Some really interesting facts about Chess

by Kish | Jul 25, 2010 | Articles, Facts, Fun

Chess is a very interesting game in that it is fully concrete. Therefore, chess has given a number of interesting experiences to the world. Here are Some really interesting facts about Chess

Some really interesting facts about Chess (that even I did not know!)

1. Did you know the number of possible ways of playing the first four moves for both sides in a game of chess is 319,999,664,000?

2. The longest game of chess that is theoretically possible is 5,989 moves.

3. The first chessboard with alternating light and dark squares (as it appears today) was made in Europe in 1090 AD.

4. According to the America’s Foundation for Chess, there are 169,518,829,100,545,000,000,000,000,000 (approximately 1.71×10²⁹) ways to play the first 10 moves of a game of chess. Even a computer would find that difficult to digest.

5. The word “checkmate” in chess originally comes from the Persian word “Shah Mat,” which is often translated to “the king is dead”, although more accurate may be “the king is trapped” or ” the king is without escape” (Treadwell).

6. The longest chess game ever played was I.Nikolic – Arsovic, Belgrade 1989, which ended in – hold your breath – 269 moves. The game ended in a draw!

7. There are 400 different possible positions after one move each. There are 72,084 different possible positions after two moves each. There are over 9 million different possible positions after three moves each. There are over 318 billion different possible positions after four moves each. The number of distinct 40-move games in chess is far greater than the number of electrons in the observable universe. The number of electrons is approximately 10⁷⁹, while the number of unique chess games is 10¹²⁰.

8. The second book ever printed in the English language was about chess! Now that is really strange.

Winning Chess: How To See Three Moves Ahead (Bestseller at Amazon)

by Irving Chernev

and

Fred Reinfeld.

9. The new pawn move, where pawns were allowed to advance two squares on its first move instead of one, was first introduced in Spain in 1280.

10. The first chess game played between space and earth was on June 9, 1970 by the Soyez-9 crew. The game ended in a draw.

11. An old puzzle: If you put one grain of wheat on the first square of the chessboard, two on the second, four on the third, eight on the fourth, and so on, how many grains of wheat do you need to put on the 64th square? The answer is 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 (approximately 9.22×10¹⁸) grains of wheat. That’s a lot of nutrition.

12. The folding chessboard was invented by a priest who was forbidden to play chess. The priest found a way around it by making a folding chessboard. When folded together and put on a bookshelf, it simply looks like two books.

13. Kirk and Spock have played chess three times on the show Star Trek. Kirk won all three games.

14. A computer called Deep Thought became the first computer to beat an international grandmaster in November 1988, Long Beach, California.

15. Garry Kasparov, at 22, became the youngest ever world champion. Ruslan Ponomariov was younger but he was not the undisputed world champion; Maia Chiburdanidze was even younger when she won the women’s title.

16. Some people are so good at chess, they can play against more than one opponent at a given time. In 1922, World Champion José Raúl Capablanca played 103 opponents simultaneously and won 102 of the games (with 1 draw). This type of chess  prowess display is called as a ‘SIMUL’.

How to Beat Your Dad at Chess – (No:1 Bestseller at Amazon)

by

Murray Chandler