Word of the Day
Diegetic (adj., die-uh-JET-ick)
In a story, something related to the action or main plot. The main path, not the roses that can be smelled.
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Link of the Day
Magnus Carlsen wins the World Chess Championship—in overtime
If you were following the site last week, you might've noticed that all our links had a "food" theme. This week, we get to catch up on things we saw last week, and the best place to start is the World Chess Championship.
The end of it: Magnus Carlsen retained the title (on his 26th birthday, no less). But there was a lot more excitement because the Championship ended up tied at the end of the 12-game match, sending Carlsen and challenger Sergey Karjakin to the tiebreaker. Although chess is often REALLY boring to watch, its tiebreaker is actually pretty creative:
First, a mini-match of four rapid games will be played. Each player gets 25 minutes for all of his moves, plus 10 bonus seconds after every move played.
If the players remain tied after those four games,1 they’ll play a mini-match of two blitz games. Each player will get five minutes, plus three seconds after every move. They’ll keep playing those, if the two-game mini-matches are tied, for up to five total mini-matches (10 total blitz games).
Finally, if none of that settles it, they’ll play one sudden-death game using a format known as Armageddon. White gets five minutes and black gets four minutes, but a drawn game counts as a win for black.
Anyone with half an ounce of humanity in their bodies was rooting for Armageddon because why not. Instead, Carlsen won it in the rapid match—but not without some difficulty. Game 2 was an incredibly fun, tense match, with Karjakin pulling out a draw despite being down in position, pieces, and time:
I'm not a chess fan but I loved following Karjakin's Houdini-esque escape act in this game. He managed to keep enough of a perimeter long enough to find a way out of an impossible situation.
Yes, Carlsen flubbed a couple moves. Yes, Karjakin lost the overall match. But this was an absolute stunner, a terrific defensive performance that capped a strong run. Losing to the wunderkind is no shame. And full marks to FIDE for enabling people to follow along with their live-update widget and be able to watch for $7. That's how to make people interested in your sport.
ChessMagnus CarlsenSergey KarjakinOutrun, outlastLeverage and defenseWhite to play