State Exams GK Questions 2026

Gukesh, from Chennai, won the Candidates Tournament in 2024 and then beat the defending champion Ding Liren of China in the title match held at Singapore later the same year, taking the crown at the age of eighteen and becoming the youngest undisputed world champion in the history of the…

The knight moves in the shape of the letter L, two squares along a rank or file and then one square at right angles, and it is the only piece that may pass over any piece standing in its way, its own or the opponent's. This is why a knight…

The date marks the founding of FIDE, the international chess federation, in Paris on 20 July 1924, and the day is observed by chess federations across the world with tournaments and school events.

FIDE, the Federation Internationale des Echecs, was founded in Paris in 1924, and its motto is Gens una sumus, a Latin phrase meaning we are one people.

A chessboard is a square divided into eight rows, called ranks, and eight columns, called files, so the number of squares is 8 multiplied by 8, that is 64.

Humpy, from Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh, earned the open Grandmaster title in 2002 while in her teens, and at that time she was the youngest woman in the world to have done so.

Anand, born in Mayiladuthurai and brought up in Chennai, earned the Grandmaster title in 1988 while still a teenager and became the first Indian to hold the highest lifetime title awarded by FIDE.

Chaturanga was played in India in the Gupta age and its name means four limbs, standing for the four divisions of an ancient army: infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariots.

Florence Nightingale was born on 12 May 1820 and became famous for organising nursing care during the Crimean War, where her rounds at night earned her the name the Lady with the Lamp.

Louis Braille, born in France on 4 January 1809, lost his sight in childhood and devised the system of raised dots that allows blind and partially sighted people to read and write by touch.

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, born on 11 November 1888, was a scholar and freedom fighter who became independent India's first Minister of Education and set up the University Grants Commission and the early Indian Institutes of Technology.

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, born on 31 October 1875 at Nadiad in Gujarat, was independent India's first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister and is remembered as the Iron Man of India for merging more than five hundred princely states into the Union.

Dr B C Roy was a physician who became Chief Minister of West Bengal and was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1961.

Major Dhyan Chand, the hockey player born on 29 August 1905, won Olympic gold with India in 1928, 1932 and 1936 and was so skilful with the ball that he was called the Wizard.

The mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan was born on 22 December 1887 at Erode in Tamil Nadu and grew up in Kumbakonam, and although he had almost no formal training in the subject, his results on infinite series, partitions and continued fractions astonished mathematicians in England.

On 28 February 1928 the physicist C V Raman announced his discovery that light changes its wavelength when it is scattered by molecules, an effect that carries his name, and for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930, the first Nobel Prize in science won by an…

Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya was born on 15 September 1861 in Mysore state, and he is remembered for the Krishna Raja Sagara dam, the block system of irrigation gates and his years as Diwan of Mysore.

Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, was born on 14 November 1889, and because of his affection for children, who called him Chacha Nehru, the date was adopted as Children's Day or Bal Diwas.

Dr Radhakrishnan, philosopher, professor and the second President of India, was born on 5 September 1888. When students wished to celebrate his birthday in 1962, he suggested that the day be kept for teachers instead, and it has been Teachers' Day ever since.

Swami Vivekananda was born on 12 January 1863 at Kolkata, and the Government of India declared his birthday National Youth Day in 1984, first observed in 1985, because his writings and his address at the Parliament of Religions at Chicago in 1893 are held up as a model for young…