How about an interesting trip to the behind-the-scenes fun facts of Chess, the ancient “game of thrones”?
Of all the games, Chess has that intriguing aura about it that makes the players the proud participants, the audience awe-struck, and the “illiterates”, well, embarrassed (?). The medieval game that is rooted in our “very own” rich soil has the world in its brainy fist today.
In its evolution from the Indian royal courts as ‘Chaturanga’ and through the historical terrains of Arabia, Central Asia and Europe, the game is witness to quite many amusing facts and quirky twists of fate.
Here are a few interesting crumbs from the epic journey that spans over many centuries.
BANNED & DETESTED?
Did you know that the game which was referred to as the “Game of Kings” and the “royal game” was also detested by the early church? As early as 1061, Chess was banned at various points in History by Kings and the Church, blaming it as “boring and a waste of time”!
Was that the true reason? Or did the Kings and the Bishops of Europe felt threatened or mocked at by the concept of the game itself?
The prohibition however gave birth to the folding chess board, secretly invented by a priest who loved to play the game!
GAMES THAT ARE ETCHED IN HISTORY
Did you know that the longest tournament game ever played lasted for 269 moves and ended in a draw? The game between Ivan Nikolić and Goran Arsović, in Belgrade, 1989, lasted 20 hours and 15 minutes!
The chess player who retained the title of champion for the longest time in history is Dr. Emanuel Lasker. He retained his title for 26 years and 337 days before surrendering to opponent José Capablanca in 1921.
While Lasker is the chess master with the longest sustained title, the chess master to have won all the three formats of the World Chess Championship is India’s master wizard Vishwanathan Anand.
UNIVERSAL CHESS!
Did you know that the first game of chess between earth and space ended in a draw? And how many times the spaceship orbited the earth during the 6 hour game?
In June 1970, extra-terrestrial chess was played between the cosmonauts in the Soviet spacecraft Soyuz-9 and their “earthen representatives” in Russia. The “Earth v/s Space” game was held between pilot-cosmonauts Andriyan Grigoryevich Nikolaev and Vitaly Ivanovich Sevastyanov and their earth-mates Viktor Gorbatko, another cosmonaut, and Nikolai P. Kamanin, who was heading the Russian cosmonaut training programme in Moscow.
Well, you would wonder, ‘do all Russians play chess’?!
The cosmonauts who were chess enthusiasts had carried a chessboard with them to space. When they suggested the idea of a game, the team’s psychologists disagreed, saying that it might result in "unnecessary negative emotions" in the members who would lose the game.
Were they worried that a failure, if from the part of the cosmonauts, could affect their mental state and jeopardize their space-trip?
Well, the cosmonauts knew better! They assured positive outcomes. The consent was given by the authorities and a special chessboard for the Space set up was designed by the Russian scientists.
They had to design it in such a way that the pawns wouldn't fall off the board!
The game was played over the radio and lasted six hours. By the time the Space and the Earth teams ended the game in a draw, the spacecraft had orbited the earth four times!
How far the winning aspect influences the chess players? Does chess mentally equip the players to take failure on their strides?
MATH, SCIENCE & . . . CHESS?
Schools across the world are slowly yet surely welcoming the cognitive development capabilities of chess and making it part of the school curriculum
Did you know that in Armenia chess is a compulsory subject in schools? In Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan, chess is taught and encouraged in schools. No wonder the port city has produced eight grandmasters, including the legendary Garry Kasparov!
The improvement in children’s academic performance through chess training is a much researched and proven topic. Many schools in India and the U.S. are moving boundaries in their curriculum to accommodate the game.
When it comes to brainy moves, did you know that computers were not able to manage the first computer program for playing chess? When Alan Turing developed the program in 1951, computers were not powerful enough to process that. Turing had to do his own calculations and play according to the results!
TID-BITS OF HISTORY
Did you know that a game of chess could reverse destinies? Well here’s the story. The famous Russian chess grandmaster Ossip Bernstein was sentenced to death in 1918 by the Bolsheviks. While facing the firing squad, one of the officers who were familiar with the chess master’s name offered him a chance at life if he proved his identity as the chess maestro. He easily defeated the officer and walked away free!
Have you heard of Zugzwang? Sounds weird? Well, did you know that it is a term in chess when a player is knee-deep in trouble? When the player’s only move options are at high risk, and he/she is forced to make a move, the player is in Zugzwang. What moves are you familiar with in Chess?
Did you know who decided that white pieces should be moved first? It was in 1700-1873, the so-called “Romantic Era” in chess that the convention of moving the white pieces first came to pass. In 1857, it was an English chess master Lowenthal who recommended to the First American Chess Congress that the player with the White Pieces must move first. The era is also credited with bringing the evolution of pawns as strategic pieces.
WRAPPING UP
How worse have you played the game? Did you know the worst performance by a pro chess player is also recorded in history? Macleod of Canada was recorded as the worst performance player when he lost 31 games in the New York double round robin in 1889.
The trail of chess has many more tales to share. Many interesting twists and turns, historical evolutions and funniest facts. Getting to know more about your game helps to build your relationship with it. Today, to learn chess is to be part of a great history, a vast cultural sandstorm and incredible technological innovation. Curious to know more?
Learn more about the game at : https://www.mindmentorz.com/