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Derren Brown vs 9 Chess Players

Derren Brown
Demos
YouTube
1 HN user recommended this demo1 month2019–2022 score 1
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

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

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.

“I really liked the simplicity of the trick (concept wise).” (HN, 2022)

1 recommendations · 2 citations · Demos

3 Hacker News comments

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

@laumars Jul 2022 Recommends
on HN thread Markov Chat Bot Disaster Story
For anyone interested in the Chess story, it's a trick performed by Darren Brown: [this video] I really liked the simplicity of the trick (concept wise). Though I sure as hell couldn't memorise all those moves.
Simple, clever chess trick by Derren Brown

Citations, criticism and jokes

@yesenadam Aug 2019 Cites it
on HN thread Can Chess Survive Artificial Intelligence?
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. [this video]
Derren Brown beat chess players by relaying moves between opponents
@pmoriarty Jul 2020 Cites it
on HN thread Ludic Fallacy
This reminds me of Derren Brown (a magician) winning simultaneous chess games against grandmasters... [this video]
Derren Brown winning simultaneous chess games against grandmasters

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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