A chess master and the world. Who will you bet?
Chess.coma website prediction for the record game, Norwegian chess master Magnus Carlsen will have a big victory in a mega match of more than 143,000 players.
But after Monday's online freestyle race spanned 46 days – known as “Magnus Carlsen and the World” – he was forced into a tie when Team World checked the Kings for the third time.
The largest online chess competition in history
Team World managed to lead Carlsen into 32 moves by performing “Triple Repeat”, which prompted a draw when it reached triple three times. In this case, after checking Carlson's King three times around the corner of the board, this is prompted in this case.
Anyone in the world can register on Chess.com to be part of the team world. Team members vote for each step, and both sides have 24-hour competitions to play their role.
“Overall, the 'world' has played very, very good chess from the beginning. Maybe it's not about choosing most aggressive options, but about keeping more attitudes with regular chess – this isn't always the best strategy, but this time it works great.”
The match, which started on April 4, is the largest online freestyle chess contest in history, including the scale of world champion Carlson.
Freestyle chess is played with the king, queen, knight, rookie and bishop, while the pawn remains in its usual position on the board.
Carlsen, 34, has become the world's tallest chess player, with a history of nearly 14 years. In April 2004, when he was 13 years old, he became the youngest grandmother in the world. The giant game also marked Carlson’s first time playing with the public.
“Maximum resistance” to Carlson
Mike Ivanov, co-founder and head coach of the Canadian Chess Youth Club in Richmond Hill, Ontario, watched the game on Chess.com. Ivanov is a Carlsen fan and one of the many coaches on the website, some of whom competed in the comment section of the game by assisting players in the world.
“Usually, when you clock in Carlson, it's like a train wreck, hopefully it won't be too hard,” he said in an interview with CBC News.
While Ivanov didn't play, he said his fellow coach tried to “maximum resistance” against Carlson instead of expecting the result to be a draw.
“As time goes by, Magnus disappeared,” he said. “He said he played some suspicious moves that allowed the world to accurately balance the game and keep the draw at the end of the game.”
Ivanov said it was “very exciting” when players around the world decided on their next move.
“Usually, chess is a quiet game, and it's just a quiet thing,” he said.
