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Outline of chess

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to chess:

Starting position of a game of chess

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard (a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid). In a chess game, each player begins with sixteen pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns. The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent's king, whereby the king is under immediate attack (in "check") and there is no way to remove or defend it from attack, or force the opposing player to forfeit.

Nature of chess edit

Chess can be described as all of the following:

  • Form of entertainment – form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience, or gives pleasure and delight.
    • Form of recreation – activity of leisure, leisure being discretionary time.[1]
      • Form of play – voluntary, intrinsically motivated activity normally associated with recreational pleasure and enjoyment.[2]
        • Game – structured playing, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more often an expression of aesthetic or ideological elements. However, the distinction is not clear-cut, and many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator sports/games) or art (such as jigsaw puzzles or games involving an artistic layout such as Mahjong, solitaire, or some video games).
          • Board game – game in which counters or pieces are placed, removed, or moved on a premarked surface or "board" according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve.
          • Strategy game – game (e.g. computer, video or board game) in which the players' uncoerced, and often autonomous decision-making skills have a high significance in determining the outcome. Almost all strategy games require internal decision tree style thinking, and typically very high situation awareness.
          • Two-player game – game played by just two players, usually against each other.
        • Sport – form of play, but sport is also a category of entertainment in its own right (see immediately below for description)
    • Sport – organized, competitive, entertaining, and skillful activity requiring commitment, strategy, and fair play, in which a winner can be defined by objective means. It is governed by a set of rules or customs. Chess is recognized as a sport by the International Olympic Committee.[3]
      • Mind sport – game where the outcome is determined mainly by mental skill, rather than by pure chance.

Chess equipment edit

Essential equipment edit

  • Chessboard – board with 64 squares (eight rows and eight columns) arranged in two alternating colors (light and dark). The colors are called "black" and "white", although the actual colors vary: usually they are dark green and buff for boards used in competition, and often natural shades of light and dark woods for home boards. Chess boards can be built into chess tables, or dispensed with (along with pieces) if playing mental chess, computer chess, Internet chess and sometimes correspondence chess.
    • Rank – horizontal row of squares on the chessboard.
    • File – vertical (i.e. in the direction from one player to the other) column of squares on the chessboard.
 
A Staunton chess set
  • Chess set – all the pieces required to play a game of chess. Chess sets come in various materials and styles, and some are considered collectors' items and works of art. The most popular style for competitive play is the Staunton chess set, named after Howard Staunton, which are described below; some regions have alternate standard shapes for some pieces. The relative point values given are approximate and depend on the current game situation.
    • Chess pieces – two armies of 16 chess pieces, one army designated "white", the other "black". Each player controls one of the armies for the entire game. The pieces in each army include:
      • king – most important piece, and one of the weakest (until the endgame). The object of the game is checkmate, by placing the enemy king in check in a way that it cannot escape capture in the next move. On the top of the piece is a cross.
      • queen – most powerful piece in the game, with a relative value of 9 points. The top of the piece is crown-like. Official tournament chess sets have 2 queens of each color, to deal with pawns being promoted [4]
      • rooks – look like castle towers and have a relative value of 5 points each.
      • bishops – stylized after mitres (bishops' hats), and have a relative value of 3 points each.
      • knights – usually look like horse heads and have a relative value of 3 points each.
      • pawns – smallest pieces in the game, each topped by a ball. Pawns have a relative value of 1 point each.

Specialized equipment edit

 
Digital game clock
  • Game clock – dual timer used to monitor each player's thinking time. Only the timer of the player who is to move is active. Used for speed chess, and to regulate time in tournament games.
  • Score sheet and writing implement – Tournament games require scores to be kept, and many players like to record other games for later analysis.

Rules of chess edit

The modern rules of chess (and breaking them) are discussed in separate articles, and briefly in the following subsections:

  • Rules of chess – rules governing the play of the game of chess.
  • White and Black in chess – one set of pieces is designated "white" and the other is designated "black". White moves first. Some older sets had white and red, some modern sets have tan and brown.
  • Cheating in chess – methods that have been used to gain an unfair advantage by breaking the rules.

Initial set up edit

  • Initial set up – initial placement of the pieces on the chessboard before any moves are made.

Moves edit

  • Capture – move of a piece to a square occupied by an opposing piece, which is removed from the board and from play.
  • Check – situation in which the king would be subject to capture (but the king is never actually captured).
  • Checkmate – a winning move which makes capture of the opposing king inevitable.

