Monday 16 May 2016

Playing chess while high

Ah. Classic click bait! This isn't a story about playing chess while stoned, but something far more interesting than that.
Two climbers, Jost Kobusch and Nadav Ben-Yehuda are claiming a world record for playing a game at an altitude of 8,000m The game was played just below the summit of Annapurna, an 8,091m high Himalayan peak. By necessity the game was played quite quickly ( 7 minutes in total) due to the very thin atmosphere. This also had an effect on the quality of play, with both players problem solving abilities impaired by a lack of oxygen. The other unusual fact was the game was played on a smart phone, as I assume there was no room for a full sized chess board among the climbing equipment.
The full story of the game, and the climb, can be found here.

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