Chess
ChessFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaThis article is about the Western board game. For other chess games or other uses, see Chess(disambiguation).ChessFrom left to right: a white king, a black rook, a blackqueen, a white pawn, ablack knight, and a whitebishopPlayers2Setup timeAbout 1 minutePlaying timeCasual games usually last 10 to 60 minutes; tournamentgames last anywhere from about ten minutes (blitzchess) to six hours or longer.Random chance NoneSkills requiredTactics, strategyChess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squaresarranged in an eight-by-eight grid. Each player begins the game with sixteen pieces: one king, one queen,two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns. The object of the game is tocheckmate theopponent's king, whereby the king is under immediate attack (in "check") and there is no way to remove ordefend it from attack on the next move. The game's present form emerged in Europe during the second
half of the 15th century, an evolution of an older Indian game, Shatranj. Theoreticians have developedextensive chess strategies and tactics since the game's inception. Computers have been used for manyyears to createchess-playing programs, and their abilities and insights have contributed significantly tomodern chess theory. One, Deep Blue, was the first machine to overcome a reigning World ChessChampion in playing ability when it defeated Garry Kasparov in 1997.Organized competitive chess began during the 16th century. The first official World ChessChampion, Wilhelm Steinitz, claimed his title in 1886; the current World Champion is ViswanathanAnand from India. In addition to the World Championship, there is the Women's World Championship,theJunior World Championship, the World Senior Championship, the Correspondence Chess WorldChampionship, the World Computer Chess Championship, and Blitz and Rapid World Championships(see fast chess). The Chess Olympiad is a popular competition among teams from different nations. Onlinechess has opened amateur and professional competition to a wide and varied group of players. Chess isa recognized sport of theInternational Olympic Committee, and international chess competition issanctioned by the FIDE. Chess is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of peopleworldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments. Some other popular forms ofchess are fast chess and computer chess. There are many chess variants that have different rules,different pieces, and different boards. These variants includeblindfold chess and Fischer RandomChess/Chess960.Contents[hide] 1 Rules 1.1 Setup 1.2 Movement 1.3 Castling 1.4 En passant 1.5 Promotion 1.6 Check 1.7 End of the game 1.8 Time control 2 Notation for recording moves 3 Strategy and tactics 3.1 Fundamentals of tactics 3.2 Fundamentals of strategy 3.3 Opening
3.4 Middlegame 3.5 Endgame4 History 4.1 Predecessors 4.2 Origins of the modern game(1000–1850) 4.3 Birth of a sport (1850–1945) 4.4 Post-war era (1945 and later)5 Place in culture 5.1 Pre-modern 5.2 Modern6 Chess composition 6.1 Example7 Competitive play 7.1 Organization of competitions 7.2 Titles and rankings 8 Publications 9 Mathematics and computers 10 Psychology 11 Variants 12 See also 13 Notes 13.1 Footnotes 13.2 Citations 14 References 15 Further reading 16 External linksRulesMain article: Rules of chess
The official rules of chess are maintained by the World Chess Federation. Along with information onofficial chess tournaments, the rules are described in the FIDE Handbook, Laws of Chess section.[1]SetupPieces at the start of a gameabcdefgh8877665544332211abcdefghInitial position: first row: rook, knight, bishop, queen, king, bishop, knight, and rook; second row: pawnsChess is played on a square board of eight rows (called ranks and denoted with numbers 1 to 8) and eightcolumns (called files and denoted with letters a toh) of squares. The colors of the sixty-four squaresalternate and are referred to as "light squares" and "dark squares". The chessboard is placed with a light
square at the right-hand end of the rank nearest to each player, and the pieces are set out as shown in thediagram, with each queen on its own color.The pieces are divided, by convention, into white and black sets. The players are referred to as "White" and"Black", and each begins the game with sixteenpieces of the specified color. These consist of one king,one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns.MovementWhite always moves first. After the initial move, the players alternately move one piece at a time (with theexception of castling, when two pieces are moved). Pieces are moved to either an unoccupied square orone occupied by an opponent's piece, which is captured and removed from play. With the sole exceptionof en passant, all pieces capture opponent's pieces by moving to the square that the opponent's pieceoccupies. A player may not make any move that would put or leave his king under attack. If the player tomove has no legal moves, the game is over; it is either a checkmate—if the king is under attack—orastalemate—if the king is not.Each chess piece has its own style of moving. In the diagrams, the dots mark the squares where the piececan move if no other pieces (including one's own piece) are on the squares between the piece's initialposition and its destination. The king moves one square in any direction. The king has also a specialmove which is called castling and involves also moving a rook. The rook can move any number of squares along any rank or file, but maynot leap over other pieces. Along with the king, the rook is involved duringthe king's castling move. The bishop can move any number of squares diagonally, but may not leapover other pieces. The queen combines the power of the rook and bishop and can move anynumber of squares along rank, file, or diagonal, but it may not leap overother pieces. The knight moves to any of the closest squares that are not on the samerank, file, or diagonal, thus the move forms an "L"-shape two squares longand one square wide. The knight is the only piece that can leap over otherpieces. The pawn may move forward to the unoccupied square immediately infront of it on the same file; or on its first move it may advance two squaresalong the same file provided both squares are unoccupied; or it may moveto a square occupied by an opponent's piece which is diagonally in front of