How each piece moves edit

  • Moving a pawn – pawns move straight forward one space at a time, but capture diagonally (within a one-square range). On its first move, a pawn may move two squares forward instead (with no capturing allowed in a two-square move). Also, pawns are subject to the en passant and promotion movement rules (see below).
    • En passant – on the very next move after a player moves a pawn two squares forward from its starting position, an opposing pawn that is guarding the skipped square may capture the pawn (taking it "as it passes"), by moving to the passed square as if the pawn had stopped there.[5] If this is not done on the very next move, the right to do so is lost.
    • Pawn promotion – when a pawn reaches its eighth rank it is exchanged for the player's choice of a queen, rook, bishop or knight (usually a queen, since it is the most powerful piece).
  • Moving a knight – knights move two squares horizontally and one square vertically from their original position, or two squares vertically and one square horizontally, jumping directly to the destination while ignoring any pieces in the intervening spaces.
  • Moving a bishop – bishops move any distance in a straight line in either direction along squares connected diagonally. One bishop in each army moves diagonally on white squares only, and the other bishop is restricted to moving along black squares.
  • Moving a rook – rook may move any distance along a rank or a file (forward, backward, left, or right), and can also be used for castling (see below).
    • Castling – special move available to each player once in the game (with restrictions, see below) where the king is moved two squares to the left or right and the rook on that side is moved to the other side of the king.
      • Requirements for castling – Castling is legal if the following conditions are all met:
        • 1. Neither the king nor the rook involved have previously moved.
        • 2. There are no pieces in between the king and chosen rook.
        • 3. The king is not currently in check. (For clarification, the involved rook may be currently under attack. Additionally, the king may have previously been in check, as long as the king did not move to resolve it.)
        • 4. The king does not pass through a square that is under attack by an enemy piece. (For clarification, the rook may pass through a square that is under attack by an enemy piece; the only such square is the one adjacent to the rook when castling queenside, b1 for White and b8 for Black.)
        • 5. The king does not end in a square that is under attack by an enemy piece.
  • Moving the queen – queen can move like a rook or like a bishop (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally), but no castling.
  • Moving the king – king may move one square in any direction, but may not move into check. It may also make a special move called "castling" (see above).

End of the game edit

  • Resigning – a player may end the game by resigning, which cedes victory to the opponent.
  • Checkmate – object of the game – a king is in check and has no move to get out of check, losing the game.
  • Draw – neither side wins or loses. In competition this usually counts as a half-win for each player.
    • Draw by agreement – players may agree that the game is a draw.
    • Stalemate – if the player whose turn it is to move has no legal move and is not in check, the game is a draw by stalemate.
    • Fifty-move rule – if within the last fifty moves by both sides, no pawn has moved and there have been no captures, a player may claim a draw.
    • Threefold repetition – if the same position has occurred three times with the same player to move, a player may claim a draw.
      • Perpetual check – situation in which one king cannot escape an endless series of checks but cannot be checkmated. This was formerly a rule of chess to result in a draw, and still used informally, but superseded by the threefold repetition rule and fifty-move rule, which make it implicit.

Competition rules and other features edit

  • Adjournment – play stops, and the game is resumed later. This has become rare since the advent of computer analysis of chess games.
  • Chess notation – system of recording chess moves.
  • Draw by agreement – the two players agree to call the game a draw, as neither is likely to win.
  • Time control – each player must complete either a specified number of moves or all of his moves before a certain time elapses on his game clock.
  • Touch-move rule – if a player touches his own piece, he must move it if it has a legal move. If he touches an opponent's piece, he must capture it if he can legally.

Minor variants edit

  • Blindfold chess – one or both players play without seeing the board and pieces.
  • Chess handicap – one of the players gives a handicap to the other player, usually starting the game without a certain piece.
  • Fast chess – chess played with a time control limiting each player to a specified time of 60 minutes or less (can be as low as 1 minute).

Gameplay edit

  • Blunder – very bad move.
  • Candidate move – move that upon initial observation of the position, warrants further analysis. Spotting these moves is the key to higher-level play.
  • Compensation – having positional advantages in spite of material disadvantages.
  • Chess handicap – way to enable a weaker player to have a chance of winning against a stronger one. There are a variety of such handicaps, such as material odds (the stronger player surrenders a certain piece or pieces), extra moves (the weaker player has an agreed number of extra moves at the beginning of the game), extra time on the chess clock, and special conditions (such as requiring the odds-giver to deliver checkmate with a specified piece or pawn). Various permutations of these, such as "pawn and two moves", are also possible.
  • Chess piece relative value – relative value of chess pieces, based on their relative power.
  • Premove – used in fast online games, it refers to a player making his next move while his opponent is thinking about his move. After the opponent's move, the premove will be made, if legal, taking only 0.1 seconds on the game clock.
  • Priyome – typical maneuver or technique in chess.
  • Ply – half-turn, that is, one player's portion of a turn.
  • Tempo – a "unit" similar to time, equal to one chess move, e.g. to lose a tempo is to waste a move or give the opponent the opportunity of an extra move. Sometimes a player may want to lose a tempo.

