A couple of years ago I found myself on the receiving end of a surprise mate in a position I had expected to win. It was one of those odd-ball positions that crop up occasionally and after getting over the shock (and giving my opponent full ...
International/Professional Titles Grandmaster-(GM)Awarded by FIDE for three GM norms.International Master-(IM)Awarded by FIDE for three IM norms.FIDE Master-(FM)Minimum FIDE rating of 2300 after 24 gamesNational Senior Master-(SM)USCF Rating 2400+...
Serving at one time or another in three cabinet posts, Judah Benjamin of Louisiana, a former US Senator, was sometimes known as "the Brains of the Confederacy". Four years before the birth of Paul Morphy in 1837, Benjamin got married in ...
The Staunton chessmen is the standard pattern for chess pieces used in all world chess federation and United States Chess Federation events. On March 1, 1849 the pattern was first registered by Nathaniel Cook. Prior to that, the pieces most commo...
On July 6, 1919 the German city of Sorup-in-Angeln issued paper money with a chess motif. It had a chess table with a woman seated. Paper money replaced coins, which became rare in Germany since metal was being used for armaments. In mid-1921 St...
Searching for Bobby Fischer really begins in 1972 when Bobby Fischer defeated Boris Spassky in the World Chess Championship Match in Reyjavik, Iceland, then disappeared from chess. Many people got interested in chess and picked up the game, even b...
Chess was probably introduced in Russia in the 9th century AD through the Caspian-Volga trade route. At the time, there was a Volga trade route to Baghdad. In the 10th century, chess reached Russia from Byzantium and from the Vikings. Arou...
George Washington (1732-1799) may not have played chess, but there is the story of Washington crossing the Delaware to attack the British army. Earlier, a boy had given a spy report to the British commander that Washington was about to attack. The...
In 1974 Gerald Abrahams wrote an interesting book called Not Only Chess. He called it a selection of Chessays. Here are some interesting items from his book. On page 15 Abrahams conjectured that Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) and Karl Marx ...
I did a little survey of chess opening frequncies from several chess databases. After looking over a million games or so and keeping tabs of the first few moves, this is the result. 1.e4 was the most common opening, representing 70% of the samp...
n 1607, the first ballet with a chess theme was Ballet des Eschecs, performed for Louis XIV of France. Francois-Andre Danican Philidor (1726-1795) was a famous music composer. He was exposed to chess by the musicians in the French king's co...
In 1877 chess players met at the Cafe Logeling, 49 Bowery Street in lower Manhattan. Mr. Logeling was a chess enthusiast and eventuallu built a room in the back of the cafe for chess. On November 24, 1877, it was decided to form a chess clu...
In 1949 Fred Reinfeld and Irving Chernev published a book called The Fireside Book of Chess. Here are some interesting items from the book. On page 69 is the claim of the shortest master game. It is between Gibauld and Lazard and played in Pa...
he first world team competition took place in Paris in 1924 to coincide with the Olympic Games. There were 54 players from 18 countries. Czechoslovakia won the Gold Medal. The Silver went to Hungary and the Bronze went to Switzerland. The individu...
In 1945 Alan Turing (1912-1954) used chess-playing as an example of what a computer could do. Turing himself was a weak chess player. In 1946 Alan Turing made his first reference to machine intelligence in connection with chess-playing. In 1...
Compositions are chess positions other than which arises during a chess game, usually, but not necessarily, composed for solving. The chess problem and the composed chess ending are the true art forms of chess. Orthodox compositions co...
There once was a player from Maine,Who played chess on a fast train.He took a move backAnd was thrown off the track,And he never played chess again.There once was a chessplayer named Flo,Who liked to mate, you know;When you castled long,She helped...
What are Veselin Topalov and Vishy Anand saying to each other? No prizes! Just for fun!
Cambridge Springs was a health resort in Pennsylvania, famous for its spas and mineral waters. It advertised that it was the town that was halfway between New York and Chicago when you took the Erie Railroad line. It is in northwestern Pennsylv...
Garry Kasparov retired from competitive chess in March, 2005. He gave up competitive chess after playing chess and being the best in the world for 20 years (1985 to 2005). He gave up chess to devote more time to politics. Other prominant chess ...
The age of becoming a chess master is geting younger and younger. We now have 10 year old masters and a 12 year old grandmaster. Here are some of the chess prodigies over the years.Alexander Alekhine learned chess at the age of 7 and w...
In the film industry, there are many names of movie stars and other folks that have played chess. These celebrities include: Claude Akins (Sheriff Lobo) Alan Alda (M*A*S*H), Woody Allen, Lauren Bacall (once married to Humphrey Bogart), the B...
What's the best age to learn chess? No one really knows. Perhaps the earlier, the better. Maybe there is no difference at a very young age (for example, age 4) and a young age (for example, 10). Here are some the ages of when some of the play...
In 1968, Stanley Kubrick (a strong chess player himself) directed 2001: A Space Odyssey. It is probably the most famous man vs. computer chess games in film. The movie features an astronaut, Dr. Frank Poole (played by Gary Lockw...