it on an adjacent file, capturing that piece. The pawn has two specialmoves: the en passant capture and pawn promotion.Moves of a kingabcdefgh8877665544332211abcdefghMoves of a rookabcdefgh887766554433
2211abcdefghMoves of a bishopabcdefgh8877665544332211abcdefghMoves of a queenabcdefgh8877
665544332211abcdefghMoves of a knightabcdefgh8877665544332211abcdefghMoves of a pawnabcdefgh
8877665544332211abcdefgh* Pawns can optionally move two squares forward instead of one on their first move only. They capture diagonally (black x's); theycannot capture with their normal move (black circles). Pawns are also involved in the special move calleden passant.CastlingExamples of castlingMain article: CastlingOnce in every game, each king is allowed to make a special move, known as castling. Castling consists ofmoving the king two squares along the first rank toward a rook (which is on the player's first rank[note 1]) and
then placing the rook on the last square the king has just crossed. Castling is permissible only if all of thefollowing conditions hold:[2] Neither of the pieces involved in castling may have been previouslymoved during the game. There must be no pieces between the king and the rook. The king may not currently be in check, nor may the king pass throughsquares that are under attack by enemy pieces, nor move to a squarewhere it is in check.En passantExamples of pawn moves: promotion (left) and en passant (right)Main article: En passantWhen a pawn advances two squares and there is an opponent's pawn on an adjacent file next to itsdestination square, then the opponent's pawn can capture iten passant (in passing), and move to thesquare the pawn passed over. However, this can only be done on the very next move, or the right to do sois lost. For example, if the black pawn has just advanced two squares from g7 to g5, then the white pawnon f5 can take it via en passant on g6 (but only on white's next move).PromotionMain article: Promotion (chess)When a pawn advances to the eighth rank, as a part of the move it is promoted and must be exchanged forthe player's choice of queen, rook, bishop, or knight of the same color. Usually, the pawn is chosen to bepromoted to a queen, but in some cases another piece is chosen; this is called underpromotion. In thediagram on the right, the pawn on c7 can be advanced to the eighth rank and be promoted to an allowedpiece. There is no restriction placed on the piece that is chosen on promotion, so it is possible to havemore pieces of the same type than at the start of the game (for example, two queens).Check
Main article: Check (chess)When a king is under immediate attack by one or two of the opponent's pieces, it is said to be in check. Aresponse to a check is a legal move if it results in a position where the king is no longer under direct attack(that is, not in check). This can involve capturing the checking piece; interposing a piece between thechecking piece and the king (which is possible only if the attacking piece is a queen, rook, or bishop andthere is a square between it and the king); or moving the king to a square where it is not under attack.Castling is not a permissible response to a check. The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent;this occurs when the opponent's king is in check, and there is no legal way to remove it from attack. It isillegal for a player to make a move that would put or leave his own king in check.End of the gameAlthough the objective of the game is to checkmate the opponent, chess games do not have to end incheckmate—either player may resign which is a win for the other player. It is considered bad etiquette tocontinue playing when in a truly hopeless position.[3] If it is a timed game, a player may run out of time andlose, even with a much superior position. Games also may end in a draw (tie). A draw can occur in severalsituations, including draw by agreement, stalemate, threefold repetition of a position, the fifty-move rule, ora draw by impossibility of checkmate (usually because ofinsufficient material to checkmate). As checkmatefrom some positions cannot be forced in fewer than 50 moves (such as in the pawnless chessendgame and two knights endgame), the fifty-move rule is not applied everywhere,[note 2] particularly incorrespondence chess.White is in checkmateabcdefgh88776655443322
11abcdefghWhite is in checkmate. He cannot escape from being attacked by the Black king and talemate if Black is to move. The position is not checkmate, and since Black cannot move, the game is a draw.Time controlA modern digital chess clock
Besides casual games without any time restriction, chess is also played with a time control, mostly by cluband professional players. If a player's time runs out before the game is completed, the game isautomatically lost (provided his opponent has enough pieces left to deliver checkmate). The duration of agame ranges from long games played up to seven hours to shorter rapid chess games, usually lasting 30minutes or one hour per game. Even shorter is blitz chess, with a time control of three to fifteen minutes foreach player, and bullet chess (under three minutes). In tournament play, time is controlled using agameclock that has two displays, one for each player's remaining time.Notation for recording movesNaming the squares in algebraic chess notationMain article: Chess notationChess games and positions are recorded using a special notation, most often algebraic chess notation.Abbreviated (or short) algebraic notation generally records moves in the format "abbreviation of the piece[5]moved – file where it moved – rank where it moved." For example, Qg5 means "queen moves to the g-fileand 5th rank (that is, to the square g5). If there are two pieces of the same type that can move to the samesquare, one more letter or number is added to indicate the file or rank from which the piece moved,e.g. Ngf3 means "knight from the g-file moves to the square f3". The letter P indicating a pawn is not used,so that e4 means "pawn moves to the squaree4".If the piece makes a capture, "x" is inserted before the destination square. Thus Bxf3 means "bishopcaptures on f3". When a pawn makes a capture, the file from which the pawn departed is used in place of apiece initial, and ranks may be omitted if unambiguous. For example, exd5 (pawn on the e-file captures thepiece on d5) or exd (pawn on e-file captures something on the d-file).
