Derren Brown the UK "Mind Control" showman - a sort of British David
Blaine,

performed this totally obvious and very old trick where he "won" a
simul against 8 top UK players (including Hodgson, Ward and Emms) and
one weak club player.

The trick was just that half of the masters played Black and half
White so he just played them off against each other and then beat the
9th weak club player in a one to one game - thereby he claimed to have
won against a team of GMs.

I am sure that the chess players knew what was going on, but just
wanted to collect an appearance fee or get some publicity for chess,
however the way their reactions were edited made it look as if they
did not know what was up and that Brown had overnight become a
brilliant chess player.

I realized what was going on in this trick as it is an old chestnut
in the chess world, but presumably Brown's other "amazing feats of
mind control" are based on similar simple tricks and co-operation by
the subjects.

"oxtut" wrote in message
om...
Derren Brown the UK "Mind Control" showman - a sort of British David
Blaine,

performed this totally obvious and very old trick where he "won" a
simul against 8 top UK players (including Hodgson, Ward and Emms) and
one weak club player.

The trick was just that half of the masters played Black and half
White so he just played them off against each other and then beat the
9th weak club player in a one to one game - thereby he claimed to have
won against a team of GMs.


He explained this on the programme, but also predicted (with one error)
the number of pieces each player had left on the board at the end of the
games.

"oxtut" wrote in message
om...
Derren Brown the UK "Mind Control" showman - a sort of British David
Blaine,

performed this totally obvious and very old trick where he "won" a
simul against 8 top UK players (including Hodgson, Ward and Emms) and
one weak club player.

The trick was just that half of the masters played Black and half
White so he just played them off against each other and then beat the
9th weak club player in a one to one game - thereby he claimed to have
won against a team of GMs.

I am sure that the chess players knew what was going on, but just
wanted to collect an appearance fee or get some publicity for chess,
however the way their reactions were edited made it look as if they
did not know what was up and that Brown had overnight become a
brilliant chess player.

I realized what was going on in this trick as it is an old chestnut
in the chess world, but presumably Brown's other "amazing feats of
mind control" are based on similar simple tricks and co-operation by
the subjects.

I was not aware of this being a "very old trick" but I had guessed straight
away that he was copying moves from one board on to another. A
good memory trick, you have to admit.

But how do you explain the fact that he successfully predicted the number
of pieces left on the board at the end of eight of the nine games?

Ahoyhoy

"Ahoyhoy" wrote in message
news:fKsic.37$ME2.7@newsfe1-win...

"oxtut" wrote in message
om...
Derren Brown the UK "Mind Control" showman - a sort of British David
Blaine,

performed this totally obvious and very old trick where he "won" a
simul against 8 top UK players (including Hodgson, Ward and Emms) and
one weak club player.

The trick was just that half of the masters played Black and half
White so he just played them off against each other and then beat the
9th weak club player in a one to one game - thereby he claimed to have
won against a team of GMs.

I am sure that the chess players knew what was going on, but just
wanted to collect an appearance fee or get some publicity for chess,
however the way their reactions were edited made it look as if they
did not know what was up and that Brown had overnight become a
brilliant chess player.

I realized what was going on in this trick as it is an old chestnut
in the chess world, but presumably Brown's other "amazing feats of
mind control" are based on similar simple tricks and co-operation by
the subjects.

I was not aware of this being a "very old trick" but I had guessed
straight
away that he was copying moves from one board on to another. A
good memory trick, you have to admit.

But how do you explain the fact that he successfully predicted the number
of pieces left on the board at the end of eight of the nine games?


He has secret magical powers like Harry Potter and can see into the future.
He's a wizard.

Duncan

"oxtut" wrote in message
om...
Derren Brown the UK "Mind Control" showman - a sort of British David
Blaine,

performed this totally obvious and very old trick where he "won" a
simul against 8 top UK players (including Hodgson, Ward and Emms) and
one weak club player.

The trick was just that half of the masters played Black and half
White so he just played them off against each other and then beat the
9th weak club player in a one to one game - thereby he claimed to have
won against a team of GMs.

I am sure that the chess players knew what was going on, but just
wanted to collect an appearance fee or get some publicity for chess,
however the way their reactions were edited made it look as if they
did not know what was up and that Brown had overnight become a
brilliant chess player.

I realized what was going on in this trick as it is an old chestnut
in the chess world, but presumably Brown's other "amazing feats of
mind control" are based on similar simple tricks and co-operation by
the subjects.


He doesn't pretend their nothing more than tricks and if you watch his
programmes he usually explains how he's done it.

Kathryn

"Ahoyhoy" wrote in message news:fKsic.37$ME2.7@newsfe1-win...
"oxtut" wrote in message
om...
Derren Brown the UK "Mind Control" showman - a sort of British David
Blaine,

performed this totally obvious and very old trick where he "won" a
simul against 8 top UK players (including Hodgson, Ward and Emms) and
one weak club player.

