Them Against The World

[Wayne Komer]

Them Against The World

July 21, 2015

In 1999, world chess champion Garry Kasparov, widely acknowledged as the greatest player in the history of the game, agreed to participate in a chess match sponsored by Microsoft, playing against “the World”. One move was to be made each 24 hours, with the World’s move being decided by a vote; anyone at all was allowed to vote on the World Team’s next move.

The game was staggering. After 62 moves of innovative chess, in which the balance of the game changed several times, the World Team finally resigned. Kasparov revealed that during the game he often couldn’t tell who was winning and who was losing, and that it wasn’t until after the 51st move that the balance swung decisively in his favour. After the game, Kasparov wrote an entire book about it. He claimed to have expended more energy on this one game than on any other in his career, including world championship games.

Michael Nielsen at:

http://michaelnielsen.org/blog/kaspa...sus-the-world/
_______

I, like many others, followed the game for four months.

Wikipedia says, “In 2000, Kasparov published a book about the match: Kasparov Against the World: The Story of the Greatest Online Challenge, co-written with Grandmaster Daniel J. King. The 202-page book holds the record for the longest analysis devoted to a single chess game.”

The game:

Kasparov Against the World
Oct. 22, 1999
Kasparov, Garry – World Players
B52 Sicilian, Canal-Sokolsky Attack

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ Bd7 4.Bxd7+ Qxd7 5.c4 Nc6 6.Nc3 Nf6 7.O-O g6 8.d4 cxd4 9.Nxd4 Bg7 10.Nde2 Qe6 11.Nd5 Qxe4 12.Nc7+ Kd7 13.Nxa8 Qxc4 14.Nb6+ axb6 15.Nc3 Ra8 16.a4 Ne4 17.Nxe4 Qxe4 18.Qb3 f5 19.Bg5 Qb4 20.Qf7 Be5 21.h3 Rxa4 22.Rxa4 Qxa4 23.Qxh7 Bxb2 24.Qxg6 Qe4 25.Qf7 Bd4 26.Qb3 f4 27.Qf7 Be5 28.h4 b5 29.h5 Qc4 30.Qf5+ Qe6 31.Qxe6+ Kxe6 32.g3 fxg3 33.fxg3 b4 34.Bf4 Bd4+ 35.Kh1 b3 36.g4 Kd5 37.g5 e6 38.h6 Ne7 39.Rd1 e5 40.Be3 Kc4 41.Bxd4 exd4 42.Kg2 b2 43.Kf3 Kc3 44.h7 Ng6 45.Ke4 Kc2 46.Rh1 d3 47.Kf5 b1=Q 48.Rxb1 Kxb1 49.Kxg6 d2 50.h8=Q d1=Q 51.Qh7 b5 52.Kf6+ Kb2 53.Qh2+ Ka1 54.Qf4 b4 55.Qxb4 Qf3+ 56.Kg7 d5 57.Qd4+ Kb1 58.g6 Qe4 59.Qg1+ Kb2 60.Qf2+ Kc1 61.Kf6 d4 62.g7 1-0

Do any ChessTalk readers have memories of sending in moves?
________

This is all a prelude to a match that will take place tomorrow. This from chessbase today:

http://en.chessbase.com/post/tania-s...-for-the-queen

Red Bull Battle For The Queen, the virtual version, now gives you a chance to play against Indian star Tania Sachdev, a Red Bull athlete. On Wednesday, July 22, the checkered battlefield will move to Twitter, and the International Master will play against the world.

Here’s the date and time: the match starts on July 22nd 2015 at 2:00 p. m. Indian Standard Time, which translates to 10:30 a. m. European Summer Time, 09:00 a. m. UK, 4:30 a. m. New York and 1:30 a. m. California.

So how do you participate in this unique event? Here are the steps:

Go to the Battle For The Queen game website and navigate to the Tweet Chess arena. On July 22, you along with the rest of the world will head to the live game. Look out for an icon that tells you: Tania has made her move. Now it’s time for you to play You have only three minutes to decide on your move. You need to make the move on the board, after which your move will be tweeted with your permission.

