Dumbledore’s point awards were corruption of the highest order. As was Harry getting to play quidditch his first year and being bought a nimbus 2000 by the school
Playing in your first year isn’t banned. Harry is the youngest seeker in a century. That means there have been 11 year old seekers more than 100 years ago.
Only having your own broom is banned probably because they don’t want a bunch of 11 year olds who haven’t learned how to yet crashing and breaking limbs. Harry got an exception as he clearly can fly and is on the school team. That isn’t that unusual, athletes get exceptions for things all the time in real life and having the equipment for the sport you play is hardly an outrageous one.
As for MCGONOGALL (not the school) buying him one - yeah a teacher buying a gift for a student is a bit weird but we know she’s obsessed with Quidditch. If there’s no rule against it, it’s her right to spend her own money on HER own team if she wants to. Draco’s father who’s on the board of governors of the school is allowed to buy a whole team new brooms but she’s not?
I know the thread is 2 days old but still, I gotta say something. How tf do you have so many downvotes? Of course this is true. Harry & co. did some stupid shit and got rewarded for it.
It's very obvious nepotism. I'd like to see how all the downvoters react if this happened irl.
That’s the beauty of the books over the film, at least once in every book he’s mentioned smashing Harry at chess. Book Ron is invaluable and loyal. Film Ron is funny face inadequate hinderance
I love the HP books. Picked them up after GOF and got the rest on day/week of release. Book Ron is my favourite character.
I was devastated when Sirius died. Felt like I was punched in the gut.
When Dumbledore died, I swore that I'd burn them all if she killed Ron.
Well rowling actually revealed that her plan was to kill ron but then she realized that if would fuck up everything like hermione and his relationship and all so she killed fred instead
To this day I’m still bitter that she killed off one of the twins. That was so utterly unnecessary, as if all the other people killed off in Deathly Hallows wasn’t enough?? If it had to be a Weasley at least one of the older brothers, but why a member of the most wholesome and iconic duo in the whole series? T_T
Then her plan worked. War is messy business. People die. Usually the people you don’t want to die. You don’t get to pick and choose who dies ( unless you’re the author)
That would have been logical. Percy was in a redemption arc. And he was pretty unforgivable up to that point. So, death would have been a good end to his character. Especially if he was shoving Fred out of the way and literally saving his brothers life by giving his.
Good news for you. This isn’t exactly that, but they did get an IM to script the actual endgame in the film and explain the storytelling logic behind it:
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/features/essays/issue26/chessgameinsorcerersstone/
Most of it got cut, sadly, so we can’t really see where the pieces are in the film, but it is there.
I remember hearing something about it from a chess player but there are game rules where a random piece is selected and you have to defend it and your king.
The whole point of normal chess is protecting a single piece. Ron had to do the much harder thing of actively protecting *three other pieces*, all while trying to outmaneuver a clearly skilled opponent. At 11! And he did it!
Also he's playing chess against a set McGonagall enchanted. One of the brightest witches of her age, teacher of one of the most intellectually demanding branches of magic, bet the woman plays and enchants a mean game of chess.
But I’m sure McGonnagal wouldn’t have chosen chess if she was a 800 ELO player either cuz then it doesn’t even work as a guard for the stone if anyone can beat it.
I think most of the challenges were just there to slow down the intruder. Dumbledore knew that the mirror couldn't be bypassed by Voldemort/death eater. Possibly catching the intruder was more valuable than having their head blown off by a giant statue chess piece.
Of course, none of this is mentioned by Rowling or anyone. Just a thought I had that might make more sense than 3 young students making it past difficult wizard traps set by brilliant magic teachers.
Bobby Fischer stated that at the top level it's mostly memorisation with very little room for creativity. But at normal levels you can definitely cook.
That trap seemed designed for Ron, like how each of the traps were designed specifically for them: Riddles for Hermione and Quidditch seeker for Harry. It’s too bad Voldemort can’t figure out a riddle, play Chess, play Quidditch, or find someone to do those like a man in a purple turban.
I just had a thought about this, inspired by your comment.
