He seems to be pretty confident that he’s going to win the game he’s playing. Has anyone taken a good look at his position? Is his confidence justified?
Of course, even if we were able to freeze/examine the game, would we truly be able to tell an answer, considering we probably don’t know which side he’d be playing?
I humbly submit (as a mediocre chess player) that Jay-Z is in a spot of trouble. His initial position can be seen here. Playing as white, he then moves his rook one space to the very (stage left, his right) corner.
His new position is as follows:
wR x wK x x x x x
x wB x x x x x x
x wP bB wH x wB x wP
x x x x x x wP bP
bP x wP bH x x x x
x wP x x x x x bP
x x x x x x bP x
x x x bK bR bR x x
Ah, the coding is bad but you get the position. I’d post a screen cap but at this point pieces start disappearing. Also note that, like a small child, I call knights “horses” (H). It is now Black’s move.
What springs immediately to mind is that Jay has abandoned his Bishop, which can be taken by Black’s Rook consequence free. This puts him in a 20-16 points deficit and also allows that same Rook to threaten check in Black’s next move. I frankly don’t see many options open to Jay after Black takes the bishop, at which point the board will look like so:
wR x wK x x x x x
x wB x x x x x x
x wP bB wH x bR x wP
x x x x x x wP bP
bP x wP bH x x x x
x wP x x x x x bP
x x x x x x bP x
x x x bK bR x x x
From here I think it’s true that the game is over, but not in the way that Jay would hope (if he’s not careful, mate in 2). In my (again) humble opinion, it would have been much smarter for him to take Black’s knight with his (now lost) bishop, shoring up his position on the left sideand bringing the bishop firmly into the attack. Instead he made a mostly useless move with the rook.
Maybe someone who is better than me at chess can find Jay-Z a winning strategy? Am I wrong in my analysis?
Agree that he would have been better off with bishop takes knight. That also protects the left-side pawn’s next move, leaving it one square away from promotion.
Frankly, I’m astonished they not only got the board orientation correct (white on right), but also the queen on color rule (I’m assuming here, since the position is technically reachable from the incorrect starting position but it would be easier to reach it from the correct starting position).
Obviously, moving the tower is a very male gesture and it looks aestitically good.
I know that the makers of commercials don’t put the highest premium on details, but it would have taken so little effort to create a position where Jay-Z was actually in control.
…e.g. far, far away from any chessboards? :D:D
This thread is one of the reasons I enjoy the SDMB
You beat me to it by 10 minutes. Reading that OP, and then enjoying the detail of Fred D’s reponse made me thing “Holy crap, I love this place”.
Woops, I made a pretty obvious error. If Jay takes Black’s Knight, Black simply moves the rook up to c1+, Jay’s only move is Kf2, then Rd2++. Still mate in two.
Since I’m feeling particularly nerdy today, I’m challenging myself to come up with a strategy that will win the game for White. Anyone else up for it?