Magnus Carlsen Held To Draw By 143,000 Players In Largest-Ever Online Chess Game

World number-one GM Magnus Carlsen was held to a draw by more than 143,000 players in the Magnus vs. The World game on Chess.com, the largest online chess game ever held.

The historic game ended on Tuesday after 32 moves when The World forced a threefold repetition in a queen endgame, securing half a point against the five-time world champion.

"Overall, The World has played very, very sound chess," Carlsen told Chess.com as the game was nearing its conclusion. "Kind of from the start, maybe not going for the most enterprising options, but keeping it in the vein of normal chess. It's not always the best strategy, but it seemed like it worked fine this time."

Overall, The World has played very, very sound chess.

—Magnus Carlsen

NM Dane Mattson, one of the five coaches for The World, who provided analysis and guidance to the team, said, "This game was certainly a 'Freestyle Roller Coaster' from the very beginning," adding, "I felt 'maximum resistance' meant gaining a masterclass in converting a superior position by Magnus. I never imagined maximum resistance would result in splitting the point."

GM Rafael Leitao analyzes the game below, with some additional comments by Mattson.

Despite the modest move count, the game was anything but dull. Played in the Freestyle Chess (Chess960) format, which randomizes the back-rank pieces, the match featured a couple of dramatic moments.

It started already on move five when 35% of The World voted for 5...Bc5, a move that hangs a piece after Nxc6. "That was a critical moment for The World to get through, but they passed the test," Carlsen said.

Carlsen thought his position from the opening looked promising. "I felt that I was a little bit better early in the opening. Then maybe I didn't play that precisely and, honestly, since then they didn't give me a single chance, so it was just heading toward the draw."

A critical point came on move 12 when The World played the surprising 12...c5, a move Carlsen was at first happy to see, only to realize later that it was actually a good move.

"When I first saw 12...c5, I was, well, not shocked since I thought the world had to prevent my plan of a4-a5," Carlsen explained. "At that point, I still thought I was a bit better, but then I missed the idea of 15...d5 and Bb5, which kind of equalized on the spot. So that was a bit unfortunate," the 34-year-old said.

Coach Mattson said the team felt "demoralized" by their move, but then eventually focused on "maximum resistance."

We started to become more organized in our discussion, anticipating 'bullet moves' or 'anti-candidate moves' that may sink the team. Overall, we also started anticipating reasonable options for Magnus and unifying around what we felt were reasonable responses. We continued to resist by trying to ask practical questions such as, 'How will he win if we don't collapse?'

We continued to trade pieces toward the typical 'Magnus endgame torture.' Suddenly, Magnus captured the pawn on g7, relieving us from his legendary positional interrogation techniques.

The unique event shattered previous participation records, surpassing the 70,000 mark set by Vishy vs. The World in 2024. At the start of Carlsen's match, 100,000 had signed up to play, which ballooned to more than 143,000 by the end of it. There were also 508,000 votes cast and more than 30,000 forum comments posted during the six weeks the game lasted.

"I'm thrilled to see the incredible reception and enthusiasm from the community," said Sam Copeland, Chess.com's Head of Community.

"This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for players of all levels to suggest, discuss, and debate their chess ideas in competition with the greatest chess player of all time. The coordination and collaboration among the players were impressive, and we are deeply grateful to Magnus for his participation in the match."

This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for players of all levels to suggest, discuss, and debate their chess ideas in competition with the greatest of all time.

—Sam Copeland, Chess.com's Head of Community

Coach Mattson also expressed his enthusiasm for providing guidance for The World with WGM Dina Belenkaya, IM David "Divis" Martinez, IM David Pruess, and GM Benjamin Bok: "It was an honor to be a coach for the community, and I was amazed by the fighting spirit and resilience the community displayed in this game."

Carlsen's draw vs The World is his second in an online match of this kind. In 2002, at just 11 years of age, the young prodigy drew after 31 moves in a match hosted by Norwegian online newspaper Nettavisen.