Your Move!
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Want to impress your mates with some Chess trivia?
With World Chess Day coming up on July 20th, Active Mile has you covered with some of the most interestingly, random chess facts we could find.
As there are traditionally 16 pieces on a chess board, here are 16 facts to tell your friends…
1. About 600,000,000 (six hundred million) people know how to play chess worldwide.
2. There are well over 1,000 different openings to a game of chess.
3. The word “checkmate” means “the king is dead” and is derived from the Persian phrase “shah mat”.
4. World heavyweight boxing champion (and good friend of the UAE) Anthony Joshua regularly plays chess.
5. The longest chess game currently stands at 269 moves, which was between I. Nikolic and Arsovic. The game ended in a draw!
6. Initially the Queen was only allowed to move one square at a time, diagonally. When powerful queen Isabella of Spain ruled, the Queen became the strongest piece on the board. #girlpower
7. The Pawn is most commonly known as a foot soldier, however in German and Spanish, this figure is known as a peasant or farmer.
8. The second book ever printed in the English language was about chess!
9. Blind chess is a thing! An impressive skill, requiring the ability to clearly see the board in the minds eye. Hungarian Janos Flesch played 52 opponents simultaneously, in 1960 in Budapest, whilst blindfolded. He won 31 of those games.
10. In World War 1, some of the top chess players were also code breakers. British Masters Harry Golombek, Stuart Milner-Barry and H.O’D.Alexander were on the team which broke the Nazi Enigma code.
11. The longest chess game that is theoretically possible is 5,949 moves.
12. In the well-known TV Show Star Trek, Captain Kirk and Dr. Spock have played chess three times on the show. Kirk won all three games!
13. From the starting position, there are 8 different ways to “mate” in 2 moves and 355 ways to “mate’” in 3 moves.
14. The first Chess board with alternating dark and light squares appeared in Europe in 1090.
15. Ever wondered why traditional chess pieces don’t look like their titles (soldiers, bishops and kings)? Well as the game of chess evolved and passed through the Arabic and Islamic world; the pieces became vague in look. As the game entered Europe, the pieces didn’t change much.
16. The folding chess board was actually invented by a Priest, who was forbidden to play chess. He made the board, which when folded looked like two books on his bookshelf.
