An interesting post I found on the Web:
The oldest chess reference comes from Persian literature by Karnamak in 600 A.D.
The oldest chess problem on record is dated around 600 A.D.
The oldest Arabic references to chess date back to 720 A.D.
The oldest recovered chess piece, found in Persia, is dated to 790 A.D.
The chess pieces of St. Genadio, Spain are the oldest chess pieces found in Europe. They date to the late 9th century A.D.
The oldest reference to chess in Europe comes from the will of Ermengaud I, dated 1008.
The oldest Persian reference to chess is found in the Shahnama, written by Firdausi in 1011.
The oldest source of chess rules in the Latin poem 'Carmina Rhythmica de Ludo Schalmat,' written by Abraham ibn Ezra (1092-1167) around 1150.
The oldest complete chess set is the Lewis chessmen, discovered in the isle of Lewis in 1831 and dated back to 1120.
The oldest European book on chess is Juegos Axedrez, dados y tablos, written in the 13th century.
Th oldest modern chess manuscript, the Gottingen manuscript, published in 1471.
The second oldest book published in English with the printing press, The Game and Playe of Chess, by Caxton in 1474.
The oldest known recorded modern chess game was played in 1485 by Francisco de Castelliz and Narcisi Vinoles.
The oldest surviving chess book is the Repeticon de Amores, written by Lucena in 1496.
The oldest reference to chess in America is from a history of Dutch settlers in 1641.
The oldest Russian chess book was published in 1791.
The oldest chess book published in America is Chess Made Easy, printed and sold by James Humphreys of Philadelphia in 1802.
The oldest chess club in Europe, the Zurich Chess Club, was founded in 1809.
The oldest chess club in Britain, the Manchester Chess Club, was founded in 1817.
The oldest newspaper chess column bagan in the Liverpool Mercury in 1813. It ran until 1819.
The oldest chess club in the United Kingdom that still exists is the Edinburgh Chess Club, established in 1822.
The oldest chess club in Germany, the Hamburger Schachklub, was founded in 1830.
The oldest chess magazine is Le Palamede, first published in Paris in 1836 by La Bourdonnais and Mery.
The oldest chess association is the Yorkshire Chess Association, founded in 1841.
The oldest national chess association is the Canadian Chess Association, founded in 1872.
The oldest newspaper chess column still in existence runs in The Illustrated London News, and first appeared in 1842.
The oldest photograph of chess players was made in 1843.
The oldest chess event in the United States is the Stanely-Rousseau match, first played in 1845.
The oldest chess column in America appeared in the New York Spirit of the Times in 1845.
The oldest chess magazine still in publication is the Deutsche Schachzeitung, first published in 1846. It was not published from 1945 to 1950.
The oldest modern chess tournament is the Ries Divan knockout, organized in London in 1849 and won by Buckle.
The oldest international tournament is the London International, won by Anderssen in 1851.
The oldest chess club in Holland, the Royal Dutch Chess Society "Discendo Discimus" in the Hague, was founded in 1852.
The oldest chess demonstration board was designed by Lowenthal in 1857.
The oldest chess club in the US is the Mechanics Institute Chess Club, founded in 1854. It was destroyed by earthquake and fire in 1906 and re-started in 1909.
The oldest American college chess team, Yale, was founded in 1857.
The oldest Russian chess magazine, Shakmatny Listok, was first published in 1859.
The oldest American intercollegiate chess match, Amherst vs. Williams College, began in 1859.
The oldest Round Robin chess tournament was London 1862, won by Anderssen.
The oldest university chess club in Britain, Oxford University Chess Club, formed in 1869.
The oldest national chess association is the Canadian Chess Association, founded in 1872.
The oldest person to win a national chess championship was Edith Price (1872-1956), who won the British Ladies Championship in 1948 at the age of 76.
The oldest chess rivalry is the annual Cambridge vs Oxford chess match, which first began in 1873.
The oldest sport to have a world champion is billiards, in 1873. The second oldest sport to have a world champion is chess, in 1886.
The oldest chess club in continuous existence in the US was the Manhattan Chess Club, founded in 1878.
The oldest annual chess tournament in the US is the New York State Championship, first held in 1878.
The oldest chess magazine in continuous publication, the British Chess Magazine, was established in 1881 by John Watkinson.
The oldest person to win a state chess championship was Harlow Daly (1883-1979), who won the chess championship of Maine in 1969 at the age of 85.
The second oldest national chess association is the Scottish Chess Association, founded in 1884.
One of the oldest chess clubs in the USA is the Franklin Mercantile Chess Club, founded in 1885. The club closed in 2002.
The oldest chess club in Texas is the San Antonio Chess Club, founded in 1888.
The oldest chess player to play postal chess was Jared Moore (1893-1995). He played postal chess until he was 100 years old at died at the age of 101.
The oldest and longest running chess tournament is the Hastings tournament, first held in 1895.
The oldest amateur movie about chess, A Chess Dispute, made in 1903.
The oldest correspondence chess organization in America is the Correspondence Chess League of America (CCLA), founded in 1909.
The oldest competitive chess grandmaster was Arthur Dake (1910-2000).
The oldest person to become a grandmaster may be Janis Klvans (1933- ). He became GM in 1997 at the age of 62 after he won the senior world championship. His title was an automatic result of his championship.
Valery Grechihin (1937- ) became a grandmaster the regular way (GM norms) in 1998 at the age of 60.
Jacques Mieses was given an honory grandmaster title in 1950 at the age of 85.
The oldest grandmaster in the world in Andor Lilienthal, born in 1911 and became a GM in 1950.
The oldest movie with a chess scene, Wishing Ring, made in 1914.
The oldest person to participate (but not play) in a chess Olympiad was Ion Gudju (1897-1988), who was active at the 1984 Olympiad in Thessaloniki at the age of i0.
The oldest movie with a chess theme, Chess Fever, made in 1925.
The oldest chess problem society, the British Chess Problem Society, was formed in 1918.
The oldest qualifier for the World Chess Championship was Vassily Smyslov (1921- ), who became a Candidate by taking 2nd place in the 1982 Las Palmas Interzonal at the age of 61.
The oldest chess team competition in the USA is the Pan-Am Intercollegiate Championship, first held in 1946.
The oldest chess stamp was issued in Bulgaria in 1947 to commemorate the Balkan Games. Chess was one of the sports.
The oldest American chess company to sell chess sets, books, and magazines is Chess Digest, founded by Ken Smith in 1962.
The oldest chess organization in Malaysia, the Penang Chess Association, was formed in 1972.
The oldest chess camp in the USA is the Castle Chess Camp in Pennsylvania, founded in 1982.
The oldest player to become a master was Oscar Shapiro (1909-2002). He became a USCF master at the age of 74.
The oldest world chess champion was Wilhelm (William) Steinitz, who won a world championship match from Chigorin at the age of 56. He was world champion until he lost it in a match with Lasker in 1894 at the age of 58 years, 10 days.
Enrico Paoli (1908-2005) was the oldest active chess player in the world as of 2005. He was playing chess at the age of 97. He was awarded an honorary GM title in 1996 at the age of 88.
