The first-ever chess set to have traveled to outer space

— Earth, you’re taking too long. Your time is up! — We still have a full minute! — You could move faster down there; we’ll soon be out of radio coverage…In 20 minutes and 7 chess moves, the Soyuz-9 spacecraft crossed the entire USSR, from the western border to the Pacific coast, and began its next orbit around Earth. On June 9, 1970, the first-ever Earth vs. Space chess match took place. Representing Earth were Nikolai Kamanin and Victor Gorbatko, while Andriyan Nikolaev and Vitaly Sevastyanov made up the Space team.The chess set for space was designed by engineer Mikhail Klevtsov, who faced a unique challenge: the pieces had to stay attached to the board (“since they could accidentally fly into a sleeping astronaut’s mouth,” joked Sevastyanov). Magnetic solutions were ruled out due to the sensitivity of the on-board equipment, so Klevtsov devised a simple and ingenious system of grooves and rails.