1600 or 2400 doesnt matter,he was playing against the king
Bill Gates rating?

Well he missed a mate in 1 in the most obvious way possible but it's hard to say anything about people's classical play after only looking at one game in which he had 2 minutes on the clock.

...and in which he played one of the best players of all-time. It's hard not to feel star-struck when playing against Carlsen.

Bill Gates is supposed to be a good Bridge player. They should have convinced Magnus to play bridge as well.

I wonder what would have happend if Bill Gates had given Magnus a run for his money. Imagine hours of chess (for non players pretty much like watching paint dry) in a TV Chat show.

I didn't know he said that but I found it in the 3:42 extended clips from the show on the Swedish TV show site. The interviewer was talking about types of intelligence and said that Gates was obviously very smart and then asked when he was not smart. He answered the question very wittily by saying he was not smart when he played Magnus in chess.
The interviewer then proposed a game between Gates and Magnus. Gates forecast hat a game from someone about 1600 playing a 2800 would go very quickly. He also said that the result of playing a game against Magnus would have a foregone conclusion.
Based on that alone, you would have to say that he is very probably rated much higher than 1600, since 1600's think that they could do better in a similar situation.

I wonder what would have happend if Bill Gates had given Magnus a run for his money. Imagine hours of chess (for non players pretty much like watching paint dry) in a TV Chat show.
I love paint

Don't forget people oftentimes way overestimate their strength when first getting into tournament chess. Just because you can trounce your 5 year old cousin or dad who always plays casually doesn't mean that you're above beginner yourself. The main difference between an amateur and expert or above is those above class level only attack the king if they get some benefit (e.g., at best the opponent consolidates weaknesses to only one part of the board, but still something to work with when transitioning into an endgame) whereas the amateur usually attacks the king even if it isn't appropriate (i.e., the attacker gets nothing concrete out of it, especially if best defense is obvious and the defender doesn't need to make meaningful concessions). That's one big difference a random expert told me at least.

bill gates should have saw the danger of that 2nd knight, clearly he couldn't calculate the checkmate.. he definitely didn't see the complexity there.. his king needed breathing room, he easily could have gotten out of that position and ended up ok.. the geezer prob knows chess better and wasn't paying attention. i'm willing to bet he's better than this.

Looking at the way Bill Gates played in that game there are signs that he is probably got a rating of around 1200-1300. I know it is easy to make errors when under time pressure and against the worlds best player (we all would) but I am player with around 1600 rating on this site and I would always follow a common opening line for the first six-seven moves just to get some kind of neat structure to use against Carlson (before he destroys me in 20 or so moves!).
Gates third move Bd3 makes absolutely no sense to me, blocking off his "d" pawn and offering nothing. This is the kind of move that would make me think I was in for an easy game as black, let alone the world champion! In general his opening just looks like a complete mess.
I know some players with higher ratings with me could probably make a case that Gates opening could in theory work, but the reality is that he would have to be a much higher rated to player to make it work.

For this game, Gates had 90 seconds to use and Carlson had just 30. It gave him a great chance to pressure Carlson simply by trading off a few pieces for 10-15 seconds.
Having said that, Carlson played Nc6 (Nimzowitsch Defence) which is certainly one of the less common ways of playing against the kings pawn. Not many lower ranked players know this line, but a grandmaster would, and he no doubt did it to make it even easier and avoid any potential embarassment

Looking at the way Bill Gates played in that game there are signs that he is probably got a rating of around 1200-1300. I know it is easy to make errors when under time pressure and against the worlds best player (we all would) but I am player with around 1600 rating on this site and I would always follow a common opening line for the first six-seven moves just to get some kind of neat structure to use against Carlson (before he destroys me in 20 or so moves!).
Gates third move Bd3 makes absolutely no sense to me, blocking off his "d" pawn and offering nothing. This is the kind of move that would make me think I was in for an easy game as black, let alone the world champion! In general his opening just looks like a complete mess.
I know some players with higher ratings with me could probably make a case that Gates opening could in theory work, but the reality is that he would have to be a much higher rated to player to make it work.
Does anybody know Bill Gates rating?
In a TV-show, were he played against Magnus Carlsen,he said he had 1600. Is that true? (he seemed weaker)