The world's smallest chess set can fit inside a bee's mouth.

During the early stages of chess, before horseys were invented, they used to use pieces which resembled a fish. They were called 'eels' and they moved in wavy lines.

In a bid to milk the lucrative cuban film market, legendary chess champion Capablanca was the original choice to play Sam in "Casablanca". Here's a rare photo of Capa 'blacked-up' during the rehearsals.

The word CHESS actually stands for Countermove, Hmmm, Evasion, Strike, Surrender In Iceland there are 14 different words for chess, all spelt and pronounced exactly the same way.

If you put a single grain of rice on the first square of a chess board, then double it to 2 grains on the next square, then 4, then 8 and so on, by the time you get to square 64 you will have aged 35 years.

Famous Dutch GM Jan Timman once donned tin suit and funnel hat to play the tinman in "The Wizard of Oz" for his local amateur dramatics group.

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