- For other meanings, see Chess
(disambiguation).
Chess is a board game for two players played on a square board divided into eight rows (or ranks) and eight
columns (or files) of 64 individual squares which alternate in color orthogonally (traditionally as white and black).
Each player has 16 pieces, made up of eight pawns, two knights, two bishops, two rooks, one queen and one king,
each kind of piece moving differently. The two sides are differentiated by contrasting colors. The object of the game is to
render capture of the opponent's king unavoidable (checkmate).
Introduction
Chess is not a game of chance; it is based solely on tactics and strategy, and for this
reason, it is sometimes known by the soubriquet the "Game of Kings". Nevertheless, the game is so complex that not even the best
players can consider all contingencies.
The number of legal positions in chess is estimated to be between 1043 and 1050, and the game-tree complexity approximately 10123. The game-tree
complexity of chess was first calculated by Claude Shannon (father of
information theory) as 10120, a number now known as
the "Shannon number". Typically an average position has thirty to forty possible moves, but there may be as few as zero (in the
case of checkmate or stalemate) or as many as 218.
Chess is one of humanity's more popular games; it has been described not
only as a game, but also as both art and science.
Chess is sometimes seen as an abstract wargame; as a "mental martial
art". Chess is played both recreationally and competitively in clubs,
tournaments, online, and by mail (correspondence chess). Many variants and relatives of chess are played throughout the world; amongst them, the most popular are Xiangqi (in China), Janggi (in Korea), Shogi (in
Japan), and Buddhi Chal (in Nepal), all of which come from the same historical stem as chess.
History
Although many countries make claims to have invented it, the preponderance of evidence is that chess originated from the
Indian game Chaturanga, about 1400 years ago and spread westwards to Europe and eastwards as far as Korea, spawning variants as it went. From India it migrated to Persia, and spread throughout the Islamic world after the Muslim conquest of
Persia, although many Islamic scholars consider Chess to be haraam (prohibited), whether or not it is played with the intention
of gambling. Chess then reached Russia via Mongolia, where it was played at the beginning of the 7th
century. It was introduced into Spain by the Moors in the 10th century, where a famous games manuscript
covering chess, backgammon, and dice
named the Libro de los juegos was written under the
sponsorship of Alfonso X of Castile during the 13th century. Chess reached England in
the 11th century, and evolved through various versions such as Courier.
A typical Staunton-design set and clockBy the end of the 15th century, the modern rules for the basic moves had
been adopted from Italy: pawns gained the option of moving two squares on their first
move and the en passant capture therewith (see pawn for explanation);
bishops could move arbitrarily far along an open diagonal (previously being limited to a move of exactly two squares diagonally)
while losing the ability to jump over the intervening square, and the queen was allowed to move arbitrarily far in any direction,
making it the most powerful piece. (Before, she could only move one square diagonally.) There were still variations in rules for
castling and the outcome in the case of stalemate.
These changes collectively helped make chess more open to analysis and thereby develop a more devoted following. The game in
Europe since that time has been almost the same as is played today. The current rules were finalized in the early 19th century, except for the exact conditions for a draw.
The most popular piece design, the "Staunton" set, was created by Nathaniel Cook in 1849, endorsed by Howard Staunton, a leading player of the time, and officially adopted by FIDE in 1924.
At one time, chess games were recorded using descriptive chess notation. This system is still used by some players, but is gradually being
supplanted by the newer, more compact algebraic chess
notation.
Chess's international governing body is FIDE, which has presided over the world championship matches for decades. See World Chess Championship for details and a more in-depth
history. Most countries of the world have a national chess organization as well.
Computer Chess
Once the sole province of the human mind, chess is now played by both humans and machines. At first considered only a
curiosity, the best chess playing computers like Shredder or Fritz have risen in
ability to the point where they can seriously challenge and even defeat the best humans.
Garry Kasparov, then ranked number one in the world, played a
six-game match against IBM's chess
computer Deep Blue in 1996. Deep Blue
shocked the world by winning the first game in Deep Blue - Kasparov, 1996, Game 1, but Kasparov convincingly won the match by
winning three games and drawing two. The six-game rematch in 1997 was won by the machine
which was subsequently retired by IBM. In October, 2002, Vladimir Kramnik drew in an
eight-game match with the computer program Deep Fritz. In 2003, Kasparov drew both a six-game match with the computer program Deep Junior in February, and a four-game match against X3D
Fritz in November.
Portable Game Notation (PGN) is the most common
standard computer-processable format for recording chess games, and is based on algebraic chess notation.
Subject overview
- Official FIDE rules
- Equipment: Chessboard, Chess pieces, Game clock
- The Movement of the Pieces: Bishop, King, Knight,
Pawn, Queen, Rook, Castling
- Notation: Algebraic chess notation, Descriptive chess notation
- Computer-processable notation: Portable Game
Notation (entire games), Forsyth-Edwards
Notation (for specific positions)
- Tournament organization
- Administrative bodies
History of chess
Famous chess games
- The immortal game between Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky
(1851)
- The evergreen game between Adolf Anderssen and Jean Dufresne (1852)
- The opera game between Paul Morphy and two allies, the Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard (1858)
- The Game of the Century between Bobby Fischer and Donald
Byrne (1956)
- Karpov - Kasparov, 1985, Game 16, considered by Kasparov to be his best
game against the reigning champion (outside link)
- Deep
Blue - Kasparov, 1996, Game 1, the first game where a chess-playing
computer defeated a reigning world champion using normal time controls (1996)
- Kasparov versus The World, in which the
reigning world champion played, via the Internet, against the entire rest of the world in consultation (1999)
Chess strategy and tactics- basic
concepts
- Chess terminology
- Demonstration game
- Tactical elements: Fork, Pin, Skewer, Discovered attack, Zwischenzug, Undermining, Overloading, Interference
- Strategic elements: Chess opening
- Middle games: Hypermodernism
- Endgames
Chess problems and puzzles
Chess on the Internet
Chess literature
Chess in literature and the arts
The Lewis chessmen also inspired Noggin the Nog.
Chess and mathematics
Chess and music
The game inspired the musical Chess.
Chess as mental training
Correspondence chess
- Handicap variants (one player starts with more pieces than the other)
- Shuffle variants (using non-standard starting positions)
- Fantasy variants (aka "Fairy chess" or "Heterodox Chess"):
- National games:
See also
External links
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