Chess has a reputation as a quiet game. Its history isn't. Here are ten true stories, each checked against its source, that our students always ask to hear again.
1. The chess robot that beat Napoleon had a man inside
In 1770 Wolfgang von Kempelen unveiled the Turk, a "chess-playing machine" built to impress Empress Maria Theresa. It toured Europe and America for decades and won most of its games, including against Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin. The secret: its pieces were really moved by a chess master hidden inside the cabinet, working levers and magnets. (Source)
The lesson: people have wanted a machine that plays chess for 250 years. It took until 1997 to build a real one that beat the world champion.
2. A blindfold world record set to send a message home
The Argentine-Polish grandmaster Miguel Najdorf played 40 opponents at once, blindfolded, in 1943, then raised the record to 45 in 1947. He did it hoping the news would be reported in Europe so that his family in Poland would learn where he was. Tragically, his wife, daughter, parents and four siblings had all been murdered in the Holocaust. (Source)
3. A game that lasted 20 hours and 15 minutes
In Belgrade in 1989, Ivan Nikolić and Goran Arsović played 269 moves in a tournament game that took 20 hours and 15 minutes. The result after all that? A draw. (Source)
4. The first game played from space
On 9 June 1970, cosmonauts Vitaly Sevastyanov and Andriyan Nikolayev, orbiting Earth in Soyuz 9, played a game against mission control. They radioed their moves down, and the ground team replied with theirs. It's the first documented game played by humans in space. It ended in a draw. (Source)
5. The world championship game played in a back room
In 1972 Bobby Fischer, unhappy with the cameras and the hall in Reykjavík, didn't turn up for game 2 of his match against Boris Spassky and lost it by forfeit, falling 0–2 behind. To keep the match alive, Spassky agreed to play game 3 in a small backstage room, out of sight of the spectators. Fischer won it, and went on to win the match and the title. (Source)
6. The yogurt protest (and the hypnotist in the front row)
The 1978 world championship between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi had protests about almost everything:
- When Karpov's team sent him a blueberry yogurt during a game, Korchnoi's team protested that it could be some kind of code. They later said this was meant as a parody of earlier protests, but it was taken seriously at the time.
- Karpov's team included the psychologist and hypnotherapist Vladimir Zukhar, and Korchnoi complained that Zukhar, sitting in the front row, was trying to hypnotise him.
- The chairs were even X-rayed.
(Source)
7. The world championship nobody was allowed to finish
The 1984 match between Karpov and Garry Kasparov was played to six wins. After five months and 48 games, 40 of them drawn, Karpov led 5–3, and the FIDE president Florencio Campomanes stopped the match without a result, citing the players' health. The decision was controversial, and a new match was arranged for 1985, which Kasparov won to become champion. (Source)
8. "Toiletgate"
At the 2006 match to reunify the world title, Veselin Topalov's manager complained to the organisers and the press about Vladimir Kramnik's repeated visits to his private bathroom. The organisers locked the private bathrooms and opened one shared toilet for both players. Kramnik refused to play game 5 in protest and was forfeited. He still won the match. (Source)
9. Did a computer bug rattle a world champion?
In the first game of Deep Blue's 1997 rematch with Kasparov, the computer's 44th move was allegedly the result of a bug: unable to choose a move, Deep Blue fell back on a fail-safe. Kasparov won that game anyway, but lost the match, the first time a computer beat a reigning world champion in a match. (Source)
10. A world champion who trained in smoky rooms on purpose
Mikhail Botvinnik, world champion for 13 years, prepared for the distractions of tournament halls by playing training matches in noisy, smoky rooms. He was also an electrical engineer with a doctorate. (Source)
The lesson our students take from this one: you can practise staying calm. Botvinnik trained for discomfort the way a runner trains for hills, and it's the same reason we have children play with a clock from early on. More on that in what chess is really for.
Want more?
- 100 amazing chess facts
- What chess gives you at every age, and why people never stop playing
- How long does it take to become a grandmaster?
Want your child to make their own chess stories? Our free Month-End Championship runs on Lichess on the last Sunday of every month, and a free trial class is 30 minutes with a FIDE-rated coach.
