By Mark O’Neill
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

One of my interests (some would say obsessions) is chess.   I have a chess board constantly set up on the table behind the computer, and whenever someone comes to visit, I challenge them to a game of chess.   Which probably explains why when we invite people round, they have to spend the previous day practicing their chess moves first!

The guy you’re about to see made me laugh out loud at what he was able to pull off.  Derren Brown, who is from the “Trick Of The Mind” TV series in the UK, got nine chess geniuses in the same room (most of them grandmasters) and convinced them that he was a chess genius himself (when in reality his chess skills were awful).   He then proceeded to beat four of them, and when everything was finished, showed them that he was able to predict right at the start how many pieces they would have on their chess board at the end.