Is one single person smarter than an enormous group of people? Is a crowd better at making decisions than one trained expert? Crowdchess.com is taking this idea and putting it to the ultimate test, a mass exhibition of the ultimate strategy game where it is literally the world versus chess Grand Master Gawain Jones, one of England’s highest rated players.
It goes like this: everyone enrolled gets to vote on a move the team should make and has 12 hours to do so. The move that gets the most votes will take place, and then Mr. Jones will have 12 hours to decide on his move.
While this may not be a completely comprehensive test, the results should be pretty exciting. Challenging a Grand Master is no easy task but I for one believe that with all persons dedicated to the game and the ability to mill over every possible outcome for 12 hours means that the odds are in the crowd’s favor. Another test of crowd wisdom could be a group of people boxing against the heavy-weight champion of the world, but chess may be a bit more civil. Visit www.CrowdChess.com to learn more.
In this case, I think a crowd would be very unlikely to choose an excellent move, and most likely to choose a very "average" move, which will not be anything remotely close to a challenge for the master.