Carlsen had a 30 second clock. Even an average player should've been able to put Carlsen into time pressure at that point, assuming you didn't fall into any silly traps like Gates did.
+edit: you also usually get an extra second or two ( depending on the total time ) per move.
I think any decently skilled (but non-world-class) chess player could have run him down just by playing defensively. Of course, that would have been terrible tv, so we got someone who probably only plays casually getting steam-rolled by the "Justin Bieber of chess".
'The Mozart of chess' is the general consensus. The 'Justin Beiber of chess' is rather insulting.
2nd paragraph under the video:
""Wow, that was fast," he said to Carlsen, whose rockstar appeal has won him the moniker the "Justin Bieber of chess.""
I also used to play against some amateur chess players with 30 seconds on my clock and 5 minutes on theirs. I routinely crushed them.
Even with 30 seconds, a significantly better player will still almost always win.
Carlsen quickly realized Bill was a push over and started parking all his pieces on white's kingside as quickly as possible. Bill basically played as poorly as could be expected. To get mated in 9 moves means you've basically forced yourself to lose.
he's a below average chess player playing with 2 minutes on the clock. 30 seconds is comfortable for carlsen, whereas Gates probably doesn't play at 2 minutes regularly. 2 minutes is insanely small amount of time for people that don't play.