Which chess piece is called "kon' " in Russian?

Chess is one of the most popular board games in the world because of its intellectual attraction, its use of strategy and its appeal to all types of people. The game is particularly popular in Russia. The Russians have different names for the pieces. The knight is called "Kon' " in Russian. Kon' stands for horse, the animal a knight rides on.

The game shaped the Russian culture, but the Russian culture has influenced chess as well. After the Bolsheviks took power in 1917, it became a national pastime. Soon after the revolution, Vladimir Lenin's supreme commander of the Soviet army, Nikolay Krylenko, laid the foundations for state-sponsored chess: He opened chess schools, hosted tournaments, and promoted the game as a vehicle for international dominance.

Some of Russia's greatest chess grand masters include Anatoly Karpov, Boris Spassky and, widely considered the game's greatest player ever, Garry Kasparov. From 1986 until his retirement in 2005, Kasparov was ranked world No. 1 for 225 out of 228 months. In 1997 he became the first world champion to lose a match to a computer under standard time controls, when he lost to the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue in a highly publicized match.

Spassky, who won the world championship in 1969, lost the title to American phenom Bobby Fischer in their famous 1972 match in Iceland.