General situations edit

  • En prise – when an unguarded piece is in position to be captured.
  • Initiative – situational advantage in which a player can make threats that cannot be ignored, forcing the opponent to use his turns to respond to threats rather than make his own.
  • Transposition – sequence of moves resulting in a position which may also be reached by another common sequence of moves. Transpositions are particularly common in openings, where a given position may be reached by different sequences of moves. Players sometimes use transpositions deliberately in order to avoid variations they dislike, lure opponents into unfamiliar or uncomfortable territory or simply to worry opponents.[6][7]
  • Time trouble – having little thinking time left in a timed game, thereby increasing the likelihood of making weak or losing moves or overlooking strong or winning moves.
  • Zugzwang – situation in which a player would prefer to pass and make no move, because he has no move that does not worsen his position.

Pawn structure edit

Pawn structure – describes features of the positions of the pawns. Pawn structure may be used for tactical or strategic effect, or both.

  • Backward pawn – pawn that is not supported by other pawns and cannot advance.
  • Connected pawns – pawns of the same color on adjacent files so that they can protect each other.
  • Doubled pawns – two pawns of the same color on the same file, so that one blocks the other.
  • Half-open file – file that has pawns of one color only.
  • Isolated pawn – pawn with no pawns of the same color on adjacent files.
  • Maróczy Bind – formation with white pawns on c4 and e4, after the exchange of White's d-pawn for Black's c-pawn.
  • Open file – file void of pawns.
  • Passed pawn – pawn that can advance to its eighth rank without being blocked by an opposing pawn and without the possibility of being captured by a pawn on an adjacent file.

Chess tactics edit

Chess tactics – a chess tactic is a move or sequence of moves which may result in tangible gain or limits the opponent's options. Tactics are usually contrasted with strategy, in which advantages take longer to be realized, and the opponent is less constrained in responding.

  • Anti-computer tactics – tactics used by humans in games against computers that the program cannot handle very well
  • Capture – to remove an opposing piece from the board by taking it with one of your own. Except in the case of an en passant capture, the capturing man replaces the captured man on its square. Also, a move that captures. Captures can be executed offensively or defensively.
  • Combination – series of moves, often with an exchange or sacrifice, to achieve some advantage.
  • Exchange – capturing a piece in return for allowing another piece to be captured.
    • The exchange – exchange of a bishop or knight for a rook. The rook is generally the stronger piece unless a player obtains other advantages for allowing the exchange.
  • Flight square – square that the king can retreat to, if attacked.

Fundamental tactics edit

Fundamental tactics include:[8]

  • Battery – two or more pieces that can move and attack along a shared path, situated on the same rank, file, or diagonal; e.g., the queen and a bishop, or the queen and a rook, or both rooks, or the queen and both rooks.
  • Block (blocking an attack) – interposing a piece between another piece and its attacker. When the piece being attacked is the king, this is blocking a check.
  • Deflection – tactic that forces an opposing piece to leave the square, rank or file it occupies, thus exposing the king or a valuable piece.
  • Discovered attack – moving a piece uncovers an attack by another piece along a straight line
  • Fork – attack on two or more pieces by one piece
  • Interference – blocking the line along which an enemy piece is defended, leaving it vulnerable to capture.
  • Overloading – giving a defensive piece an additional defensive assignment which it cannot complete without abandoning its original defensive assignment.
  • Pin – piece is under attack and either cannot legally move because it would put its king in check or should not move because it will allow an attack on a more valuable piece.
  • Skewer – if a piece under attack moves it will allow an attack on another piece
  • Undermining – capturing a defensive piece, leaving one of the opponent's pieces undefended or underdefended. Also known as "removal of the guard".
  • X-ray – (1) synonym for skewer. The term is also sometimes used to refer to a tactic where a piece either (2) indirectly attacks an enemy piece through another piece or pieces or (3) defends a friendly piece through an enemy piece.

