International grandmaster Sergei Kariakin during a chess game with two Russian cosmonauts, June 9, 2020. - Stanislav Krasilnikov / TASS / Sipa / SIPA

The game ended in a draw. Two Russian cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) clashed on Tuesday with a chess champion on Earth. Equipped with an electronic tablet as a chessboard, Anatoli Ivanichine and Ivan Vagner played in zero gravity against the great international master Sergueï Kariakine, who was in the Space museum in Moscow (Russia).

The game, broadcast and commented on the Russian space agency Roskosmos' YouTube channel, ended after about 15 minutes with a draw. The event was organized to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first chess match, on June 9, 1970, between Soviet cosmonauts on mission and colleagues on Earth.

"A very incisive and good level"

"It was a great honor not to lose," reacted Anatoli Ivanichine, with Ivan Vagner at his side, both visible with their feet fixed in an ISS module. For his part, the champion Sergei Kariakin recognized "a very incisive and good level" despite his brevity, cosmonauts can not stay live very long. "You seem to have a unique perspective from space," joked Sergei Kariakin.

The Russians Anatoli Ivanichine and Ivan Vagner, and the American Chris Cassidy, arrived on the ISS on April 9 after having left the Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan. They were joined on May 31 by the Americans Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley who carried out the first manned flight carried out by the American private group SpaceX.

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