Let's play for 2 million euros: 8 interesting facts about the most strategic game (8 photos)

If you still think that chess is boring, monotonous and not at all interesting, then you are very mistaken.





After three moves, there are more than nine million possible positions on each side. An American mathematician calculated the minimum number of non-repeating chess games and derived Shannon's number. According to this number, the number of possible unique batches exceeds the number of atoms in the visible Universe. The number of atoms is estimated to be 1079, and the number of unique chess games is 10120. The longest theoretically possible chess game is 5,949 moves.



The queen was initially a weak piece - it moved only one square diagonally. The rules changed when the Spanish Queen Isabella of Castile (1451-1504) became one of the main rulers in Europe.





The folding chessboard was invented in 1125 by a chess priest. Since the church forbids priests to play chess, he hid his chessboard, making it look like two books lying together.



A person playing chess must be physically resilient and have a strong nervous system. They say that it was while playing chess that Ivan the Terrible and Queen of Belgium Marie Henriette Anne died.



Garry Kasparov once said that “chess is a torture of the mind.” Apparently that's why someone decided to combine chess with physical tests by creating chessboxing. Dutch artist Ipe Rubing became the founder of chessboxing after he saw the idea of ​​combining chess and boxing in one comic book. Chessboxing alternates rounds of chess and boxing and its motto is “Battles are fought in the ring, but wars are fought on the board.”



At first, chess games were played without a clock. At the same time, players could play for many hours, or even days in a row, driving each other to exhaustion. In 1851, during a chess tournament, the assistant referee recorded that "the game was not completed due to the players eventually falling asleep." After that, a year later, time control in the form of an hourglass was introduced at an international tournament, and in 1883 the first mechanical chess clock appeared, created by the British Thomas Wilson.



You can make good money playing chess. The prize fund of the World Chess Champion is 2 million euros. The winner will receive 60% of the amount, the loser - 40%.



The player is only 5 steps away from becoming a grandmaster, but what steps!

1. You need to start playing chess as early as possible, preferably in childhood. A child who starts playing at the age of 5-8 has a high chance of success, because... At this age, the brain is able to absorb any algorithms of chess art.

2. Be ready to improve your skill every day. Becoming the best in the world is long and painstaking work.

3. Find an experienced mentor who will build an effective training program, maintain the student’s interest, help in development and reveal strengths and weaknesses.

4. Get three grandmaster points. This will require participation in 3 tournaments with a norm against three grandmasters from different countries.

5. Get in the FIDE 2500 rankings.

Do you know how to play chess?