The trick was just that half of the masters played Black and half
White so he just played them off against each other and then beat the
9th weak club player in a one to one game - thereby he claimed to have
won against a team of GMs.

I am sure that the chess players knew what was going on, but just
wanted to collect an appearance fee or get some publicity for chess,
however the way their reactions were edited made it look as if they
did not know what was up and that Brown had overnight become a
brilliant chess player.

I realized what was going on in this trick as it is an old chestnut
in the chess world, but presumably Brown's other "amazing feats of
mind control" are based on similar simple tricks and co-operation by
the subjects.

I was not aware of this being a "very old trick" but I had guessed straight
away that he was copying moves from one board on to another. A
good memory trick, you have to admit.

But how do you explain the fact that he successfully predicted the number
of pieces left on the board at the end of eight of the nine games?

Ahoyhoy
The trick is based on the fact that
He did not predict the number of pieces left on the board in 8 of the
games.

Rather he found some feature in 4 of the 5 games (remember 8 of the
game consist of 4 identical pairs) which matched the number he had
written down (aasuming he did not just use conjuring to swap the
paper) the number was quite ambiguous - something like 6 5 1 1 2 ...
if you group the digits in different ways you have 65 or 6 or 1 or 11
or 2 or 12 etc.

"Kathryn @btinternet.com" kathrynahuntersod-off wrote in message
...

"oxtut" wrote in message
om...
Derren Brown the UK "Mind Control" showman - a sort of British David
Blaine,

performed this totally obvious and very old trick where he "won" a
simul against 8 top UK players (including Hodgson, Ward and Emms) and
one weak club player.

The trick was just that half of the masters played Black and half
White so he just played them off against each other and then beat the
9th weak club player in a one to one game - thereby he claimed to have
won against a team of GMs.

I am sure that the chess players knew what was going on, but just
wanted to collect an appearance fee or get some publicity for chess,
however the way their reactions were edited made it look as if they
did not know what was up and that Brown had overnight become a
brilliant chess player.

I realized what was going on in this trick as it is an old chestnut
in the chess world, but presumably Brown's other "amazing feats of
mind control" are based on similar simple tricks and co-operation by
the subjects.


He doesn't pretend their nothing more than tricks and if you watch his
programmes he usually explains how he's done it.

Kathryn

THEY'RE damn I knew there was something wrong!

"Kathryn" wrote in message ...
"oxtut" wrote in message
om...
Derren Brown the UK "Mind Control" showman - a sort of British David
Blaine,

performed this totally obvious and very old trick where he "won" a
simul against 8 top UK players (including Hodgson, Ward and Emms) and
one weak club player.

The trick was just that half of the masters played Black and half
White so he just played them off against each other and then beat the
9th weak club player in a one to one game - thereby he claimed to have
won against a team of GMs.

I am sure that the chess players knew what was going on, but just
wanted to collect an appearance fee or get some publicity for chess,
however the way their reactions were edited made it look as if they
did not know what was up and that Brown had overnight become a
brilliant chess player.

I realized what was going on in this trick as it is an old chestnut
in the chess world, but presumably Brown's other "amazing feats of
mind control" are based on similar simple tricks and co-operation by
the subjects.


He doesn't pretend their nothing more than tricks and if you watch his
programmes he usually explains how he's done it.

Kathryn

Yes Kathryn, but what struck me was that I am sure the chess masters
knew what was going on, but from the edited filmed reactions one
would have thought he had tricked them.

So in the other Derren Brown tricks we see how we cannot trust that
e.g. Stephen Fry's or The Taxi Driver's reaction are genuine.

The trick is based on the fact that
He did not predict the number of pieces left on the board in 8 of the
games.

Rather he found some feature in 4 of the 5 games (remember 8 of the
game consist of 4 identical pairs) which matched the number he had
written down (aasuming he did not just use conjuring to swap the
paper) the number was quite ambiguous - something like 6 5 1 1 2 ...
if you group the digits in different ways you have 65 or 6 or 1 or 11
or 2 or 12 etc.

The number sheet that was folded concertina, he used his hands to
help the chess guy unfold it and held onto the end to extend it. Seems
very easy to do a sleight of hand in that case as he had just written
it all on the board, from seeing it on the boards, and asked each person
to verify the numbers. Also after telling the chess guy to stay away
when he stood up, to then go over and help him unfold the banner
seemed very obvious.

I know people who have seen Derren live and he really can do that
stuff.

The memory trick part was impressive on its own but comeon, the
numbers on that note was a stunning finish. Tell me... if it was
sleight of hand, he would have had to write out a new concertina'd
note during the course of the games.

And if you're accusing the players of being "in" on it then well
that's something you'll have to take up with them. Derren is the real
deal, believe it. Don't feel so threatened just because one of his
tricks involved chess.