The First Correspondence Chess Game Played in Space

Jon Edwards

Played as a consultation game in July, 1970, Vitaly Sevestianov and Adrian Nikolayev played chess from their Soviet Soyuz 9 spacecraft against two other cosmonauts at the Center of Flight Operations in Moscow. The game lasted 6 hours. At the time, Nikolayev was the Director of Cosmonaut training.

Note the autographs of the two cosmonauts on the stamp.

Sevestianov and Nikolaev vs Kamanin and Gorbatko, Queen's Gambit Accepted