Magnus Carlsen is considered the best chess player in history. He has not been able to beat the entire world

Last April 4 began A very special chess chess game. With white pieces Magnus Carlsen, considered the best chess player in history. With blacks, the whole world. And the world managed to force the tables.

Carlsen can’t with the world. On May 20 ended This game Freestyle chess, and did it surprisingly. After 32 movements, “the world” forced tables in a lady end thanks to the triple repetition rule. This rule allows a player to claim a draw (tables) if the same position on the board occurs at least for the third time during a game.

Magnus vs. The World. The event, organized by the online chess platform Chess.comhe has faced the ex -champion of the world of classic chess – he had that title by not wanting to defend him – against more than 143,000 users of Chess.com who joined strength to try to beat him.

Freestyle chess. The game did not use the rules of classic chess, but those of Freestyle chess, the new modality that Magnus Carlsen is promoting. In this modality, the positions of the pieces of the rear row (towers, horses, alfiles, lady and king) are chosen randomly, although two rules must be fulfilled. The first, that the bishops must be in boxes of different color. And the second, can be continued on both sides, so the king must always be between the two towers.

Screen capture 2025 05 23 at 10 18 58
Screen capture 2025 05 23 at 10 18 58

Thus ended the game of Carlsen vs The World. Tables by repetition.

A legend. Magnus Carlsen, 34 years old, became the world’s largest score player in 2010, at age 19, and has won five world championships. In 2014, it managed to reach the highest elo score in history, 2,882 points. In recent years, tensions with the FIDE and its own tiredness with the classic chess modality have caused the fight to defend the title of World Champion. He continues to play classic chess tournaments, but is especially interested in fast games tournaments and, in recent times, in Promote freestyle modealso known as Chess960 (chess 960) or random chess of Fischer.

Voting movement. After each Movement of Carlsen, in the turn of “El Mundo” a voting system was followed that lasted 24 hours and in which all those involved in the game could participate. It was not mandatory to vote in each movement, and to help the players of “El Mundo” there were several “coaches” who shared their own reflections on the best movements with their analysis of the state of the game.

A “solid” game. In statements After the game, Carlsen Indian That “in general,” the world “has played a very, very solid chess from the beginning. Perhaps he has not opted for the most entrepreneurial options, but has remained more in the normal chess line, which is not always the best strategy, but this time it has worked well.

The world did not risk and worked. In the last movements the players of “The World” discussed whether to force the tables with triple repetition or try to continue playing to win it, even if that supposed the defeat. In the end the votes favored the most conservative strategy, and preferred to force the tables.

The world lost against Kasparov and Anand. There have been previous events of this type. In 1999 Garry Kasparov played against more than 50,000 players via Microsoft Network and won after four months. Last year the great teacher Viswanathan Anand He won a game against more than 70,000 players at Chess.com. In both cases they were classic chess games.

How was the game? Chess.com analysts have described the game as “a roller coaster” in which there were a couple of dramatic moments. Carlsen came to have a somewhat more advantageous position, but he could not take advantage of it and confesses that from that moment everything was aimed at the tables because “they did not give me a single opportunity.”

Image | Frans Peeters

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