The game of Chess is synonymous with mental stamina, strategy, and patience. It is played by millions of people worldwide; and transcends language, culture, and even time! Right now, you may be wondering to yourself, ‘what about chess makes the game so mind-blowing?’

1. There are over 319 billion possible combinations

Did you know that the total number of ways to play the first four moves for both players in a chess game is 318,979,564,000? Most of the combinations are so many possibilities that it’s impossible to draw any conclusions from any one of them. The same applies to the first four moves in a chess game. There are over 300 million possible combinations, and we can’t determine which combination will lead to victory until we analyze the situation.

2. Currently, there are 1721 chess grandmasters

To be a grandmaster is a pretty prestigious title. To achieve it, people usually start playing chess on a competitive level from an early age (7 to 10 years old) and spend around 20 hours per week doing so. By the time they turn 18, they’ve already accumulated around 12,000 hours of studying the beautiful game!

3. Blindfolded Chess

Blindfolded Chess is an impressive skill that most strong players possess. It requires the ability to ‘see’ the board clearly in the mind, which becomes very difficult after many moves. Several grandmaster have achieve impressive results while playing about 50 games simultaneously.

4. The Spanish innovation of allowing pawns to advance two squares on their first move instead of one was introduced in 1280

The new pawn move, where pawns were allowed to advance two squares on their first move instead of one, was first introduced in Spain in 1280. The rule allowed for more aggressive play from the opening moves and broader possibilities for pawn promotion. When a white or black pawn reaches its promotion square, they may trade it for a queen. When a player moves a pawn to a square that they cannot retreat from, the pawn can be captured and removed from the board.

5. The Queen’s Gambit had an enormous impact on chess popularity

The Queen’s Gambit is one of the many Netflix original productions. To describe it as a huge success would be an understatement. The series about a chess prodigy and her unlikely path to stardom quickly became a cultural phenomenon, which in turn led to an immense surge in the popularity of chess. According to popular chess statistics from 2020, chess.com saw its biggest growth since its 2007 launch with 12.2 million new members. 3.2 million of them joined the platform after the show’s debut in October. Moreover, chess-related sales in the US jumped exponentially—sets sales rose by 87%, while books were sold 603% more.

6. ‘Checkmate’

The word ‘checkmate’ is derived from the Arabic word ‘shah mat’, which means ‘the king is dead (helpless)’ in English. True chess players will not say ‘checkmate’ to an opponent but rather simply extend their hand, shake and say ‘good game’.