Chess is a game of Indian origin and for that, we give a great tribute to Indian genius. Earlier it was known as Chaturanga, which means the four limbs or diversions of the ancient Indian army. These four limbs or divisions create a proper army including the king and his chief minister or Mantri/Vazir.

•  Infantry
• Cavalry 
• Elephants 
• Chariots

The objective or game of chess lies in eliminating the pieces from the opponent’s territory with a strategic advancement leading the opponent king to an inescapable position to be announced checkmate. 

Chess provides for the regular and steady development of the human mind. Chess can also frame the mental abilities of a person helping him towards better strategies for life. If you are passionate enough about this game then you can develop a career as a professional chess player. 

An amazing fact to know that chess players have been found to have a higher dimensional ability as compared to other intelligence levels. They also have greater physical endurance, together with a tolerance for frustration. Undoubtedly, Chess is one of the foremost tricky and strategic games. History tells us that many players have experienced incredible and marvelous chess movements with remarkable records as well. 

Chess not only possesses a remarkable and glorious history but also has unique and unbelievable facts behind this game. Amazing chess facts you didn't know about chess, come let's read it now. 

FUN AND FACTS OF CHESS 

Chess originated 1500 years ago in North India.

Do you know how many electrons exist in the universe? Though it is hard to believe, numerically it’s 10^79 and the number of possible unique chess games is around 10^120. Compared to the universe's electrons, the number of possible unique chess games is greater than it. 

Amazing to know!

Apparently, there are around 1000 different types of opening techniques in chess. But as for a human, it is really difficult to memorize all those, amazingly the more you remember you will be focused and improved.

According to the calculations, it is estimated that a single chess game is possible to have only 5,949 moves. 

But this amount is not possible compared to the fixed time for a game. 

In the year 1989, the longest chess game had 269 moves between Ivan Nikolic and Goran Arsovic. But surprisingly, the fact is that the game ended in a draw. 

Enchanting to know, Russia is the leader of chess. They have more than 250 grandmasters. 

 “The king is no more”

Every game that ends with a victory has a standard word known as “Checkmate“. “Checkmate” has derived from the Arabic phrase “Shah mat“, which gives the meaning that The king is dead. 

‘’EN PASSANT’’ This rule was introduced in 1280 in Spain. 

In 1973 a weird thing happened. A chess tournament that was held in Cleveland was called off by the police, and the tournament director was arrested for gambling. The chess sets related to this unfinished game were also seized.  

Dr. Emanuel Lasker of Germany, has long held the title of “World chess champion”.  He was able to keep his record for continuity of  26 years and 337 days. 

The possibility of Knight’s tour is more than 122 million.

The modern and stylish chessboard with dark and light squares was created by Europeans in 1990. Essentially a great approach towards modernization. 

The world's youngest chess champion was Garry Kasparov. He became a champion at the very young age of 22. 

Earlier players used sandglasses before the first mechanical clock was introduced by Thomas Wilson in 1883. The push-button chess clock was introduced in 1900 by Veenhoff. 

In 1862 in London in a match between Adolf Anderssen and Von Kolisch, for the first time, sand glasses were used.

The time given for this game was 24 moves in two hours. 

Shockingly,  If any electronic device or a mobile phone rang during a chess game, the player would be disqualified. Isn’t it strange!

Chess is an IOC-recognized game. Therefore players should always be subjected to drug testing.

A remarkable invention was done in 1125. Due to the church's prohibitions, priests are not allowed to play chess. A folding chess board was invented by priests who were keen to play chess. It was thin-folded chess and it became easy to hide the board between two books. 

“Deep Thought” was a computer that was able to defeat an international player in chess and it happened in November 1988 in Long Beach, California. This computer was invented by Feng-Hsiung Hsu and later on, it was improved by IBM.

In the era of chess, the players were referred to as “rookies” which gives a similar meaning to newly recruited troops, police, cops, and sportspersons.  

“The game of Chess” is the second book that was printed in the English language. 

The first computer program for playing chess was developed by Alan Turing in 1951. The computational power of the computer was not enough for the above purpose. So, he had to calculate the mathematical equations manually and he played according to those results.  It made a considerable time gap between the two moves.  

A piece of strange news was reported in 1970. It is about the first chess game played between space and earth that was done by the Soyez-9 crew. Wow! Anyhow this ended in a draw. 

Chess was known as the “Game of Kings” for a long-time. The reason behind was that it  became popular and centralized between Kings and Nobles

There’s a rarely used term in chess which is known as “Fool's Mate”, which was known as Checkmating the opponents in two moves. 

A Canadian player Nicholas Mcleod who lost 31 games in the double-round robin in New York, holds the above record. The worst performance of a player was reported in 1889 in New York.

Eric Knoppert has set a world record by playing 500 chess games in 68 hours. The duration of those games was about 10 minutes. 

In 1882, Queen’s unstoppable movements were reported.  At the tournament of Mason-Mackenzie at London. The queen has made 72 consecutive moves!

Thorton and M. Walker is a chess player and without any single capturing 100 moves were done in the year 1992 . 

The oldest played and recorded chess game is in the 900s, the game was between a student and a historian of Baghdad. 

Do you know how many people know about chess? About six hundred million! What! Yes! 

The official title of “World Chess Champion” was announced in 1886. 

Chess has been a mandatory subject in some American schools.  

At the first international tournament, the rule of Pawn Promotion was announced in 1852. 

In the original Chess Game, they didn’t have a Bishop. Instead, There was an “alfil” which represents a “War elephant”.

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