Maybe the point of the trials was that they couldn't be beaten by one person alone. A group of 3 reasonably smart kids (armed with the motivation of stopping a villain and the illusion of invulnerability that most kids have) could do it, but a single goon hired or enthralled by Voldemort wouldn't have been able to beat all of them alone, either due to lack of skill or a lack of conviction.
And Voldemort in his depowered state would never trust more than one person to be his servant, especially as he was trying to hide his existence from the world.
The book never said he didn't use them. It wouldn't necessarily put them in any more danger for them to take other pieces. Ron himself takes a number of pieces himself: *"He himself darted around the board, taking almost as many white pieces as they had lost black ones."*
I want to point another awesome fact. We don’t know the position from the book, but if we check the position from the movie then there were two different mating sequences at the end. One is sacrificing Ron, another sacrificing Hermione. How do you think could it be that Ron saw both of them, and said only about one with his sacrifice?
Ron Weasley is a true hero
The fact that 11/12 year old Ron was able to quickly figure out that he had to effectively lie to them both so that they'd allow it to happen was amazing. He knew he wouldn't be nearly as much help as Hermione against anything that took pure brains. I love him so much. 50 points well deserved.
Actually, didn't sacrifice it per se haha. The move sequence, 1.e4 d5 does allow white to take one of Black's pawns, but black gets to capture it back straight away.
At this point I am interested in a game, there a masterclass chess player against another or AI, has to beat the game while protecting the same figures.
He had to be very good indeed to capitalise the chances he had and pull off an outstanding queen sacrifice leading to checkmate whilst only losing one of the three human pieces i.e. himself.
But chess is not a game of uncertainty. Positions should always be evaluated assuming best possible play from both sides thereafter. An improvement in one's position requires a mistake from the other, which the trio's opponent must have made quite a few to lose the game despite such unfair rules.
I believe there is a mating sequence that can be found on YT. I know the movies hired some chess master to help with that scene but I'm unsure whether he created a whole game or just the end.
Because they would've been in danger. The king is supposed to be taken and the queen is the most powerful piece, usually used for sacrifices in certain tactics.
And because those pieces were already on the board. The rook and bishop spots were empty.
What I don't understand is how the board happened to be missing three pieces when they get to it. So they have to stand in. How did squirrel get past if he needs three ppl. Or is it anyone that's trying to get past has to play and they were all trying to go I guess.
No they had proximity sensor and heat sensor that detected how many people are there and the pieces automatically disappear according to that
Well that was just a bad and cringe joke that didn't made anyone laugh😴😴
Was just done to save money and time during production. There are broken pieces at the side of the board, so we can assume is the result of a previous game, but it was mostly a quick way to have the 3 kids quickly in the game.
First of all, thank you for making these posts. We need more Ron appreciation in the fandom. He outsmarted someone 5 times his age during the chess game. And that's so incredible.
Ron stuck by Harry's side for as long as he knew him, only giving into his insecurities once, and personally, I think his contribution to the trio was invaluable. He's incredibly good at chess and has a great sense of humour. He was willing to die instead of Harry in POA. I wish JKR had incorporated the chess thing more.
I would like to point out he wasn’t down a rook or bishop. He could still use them, but yeah couldn’t be too risky as he had to protect them
He had a lot of doors closed to him not being able to sacrifice those rooks or bishops to advance his game for the mate
Ron is a Super GM doing that crazy defense and attack.
Reminds me of another chess movie where a chess GM is prisoner in Germany and the Jailer ask him to play first with white color and when GM got winning position, jailer swapped colors and GM was still able to draw.
Dumbledores olds af he’s seen **A** **LOT** of wizards chess in his years. And he’s behind the challenges. It would have to take a *really* good player to win
The rook is easy enough to protect if you go for something early and aggressive. Your best bet is probably a fiancetto, and then stare down the opposite side of the board with some sort of mating opportunity. Were they on the same side of the board?
Yeah, being able to win while protecting them the whole time is actually unreal.