"Scholar's mate"If a pawn moves to its last rank, achieving promotion, the piece chosen is indicated after the move, forexample e1Q or e1 Q. Castling is indicated by the special notations 0–0 for kingside castling and 0–0–0for queenside castling. A move that places the opponent's king in check usually has the notation " " added.Checkmate can be indicated by "#" (occasionally " ", although this is sometimes used for adoublecheck instead). At the end of the game, "1–0" means "White won," "0–1" means "Black won," and "½–½"indicates a draw.[6]Chess moves can be annotated with punctuation marks and other symbols. For example "!" indicates agood move, "!!" an excellent move, "?" a mistake,"?" a blunder, "!?" an interesting move that may not bebest, or "?!" a dubious move, but not easily refuted.[7]For example, one variant of a simple trap known as the Scholar's mate, animated in the picture to the right,can be recorded:1.e4 e52.Qh5?! Nc63.Bc4 Nf6?4.Qxf7# 1–0Strategy and tacticsChess strategy consists of setting and achieving long-term goals during the game – for example, where toplace different pieces – while tactics concentrate on immediate maneuver. These two parts of the chessplaying process cannot be completely separated, because strategic goals are mostly achieved by themeans of tactics, while the tactical opportunities are based on the previous strategy of play.A game of chess is normally divided into three phases: opening, typically the first 10 to 25 moves, whenplayers move their pieces into useful positions for the coming battle; middlegame, usually the fiercest part
of the game; and endgame, when most of the pieces are gone, kings typically take a more active part in thestruggle, and pawn promotion is often decisive.Fundamentals of tacticsMain article: Chess tacticsMikhail Botvinnik vs. Mikhail Yudovich[8]abcdefgh8877665544332211abcdefghAfter sacrificing a piece to expose Black's king, Botvinnik played 1. Bh5 and Yudovich resigned, as mate isinevitable: 1.Kxh52.Ng3 Kh4 3.Qe4 Rf4 4.Qxf4#, or 1.Kh72.Nf6 double check Kh8 3.Qh7#.In chess, tactics in general concentrate on short-term actions – so short-term that they can be calculated inadvance by a human player or by a computer. The possible depth of calculation depends on the player'sability. In quiet positions with many possibilities on both sides, a deep calculation is more difficult and maynot be practical, while in "tactical" positions with a limited number of forced variations where much less thanthe best move would lose quickly, strong players can calculate long sequences of moves.Simple one-move or two-move tactical actions – threats, exchanges of material, and double attacks – canbe combined into more complicatedcombinations, sequences of tactical maneuvers that are often forcedfrom the point of view of one or both players.[9] Theoreticians described many elementary tactical methods
and typical maneuvers; for example, pins, forks, skewers, batteries, discovered attacks (especiallydiscovered checks),zwischenzugs, deflections, decoys, sacrifices, underminings, overloadings,and interferences.[10]A forced variation that involves a sacrifice and usually results in a tangible gain is called a combination.[9]Brilliant combinations – such as those in theImmortal Game – are considered beautiful and are admiredby chess lovers. A common type of chess exercise, aimed at developing players' skills, is showing playersa position where a decisive combination is available and challenging them to find it.[11]Fundamentals of strategyMain article: Chess strategyChess strategy is concerned with evaluation of chess positions and with setting up goals and long-termplans for the future play. During the evaluation, players must take into account numerous factors such asthe value of the pieces on the board, control of the center and centralization, the pawn structure, kingsafety, and the control of key squares or groups of squares (for example, diagonals, open files, and dark orlight squares).An example of visualizing pawn 22221111abcdefghabcdefgh.and its pawn skeleton (the "Rauzer formation")
