Magnus Carlsen starts online ‘vote chess’ match against one lakh opponents at same time

There is a precedence of world champions playing against thousands of opponents at the same time. The first such game was played back in 1999, when over 50,000 players had faced off against former world champion Garry Kasparov in the largest chess match in history.

Magnus Carlsen during a match at the Tata Steel Chess India Rapid and Blitz at the Dhono Dhonyo Auditorium in Kolkata. (Express photo by Partha Paul)

Last year, Chess.com organised a online vote chess game against five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand to mark the 25th anniversary of the Kasparov match. Nearly 70,000 players had signed up to play against Vishy Anand, where the Indian legend had won.

What’s different in Magnus Vs The World?

The Magnus Vs The World game is being played in freestyle chess while the Kasparov and Anand events were played in classical chess.

This year the one lakh players have five coaches to help them plan their next move: WGM Dina Belenkaya, NM Dane Mattson, IM David “Divis” Martinez, IM David Pruess and GM Benjamin Bok.

Has Carlsen played such masses before?

Chess.com notes that back in 2002, when Carlsen was just 11 years old, he had played in a similar match hosted by online newspaper Nettavisen. The game attracted nearly 300,000 Norwegians online and more than 20,000 move votes and Carlsen had managed to draw after 31 moves.

Then, in 2014 when Carlsen was already the world champion, he had checkmated Norway’s mass players in 34 moves during a prime-time match on NRK, Norway’s largest broadcaster.