The 1924 Soviet Chess Match Where The Chess Pieces Were Real Soldiers and Horses
Let’s time travel back to Leningrad (aka St. Petersburg) in 1924. That’s when an unconventional chess match was played by Peter Romanovsky and Ilya Rabinovich, two chess masters of the day.
Apparently, they called in their moves over the telephone. And then real-life chess pieces—in the form of human beings and horses—were moved across a huge chessboard covering Palace Square. Members of the Soviet Union’s Red Army served as the black pieces; members of the Soviet navy were the white pieces. 8,000 onlookers watched the action unfold.
According to this online forum for chess enthusiasts, the 5‑hour match “was an annual event, designed to promote chess in the USSR.” The first such match was held in Smolensk in 1921, followed by matches in Kerch in 1922, Omsk in 1923 and then St. Petersburg in 1924. You can catch a glimpse of the match in the footage below.
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