Chess has been played for some fifteen centuries — long enough to accumulate hoaxes, legends, and one very famous cabinet with a man inside. Fifteen questions. Cover the answers, commit out loud, and keep score.

In 1770, a chess-playing 'machine' called the Turk began beating challengers across Europe — including, over its long career, Napoleon and Benjamin Franklin. What was its secret?

A human chess master hidden inside the cabinet — the hoax ran for decades before the truth fully came out.

When did a computer first defeat a reigning world champion in a match?

1997 — IBM's Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov, 3.5 to 2.5.

How many legal first moves does White have?

Twenty — sixteen pawn moves and four knight jumps.

Which is the only piece besides a pawn that can move on the game's very first turn?

The knight — the one piece allowed to jump over others.

After each player makes just one move, how many possible positions exist?

400 — and the number explodes from there.

Roughly how many distinct chess games are possible?

By Claude Shannon's classic estimate, about a 1 followed by 120 zeros.

What is the longest serious game ever played?

Nikolić vs. Arsović, Belgrade 1989 — 269 moves and more than 20 hours, ending in a draw.

What does the Elo rating stand for?

Nothing — it's a surname. Arpad Elo was a physics professor who devised the system.

What are the Lewis Chessmen?

Twelfth-century pieces carved mostly from walrus ivory, found on a Scottish beach in 1831 — the rooks are wild-eyed berserkers biting their shields.

One of the first books ever printed in English, around 1474, was about what?

Chess — William Caxton's The Game and Playe of the Chesse.

Where does the word 'rook' come from?

The Persian rukh — a war chariot, not a bird and not a castle.

What do the French call the bishop?

Le fou — the jester. Same piece, different court appointment.

When was the first space-versus-Earth chess game played?

June 1970 — Soyuz 9 cosmonauts against ground control. It ended, diplomatically, in a draw.

In the old legend, a sage asks for one grain of wheat on the first square of the board, doubled on each of the 64. How much wheat is that?

About 18.4 quintillion grains — centuries' worth of the entire world harvest.

What is the highest chess rating ever achieved?

2882, by Magnus Carlsen in 2014.

Sit with the Turk for a moment: in 1770 the trick was hiding a human inside the machine. By 1997 the machine needed no help — the best trick chess ever pulled was reversing itself.