The two cosmonauts were the flight engineer, Vitaly Sevastianov (born July 8, 1935), and the Commander, Andrian Nikolayev (married to cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, first woman in space). On June 9, 1970 the two cosmonauts had a day off and played chess with the ground crew (General Kamanian and Cosmonaut Gorbatko). This game started during orbit 141 and ended in orbit 144. Sevastianov retired from the cosmonaut corps in 1993 and became a member and President of the Duma, representing the Communist Party. He also became President of the Soviet Chess Federation (1977-1986). In February 1985, Soviet Chess President Sevastianov wrote a letter to FIDE President Campomanes, demanding a three month suspension of the Karpov-Kasparov world championship match, citing concerns about the health of the players. The match was terminated after the 48th game. In 1985 he became an International Arbiter for the World Chess Federation (FIDE) and in 1986 he was awarded honorary member for life of the World Chess Federation.
He led the effort to save the Mir space station (People's Charity Foundation), but was unable to raise enough money ($100 million) or support to keep Mir in space and save the Fritz 6 chess program that was on board and turned on, ready for a game of chess.
The mission, and the chess game, was commemorated in a stamp issued shortly after the mission was completed: http://www.tri.org.au/chess/Russia7...
Source: http://www.geocities.com/siliconval...
