Christer Fuglesang

Christer Fuglesang is Sweden’s first astronaut and a chess enthusiast who has taken his love of the game all the way into orbit.

A particle physicist who worked at CERN before joining the European Space Agency, Fuglesang first travelled to space in 2006. Across two missions aboard Space Shuttle Discovery, he helped build the International Space Station and completed five spacewalks, spending more than 31 hours outside the spacecraft.

During his second mission in 2009, he found time for an unusual challenge: “Space vs Earth”, a chess game against the readers of Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter. While Fuglesang considered his moves aboard the space station, readers back on Earth voted for theirs. His chessboard used Velcro to keep the pieces from floating away.

The match even caught the attention of reigning World Champion Viswanathan Anand, who offered advice as Fuglesang’s position became increasingly difficult. Anand was clearly impressed by his opponent’s other occupation too, suggesting that perhaps they could swap jobs someday.