Make sure that you are logged into your Twitter account. Once the allotted time is over, the most popular move will get selected by the server as the public move. After that it will be Tania’s turn to move for which she will get three minutes as well. Of course, it is recommended that you play the game against Tania right from the start until the end, but in case you are busy you can join in the game at any given position and tweet your move.

http://battleforthequeen.redbull.com

[Kerry Liles]

Re: Them Against The World

I recall following Kasparov v The World as well and being absolutely blown away by Irina Krush's analysis - that lady is super sharp.

I seem to also recall some controversy around one (or more?) of the moves made by the "World" ( something like the crowd voted for
a variant that Krush clearly pointed out was poor and then the game went out the window?) I have the book and I must admit I have
actually only skimmed through it - I will have to actually plow through it again - thanks for the memory jogger.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Them Against The World

Them Against The World

Tania Sachdev played against the World via Twitter. If you had an account you could follow it and if you did not, you could not.

I hadn’t and didn’t and could not find the score of the game on any of the usually reliable sources. I did manage to get on to Tania’s Twitter page and saw the board after each of her moves so I have been able to reconstruct the game, so to speak.

I would have thought that the World, having access to analytical engines, would play a stronger game, but it didn’t. The opening – a Benoni – was a surprise too.

From the comments, it appeared that the participants enjoyed themselves hugely.

The game is not memorable; no book will be written about it, but here it is for the record:

Red Bull Battle for the Queen
Online via Twitter
July 22, 2015
Tania Sachdev – The World
A56 Benoni Defence, Hromodka System (Red Bull Variation?)

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 d6 4.Nc3 Bf5 5.f3 e5 6.e4 Bg6 7.Be3 Qb6 8.Qd2 h6 9.g4 Be7 10.Nge2 Na6 11.Ng3 Nd7 12.Be2 Bg5 13.Bxg5 hxg5 14.Qxg5 Qxb2 15.Rc1 Nc7 16.h4 Bh7 17.Kf2 Rg8 18.Qe3 Nb6 19.Rb1 Qa3 20.Rb3 Qa5 21.h5 Qa6 22.Rhb1 Nd7 23.Rxb7 Rc8 24.h6 Nb6 25.Rxc7 Rxc7 26.Nb5 Rd7 27.hxg7 Bg6 28.Rh1 Nc8 29.Nf5 Bxf5 30.exf5 Qxa2 31.Rh8 Ne7 32.f6 Rd8 33.Nxd6+ Kd7 34.Nxf7 Ng6 35.Qxc5 Qa6 36.Nxd8 Rxh8 37.gxh8=Q Nxh8 38.Qe7+ Kc8 39.Ne6 Qa5 40.c5 Kb8 41.Qe8+ Kb7 42.c6+ Kb6 43.Qb8# 1-0


https://twitter.com/taniasachdev

[Mathieu Cloutier]

Re: Them Against The World

Tania Sachdev played against the World via Twitter. If you had an account you could follow it and if you did not, you could not.

I hadn’t and didn’t and could not find the score of the game on any of the usually reliable sources. I did manage to get on to Tania’s Twitter page and saw the board after each of her moves so I have been able to reconstruct the game, so to speak.

The game is not memorable; no book will be written about it, but here it is for the record:

Didn't knew about that one. I'm not that much into twitter. Always looks like a huge pile of transcripts from a babbling crowd. I can never tell what's the chronological order and who's answering to who in there.

And that game was... eh... as you said. Not memorable.

[Wayne Komer]

Re: Them Against The World

Them Against The World

What I find so fascinating about this game is that it is the result of players of every strength entering their moves and the one most tweeted, selected by the server as the official move for Black.

There were over 2000 players from over 50 countries, and the Benoni was the opening they chose!

There were three minutes for Tania and three minutes for Twitter per move, which means the game lasted a little over 4 hours.

Checking a database, I found that Black’s sixth move Bg6 has not been played before, …Bc8 and …Bd7 have. The bishop is immured on h7 and the knights shuffle back and forth.

I don’t know if it was the format, the time limit or the diversity of the opposition that made the game so unsatisfactory.