Interesting facts about chess

Chess Centuries

Chess is a game that has been played for as long as several tens of centuries. Throughout its history and development it has suffered through a lot of changes and many problems. There are, however, few facts that can never be forgotten or deleted from the memory of the ones who live for the chessboard and the little figurines. These facts are records as well as trivia and are most definitely a reason to call this game "curiouser and curiouser". Here are some of the important and fascinating pieces of Chess' international history:

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• Sergey Karjakin is the youngest Grandmaster in history at the age of exactly twelve years and seven months. He also is the youngest international Master at the age of eleven years and eleven months.
  

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• Dordevic-Kovacevic vs. Bela Crkva in 1984 still holds the record for shortest decisive game in a tournament.  It lasted three moves (1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 c6 3.e3 Qa5+).
  

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• Vladimir Kramnik vs. Deep Fritz. This is a game considered as the scene of the biggest blunder in chess. It happened between 25^th November and 5^th December in Bonn. This chess match lasted for 6 games and the biggest surprise was when Kramnik blundered away the second game. Deep Fritz managed to win with mate in one. The result was 4-2 for Fritz.

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• Anatoly Karpov vs. Garry Kasparov is the longest World Championship match. It was played in 1984-1985 and lasted for 48 games through 159 days.

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• 1975, Open section, World Open Chess Tournament. This is the scene of one exceptional upset in the history of chess. It was when the expert Alan Trefler, with his rating of 125 points below the lowest master rating, scored 8-1 and tie first with the international grandmaster Pal Benko.

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• Cambridge vs. Oxford is the longest running annual match in chess. Since the traditional series' beginning in 1873 there have been more than 124 matches. Currently in the lead is Cambridge, although the difference is not that impossible for the Oxford players.

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• Ivan Nikolic vs. Goran Arsovic's game in Belgrade in 1989 is the longest chess game with its 269 moves and continuation of over 20 hours. Nikolic and Arsovic ended in a draw.

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• Yedael Stepak vs. Yaakov Mashian in the Israel Championship semifinals in 1980 is the longest chess game with a winner. Stepak managed to defeat Mashian within 24 hours and 30 minutes and 193 moves.

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• Viktor Korchnoi vs. Anatoly Karpov is the longest World Championship game. It was played in 1978 in Merano, Italy and lasted 124 moves in the 5^th game between the two. It ended with a stalemate.

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