Offensive tactics edit

  • Battery – two or more pieces that can move and attack along a shared path, situated on the same rank, file, or diagonal; e.g., the queen and a bishop, or the queen and a rook, or both rooks, or the queen and both rooks.
    • Alekhine's gun – formation named after the former World Chess Champion, Alexander Alekhine, which consists of placing the two rooks stacked one behind another and the queen at the rear.
  • Cross-check – tactic in which a check is played in response to a check, especially when the original check is blocked by a piece that itself either delivers check or reveals a discovered check from another piece.
  • Decoy – ensnaring a piece, usually the king or queen, by forcing it to move to a poisoned square with a sacrifice on that square.
  • Deflection – forces an opposing piece to leave the square, rank or file it occupies, thus exposing the king or a valuable piece.[9]
  • Discovered attack – attack revealed when one piece moves out of the way of another.[10]
    • Discovered check – discovered attack that is also a check
  • Domination – occurs when a piece has a relatively wide choice of destination squares, but nevertheless cannot avoid being captured.
  • Double attack – attack on two pieces at once, such as in a fork, or via a discovered attack where the piece that was blocked attacks one piece while the piece moving out of the way threatens another.
    • Double check – check delivered by two pieces at the same time.[11][12] In chess notation, it is sometimes symbolized by "++".
  • Fork – when a piece attacks two or more enemy pieces at the same time.[13]
  • Interference – interrupting the line between an attacked piece and its defender by sacrificially interposing a piece. Opportunities for interference are rare because the defended object must be more valuable than the sacrificed piece, and the interposition must itself represent a threat.
  • King walk – several successive movements of the king, usually in the endgame to get it from a safe square (where it was hiding during the middlegame) to a more active position. Not to be confused with "king hunt", where a player forces his opponent's king out of safety and chases it across the board with a series of checks.
  • Outpost – square where a piece can attack the opponent's position without being attacked by enemy pawns. Knights are good pieces to occupy outposts.
  • Overloading – giving a defensive piece an additional defensive assignment which it cannot complete without abandoning its original defensive assignment.
  • Pawn promotion – moving a pawn to the back row to be promoted to a knight, a bishop, a rook, or a queen. While this is a rule, it is also a type of move, with tactical significance. Pawn promotion, or the threat of it, often decides the result of a chess endgame.
    • Underpromotion – promotion to a knight, bishop, or rook is known as an "underpromotion". Although these pieces are less powerful than the queen, there are some situations where it is advantageous to underpromote.[14] For example, since the knight moves in a way which the queen cannot, knight underpromotions can be very useful, and are the most common type of underpromotion. Promoting to a rook or bishop is advantageous in cases where promoting to a queen would result in an immediate stalemate.
    • In FIDE tournament play, spare queens are provided, one of each colour. In a tournament match between Emil Szalanczy and Thi Mai Hung Nguyen in Budapest, 2009, six queens were on the board at the same time.[15]
  • Pawn storm – several pawns are moved in rapid succession toward the opponent's defenses.[16]
  • Pin – piece is under attack and either cannot legally move because it would put its king in check or should not move because it will allow an attack on a more valuable piece.
    • Absolute pin – pin against the king is called absolute since the pinned piece cannot legally move (as moving it would expose the king to check).
    • Relative pin – where the piece shielded by the pinned piece is a piece other than the king, but typically more valuable than the pinned piece.
    • Partial pin – when a rook or queen is pinned along a file or rank, or a bishop or queen is pinned along a diagonal
    • Situational pin – when a pinned piece is shielding a square and moving out of the way will allow the enemy to move there, resulting in a detrimental situation for the player of the pinned piece, such as checkmate.
  • Sacrifice – move which deliberately allows the loss of material, either because the player can win the material back or deliver checkmate if it is taken (sham sacrifice or pseudosacrifice), or because the player judges he will have positional compensation (true or positional sacrifice).
    • Greek gift sacrifice – typical sacrifice of a bishop by White playing Bxh7+ or Black playing Bxh2+.
    • Queen sacrifice – sacrifice of the queen, invariably tactical in nature.
    • Plachutta – a piece sacrifices itself on a square where it could be captured by two different pieces in order to deflect them both from crucial squares.
  • Skewer – attack upon two pieces in a line and is similar to a pin. In fact, a skewer is sometimes described as a "reverse pin"; the difference is that in a skewer, the more valuable piece is in front of the piece of lesser or equal value.
    • Absolute skewer – when the King is skewered, forcing him to move out of check, exposing the piece behind him in the line of attack.
    • Relative skewer – the skewered piece can be moved, but doesn't have to be (because it is not the King in check).
  • Swindleruse by which a player in a losing position tricks his opponent, and thereby achieves a win or draw instead of the expected loss.[17][18][19][20][21] It may also refer more generally to obtaining a win or draw from a clearly losing position.[22]
  • The exchange – see § Chess tactics above
  • Triangulation – technique of making three moves to wind up in the same position while the opponent has to make two moves to wind up in the same position. The reason is to lose a tempo and put the opponent in zugzwang.
  • Undermining – capturing a defensive piece, leaving one of the opponent's pieces undefended or underdefended. Also known as "removal of the guard".
  • Windmill – repeated series of discovered checks which the opponent cannot avoid, winning large amounts of material.
  • X-ray attack – indirect attack of a piece through another piece.
  • Zwischenzug ("Intermediate move") – To make an intermediate move before the expected move to gain an advantage.
Checkmate patterns edit

