FUN facts!!

 Post some EPIC facts!

The approximate number of legal chess positions is called the Shannon Number (after mathematician Claude Shannon) and is 10 to the 43rd power; that is a 1 with 43 zeroes after it! This is only legal chess positions; counting all possible chess games would be far larger of a number (due to things like repetition of moves for example; although the number would not be infinite because of draw by repetition and the 50 move rule).

p.s. the facts do not need to be chess-related, but I thought a chess fact was nice since this is a chess site after all

Del Shannon's song "Runaway" was actually about Shannon's search for the true Shannon number. Facts.

Sure to be an interesting topic.

Butterfly wing chessboards aren't allowed to be made anymore. This one was made in Brazil

in the 1930's. They are on the endangered species list. It hangs on my wall at home. . .

It can be taken down and play on it. It's got heavy duty glass . . .

A butterfly is not a being.

@ SorryImAnon

Now that's interesting 1100 a.d.?

It was a present to me before the woman died . . .

Bernstein, Ossip (1882-1962) In 1918 Ossip Bernstein was arrested in Odessa by the Cheka and ordered shot by a firing squad just because he was a legal advisor to bankers. As the firing squad lined up, a superior officer asked to see the list of prisoners’ names. Discovering the name of Ossip Bernstein, he asked whether he was the famous master. Not satisfied with Bernstein’s affirmative reply, he made him play a game with him. If Bernstein lost or drew, he would be shot. Bernstein won in short order and was released. He escaped on a British ship and settled in Paris. Bernstein’s son was President Eisenhower’s official interpreter be- cause he spoke almost every European language. At age 74, he was still playing in international tournaments.

I'm guessing not many people can claim to have played a game of chess with their life on the line...

Lucky for me! 

Buzecca, a Muslim, was the first blindfold player in Europe, playing two games blindfold in Florence in 1265. It took 518 years before three games were played blindfold, by Philidor in 1783. One newspaper wrote ‘This exertion of Mr. Philidor’s abilities appear one of the greatest of which the human memory is susceptible. That record stood for 74 years. In 1857 Louis Paulsen played four games blindfold simultaneously.

Raymond Allen Weinstein was born on April 25, 1941 in Brooklyn. Raymond attended the same high school (Erasmus High School) as Bobby Fischer (and BarbraStreisand) and was two grades ahead of him. Bobby Fischer dropped out of high school and Raymond became captain and first board of Erasmus High School for 3 years. His high school team won the Interscholastic Team Championship. Raymond was part of the Collins Kids, taught by Jack Collins. In 1956, at the age of 15, he won the Junior championship of the Marshall chess club in New York City. He would win the Marshall chess club
championship in 1960, 1961, and 1962. He played in his first rated tournament, the 1957 U.S. Open in Cleveland and got an expert’s rating as his first rating. In 1957 Raymond won the Long Island Amateur Championship. In 1958 he won the U.S. Junior Open in Homestead, Florida (Norman Weinstein would win this event 10 years later) and became a USCF master, after an 8-1 score (7 wins, 2 draws). This event was won the two previous years by Bobby Fischer. Raymond attended Brooklyn College for
4 years (he received a Bachelors of Arts degree in psychology) and was captain and 1st board of his college chess team the won the Intercollegiate Chess Championship. Raymond was invited to the U.S. Championship in 1958-59 because of his win in the U.S. Junior Championship. However, he took last place. He was unable to win a single game, drawing 6 and losing 5. He won the 1959 New Jersey Open and the 1960 Western Open. In 1959 he tied for 2nd-3rd at the U.S. Open in Omaha, Nebraska (Norman Weinstein would win the US Open in 1973 in Chicago). First place went to Arthur Bisguier (his second cousin). Raymond and Pal Benko tied for 2nd-3rd place.Raymond played in the 1959-60 U.S. Championship, which he took 6th place and drawing his game with Fischer. In 1960 Raymond was part of the winning U.S. team that won the students World Team Championship in Leningrad. He played Board 3 and had the best percentage points for board 3. Board 1 was Lombardy and board 2 was Charles Kalme. That year he also played for the U.S. Olympiad team in Leipzig. Raymond Weinstein’s USCF rating was now 2444, the 6th highest in the country. Bobby Fischer was rated at 2640. In the
1960-61 U.S. Championship, at age 19, he took 3rd place. First place went to Bobby Fischer and 2nd place went to Bill Lombardy. He had defeated Lombardy in their individual game. He also defeated his cousin Arthur Bisguier, Sam Reshevsky, William Lombardy and Robert Byrne in this event to score 6.5 out of 11. His only losses were to Fischer and Anthony Saidy. He qualified
for the next Interzonal Tournament with Fischer and Lombardy. However, Lombardy and Raymond
Weinstein were unable to go to the next Interzonal in Stockholm, and their places were taken by Bisguier and Benko. In 1961 Raymond was giving simultaneous exhibitions at Princeton and Harvard, playing 65 games and remembering all the games days after the event. Raymond Weinstein took 9th place in the 1961-62 U.S Championship. Raymond became an International Master in 1962. In 1962 he played on the U.S. Olympiad team in Helsinki and won an individual board performance prize. In 1963 he played on the U.S. team at the WorldnStudent Championship at Budva, Yugoslavia. In the 1963-64 U.S. Championship Raymond Weinstein ended up in 7th place, but he defeated Larry Evans, Sam
Reshevsky, Robert Bryne and Donald Byrne. He had played in 5 U.S. Championships. In 1964 he participated in the 11th Student Olympiad in Cracow and the team took 4th place. Weinstein played board 2. Lombardy played board 1. Raymond was studying to be a psychiatrist at the Free University of Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. Raymond was fluent in many languages and had a very good memory. In 1964 Raymond killed an 83-year old man in a nursing home with a razor. Raymond went to trial and was judged mentally ill. He was confined to Ward’s Island for the mentally ill in New York.

You can tell from the flag, I am Canadian. Well, here are a few fun (and some strange) facts about Canada . . .

How to fight a war . . .

And as for food . . .

And feeding others . . .

And helping them shop . . .

Kasparov, Garry (1963- )
Originally named Weinstein.

Oh yes, one more. This one is about religion, so please don't be offended . . .

Just the bare facts!

What can I say? We're a friendly, tolerant, easy-going bunch.