The Week in Chess

Magnus Carlsen took on the rest of Norway in a match on the VG Newspaper website on Thursday 8th May 2014. There was a television quality program for over three hours presented by Mads Andersen. The whole event was hosted by the Oslo City shopping center. A team of three wise men Simen Agdestein, Jon Ludvig Hammer and Leif Erlend Johannessen suggested moves and their suggestions were voted on by the public. Carlsen had one minute to decide on his moves, his opposition five.

Hans Olav Lahlum enforced the rules (he took Carlsen's mobile from him when he started voting) and had his own team of experts in the sofa area.

A striking "Mystiske Nordmannen" dressed in red made the moves at the board. The audience tried to guess who it was, he wasn't good at chess having to be prompted to play the right moves. It turned out to be skier Oddvar Bra who is famous in Norway.

Carlsen looked well on top at one stage but got a little careless. The three players could ask for help from Houdini three times each during the game by ringing a bell. Houdini or they found a strong counter-attack eventually Carlsen decided to force a draw.

"Like facing a quiz master using Google" Espen Agdestein.

A really imaginative event that worked very well. I took some screen grabs of the key moments.