Farm in Ørland becomes the world’s largest chess board

Chess board world recordChess Pieces, Photo: pixabay.com

Farm in Ørland becomes the world’s largest chess board

80 x 80 meters is the impressive dimensions of the world’s greatest chess board, which is beginning to take shape in a field in Brekstad, municipality of Ørland.

 

People, three ponies and a Døla horse represent the living pieces to be used in the game on the record breaking board, Adresseavisen writes.

The squares are green and brown – grass and milled soil – rather than the traditional black and white, and each square measures 10 x 10 meters, so that each side of the board is a total of 80 meters long.

– Yes, this will be the world’s largest chess board. The current record is 5.89 x 5.89 meter, so we will crush that, says project worker, Hallgeir Grøntvedt, at Ørland Cultural Center.

Commemoration of the reformation

The world record attempt is being made in connection with a chess weekend that is part of the celebrations of the reformation. Saturday there are chess tournaments both at the cultural centre and at Austråttborgen with slightly more normal board dimensions

Sunday the record is to be set. In addition to the live horses, four mayors are to be used as bishops. One king will represent Archbishop Olav Engelbrektsson, while Christian III, who will be accompanied by Mrs Inger, is to be the opponent of the bishop – and conqueror, unless history will be rewritten. The pawns are naturally represented by farmers clad in sponsored jump suits.

Grand masters of chess, Simen Agdestein and German Niclas Huschenbeth, will control the pieces from lifts high above the board.

Related facts (from wikipedia)

I who have uploaded it is the municipal information manager. CC BY 2.5, Original Picture

Inger Ottesdotter Rømer (ca. 1475-1555) also called Mrs Inger of Austrått and Ingerd Ottesdatter was a noblewoman, landlord and local governor, best known as the owner of Austrått Castle, and from Ibsen’s play Mrs Inger of Østeraad (1857).

Shortly after her husbands’ death, the widow appears as an active landlord and political actor. Both historians and dramatists have described the power struggle between Mrs Ingerd and Archbishop Olav Engelbrektsson.

The archbishop had robbed Austrått three times, causing two of Inger’s son-in-laws to be killed. On the other hand, Mrs. Inger wasn’t a saint herself; she behaved aggressively in several dubious inheritance litigations.

A contemporary writes that “She has a keen mind and sense of economics and godliness, but could use hostile measures to achieve her goals”; He mentions three major lawsuits that she lost

 

© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today