You Are Stronger Than Magnus Carlsen!

Don't worry, I haven't lost my mind when insist that you are stronger than Magnus Carlsen even if your rating is just 1400. Also, it is not a April Fool's Day joke.

It is pure math and logic, so let me explain.

If you forgot what transitivity in mathematics is, Wikipedia can refresh your memory on the subject. Simply put, whenever A > B and B > C, then also A > C.  Let's use the same logic in chess! If a chess player A beat a chess player B ( therefore A is stronger than B) and the player B beat a player C (so B is stronger than C), then A is stronger than C!

Do you catch my drift now? Here is an example:

So, if the player A beats player B and the player B... OK, OK, you got my point. 

 By the way, using the same logic you could prove that you are stronger than any player in the history of chess, but of course it will take many steps.

Bobby Fischer via Wikipedia. 

Here is how I am stronger than Fischer:

If you think that you won't be able to create such a logical chain because you are only a class player, then think again. When I played this silly game first time I was just a candidate master. Look at the following game:

The whole country of Uzbekistan was cheering when our own master Igor Ivanov beat the world champion, but I also had my personal agenda! Ivanov played many masters in our local tournaments and sometimes he lost to some of them. Those masters played local candidate masters and sometimes lost to some of them too. And I managed to beat some of those candidate masters!

So, though it took about four or five steps, I still managed to find a "proof" that even though I was only a candidate master I was still stronger than World Champion Anatoly Karpov!

As you can see, there is almost always a sequence that proves that you are stronger than Magnus Carlsen; the only question is the number of steps it will take. If you are an American club player, then the best way to start is probably this game:

Then check the USCF website that stores crosstables of all the rated tournaments Hikaru ever played. There you can find many experts and even class players who beat Hikaru when he was 10 years old or younger. The rest should be pretty trivial.

You might never have a chance to play Magnus even in a simul, yet you can find logical evidence that you are stronger than him. Please share in the comment section how many steps your "proof" takes.

Bonus challenge: can you find a similar "proof" that you are stronger than Paul Morphy?