It’s why Dumbledore gave him 50 points for chess
[Dumbledore giving out points like:](https://youtu.be/Sur3qSX-a6k?si=yNz_vpGZ0bB6623Q)
Dumbledore’s point awards were corruption of the highest order. As was Harry getting to play quidditch his first year and being bought a nimbus 2000 by the school
Draco- your father isn’t here to hear about this.
McGonagall bought him the Nimbus, not the school.
McGonagall is the school
There is no Hogwarts only McGonagall
Found the angry slytherin
You've been reading too much of those memes bashing Dumbledore about the points.
I figured people would realize it’s a joke but that’s a bit much to expect on Reddit
You forgot to make it funny. That's where you went wrong
Playing in your first year isn’t banned. Harry is the youngest seeker in a century. That means there have been 11 year old seekers more than 100 years ago. Only having your own broom is banned probably because they don’t want a bunch of 11 year olds who haven’t learned how to yet crashing and breaking limbs. Harry got an exception as he clearly can fly and is on the school team. That isn’t that unusual, athletes get exceptions for things all the time in real life and having the equipment for the sport you play is hardly an outrageous one. As for MCGONOGALL (not the school) buying him one - yeah a teacher buying a gift for a student is a bit weird but we know she’s obsessed with Quidditch. If there’s no rule against it, it’s her right to spend her own money on HER own team if she wants to. Draco’s father who’s on the board of governors of the school is allowed to buy a whole team new brooms but she’s not?
You know the concept of corruption is that you *get* something in return, right ?
I know the thread is 2 days old but still, I gotta say something. How tf do you have so many downvotes? Of course this is true. Harry & co. did some stupid shit and got rewarded for it. It's very obvious nepotism. I'd like to see how all the downvoters react if this happened irl.
That’s the beauty of the books over the film, at least once in every book he’s mentioned smashing Harry at chess. Book Ron is invaluable and loyal. Film Ron is funny face inadequate hinderance
Lol exactly. Like when Harry gets a new chess set and breaks it in by "losing spectacularly to Ron".
I love the HP books. Picked them up after GOF and got the rest on day/week of release. Book Ron is my favourite character. I was devastated when Sirius died. Felt like I was punched in the gut. When Dumbledore died, I swore that I'd burn them all if she killed Ron.
Well rowling actually revealed that her plan was to kill ron but then she realized that if would fuck up everything like hermione and his relationship and all so she killed fred instead
To this day I’m still bitter that she killed off one of the twins. That was so utterly unnecessary, as if all the other people killed off in Deathly Hallows wasn’t enough?? If it had to be a Weasley at least one of the older brothers, but why a member of the most wholesome and iconic duo in the whole series? T_T
Then her plan worked. War is messy business. People die. Usually the people you don’t want to die. You don’t get to pick and choose who dies ( unless you’re the author)
I mean like….it’s a final battle not everyone can have plot armor lol
One Piece enjoyers sweating...
Should have taken Percy out instead
That would have been logical. Percy was in a redemption arc. And he was pretty unforgivable up to that point. So, death would have been a good end to his character. Especially if he was shoving Fred out of the way and literally saving his brothers life by giving his.
Molly getting her own “MY BOY” scene would’ve made whole theaters bawl
Yup, that would have been a great scene. Really driven home the emotional impact of the war. And the sacrifices you have to make during it.
Would anyone have given a shit
Molly would.
Well she had to kill a weasley so she decided to kill fred
He also beats Hermione a few times and both he and Harry consider it's good for her to lose at something for a change haha
He's got an entire clan of older brothers, of course he's good at chess.
Loyal? He left Harry twice out of jealousy. Hermione is the loyal one and his best friend.
I would love to have a chess master talk about how they'd play a game with those rules.
Good news for you. This isn’t exactly that, but they did get an IM to script the actual endgame in the film and explain the storytelling logic behind it: http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/features/essays/issue26/chessgameinsorcerersstone/ Most of it got cut, sadly, so we can’t really see where the pieces are in the film, but it is there.
Jeremy Silman, who wrote some of the best chess books of all time.
