Berlin – Norwegian Chess Master Magnus Carlson More than 143,000 people around the world competed against him in a record game on Monday. The online competition, known as “Magnus Carlsen vs. World”, began on April 4 on Chess.com, the world's largest chess website, and is the first online freestyle game ever to feature a world champion.
After a third check on Carlson's King, the big game ended.
Team World votes for every step of the vote, both sides have 24-hour games to play their role. Carlson played the white piece.
The world won 32 victories after the world inspected Carlson's King three times around the corner. The rule is called “triple repeat”, which means that all parts on the board are in the exact same position three times to prompt the draw.
Carlsen, 34, became the world's top-ranked player at 19 in 2010 and won five world titles. He received the highest ever chess rating of 2882 in 2014 and has been the undisputed world number one for more than a decade.
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“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.”
Because it was a freestyle match, the Bishops, Cavaliers, Roks, Queen and King were laid randomly on the board, while the pawns remained in their usual positions. Freestyle chess is popular because it allows players to be more creative and avoid memory.
This is the third online game of “With the World”. In 1999, Russian guru Garry Kasparov played against more than 50,000 people on the Microsoft Network and won four months later.
Last year, Indian master Viswanathan Anand won his “World” match against nearly 70,000 players on Chess.com.
In this week's Chess.com virtual chat, players seem to be on whether to force a raffle and claim glory – or continue playing against Carlson, even if that ultimately means loss.
“Don't draw! Let's keep playing Magnus,” one user wrote. “This is a chance that won't come back. I'd rather play the master all the way and see if we can fight the action of 20 or 30 again! Let's have fun!!!”
Another added: “Thanks to Magnus for such a great game. We made history.”