Checkmate pattern – a particular checkmate. Some checkmate patterns occur sufficiently frequently, or are otherwise of such interest to scholars, that they have acquired specific names in chess commentary. Here are some of the most notorious:

  • Back-rank checkmate – checkmate accomplished by a rook or queen on the opponent's first rank, because the king is blocked in by its own pieces (almost always pawns) on its second rank.
  • Bishop and knight checkmate – fundamental checkmate with a minimum amount of material. It is notoriously difficult to achieve.
  • Boden's Mate – checkmate pattern characterized by a king being mated by two bishops on criss-crossing diagonals, with possible flight squares blocked by friendly pieces.
  • Fool's mate – shortest possible checkmate, on Black's second move. It is rare in practice.
  • Scholar's mate – checkmate in as few as four moves by a player accomplished by a queen supported by a bishop (usually) in an attack on the f7 or f2 square. It is fairly common at the novice level.
  • Smothered mate – checkmate accomplished by only a knight because the king's own pieces occupy squares to which it would be able to escape.

Defensive tactics edit

  • Artificial castling (also known as "castling by hand") – taking several moves to get the king to the position it would be in if castling could have been done.
  • Block (blocking an attack) – interposing a piece between another piece and its attacker. When the piece being attacked is the king, this is blocking a check.
  • Blockade – to block a passed pawn with a piece.
  • Desperado – piece that seems determined to give itself up, typically either (1) to sell itself as dearly as possible in a situation where both sides have hanging pieces or (2) to bring about stalemate if it is captured (or in some instances, to force a draw by threefold repetition if it is not captured).
  • Luft – German for "air", meaning squares available for the king to escape an attack, typically through a fortress.
  • X-ray defense – indirect defense of a piece through another piece.
Possible responses to an attack edit
  • Capture the attacking piece
  • Move the attacked piece
  • Block – interpose another piece in between the two
  • Guard the attacked piece and permit an exchange
  • Pin the attacking piece so the capture becomes illegal or unprofitable
  • Use a zwischenzug
  • Create a counter-threat

Chess strategy edit

Chess strategy – aspect of chess playing concerned with evaluation of chess positions and setting of goals and long-term plans for future play. While evaluating a position strategically, a player must take into account such factors as the relative value of the pieces on the board, pawn structure, king safety, position of pieces, and control of key squares and groups of squares (e.g. diagonals, open files, individual squares).

  • Corresponding squares – usually used as a tool in king and pawn endgames, a pair of corresponding squares are such that if one king is on one of them, the opposing king needs to be on the other.
  • Fianchetto – moving the pawn in front of the knight and placing the bishop on that square.
  • Permanent brain – thinking when it is the opponent's turn to move.
  • Prophylaxis – move that prevents some tactical moves by the opponent.
  • First-move advantage in chess – theory that White's having the first move gives him an advantage.

Schools of chess edit

School of chess – group of players that share common ideas about the strategy of the game. There have been several schools in the history of modern chess. Today there is less dependence on schools – players draw on many sources and play according to their personal style.

  • Modenese Masters – school of chess thought based on teachings of 18th century Italian masters, it emphasized an attack on the opposing king.
  • Hypermodernism – school of thought based on ideas of some early 20th century masters. Rather than occupying the center of the board with pawns in the opening, control the center by attacking it with knights and bishops from the side.

Game phases edit

  1. Chess opening – first phase of the game, where pieces are developed before the main battle begins.
  2. Chess middlegame – second phase of the game, usually where the main battle is. Many games end in the middlegame.
  3. Chess endgame – third and final phase of the game, where there are only a few pieces left.

Chess openings edit

Chess opening – group of initial moves of a chess game. Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings as finished by White, or defenses as finished by Black, but opening is also used as the general term.