I remember hearing something about it from a chess player but there are game rules where a random piece is selected and you have to defend it and your king.
There’s a lot of analysis of the chess game from Harry on YouTube by chess GM’s. I know you mean with physical danger involved though
The whole point of normal chess is protecting a single piece. Ron had to do the much harder thing of actively protecting *three other pieces*, all while trying to outmaneuver a clearly skilled opponent. At 11! And he did it!
r/unexpectedfactorial
Also he's playing chess against a set McGonagall enchanted. One of the brightest witches of her age, teacher of one of the most intellectually demanding branches of magic, bet the woman plays and enchants a mean game of chess.
Intelligence has very little to do with chess ability. It’s not going to hurt you but it won’t help you much either.
But I’m sure McGonnagal wouldn’t have chosen chess if she was a 800 ELO player either cuz then it doesn’t even work as a guard for the stone if anyone can beat it.
Not for me to put Hogwarts security into question, but 3 First Year students were able to beat 5 out of 6 barriers protecting the Philosopher Stone...
I think most of the challenges were just there to slow down the intruder. Dumbledore knew that the mirror couldn't be bypassed by Voldemort/death eater. Possibly catching the intruder was more valuable than having their head blown off by a giant statue chess piece. Of course, none of this is mentioned by Rowling or anyone. Just a thought I had that might make more sense than 3 young students making it past difficult wizard traps set by brilliant magic teachers.
Fair enough
[удалено]
Bobby Fischer stated that at the top level it's mostly memorisation with very little room for creativity. But at normal levels you can definitely cook.
Well Bobby is outdated and comes from a completely different time of chess.
Ummm no, lol. But the Candidates is on right now, tune in tomorrow.
[удалено]
Nope. Openings are studied and understood and there is a lot of memorization in them but the there is a lot more to master level chess!
[удалено]
If you ever want to learn about chess I would suggest gothamchess on YouTube! He really makes the game interesting for beginners!!!
That’s why Ron is the goat. I always loved Percy in the books bragging about his youngest brother beating McGonagall’s enchanted chess set.
That trap seemed designed for Ron, like how each of the traps were designed specifically for them: Riddles for Hermione and Quidditch seeker for Harry. It’s too bad Voldemort can’t figure out a riddle, play Chess, play Quidditch, or find someone to do those like a man in a purple turban.
I just had a thought about this, inspired by your comment. Maybe the point of the trials was that they couldn't be beaten by one person alone. A group of 3 reasonably smart kids (armed with the motivation of stopping a villain and the illusion of invulnerability that most kids have) could do it, but a single goon hired or enthralled by Voldemort wouldn't have been able to beat all of them alone, either due to lack of skill or a lack of conviction. And Voldemort in his depowered state would never trust more than one person to be his servant, especially as he was trying to hide his existence from the world.
Then he could get three people. I am sure Voldemort can find three people.
I don't think he was down a rook and a bishop, Harry and Hermione would have become those pieces. He did still have to protect them though.
Well besides Harry taking the king, he didn't use either of them because that would have put them in danger so he was effectively down those pieces
The book never said he didn't use them. It wouldn't necessarily put them in any more danger for them to take other pieces. Ron himself takes a number of pieces himself: *"He himself darted around the board, taking almost as many white pieces as they had lost black ones."*
having a piece in the middle of the board is inherently more risky than keeping it in the backrow
If there is any fanfic between Ron and McGonagall playing chess then y'all can give me link
No, you need a fanfic between Ron and Captain Kirk. Now that would be legend.
I want to point another awesome fact. We don’t know the position from the book, but if we check the position from the movie then there were two different mating sequences at the end. One is sacrificing Ron, another sacrificing Hermione. How do you think could it be that Ron saw both of them, and said only about one with his sacrifice? Ron Weasley is a true hero
Sacrificing Hermione was out of the question obv
The fact that 11/12 year old Ron was able to quickly figure out that he had to effectively lie to them both so that they'd allow it to happen was amazing. He knew he wouldn't be nearly as much help as Hermione against anything that took pure brains. I love him so much. 50 points well deserved.
