This is forum to submit TRUE interesting facts about chess, please site all sources, here are mine.

Did you know that the Queenpawn opening was invented by Dr. Harvey Queenpawn?

From: the Internet

In the jungles of New Zealand, chessplayers wear helmets so as not to poke their eyes on pointy bishops.

From : a mighty wind

Chess evolved from monkeys

From: god

YOUR TURN!

Originally, when a player castled it was customary to stack the king on top of the rook. After which the opponent had to surround the rook with pieces until the king starved. Later this system was abandoned, because oftentimes players would bring bits of food to give to the king while their opponent wasn't looking.

source:

The Big Book of Very True Facts, by Leandord Irving Atkinson Remingham

Idiots.

i'm not really an idiot am I?

     I saw a guy get his thumbs broken for hiding extra pieces in his

     jacket during a money game.

     from:  vic's book of baffling bull

There was a tournament is Spain where a guy why could not hear was playing and he was down a queen. He got so into his next move that he never noticed the people running around him. Apparently there was a fire in the next building and the alarms were going off. The fire was put out and after about 3 hours the people came back, since his opponent's time had run out he was declared the winner. True story.

The "Rook" was initally called a "Chariot," but lazy players got so tired of saying, "I'm Charioting" that the piece was renamed to "Castle."  Once again, the lazy players became annoyed with the over-abundance of syllables, and renamed the piece to "Rook."  However, the term "Rooking" never became popular, because players were able to pronounce "Castling" with two syllables (as in, "How come your King gets to move two spaces?" "Because I'm Cas'ling, you idiot!") However, if you listen closely, you might still catch someone using the term "Castle" instead of "Rook" to identify the little tower pieces, and while this is historically accurate, it has been known to cause flame wars in chess-related public forums.

Source: "The History of Chess" by Timmy Jones, the second grader next door

all very funny

It's called the game of Kings because it was played primarily by nobility and the upper classes.

Source: http://www.luxurychess.com/funchessfacts.html

ADK

The Dutch for 'resigns' is 'Geef bet op' and the Swedish is 'Upgivvet'. The Swedish for for 'good move is 'bra drag'

source: The Complete Chess Addict by Mike Fox and Richard James

The record of moves without a capture is 100 between Thorton & M. Walker in 1992.

Source: http://www.chess-poster.com/english/notes_and_facts/did_you_know.htm

ADK

It takes 100 monkeys 100 years at typewriters to make Shakespeare, but only 1 monkey at 1 chessboard to recreate my chess.