    • Fool's mate – also known as the Two-Move Checkmate, it is the quickest possible checkmate in chess. A prime example consists of the moves: 1.f3 e5 2.g4 Qh4#
    • Scholar's mate – checkmate achieved by the moves: 1.e4 e5 2.Qh5 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6? 4.Qxf7#. The moves might be played in a different order or in slight variation, but the basic idea is the same: the queen and bishop combine in a simple mating attack on f7 (or f2 if Black is performing the mate).
    • Smothered mate – checkmate delivered by a knight in which the mated king is unable to move because he is surrounded (or smothered) by his own pieces.
    • Back rank checkmate – checkmate delivered by a rook or queen along a back rank (that is, the row on which the pieces (not pawns) stand at the start of the game) in which the mated king is unable to move up the board because the king is blocked by friendly pieces (usually pawns) on the second rank (Burgess 2009:16).
    • Boden's mate – checkmating pattern in chess characterized by bishops on two criss-crossing diagonals (for example, bishops on a6 and f4 delivering mate to a king on c8), with possible flight squares for the king being occupied by friendly pieces. Most often the checkmated king has castled queenside, and is mated on c8 or c1.
    • Epaulette mate – checkmate where two parallel retreat squares for a checked king are occupied by his own pieces, preventing his escape. The most common Epaulette mate involves the king on his back rank, trapped between two rooks.
    • Légal's mate – chess opening trap, characterized by a queen sacrifice followed by checkmate with minor pieces if Black accepts the sacrifice. The trap is named after the French player Sire de Légal (1702–1792).
  • Chess Informant
  • Chess opening theory table
  • Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings
  • Gambit – sacrifice of material (usually a pawn) to gain a positional advantage (usually faster development of pieces)
  • List of chess openings
e4 Openings edit
  • King's Pawn Game – Games that start with White moving 1.e4.
    • Open Game – Games that start with 1.e4 followed by 1...e5 by Black.
    • Semi-Open Game – Games that start with 1.e4 followed by a move other than 1...e5 by Black.
King's Knight Openings edit
Sicilian Defense edit
Other e4 opening variations edit
d4 Openings edit
Queen's Gambit Openings edit
Indian Defense edit
Other d4 opening variations edit
Flank openings edit
Irregular Openings edit
Openings including a trap edit

Endgames edit

Endgame – phase of the game after the middlegame when there are few pieces left on the board

  • Checkmate patterns – Patterns of checkmate that occur reasonably often.
  • Chess endgame literature – Literature on chess endgames.
  • Endgame maneuvers
    • Prokeš maneuver – maneuver from an endgame study that sometimes occurs in games.
  • Endgame positions
    • Endgame study – A composed position with a goal of either winning or drawing
    • Particular endgame situations
      • Bare king – situation in which one player has only the king left on the board.
      • Fortress – position in which a player with weaker material is able to keep the stronger side at bay and draw the game instead of lose it.
      • King and pawn versus king endgame – fundamental endgame with a king and pawn versus a king.
        • Key square – square that a player needs to occupy (usually by the king in a king and pawn endgame) to achieve some goal.
      • Opposite-colored bishops endgame – Endgames in which each side has one bishop and the bishops are on opposite colors of the board.
      • Opposition – When two kings face each other with one square in between (with generalizations).
      • Pawnless chess endgame – Endgames without pawns.
      • Queen and pawn versus queen endgame – difficult endgame with a queen and pawn versus a queen.
      • Queen versus pawn endgame – fundamental endgame with a queen versus an advanced pawn protected by its king.
      • Rook and bishop versus rook endgame – well-studied endgame with a rook and bishop versus a rook.
      • Rook and pawn versus rook endgame – fundamental and well-studied endgame with a rook and pawn versus a rook.
        • Lucena position – one of the most famous and important positions in chess endgame theory, where if the side with the pawn can reach this type of position, he can forcibly win the game.
        • Philidor position – if the side without the pawn reaches the Philidor Position, he will force a draw.
      • Two knights endgame – endgame with two knights versus a lone king cannot force checkmate, but they may be able to force a win if the defender has a pawn.
      • Wrong bishop – situation in some endgames where a player's bishop is on the wrong color of square to accomplish something, i.e. the result would be different if the bishop was on the other color.
      • Wrong rook pawn – an endgame situation very closely related to the wrong bishop, where having the other rook pawn would have a different result.
  • Endgame principles
    • Tarrasch rule – guideline that rooks should usually be placed behind passed pawns – both its own pawns and the opponent's.
  • Endgame tablebase – computer database of endgame positions giving optimal moves for both sides and the result of optimal moves (a win for one player or a draw).

