Chess Trivia

When the chess fever took new heights:

It was in June, 1970 when the first game of chess was played between earth and space by the Soyez-9 crew. Though the game ended in a draw, it really boosted up the spirit of chess inside people.

Bizarre winning strategies:

Ruy Lopez the famous priest and chess player of the 16th century advised chess players to make sure their opponents sit facing the sun. To quote him “Sit your opponent with the sun in his eyes.” Another popular bizarre winning strategy by Lucena, a famous chess player of that time is, if you want to beat your opponent, always play when they have their stomach filled with food and drinks. To quote him “ “Try to play after your opponent has eaten or drunk freely.”

The battle of Computer vs Human:

In November 1988, Long Beach, California, a computer named as Deep Thought became the first computer in history to beat a human. This made a headline back then, but, this is still a debatable topic about who wins the final combat after 31 years.

That is some unexplainable, outstanding skill!:

In 1922, World Champion José Raúl Capablanca, made an impact that the world applauds even today. He played against 103 opponents simultaneously, and won 102 of the games, all at once. One game ended in a draw - definitely a chess genius!

Ever tried Tri-D chess?

Hear out the all the Star Trek fans. There is a variant of chess that is known as the Tri-D chess and its pretty famous. It is the same game that you see in the star Trek movie. The original Star Trek prop was cobbled using boards from 3D checkers and 3D tic- tac-toes. Though the rules of the game were never introduced in the movie and episodes, in 1976, programmer and Star Trek fan Andrew Bartmess developed what is now the standard rules for playing Tri-D chess.

What is the possible ways of playing the first four moves for both sides in chess?

That’s easy, it's 318,979,564,000. That is a lot of numbers to be sure!

The priest who loved chess:

In 1125, priests were not forbidden to play chess. A priest's dedication to chess, invented the foldable chess board. He built a chess board that could be folded, hid easily and looked like a book. Smart move.

What is Singularity chess?

Sigularity chess is a variety of chess played on a board distorted in the center. Since its a distorted form of chess, the rules are quite exciting, some pieces can make U-turns, attack the same square in multiple ways, and bishops can change square colours. That are some interesting rules.

The Indian legend:

Viswanathan Anand maybe the greatest chess player in the world for his fans but he regards Bobby Fisher as the greatest of all time. He has won the world chess championship 5 times and was regarded the world's number one from 2007 to 2013. He is not only a genius in chess but also has a fascination for foreign languages like - French, German and Spanish. The chess player says that if he loses a match, he works hard at the gym to calm down. Wonder how many punching bags would have taken a beating!