World No. 1 vs 'The World': Magnus Carlsen duels one lakh players at same time in online chess game

For ages, you must have believed that chess is a two-player game where one player's moves on the chessboard are followed by another's and the objective is to "checkmate" the enemy king.

Before you start questioning your knowledge of chess, you are absolutely right. However, contrary to the norm, world number one chess player Magnus Carlsen is currently dueling against one lakh people at the same time, where each move is taking 24 hours to be played.

According to a report by The Indian Express, the game is being hosted by Chess.com and is called Magnus Vs The World. The online Freestyle Chess (Chess960) match has become the largest online chess match ever held.

How does online Freestyle Chess work?

The online chess match between Magnus and the "world" is a vote chess game where the one lakh opponents vote on the next move to be played against the world number one. Each side gets 24 hours to play the move. As soon as Carlsen plays his move, voting begins for his opponent's move and the move with largest number of votes gets played.

Carlsen played 1.e4 to start the proceedings in the Magnus Vs The World game.

This is not the first time a chess champion is battling against a number of opponents. The first such game dates back to 1999, when over 50,000 players had faced off against former world champion Garry Kasparov.

On the 25th anniversary of the event last year, Chess.com had organised an online vote chess game featuring five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand. The Indian legend had won beating 70,000 opponents.

While these matches were played in classical chess, the ongoing match with Carlsen is being played in freestyle chess and his opponents also have access to coaches to assist them.

Carlsen is not new to playing such formats. As per Chess.com, back in 2002, an 11-year-old Carlsen 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.