Do you believe that Chess was brought to Earth by aliens?

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the president of FIDE, allegedly believes so:

"I believe that chess comes either from God or from beings flying a UFO. I should know! They took me aboard their airship while I was on a business trip to Moscow, in 1997, to a distant star. It's perfectly normal - last year, I visited America and learned from official statistics that there are 4,000 annual reports of contact... Each year, archaeologists find evidence of chess in America, India, Japan or China, played under the same rules, from a time without planes or the internet. Look, the chessboard has 64 squares, and our cells are made of 64 pieces. All this shows that chess comes either from God or from UFOs.'"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2006/oct/29/chess.features

Fischer was sane compared to that guy. You can read more about Kirsan Ilyumzhinov here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilyumzhinov

gosh Eo____, when I thought you couldn't find a weirder question...

All i can say is if chess was brought to earth by Aliens is way to go guys i just knew those little green suckers were good for something.

Chess was invented by those crafty Asians.

Our cells are made of 64 pieces???  64 pieces of what? 

I wonder why people who have been beamed up only report having donated kidneys and being used as sex slaves.  You'd think at least some of them would have been invited to sit down for a nice game of chess.

Since the average IQ of the aliens is around 1200, chess is just a small childs game on their planet. Just like tic tac toe is on earth.

lol

You know how culturally biased those standardized tests are.  They're rigged in favor of the aliens.

But this makes me wonder-- why do people always speak of "the" aliens as if they're all the same?  Who's to say we're only getting visited by one group?  Perhaps there are multiple species with completely different origins, and they have different abilities from one another; while one has a shortage of kidneys, another might not be so good at chess.

If you can achieve interstellar travel, you can learn chess. LOL.

yeah speaking of jesus LisaV, I wonder if the aliens bought jesus to us as well huh Eo ?

It's too bad he was re-elected.  I'd rather see what a chess player could do in that office rather than a bureaucrat; a crazy one at that.

Who says the aliens that actually make the trip are the ones who developed the interstellar motor?  I drive cars, but I don't know how to make an engine.  Maybe the most important criterion for selecting which aliens make the scouting trips is height, because the shortest aliens need the least food packed on board for the trip.  The brainy members of the aliens who could beat us in chess might still be back on the home planet.

^ Good point. Is it the nerdy chess-players who go off into the unknown on incredibly brave and daring exploits, impressing the native women?

Interstellar Overdrive, that's how EO_____ got here! I love that song! Seriously, the existence of the Sveshnikov Sicilian is evidence of alien origins.

Jesus clearly brought the aliens who brought chess and also doritos.

Absolutely, especially now.  And in 2012 alt a the premium members of chess.com will be the chosen few...

I've noticed from past doomsday deadlines that people who are convinced they're among the chosen few are almost always people I wouldn't want to survive with. 

 Lol! Quite nice.

It makes you wonder who is choosing and if they really ought to be in charge