Let’s time trav­el again to Leningrad (aka St. Peters­burg) in 1924. That’s when an uncon­ven­tion­al chess match was performed by Peter Romanovsky and Ilya Rabi­novich, two chess mas­ters of the day.

Appar­ent­ly, they referred to as of their strikes over the tele­telephone. After which real-life chess items—within the type of human beings and horses—have been moved throughout an enormous chess­board cov­er­ing Palace Sq.. Mem­bers of the Sovi­et Union’s Crimson Military served because the black items; mem­bers of the Sovi­et navy have been the white items. 8,000 onlook­ers watched the motion unfold.

Accord­ing to this online forum for chess enthu­si­asts, the 5‑hour match “was an annu­al occasion, designed to professional­mote chess within the USSR.” The primary such match was held in Smolen­sk in 1921, fol­lowed by match­es in Kerch in 1922, Omsk in 1923 after which St. Peters­burg in 1924. You’ll be able to catch a glimpse of the match within the footage under.

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