A professional chess player was facing an interview. The Interviewer asked- What is your strength?
He replied with confidence- I have a very good head of figure.
The Interviewer asked again- Why are you so confident about that!
He replied - Because I am a chess player!
Many of you have already enjoyed the most watched Netflix series of the last year ‘The Queen’s Gambit’. Popularity of chess is increased worldwide like never before since the kick off of this series. So I believed that, this is the high time to share some interesting chessy crazy facts with you all.
The game of Chess is synonymous with mental stamina, strategy and patience. It is played by millions of people worldwide and transcends language, religion, culture and even time! So you may wonder ‘what about chess makes the game so mind-blowing?’
To find the answer of this question lets explore some unknown and interesting facts of mysterious Chess:
1. 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 9.22x10 18) grains of wheat!
2. 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 10^79 , while the number of unique chess games is 10^120 .
3. The word ‘checkmate’ is derived from the Arabic word ‘shah mat’, which means ‘the king is dead (helpless)’ in English.
4. The second book ever printed in the English language was about chess!
5. The longest chess game theoretically possible is 5,949 moves
6. The longest chess game ever was played by I.Nikolic - Arsovic, Belgrade 1989, which ended in 269 moves. The game was ended by a draw
7. From the starting position, there are eight different ways to Mate in two moves and 355 different ways to Mate in three moves.
8. Dr. Emanuel Lasker from Germany retained the World Chess Champion title for more time than any other player ever: 26 years and 337 days
9. The longest time for a Castling move (Special move of exchanging King Place with own Rook in a new place for both) to take place was the match game between Bobotsor vs. Irkov in 1966: 46. 0-0.
10. The worst performance by a player was Macleod of Canada who lost 31 games in a row at the New York double-round robin of 1889.
11. There were 72 consecutive Queen moves in the Mason-Mackenzie game at London in 1882.
12. There are well over 1,000 different openings, including variations within larger openings/defenses that one can learn.
13. The number of possibilities of a Knight’s tour is over 122 million.
14. Chess is often cited by psychologists as an effective way to improve memory function. Also allowing the mind to solve complex problems and work through ideas, it is no wonder that chess is recommended in the fight against Alzheimer’s. Some contend that it can increase one’s intelligence, though that is a more complex topic. The effects of chess on young individuals had led to chess being introduced in school districts and various countries. It has been shown to improve children’s grades and other positive effects as well.
15. Researchers at a school in India tested the creative thinking skills of two groups of students. One group was trained in chess playing, and the other was not. The tests asked students to come up with alternate uses for common items and to interpret patterns and meaning in abstract forms. Students who played chess scored higher on tests. Researchers concluded that chess increased the students’ ability to exercise divergent and creative thinking.
16. Humayun Ahmed, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Aamir Khan, Usain Bolt, Fidel Castro, Charlie Chaplin, Che Guevara, Henry Kissinger are the name of some well known celebrities who were/are big fan of Chess.
17. World Richest Man at that time,Bill Gates was once played against the World Champion Top Ranked Chess Player of the world Magnus Carlsen. It took only 9 moves and 80 seconds for Carlsen to win against Bill Gates.
Last but not the least, a chess riddle for all of you- Two Super Humans were in chess battle against each other. First Super Human was able to see the future and the second Super Human was able to read anyone’s mind. Who won that interesting Chess battle? If you know the answer please email me your answer to: [email protected]
Happy Chess for all!
References:
1. https://www.gamesver.com/
2. https://www.chess.com/article/
3. https://thechessworld.com/
4. https://ohfact.com/chess-facts/
5. https://www.healthline.com/