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Derren Brown vs 9 Chess Players

Derren Brown · 1.3M views · 2015-11-11 · 9:57

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Overview

Mentalist Derren Brown plays nine skilled English chess players, including four grandmasters, simultaneously on his TV show. The trick behind the apparent win is the point of the segment.

On Hacker News

HN cites it as a neat, simple trick of relaying moves between opponents, often in discussions of chess, AI or ludic fallacies.

Recommended by 1 HN people across 1 months · HN mentions 2019–2022

Topics

Magic, puzzles & curiositiesChess, board games & puzzles
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derren brownchessgrandmastersmentalismrelay trick

What people said

laumars · 2022-07 · Recommendation

For anyone interested in the Chess story, it's a trick performed by Darren Brown: [VIDEO] I really liked the simplicity of the trick (concept wise). Though I sure as hell couldn't memorise all those moves.

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pmoriarty · 2020-07 · Reference

This reminds me of Derren Brown (a magician) winning simultaneous chess games against grandmasters... [VIDEO]

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yesenadam · 2019-08 · Reference

It's a very old trick I'm sure. As for it never happening or fooling anyone in real life: the magician/mentalist Derren Brown challenged 9 English chess players, including 4 GMs, to a simul on his TV show, and got a plus score - he secretly had 8 of the players playing each other, with whom he thus had an even score. The 9th was president of a university chess club, and a very weak player, who Derren played and beat, winning the match. [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by Derren Brown, played through YouTube.

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