After 12.Re8 in Tarrasch–Euwe[12].The most basic step in evaluating a position is to count the total value of pieces of both sides.[13] The pointvalues used for this purpose are based on experience; usually pawns are considered worth one point,knights and bishops about three points each, rooks about five points (the value difference between a rookand a bishop or knight being known as the exchange), and queens about nine points. The king is morevaluable than all of the other pieces combined, since its checkmate loses the game. But in practical terms,in the endgame the king as a fighting piece is generally more powerful than a bishop or knight but lesspowerful than a rook.[14] These basic values are then modified by other factors like position of the piece (forexample, advanced pawns are usually more valuable than those on their initial squares), coordinationbetween pieces (for example, a pair of bishops usually coordinate better than a bishop and a knight), or thetype of position (knights are generally better in closed positions with many pawns while bishops are morepowerful inopen positions).[15]Another important factor in the evaluation of chess positions is the pawn structure (sometimes known asthe pawn skeleton), or the configuration of pawns on the chessboard.[16] Since pawns are the least mobileof the chess pieces, the pawn structure is relatively static and largely determines the strategic nature of theposition. Weaknesses in the pawn structure, such as isolated, doubled, or backward pawns and holes,once created, are often permanent. Care must therefore be taken to avoid these weaknesses unless theyare compensated by another valuable asset (for example, by the possibility of developing an attack).[17]OpeningMain article: Chess openingA chess opening is the group of initial moves of a game (the "opening moves"). Recognized sequences ofopening moves are referred to as openings and have been given names such as the Ruy Lopezor SicilianDefence. They are catalogued in reference works such as the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings. Thereare dozens of different openings, varying widely in character from quiet positional play (for example,the Réti Opening) to very aggressive (the Latvian Gambit). In some opening lines, the exact sequenceconsidered best for both sides has been worked out to more than 30 moves.[18]Professional players spendyears studying openings and continue doing so throughout their careers, as opening theory continues toevolve.The fundamental strategic aims of most openings are similar:[19] Development: This is the technique of placing the pieces (particularlybishops and knights) on useful squares where they will have an optimalimpact on the game. Control of the center: Control of the central squares allows pieces to bemoved to any p
Chess is a recognized sport of theInternational Olympic Committee, and international chess competition is sanctioned by the FIDE. Chess is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments. Some other popular forms of chess
UNCLASSIFIED PEO EIS 2 Agenda CHESS Organization Relation to PEO EIS, ASA(ALT) and HQDA CIO/G-6 CHESS Organizational Structure CHESS Operational Concept CHESS Authority CHESS Statement of Non-Availability (SoNA) CHESS IT e-mart SharePoint License Tracker System (LTS) CHESS Training CHESS Business/Contracts Report
Comparing Solitaire Chess to Standard Chess: Solitaire Chess is a single-player logic puzzle, not a chess game. Recreational mathematicians classify it as a “chess task,” meaning that it uses the rules of chess with appropriate adaptations. With Solitaire Chess, the basic piece movements are the same as with standard chess.
Millions of chess games have been recorded from the very beginning of chess history to the last tournaments of top chess players. Meanwhile chess engines have continuously improved up to the point they cannot only beat world chess champion
a chess teacher, Vladimir Pafuutieff, said to me, "Chess Combinations are the punch in chess. You have to develop your chess skills by understanding combinations. Virtually every chess game has a chess combination. You have to learn to recognize when a combination is available and you must land the blow! If you do this you will win a lot of .
109 Chess Endgame Study - A Comprehensive Introduction, The Roycroft 1972 370 pb 110 Chess Endings: Essential Knowledge Averbakh 1966 135 pb 111 Chess Exam and Training Guide: Tactics Khmelnitsky 2007 207 pb 112 Chess For Beginners Horowitz 1950 132 pb 113 Chess For Fun & Chess For Blood Lasker 1942 224 pb
When the elderly play chess, a robotic chess system including a simple and low-cost camera and a small robotic arm can be used to implement an automatic chess-placing system to help the elderly place the chessmen and reduce some chores. People may even play chess with a chess robot that includes the robotic chess system and software for playing.
Chess News The Montana Chess News is published for the Montana Chess Association, an affiliate of the US Chess Federation. The MCA is committed to promoting the game of Chess in Montana through education, competition, and providi
(so plays, likes, works, sings, tries, etc. are third person singular present tense forms of the verb; for any other subject the unmarked or base form of the verb is used. 1. a. I play chess.b. You play chess.c. The student plays chess. 2. a. We play chess.b. You all play chess.c. The students play chess. The only exception to this rule is
