the best played game of chess

[quigonginger]

No: HPFGUIDX 164037

I, Ginger, had wondered how DD knew that Ron's game was 
 "the best-played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many 
years".

> bboyminn answered:
> 
> 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. 
(snip well-reasoned arguments)

> > I, Ginger, continued:
> >
> > 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 responded:
> 
> 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. 
(snip)

I, Ginger, now say:
 
I agree with you, Steve, and also with Bart (see his post) that DD 
had a "back door key".  I also believe that he allowed the others to 
use it when they set up their challenges, or perhaps he had an order 
of set-up in which Snape set his first, the Quirrel, then McG, and so 
on so that none of them would have had to face any challenges, only 
empty rooms that the others would be using later.

After all, the mirror wasn't in place at that time, so there was no 
danger of a traitor in their midst getting the stone. 

Frankly, I think that's why DD set up so many different challenges 
which were set by different people.  Only he had the "key" to the 
final room.  Any other person would have had to figure out the traps 
which the others had set.  Had he shared the information or the "key" 
with anyone else once the stone was set, and someone would have 
gotten through, he'd have to wonder if his trust had been misplaced 
and investigate the person whom he had trusted, which would cause a 
waste of time if that person were not the real culprit.

I had also deduced that Quirrelmort didn't have the "backdoor key" on 
the night that he went after the stone due to the fact that he had to 
grab the key in the challenge previous to the chess game (remember 
the wings were bent by someone grabbing it before Harry and Co.) and 
he also bothered with knocking out his own defense, the troll, in the 
challenge after the chess game.  Had that not been necessary, it 
would have been prudent to leave it intact in case he was being 
followed by someone other than DD, assuming the back door key lets 
you out as well ;)

So I concluded that he had also had to play across.  Which leads us 
to my question:
> >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?

Ginger: 

Actually, yes, you did.  Sorry about that.  Let me be clearer this 
time.  Assuming that Quirrelmort did have to play a game of chess to 
get across, which one was the mastermind of that game- Quirrel or 
LV?  One of them had to come up with the moves to beat the white side 
and get through the door and move on towards the stone.

What I was asking was whether it was Quirrel or LV who was the 
brilliant strategist who beat McG's chess set.  I asked because I 
wondered if LV was smarter than we had thought (and what we have been 
shown) or if Quirrel was the brains of the operation at that time, in 
which case, LV has lost an intellectually important ally.  Not that 
it wouldn't serve him right.

Being a bit snarky here, and this is not at all directed at you, 
Steve, but at my musings on the subject, the thought that first 
crossed my mind was how DD knew that Ron's game was better than 
Quirrlemort's when he said that Ron's was "the best".  Ron is 
described as "dart(ing) about the chess board, taking almost as many 
white pieces as they had lost black ones".  Wouldn't Q-mort's game 
have been "better" if he had won quickly with few losses to his 
pieces?

You explained quite well that Ron was willing to sacrifice himself 
for the good of the WW.  I now ask whether it would have been a 
better game had the player not put himself at risk in the first 
place.  Perhaps Q-mort had the presence of mind to make himself the 
king, in which case he'd have only been in danger at the moment he 
lost.  Or perhaps Q-mort was able to devise a strategy in which his 
piece was never in danger.  That would have been an additional 
challenge.  

In fairness to Ron, he did have the added responsibility of making 
sure Harry and Hermione didn't come to harm as well, which he did 
admirably.  Hmm, perhaps that is why DD thought his game was the 
best.  Not only did he win, but he kept his friends safe.  Definite 
point to ponder.

Ginger, hoping that was clearer and sorry for the confusion.