Chess fact you may not know

Chess fact you may not know

Only Chess

Joined
20 Sep 01
Moves
123283
106d

Waiting for an opponent to move I wondered where the term 'checkmate' came from;

so I googled it


The term checkmate is, according to the Barnhart Etymological Dictionary, an alteration of the Persian phrase "shāh māt" (شاه مات) which means "the King is helpless".

Joined
20 Sep 01
Moves
123283
106d

@MartinS

What is the longest chess game ever?
The longest chess game is 269 moves between Ivan Nikolic vs. Goran Arsovic, Belgrade, 1989. The game ended in a draw. The game lasted over 20 hours.

Joined
20 Sep 01
Moves
123283
106d

@MartinS

The longest chess game theoretically possible is 5,949 moves.

Joined
20 Sep 01
Moves
123283
106d

@MartinS

Blindfold chess is an impressive skill that many stronger chess players develop. It requires a keen ability to visualize the board clearly. National Master Elliott Neff played 12 games blindfolded simultaneously, winning 11 of them.

Joined
20 Sep 01
Moves
123283
106d

@MartinS

Initially, the Queen could only move one square at a time, diagonally. Later, she could move two squares at a time, diagonally. It wasn't until Reconquista Spain, with its powerful queen Isabella, that the Queen became the strongest piece on the board.

Dave

S.Yorks.England

Joined
18 Apr 10
Moves
84979
106d

@MartinS said
@MartinS

Initially, the Queen could only move one square at a time, diagonally. Later, she could move two squares at a time, diagonally. It wasn't until Reconquista Spain, with its powerful queen Isabella, that the Queen became the strongest piece on the board.
Interesting.
5949 moves -is that each player?
Surely not

Joined
02 Jan 07
Moves
69031
106d

@venda said
Interesting.
5949 moves -is that each player?
Surely not
It is for each player. Personally I thought it would be bigger - but it works outs - you need to do the 49.5 moves between each pawn move or taking a piece - so take 30 pieces and the maximum number of pawn moves (that I can see) is 88. That seems to work.

chemist

Linkenheim

Joined
22 Apr 05
Moves
662427
104d

@MartinS said
Waiting for an opponent to move I wondered where the term 'checkmate' came from;

so I googled it


The term checkmate is, according to the Barnhart Etymological Dictionary, an alteration of the Persian phrase "shāh māt" (شاه مات) which means "the King is helpless".
Learned this in one of my first chess lessons...

chemist

Linkenheim

Joined
22 Apr 05
Moves
662427
104d

@MartinS said
@MartinS

Initially, the Queen could only move one square at a time, diagonally. Later, she could move two squares at a time, diagonally. It wasn't until Reconquista Spain, with its powerful queen Isabella, that the Queen became the strongest piece on the board.
In fact you can play the original variant on other sites.

chemist

Linkenheim

Joined
22 Apr 05
Moves
662427
104d

@MartinS said
@MartinS

The longest chess game theoretically possible is 5,949 moves.
Draw by repetition and draw by to few pawn moves are both not automatically enforced...

Erro Ergo Sum

In the Green Room

Joined
09 Jul 07
Moves
526232
104d
1 edit

A draw must be claimed. If no one claims a draw, then there is no draw. and the game continues. Theoretically, you can have just the 2 kings on the board moving back & forth endlessly because the draw is not automatic. So the game can continue forever with an unlimited number of moves

Joined
03 Jul 13
Moves
85530
103d

@AttilaTheHorn said
A draw must be claimed. If no one claims a draw, then there is no draw. and the game continues. Theoretically, you can have just the 2 kings on the board moving back & forth endlessly because the draw is not automatic. So the game can continue forever with an unlimited number of moves
Under Article 9.6.2 of the FIDE rules of chess, a game is automatically drawn if…
“any series of at least 75 moves have been made by each player without the movement of any pawn and without any capture.”

e4

Joined
06 May 08
Moves
43363
102d

In a nutshell.

The 50 move rule was introduced to prevent there being an endless game
and one player could claim a draw. This rule or suggestion was actually first
put forward by Ruy Lopez in 1561!
Before the rules became set in stone some countries had it at 25 moves
or 60 moves but most had the 50 move rule.

Then it was realised that a player or players might not know the 50 move rule or
were ignoring it so at move 75 an arbiter could step in and declare the game drawn.

Personally I've never seen the 75 move rule enforced but in the game;

Ehsan Ghaem Maghami vs Mustafokhuja Khusenkhojaev, World Rapid 2022 the player
of the black pieces did not know how many moves had been made and could have claimed
a 50 move draw on move 127. They kept on playing..and playing...by now a cluster of arbiters
had surrounded the board waiting for the 50 move rule claim or to step in to stop the game.

Suddenly on move 146 one move short of the arbiters jumping in Black stopped the game
and claimed a draw by three fold rep. (you could not make this up.)
This claim was proved to be invalid, the game continued and Black lost on time.
White was credited with a win but then it was realised in the kerfuffle the 75 move rule
had past. (Black's flag fell on move 153 which was 76 moves into the 75 move rule) so the
game was declared a draw.

The whole episode is captured here;

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