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Frame from Magnus Carlsen's Mind-Blowing Memory! World Chess Champion tested Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

Magnus Carlsen's Mind-Blowing Memory! World Chess Champion tested

chess24
Demos
YouTube
Cited on HN 3 times, 2021–2022, never outright recommended score 0
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

HN commenters cite it as an example of expert memory built on context, such as Carlsen identifying players, tournaments and moves from positions.

Grandmaster David Howell tests Magnus Carlsen by showing him chess positions and asking which famous games they come from. Carlsen recognizes many almost instantly.

“They put a number of mid-game positions on the board, and Magnus was able to guess the players, tournament, game number, who won” (HN, 2022)

3 citations · Demos

3 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@matsemann Oct 2021 Cites it
on HN thread How long does it take ordinary people to get good at chess?
There are videos of Magnus Carlsen being shown various positions, and he can instantly tell which games they are from. Like their brain has an index on postions or something. Not only that, but also can tell how the game continues. One example [this video]
Carlsen instantly recognizes positions and their games.
@lysp Sep 2022 Cites it
on HN thread Dear Chess World
I saw a video a while ago. [this video] They put a number of mid-game positions on the board, and Magnus was able to guess the players, tournament, game number, who won, what the next few moves were. Who was playing on the table next to him. What their moves were.
Carlsen identifies players, tournaments and next moves from positions.
@ninethirty Dec 2022 Cites it
on HN thread Ask HN: Is your memory as bad as mine?
Not enough context. Do you only watch football once every four years? Probably you don't care enough and have enough context of strategic moments to create memories. The more you care + context, the better the memory will be, see LeBron + Magnus. { [link] , [this video] }
Example of expert memory built on care and context.

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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