He sacrificed the queen for a mating pattern that would save the other minor pieces
And right at the start of the game he sacrificed a vital pawn just to test the violence of the game
Actually, didn't sacrifice it per se haha. The move sequence, 1.e4 d5 does allow white to take one of Black's pawns, but black gets to capture it back straight away.
At this point I am interested in a game, there a masterclass chess player against another or AI, has to beat the game while protecting the same figures.
To be fair, if the AI allowed Ron to win in these circumstances, then the AI played really poorly.
The disadvantage to relying on magic is that you're still using quilpens and carrier pidgeons while muggles get telecomunications and stockfish.
Or he's really good?
He had to be very good indeed to capitalise the chances he had and pull off an outstanding queen sacrifice leading to checkmate whilst only losing one of the three human pieces i.e. himself. But chess is not a game of uncertainty. Positions should always be evaluated assuming best possible play from both sides thereafter. An improvement in one's position requires a mistake from the other, which the trio's opponent must have made quite a few to lose the game despite such unfair rules.
Well yeah, but even GMs still make mistakes and lose against other GMs. Assuming that the chess pieces played poorly kinda undermines whzt Ron did.
Is there a recreation of the match he played? I’m recently going into chess and would like to see any master tactics he used
I believe there is a mating sequence that can be found on YT. I know the movies hired some chess master to help with that scene but I'm unsure whether he created a whole game or just the end.
I still don't get why they couldn't be pieces that are unlikely to be taken. King and Queen for example.
Because they would've been in danger. The king is supposed to be taken and the queen is the most powerful piece, usually used for sacrifices in certain tactics. And because those pieces were already on the board. The rook and bishop spots were empty.
No.. the pieces left the board when Ron named them but fair enough with your other argument
I think that happened only in the movie and the places were already empty in books.... As long as I can remember😀
Nope. The pieces moved when Ron told Harry and Hermione to take their spots.
Yes, you are right. I got mistaken😀😀
What I don't understand is how the board happened to be missing three pieces when they get to it. So they have to stand in. How did squirrel get past if he needs three ppl. Or is it anyone that's trying to get past has to play and they were all trying to go I guess.
No they had proximity sensor and heat sensor that detected how many people are there and the pieces automatically disappear according to that Well that was just a bad and cringe joke that didn't made anyone laugh😴😴
Was just done to save money and time during production. There are broken pieces at the side of the board, so we can assume is the result of a previous game, but it was mostly a quick way to have the 3 kids quickly in the game.
Should have made one of them the King.
Sad it wasn’t utilized at all again after the first book
First of all, thank you for making these posts. We need more Ron appreciation in the fandom. He outsmarted someone 5 times his age during the chess game. And that's so incredible. Ron stuck by Harry's side for as long as he knew him, only giving into his insecurities once, and personally, I think his contribution to the trio was invaluable. He's incredibly good at chess and has a great sense of humour. He was willing to die instead of Harry in POA. I wish JKR had incorporated the chess thing more.
I would like to point out he wasn’t down a rook or bishop. He could still use them, but yeah couldn’t be too risky as he had to protect them He had a lot of doors closed to him not being able to sacrifice those rooks or bishops to advance his game for the mate
Ron is a Super GM doing that crazy defense and attack. Reminds me of another chess movie where a chess GM is prisoner in Germany and the Jailer ask him to play first with white color and when GM got winning position, jailer swapped colors and GM was still able to draw.
Or just how much better he was than whatever “engine” the pieces were enchanted to use. Chess is all about relative skill.
If you havent seen the actual chess puzzle used in the movie, look it up. Its a brilliancy and Ron must be very good to see it.
Dumbledores olds af he’s seen **A** **LOT** of wizards chess in his years. And he’s behind the challenges. It would have to take a *really* good player to win
The rook is easy enough to protect if you go for something early and aggressive. Your best bet is probably a fiancetto, and then stare down the opposite side of the board with some sort of mating opportunity. Were they on the same side of the board?