Things you may not know about chess...

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3rd December 2007, 01:12pm
#21
by thehomelessguy
Nashville United States
Member Since: Sep 2007
Member Points: 19
16th December 2007, 07:03am
#22
by Defacto
Zagreb Croatia
Member Since: Nov 2007
Member Points: 1466

  I thought that the rook used to be an elephant as well.

http://www.chessbase.com/columns/column.asp?pid=166

The thing about reward i heard a long time ago from my math teacher but i didn t know that is  from this legend. . .interesting.


17th December 2007, 05:47pm
#23
by xbigboy
Minnesota United States
Member Since: Oct 2007
Member Points: 2869

I'm heard someone say that you can castle your Queen. He says that it is pointless, because you box-in your most powerful piece, but is it possible?

 

17th December 2007, 06:16pm
#24
by StacyBearden
New Caprica United States
Member Since: Jul 2007
Member Points: 900
No, that's not a possible move.
17th December 2007, 06:18pm
#25
by victorxu
Rockville,MD United States
Member Since: Dec 2007
Member Points: 34
i thought the queen used to move one square in a diagonal direction
18th December 2007, 07:41am
#26
by Defacto
Zagreb Croatia
Member Since: Nov 2007
Member Points: 1466

This is funny :

Chess Hooliganism

A pousada in Loures was partially destroyed last week when competitors in the national under-20 chess championships who were staying there went on the rampage.

Internationally renowned chess master Lums Santos called time at the championships to ask the competitors who had been responsible for the damage, much worse that police first suspected. No-one admitted responsibility. Twenty two of the thirty five competitors were suspended from the competition. With football hooliganism relegated to the seventies and eighties, in the main part, will this new trend catch on?

Source: The News, Portugal's National Newspaper in English
Edition 382, April 1996

 


2nd January 2008, 04:24pm
#27
by NM Reb
Lisbon Portugal
Member Since: Sep 2007
Member Points: 4086
MAKAVELIAN wrote:

chess is over 1400 years old. yeah, you all probably knew that

Celebrity players include (and included) John Lennon, Sting, Madonna and Napoleon.


Also Brad Pitt and Stephen Seagall

2nd January 2008, 04:30pm
#28
by farpro
MO United States
Member Since: Oct 2007
Member Points: 31
Reb wrote: MAKAVELIAN wrote:

chess is over 1400 years old. yeah, you all probably knew that

Celebrity players include (and included) John Lennon, Sting, Madonna and Napoleon.


Also Brad Pitt and Stephen Seagall


 I could totally take Stephen Seagall.


2nd January 2008, 04:30pm
#29
by Ricardo_Morro
Bridgeport, CT United States
Member Since: Oct 2007
Member Points: 642
Some grandmasters refer to the rooks as "pigs," as in the phrase, "a pig on the seventh is worth a pawn."
3rd January 2008, 01:40am
#30
by Zugzwanger
Mission Viejo, CA United States
Member Since: Oct 2007
Member Points: 57
The game  was said to came from India to Persia, in the early centuries of the Christian Era. The earliest Persian reference to chess is found in the Middle Persian book Karnamak-i Artaxshir-i Papakan, which was written between the 3rd to 7th century. This ancient Persian text refers to Shah Ardashir I, who ruled from 224–241, as a master of the game
Chaturanga,  an ancient Indian game, presumed to be the ancestor of chess:
Ràja (King)
Mantri (Minister or Queen)
Ratha (Chariot or Rook)
Gaja (Elephant or Bishop)
Ashva (Horse or Knight)
Padàti (Foot-soldier or Pawn)
Gaja, "The Elephant" was found to be rather weak, and was thought not to be a suitable representation of a real war elephant of India. This caused a change of move and of name, and often in India nowadays the rook is called the elephant and the bishop is called the camel.
source: wikipedia
8th January 2008, 08:42pm
#31
by savy_swede
NJ United States
Member Since: Dec 2007
Member Points: 182
I heard that stalemating the enemy king so that he had no legal moves used to be a win and not a draw. This makes sense because the King is obligated to move then would be captured next move. Of course that would make a King and Pawn against King endgame a guarantee win
8th January 2008, 08:58pm
#32
by kyuudou
Arkansas United States
Member Since: Oct 2007
Member Points: 133
Wow! billwall really knows his stuff. Very informative.
10th January 2008, 01:09am
#33
by ajachi
Goa India
Member Since: Dec 2007
Member Points: 351
For what it's worth, chess was invented in India, and we still refer to bishops as gaj, which is Hindi for elephant. The rook comes from roth, Sanskrit for chariot. So there!
10th January 2008, 05:34pm
#34
by FREEPAWN
sambod Cambodia
Member Since: Dec 2007
Member Points: 103
StacyBearden wrote:

