the best played game of chess

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 164009

---  "quigonginger" <quigonginger at ...> wrote:
>
> A thought struck me the other day.
> 
> At the end of PS/SS, DD awards Ron points for "the 
> best-played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many 
> years".
> 
> At first my mind started on a silly tangent with all 
> sorts of questions:  How did DD know that it was "the 
> best"?  He wasn't there to watch it.  
> 

bboyminn:

How do you know that Dumbledore was speaking with 
absolute literal precision? Maybe, he was just making
a general statement that since Ron won, he must have
done pretty well. 

Reasonably, it doesn't have to be literally the best 
game of chess that was every played in the history of 
Hogwarts. It just has to be a good noteworthy game of
chess.

Next, let's look at what was at stake in that game of
chess. In my fan fiction which takes place in the far
future, Ron's greatest claim to fame amoung the general
public is that game of chess. That was an absolutely
unprecidented and historic game of chess. 

What was at stake? The entire fate of the wizard world and
the lives of his friends. If Ron loses, Harry doesn't go 
on, eventually Voldemort wins, and the result is misery, 
chaos,  oppression, and tyranny for everyone plus death 
for a great many. 

Further, in even playing the game, Ron is  risking his 
life, or has a reasonable preception that his life is
at risk. Even further in sacrificing himself, there is a 
reasonable probability that he will forfeit his life, or
at least suffer significant bodily injury. 

When was the last time you saw a game of chess where
the stakes were that high? When was the last time you
saw someone bet their life and the lives of hundreds on 
the outcome of a game the way Ron did? 

Oh yes indeed, this was truly the best played game of
chess in lo these many many years. 

> Ginger continues:
>
> Quirrelmort would have had to play as well.  ...
> 
> I discounted the silliest question of all:  Didn't DD 
> have to play through as well?  ...  No, I think DD had
> some sort of "back-door key".  ...
> 

bboyminn:

So, why would Dumbledore have a 'back door', a point on
which I very much agree, and not let the other teachers
protecting the Stone use it? Do, you think Dumbledore
made Quirrel fight his way through all the previous
challenges, just so he could place his Troll after the 
chess challenge? I don't think so. 

Do you think Dumbledore made Snape fight his way through 
all the challenges so he could set up the challenge of 
Logic and Potions? I don't think so. That would be too 
time consuming and too unreliable, so I conclude that 
Dumbledore shared his 'backdoor' with all the teachers 
who were helping him guard the Stone. I seems like the 
only reasonable and practical thing to do.

More likely each teacher who set up a challenge also
set up a 'by pass'. Individual teachers shared their
personal 'backdoor' with Dumbledore, and he in turn
shared them with the next person to set up the next 
sbusequent challenge. 


>Ginger concludes:
>
> Who masterminded the game?  Was it Quirrel or LV?...  

bboyminn:

I'm completely baffled by this question? Perhaps I don't 
understand what you really intend to ask, but McGonagall
was the one who created the enchanted Chess Set, and I
have always assumed it was against McGonagall's chess
skills that you played. 

Have I misinterpreted the question?

Steve/BlueWizard