25 Clever Chess Facts

By James Israelsen, Associate Writer

Published October 6, 2022

The chess piece that looks like the turret of a castle is called a "rook," from the original Persian name for the piece, ruhk, meaning "chariot."_[1]
German chess players call the knight a "jumper" piece because of its unique ability to leap over other pieces._[1]
The earliest form of chess was first developed in India at least 1500 years ago._[1]
Before the year 1000, all chess pieces were male figures or animals; it wasn't until chess was introduced into southern Europe that the queen made her debut._[7]
In 1956, at only 13 years old, Bobby Fischer beat Donald Byrne (age 26), an international chess champion at the time, in what became known as the "Game of the Century."_[6]
Muslim art and literature from the Middle Ages shows that chess was an extremely popular game played throughout the Arabic world._[1]
Chess theorists divide chess into three stages: openings, middle game, and endgame._[1]
Just as in modern times, chess strategy was the subject of many treatises written during the Middle Ages in the Arab Empire._[1]

A true chess savant, Fischer was also an unpredictable personality (Lennart Ootes)

American-Icelandic chess player Bobby Fischer was one of the youngest grandmasters in history, earning the title at age 15._[6]
The Persian epic Explanation of Chatrang and the Invention of Nard tells the story of chess being introduced to the royal court by an envoy from India._[1]
There are more unique, possible chess games than there are electrons in the universe._[5]
The longest chess game that is possible would consist of 5,949 moves._[5]
"Checkmate" derives from the Persian phrase shāh māt, which is alternately translated as "the king is helpless" and "the king is dead."_[5]
The wealthiest chess player alive is American Hikaru Nakamura, who has a net worth of around $50 million and has won the US championship five times._[3]
World-famous chess champion Bobby Fischer has been under indictment in the United States for 3 decades, for agreeing to play a rematch game in Yugoslavia, against whom the United States had declared economic sanctions, as well as for statements made against Jews and in support of the September 11 attacks._[6]
At age 22, Garry Kasparov became the youngest world chess champion; the second youngest was Magnus Carlsen, who was also 22 when he earned his world title._[2][4]
In 1996, World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov beat IBM's "Deep Blue" supercomputer 4–2 in a best-of-6 match-up. Man and machine rematched in 1997, and the computer won 3.5–2.5 after unusually poor play by Kasparov._[4]
The chess-playing supercomputer Deep Blue could calculate 100 to 200 billion different positions in under 3 minutes._[4]

Norweigian wunderkind Magnus Carlsen has won all the top prizes (Lennart Ootes)

Magnus Carlsen is the first chess champion to win in all three categories—blitz, regular, and rapid—in the same year._[2]
Because the two roughly coincided in time, some historians speculate that Queen Isabella's powerful reign influenced the expansion of moves that were allowed to the queen piece in chess._[7]
Devised in the 19th century by Otto Blathy, the longest known chess problem ever created takes 290 moves to get to checkmate._[5]
The longest recorded chess match took 269 moves, only to end in a draw._[5]
The world chess champion to hold the title longest was Dr. Emanuel Lasker of Germany, who was champion for just under 27 consecutive years._[5]
During the famous 1972 match between Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer, Spassky began to play erratically; blaming this on Fischer's chair, the Russians demanded that chemical and x-ray tests be performed on it, but no evidence of anything awry was found._[5]
Current chess engines like Stockfish are capable of easily beating Deep Blue, the IBM supercomputer that defeated Garry Kasparov in 1997, as well as all human contenders._[1][5]