People see chess as nothing more than a game that tests your wits and strategy against your opponent and it rarely makes the news. After all, it is a pastime or a hobby at best. For a chess match to even be featured, it would have to be a battle like the world has never seen before.
On this note, imagine when two Russian cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) decide to go up against a former grandmaster and didn't lose. They managed to get a tie.
Don't be surprised since this is not the first Space-Earth match. In fact, the first game that was organized by the Roscosmos, a space agency and the Russia Chess Federation happened on June 9, 1970.
The third Space-Earth chess match between astronauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner versus 30-year-old former child prodigy Sergei Karyakin was nothing more than a celebration to that historic moment.
The game only lasted for 15 minutes, but it was broadcasted live on the Russian social media page, VKontakte and garnered an estimate of 800,000 views.
"It's a huge honour for us not to lose to a grandmaster," according to what Ivanishin said in a report from Borneo Bulletin.
The grandmaster commended their skills saying that the brain fuctions just as well in space as it does in Earth who played from Moscow's Museum of Cosmonautics was feeling nervous during the game and could not sleep until 4 am on the night before the match.
History's Epic Chess Matches
Every sport, even chess requires hours of practice, skill and analysis to overcome the opponent. Over the years, there are chess matches that will prove to be unforgettable. Here are some of them:
DEEP BLUE vs GARRY KASPAROV
For those who are unfamiliar with what Deep Blue is, this is a chess-playing computer that was developed by International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation. The undisputed chess champion from 1985 to 1993, Garry Kasparov admitted defeat to the machine even when he was still at his prime ater just 19 moves. The game was held in New York back in 1997.
MAGNUS CARLSEN vs THE WORLD
And no, this does not literally mean he has played with over 7 trillion people in one sitting. It's a little bit different from that. The game is designed in such a manner that three chess grandmasters who were Hikaru Nakamura (U.S.), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France) and Judit Polgar (Hungary) will make suggestions in 60 seconds afterwhich the world will vote on the which move should be played in a minute and a half.
Should the three grandmasters suggest the same thing, that move would be played automatically. But even with the help of three grandmasters, Carlsen still managed to bag the win in 44 moves back in 2009. The match was held in New York.