Venues (who and where to play) edit

Casual play edit

Chess clubs edit

Online chess edit

  • Internet chess server
  • Chess.com
  • RedhotPawn.com
  • Schemingmind.com
  • GameKnot.com
  • Lichess.org (Open source)
  • Playchess (Chessbase.com)
  • chess24.com

Correspondence chess edit

Competitive chess edit

  • Chess around the world
  • Chess rating system – dynamic rating system based on a player's performance, with a higher number indicating a better player.
  • Chess tournament – chess competition among several to many players.
    • Swiss-system tournament – A tournament format designed to handle a relatively large number of players playing a small number of rounds in a relatively short time.
    • Round-robin tournament – A tournament format for a small to moderate number of players in which each player plays each other table. It may be lengthy, depending on the number of rounds played.
    • Knockout tournament – A tournament format of several stages in which players are paired off and half are eliminated in each stage.
    • Internet Computer Chess Tournament – tournament for chess engines held over the Internet.
  • FIDE World Rankings – list of the highest-rated players in the world.
  • Simultaneous exhibition – demonstration in which one player plays against a large number of opponents simultaneously.

Titles edit

Chess title

Computer chess edit

Computer chess

History of chess edit

History of chess

Famous games edit

History of chess, by period edit

Timeline of chess

Years in chess edit

Chess players edit

World Chess Championships edit

Science of chess edit

Psychology and chess edit

Chess programming edit

Chess theory edit

Chess theory

  • First-move advantage in chess
  • Chess opening theory table
  • Chess problem
    • Chess composer
    • Endgame study
    • Glossary of chess problems
    • Motif (chess composition)
    • Rundlauf
    • Types of chess problems
      • Directmates – White to move first and checkmate Black within a specified number of moves against any defense. These are often referred to as "mate in n", where n is the number of moves within which mate must be delivered. In composing and solving competitions, directmates are further broken down into three classes:
        • Two-movers – White to move and checkmate Black in two moves against any defense.
        • Three-movers – White to move and checkmate Black in no more than three moves against any defense.
        • More-movers – White to move and checkmate Black in n moves against any defense, where n is some particular number greater than three.
      • Fairy chess – chess problems that differ from classical (also called orthodox) chess problems in that they are not direct mates. Although the term "fairy chess" is sometimes used for games, it is usually applied to problems with new stipulations, new rules, a new board, or fairy chess pieces, to express an idea or theme impossible in "orthochess".[23] See also the section on chess variants, below.
        • Helpmates – Black to move first cooperates with White to get Black's own king mated in a specified number of moves.
        • Selfmates – White moves first and forces Black (in a specified number of moves) to checkmate White.
        • Helpselfmates – White to move first cooperates with Black to get a position of selfmate in one move.
        • Reflexmates – form of selfmate with the added stipulation that each side must give mate if it is able to do so. (When this stipulation applies only to Black, it is a semi-reflexmate.)
        • Seriesmovers – one side makes a series of moves without reply to achieve a stipulated aim. Check may not be given except on the last move. A seriesmover may take various forms:
          • Seriesmate – directmate with White playing a series of moves without reply to checkmate Black.
          • Serieshelpmate – helpmate in which Black plays a series of moves without reply after which White plays one move to checkmate Black.
          • Seriesselfmate – selfmate in which White plays a series of moves leading to a position in which Black is forced to give mate.
          • Seriesreflexmate – reflexmate in which White plays a series of moves leading to a position in which Black can, and therefore must, give mate.
  • Chess puzzle
  • Combinatorial game theory
  • Solving chess

Chess in culture edit

Chess media edit

Chess essays edit

Chess video games edit

Chess books edit

Periodicals edit

Chess websites edit

  • ChessCafe.com – publishes endgame studies, book reviews and other articles related to chess on a weekly basis. It was founded in 1996 by Hanon Russell, and is well known as a repository of articles about chess and its history.
  • Chessgames.com – Internet chess community with over 197,000 members. The site maintains a large database of chess games, where each game has its own discussion page for comments and analysis.
  • FIDE Online Arena – Fédération internationale des échecs or World Chess Federation's (FIDE) commercial Internet chess server devoted to chess playing and related activities.
  • Internet chess servers – websites that allow players to play each other online
    • Free Internet Chess Server – volunteer-run Internet chess server. It was organized as a free alternative to the Internet Chess Club (ICC), after that site began charging for membership.
    • Internet Chess Club – commercial Internet chess server devoted to the play and discussion of chess and chess variants.
    • Playchess – commercial Internet chess server edited by ChessBase devoted to the play and discussion of chess and chess variants.
  • SchemingMind – privately owned international correspondence chess club founded in 2002. Most games and tournaments are played on a correspondence chess server owned by the club for this purpose.
  • The Week in Chess – one of the first, if not the first, Internet-based chess news services.