I found this on-line. Don't know if it's real, but it's cool:

 

After Alekhine had taken the championship title from Capablanca, Capa apparently spent quite a bit of his spare time hanging out in a specific cafe in Paris. Friends, acquaintances, and others would often drop by, participating in games and libations with the former, charismatic, champion.

One day, while Capa was having coffee and reading a newspaper, a stranger stopped at his table, motioned at the chess set and indicated he would like to play if Capa was interested. Capa's face lit up, he folded the newspaper away, reached for the board and proceeded to pocket his own queen. The opponent (who apparently had no idea who Capablanca was) reacted with slight anger. "Hey! You don't know me! I might beat you!", he said.

Capablanca, smiling gently, said quietly, "Sir, if you could beat me, I would know you."

 


haha, very cool

10th January 2008, 05:49pm
#35
by Unbeliever
United States
Member Since: Nov 2007
Member Points: 1119
Reb wrote: MAKAVELIAN wrote:

chess is over 1400 years old. yeah, you all probably knew that

Celebrity players include (and included) John Lennon, Sting, Madonna and Napoleon.


Also Brad Pitt and Stephen Seagall


 Brad Pitt plays chess?  Can this be verified?  Also, what is his rating?


10th January 2008, 06:24pm
#36
by NinjaBear
Salt Lake City (USA) China
Member Since: Oct 2007
Member Points: 712

I personally play Chinese chess (中国象棋 or just 象棋 for short) and enjoy just as much as the chess we all know here. You might have heard of Chinese chess before... maybe not so here's a little "thing" you may not know about Chinese chess! ^^

 

To address the first post, the piece positioned relative to the bishop and moves like (similar to) the bishop is called an elephant (象). In 中国象棋, the rooks are also chariots (like in many other types of chess) sometimes they are called "cars", the knights are "horses" (there is a specific rule where one knight can attack another but the other cannot attack back). The queen is replaced by two "advisors" in, which the two are placed next to the king (also the general). Five soldiers in 象棋 replace the eight pawns in the type of chess we are most familiar with. The most interesting piece (to me at least) is the cannon and makes the game distinctively different from our chess. 中国象棋 is very entertaining in its own way so if you have time, check it out!

 

Wikipedia provides a good starting foundation and explains the way the pieces move rather explicitly: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_chess

 

The game probably originated somewhere in the Middle East or India but I won't go into the specifics.

 

*If you see random characters or symbols it might be that chess.com does not support Chinese fonts and/or you do not have the language pack to support it.

11th January 2008, 08:38pm
#37
by fulano
Hialeah, Fl. Cuba
Member Since: Oct 2007
Member Points: 31
 Charlemagne Pawn (about the 11 th century)
21st January 2008, 11:50am
#38
by rgp89
New Jersey United States
Member Since: Jan 2008
Member Points: 676
Thanks!
25th January 2008, 05:24pm
#39
by Nilesh
Philadelphia, PA United States
Member Since: Aug 2007
Member Points: 489
chess was invented in india thousands of years ago.
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