing latency by 3.7% on the legacy microservice at work
- griomnib 2y agoHey now, that microservice happens to violate data protection law in 40 jurisdictions per second, that’s basically a criminal mastermind.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- jstanley 2y agoYou think materially everyone over the age of 18 who plays chess ought to be good enough to be world champion?
- wongarsu 2y agoFor context, legendary Magnus Carlsen was 23 when he first became world champion. Ding Liren, the other finalist and previous winner, is 32. The title holder before Magnus was Anand who first won the title at age 31 (or arguably 38, depending on your stance about the PCA). Kramnik before him was 31. Legendary Garry Kasparov was 22. It's normal for the champion to get his first win in his early 30s. Getting it in your early 20s is how you become famous beyond the chess world. Doing it with 18 is seriously impressive.
- Certhas 2y agoThe comparison to others comes with a caveat though. The best player in the world is not participating in the current WC format.
- 12345hn6789 2y agoWhy wasnt Magnus in this tournament? Surely this would be impressive if the headline was: Youngest champion ever beats current best chess player. Instead it's new champion crowned after legendary chess play does not partake in said competition
- vlovich123 2y agoSame reason it was Nepo and Ding last time. Combination of he wants to give other people the ability to compete for it, him not having the same interest for what it takes to prepare for such a tournament, and FIDE refusing to adjust the format to make for what he thinks would be a more interesting tournament.
- qq66 2y agoMagnus is bored of classical chess and doesn't want to spend 6 months every two years preparing for classical games against one opponent.
- NickC25 2y agoMagnus didn't show up because he more or less just doesn't give a shit anymore about classical chess. He got bored. Won the thing 10 years in a row and just didn't fancy it anymore. That's really it - he's so much better than, well, everyone that he just didn't want to go through the stress of prepping for such an event. I think he's not a huge fan of classical chess, prefers more dynamic, creative and faster games. He's effectively mastered classical chess and wants a new challenge.
- dhosek 2y agoSo my son has 7 years to set a new record. (I’m not really expecting that, of course.)
- dhosek 2y agoI told him about the match and told him he only had 7 years to be the new youngest chess world champion and he told me that he didn’t want to be a world champion, he just wanted to play. I approve of this philosophy.
- PartiallyTyped 2y agoIt's already too late unless he is playing at GM level already — testament to how absurdly good super GMs are.
- smokel 2y agoFor anyone wondering about related facts: the oldest age someone had while being the chess world champion was 58 years [1]. https://www.chesspower.co.nz/chess-records.html#theoldest https://www.chesspower.co.nz/chess-records.html#theoldest
- yieldcrv 2y agothank you, I came looking for this as well and didn't want the predictable community drama of asking or pointing out how the article fails
- pjmlp 2y agoMy point exactly.
- bmacho 2y agoFor someone who has complained a LOT about this information not being readily available, you haven't put it here for us either.
- Salgat 2y agoYou bothered to comment but didn't bother to help either. Here, I'll do it, Gukesh is 18, Ding is 32.
- beepboopboop 2y agoDo didn’t reply to the OP so I had to look one thread deeper
- neofrommatrix 2y ago18. The answer is 18.
- nsmog767 2y agocame to the comments to try and find the answer, still don't see it lol
- nashashmi 2y agosomeone answered it 1 hr ago: 18.
- nottorp 2y agoI suppose in the usual lichess watchers bubble, everyone knows who Gukesh is and how old/young he is :)
- hilux 2y agoWhy the snark? Is it so surprising that spectators following a world championship match in any sport would know something about the competitors?
- nottorp 2y agoBecause HN is a different bubble so whoever posted this could have elaborated. The article itself is written assuming everyone knows who Gukesh is and says nothing about him, just his most recent matches that got him the title. Definitely written for a bubble.
- lxgr 2y agoThe article seems geared towards people at least already somewhat invested in either chess or the world championship, given that it's on a chess website and everything. That said, click either name in the article and you'll land on their respective Lichess profile, which prominently features their age.
- jodacola 2y agoDon't disagree it was annoying. While this is no defense, clicking Gukesh's name when it was hyperlinked from the article led here: https://lichess.org/fide/46616543/Gukesh_D https://lichess.org/fide/46616543/Gukesh_D Age and other info present.