do you play
try me welcome to watch mojo and today
we're counting down our picks for the
top 10
mind-blowing facts about chess in this
position
the king has no safe squares to move
but it's hoped that mental exercise like
chess will checkmate the onset of
alzheimer's disease
enough let's play
for this list we'll be looking at the
most fascinating facts about the game of
chess
how close are you to becoming a grand
master let us know in the comments below
number 10 the pieces look like they do
for a reason
many people the world over will
recognize the general the variable
physical design
of chess pieces pawns are usually little
nubby things
knights are horse heads bishops have a
rounded headgear
rooks are castle towers and the king and
queen have their respective crowns
like i said the queen ain't no she
got all the moves
according to various explanations the
reason these pieces don't represent
actual people is due to certain
traditions of islam
since those beliefs didn't allow for
representations of people
the designs were altered to make them
appear more vague and universal
when chess finally reached western
europe around the 9th century the pieces
remained
unchanged number 9 it might help with
memory function
alzheimer's is one of the worst diseases
that a human being can suffer from
i use this
yellow yellow thingy to mark it so i
don't
have to read the same line over and over
and over and over again luckily there
are ways to mitigate it
like playing chess lots of scientific
research has been undertaken regarding
the relationship between chess
and memory function in 2003 the new
england journal of medicine
and the proceedings of the national
academy of science found
that chess and other similar brain
activities helped delay the onset of
alzheimer's
learning the game of chess or playing
the game of chess
has at least shown that over the age of
75 that it may in fact
delay the progression of such a thing
stanford university's professor abraham
vergeese
also recommends exercising the brain to
prevent dementia illness
and that there may come a day quote when
doctors recommend a game of chess along
with physical exercise and a healthy
diet
research has shown that the memory can
begin to fade from the age of 20
but it's hoped that mental exercise like
chess will checkmate the onset of
alzheimer's disease
number eight queen isabella changed the
game like
all games the rules of chess are fluid
and ever-changing
the rules we know today weren't
standardized until the 19th century
and the game had changed numerous times
before that before the late 1400s the
male
queen equivalent could only move one or
two squares at a time
much like the king that is until
isabella the first of castile
i cannot ignore the verdict of my
council
surely you can do anything you want
how little you know ruling over spain
with her husband king ferdinand ii
isabella became the first queen of spain
and helped finance christopher
columbus's fateful voyage to the new
world
according to chess historian hover
westerveld queen isabella's power and
influence altered the rules of chess
turning the male piece into a female
queen and allowing it to move any
distance
in any direction number seven checkmate
has a cool origin story checkmate
[Music]
the terminology of chess may sound
different to our modern ears
what the heck do check and checkmate
even mean well the earliest forms of
chess
ended only after the king was physically
captured
after a couple of hundred years the
persians changed the ending to a
checkmate
which is when the king is cornered by
the opponent's pieces
the word checkmate is sourced from
numerous persian and arabic phrases
it may derive from the persian phrase
shaab mat
meaning the king is helpless do you see
it now
or should we finish this on the board it
may also derive from arabic
with sheik meaning monarch and mot
meaning dead or helpless
therefore sheik mat translates to the
monarch
is dead or helpless bishop to bishop
eight
discover jack and incidentally
mate number six fools mate can end you
quickly
chas is a very complex game when played
at the highest level
a game can take numerous hours to finish
it's been five hours
perhaps we shoot a journey it's also
possible
although exceedingly unlikely for the
black player to checkmate the white
in just two moves this infamous trap is
called the fools mate
it's performed by moving the e pawn so
the queen
can go to h4 however this is only
possible if the white player moves their
pawns to f3
or iv and g4 opening up a devastating
line of attack
and allowing the black queen to trap the
white king in this position
the king has no safe squares to move
there are no pieces that can interpose
or block
the queen from checking the king and
there actually are no pieces that can
capture the checking piece or capture
the queen it's presumably so named
because the white player
has to be a fool to allow it to happen
number five
there are over 1 000 different openings
it's no secret that chess takes a very
long time to master owing
to its complexity that isn't very
surprising when one considers that there
are over 1 000 different opening
variations alone
in fact the oxford companion to chess
lists an unbelievable 1327
different openings and variants
originally published in 1984 by the
oxford university press
the oxford companion to chess was
written by chess masters
historians and researchers david vincent
hooper and ken wilde
some of the more well-known openings
include open game
the bishop's opening the king and
queen's gambit
and petrov's defense just to name five
of the 1327.
show me not now let's play again number
four
chess began in india chess is a very old
game
and it has its roots in the gupta empire
chess was invented in india
somewhere around 600 a.d a gigantic
chessboard was constructed at 34 secret
which was the capital a long time ago
gupta was an ancient indian empire that
covered much of the indian subcontinent
from the third to sixth centuries
it was during this reign sometime around
the sixth century
that chess was created in northwest
india with its spread
to sassanid persia it acquired its
current name and terminology
chess derived from shah
meaning king and checkmate from shamath
or the king is helpless it was known as
chaturanga and its rules have been lost
to history
what we do know is that chaturanga means
four divisions
and said divisions were composed of the
infantry cavalry
elephants and chariotry we also know
that it was played on an eight by eight
checkerboard
known as an ostapeda number three
there are billions of potential play
combinations
this ain't checkers you want my king
you got to come get my king all these
other pieces are just a means to do it
if you thought 1 000 different openings
was difficult and complex
then you haven't heard anything yet
chess can go any number of ways
roughly 300 billion ways to be exact and
that's just in the first four moves
yes the different play combinations are
so staggering that there are an
estimated
319 billion different combinations and
positions
in the first four moves of chess alone
but what
play never play the board always the man
you got to play the man playing the ball
play me i'm your opponent you have to
beat me
not the board beat me but that's not all
in theory
the longest possible chess match would
last 5949 moves
we say in theory because that would take
an astoundingly long time to complete
so move
hey that's a good move
i can't believe it i'm losing to a rug
the longest chest match in history took
place in belgrade in 1989
and lasted just 269 moves
that game alone took just over 20 hours
to complete
number two the shannon number will blow
your mind
and if you thought that was crazy just
wait until you hear the shannon number
if there are over 300 billion different
combinations in the first four moves
than just how many unique total
combinations can there be
the answer is almost literally
unimaginable
the shannon number devised by
mathematician claude shannon
places the conservative lower bound of
chess at 10 to the power of 120
unique variations that's more than the
number of atoms
in the observable universe which is
estimated at 10 to the power of 80.
does that even make sense with that said
the 10 to the power of 120 number
takes into account ridiculous moves that
no
sensible player would make when
accounting for sensible games
the number is closer to 10 to the power
of 40
not that that is any less staggering
yeah it looks like you're right
and i resigned thank you for a very
enjoyable game
yeah thank you before we unveil our top
pick here are a few honorable mentions
the second book ever printed in english
was about chess
the etymology of rookie may come from
the rook
[Music]
the first modern board was created in
europe in the 11th century
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number one the folding board may have
been
for stealth folding chess boards are
quite common today
the boards fold perfectly down the
middle and the pieces are typically held
within the folded halves
this allows for easy carrying and
storage and it's also great for hiding
the chest set from prying eyes
legend has it that the folding
chessboard was invented back in the
early
12th century in a time when chess was
forbidden in the church
a chess loving priest supposedly defied
the rules
and created a secret chessboard that
could fold in half
and be stored on a shelf where it would
look like two nondescript
books the idea obviously caught on
because people have been making folding
chess sets for the last
900 years do you agree with our picks
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