1. Chess is infinite: there are 400 different positions after each player makes one move apiece. 72,084 positions after each player makes two moves apiece. More than 9 million unique positions from the third move. After the 4th move, more than 288+ billion different positions are possible. Many 40-move each on Level-1 can be achieved than the number of electrons in our universe. There are more game-trees of Chess than the number of galaxies (100+ billion), and more openings, defences, gambits, etc. than the number of quarks in our universe!    --Chesmayne

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

3.  The folding chessboard was invented by a priest who was forbidden to play chess. The priest found a way around it by making a folding chessboard. When folded together and put ona bookshelf, it simply lookslike two books.

4. During World War II, some of the top Chess players were also code breakers. British masters Harry Golombek, Stuart Milner-Barry and H. O'D. Alexander was on the teamwhich broke the Nazi Enigma code.

5. The first chess game played between space and earth was on June 9, 1970 by the Soyez-9 crew. The game ended in a draw.

6. Kirk and Spock have played chess three times on the show Star Trek. Kirk won all three games.

7. A computer called Deep Thought became the first computer to beat an international grandmaster in November 1988, Long Beach, California.

8. Garry Kasparov, at 22, became the youngest ever world champion. Ruslan Ponomariov was younger but he was not the undisputed world champion; Maia Chiburdanidze was even younger when she won the women's title.

9. The longest chess game ever was I.Nikolic - Arsovic, Belgrade 1989, which ended in 269 moves. The game was a draw.

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