The Nordic Semiconductor hosted a simul with the World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen at CES 2014, the world’s largest tradeshow for consumer technology and America’s largest annual tradeshow of any kind.
The simul on 20 boards was held on 9th January at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Carlsen won all the games.
Nordic Semiconductor provided wrist-worn heart rate monitors for Carlsen and his twenty challengers, with the results being wirelessly transmitted to a large screen.
It was very interesting to follow the transmission, with numbers ranging from 67 up to 139(!) beats per minute. Carlsen said that it was fun to follow the pulse of the people.
NRK.no reports that Carlsen will also use the wrist monitor during his next tournament, Zurich Chess Challenge.
I was one of those who vied for a place among the 20 getting to play Carlsen. I wasn’t among the chosen few. It’s probably just as well, as I’m sure the heart rate monitor attached to me would have shown an alarmingly high rate displayed on the big screen for all to see and twitter over. Whether the high heart rate would have been due to the excitement of playing the game, or from looking into Carlsen’s eyes is a matter for speculation. Both probably.
I was one of the 20- It was a great honor to play him! The highest rated player to take him on that day was around 2200 strength- even he didn’t give Magnus much pause.
The heart rate monitoring was interesting. Mine didn’t fluctuate much at all- perhaps because I knew my fate all too well, especially after making a silly blunder early in the game. From there it was all about surviving the intense mating attack, which involved the loss of a lot of material. It was an experience I’ll never forget, and I hope he does more of those so that fans such as Lucymarie could get their shot at him!
Garret