7 interesting facts about Chess
- The Queen in chess was originally a male prime minister and could only move 1 square diagonally. Her power grew during the Renaissance period.
- Chess was invented in Iran.
- The folding chess board was invested by a priest.
- There are more than a thousand trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion ways a chess game can be played. ( 10120). That is more than the number of electrons in the universe.
- The word “checkmate” comes from the Persian phrase “shah mat,” which means “the king is defeated.”
- The rook is named from an Arabic word rukh, meaning chariot. During the Middle Ages, when chariots were no longer in use, the rook was gradually modified to look more like the turret of a castle.
- Lewis Carrol’s novel “Through the Looking Glass” was based on a chess game, much the way “Alice in Wonderland” was based on playing cards.