Chess in popular media edit

Chess-themed movies edit

Chess organizations edit

Some influential chess persons edit

  • Paul Morphy – (June 22, 1837 – July 10, 1884) – American chess player. He is considered to have been the greatest chess master of his era and an unofficial World Chess Champion. He was called "The Pride and Sorrow of Chess" because he had a brief and brilliant chess career, retiring from the game at the age of 21.
  • Wilhelm (later William) Steinitz (May 17, 1836 – August 12, 1900) – Austrian and then American chess player and the first undisputed world chess champion from 1886 to 1894. From the 1870s onwards, commentators have debated whether Steinitz was effectively the champion earlier.
  • Emanuel Lasker (December 24, 1868 – January 11, 1941) – was a German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher who was the second formally recognized World Chess Champion, a position from which he dominated chess for 27 years (from 1894 to 1921).
  • José Raúl Capablanca (19 November 1888 – 8 March 1942) – Cuban chess player who was world chess champion from 1921 to 1927. Nicknamed the "Human Chess Machine" due to his mastery over the board and his relatively simple style of play, he was renowned for his exceptional endgame skill and speed of play, and is widely regarded as the most naturally talented chess player in history.
  • 15 Founders of FIDE – established FIDE on July 20, 1924, at the 1st unofficial Chess Olympiad.
  • Alexander Alekhine (October 31, 1892 – March 24, 1946) – in 1927, he became the fourth World Chess Champion by defeating Capablanca, widely considered invincible, in what would stand as the longest chess championship match held until 1985. Alekhine is highly regarded as a chess writer and theoretician, producing innovations in a wide range of chess openings, and giving his name to Alekhine's Defense and several other opening variations.
  • Mikhail Botvinnik (August 4, 1911 – May 5, 1995) – Soviet and Russian International Grandmaster and three-time World Chess Champion. Working as an electrical engineer and computer scientist at the same time, he was one of the very few famous chess players who achieved distinction in another career while playing top-class competitive chess. He was also a pioneer of computer chess. He was World Champion from 1948 to 1963, with two interruptions. He briefly lost the World Championship to Vasily Smyslov and then to Mikhail Tal, but won it back from both of them in rematches.
  • Mikhail Tal (November 9, 1936 – June 28, 1992) – Soviet-Latvian chess Grandmaster and the eighth World Chess Champion, widely regarded as a creative genius and the best attacking player of all time, known above all for improvisation and unpredictability. Every game, he once said, was as inimitable and invaluable as a poem.
  • Vasily Smyslov – Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster, and World Chess Champion (from 1957 to 1958) known for his positional style, and, in particular, his precise handling of the endgame, but many of his games featured spectacular tactical shots as well. He made enormous contributions to chess opening theory in many openings, including the English Opening, Grünfeld Defense, and the Sicilian Defense.
  • Tigran Petrosian (June 17, 1929 – August 13, 1984) – Soviet Armenian grandmaster, and World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" due to his almost impenetrable defensive playing style, which emphasized safety above all else.
  • Boris Spassky (born January 30, 1937) – the 10th World Chess Champion and a prominent Soviet and, later, French player.
  • Bobby Fischer (March 9, 1943 – January 17, 2008) – American chess Grandmaster and the 11th World Chess Champion. He is widely considered the greatest chess player of all time. Fischer was also a best-selling chess author.
  • Anatoly Karpov (born May 23, 1951) – Russian chess grandmaster and former World Champion, a position he held from 1975 to 1985 and from 1993 to 1999, when he resigned his title in protest against FIDE's new world championship rules.
  • Garry Kasparov – (born 13 April 1963) – Russian (formerly Soviet) chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer and political activist, considered by many to be the greatest chess player of all time. He held the official FIDE world title from 1985 until 1993, when a dispute with FIDE led him to set up a rival organization, the Professional Chess Association.
  • Viswanathan Anand (born 11 December 1969) – Indian chess Grandmaster. Anand has won the World Chess Championship five times (2000, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012), and was undisputed World Champion from 2007 to 2013.
  • Magnus Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) – Norwegian chess Grandmaster, former chess prodigy, and five-time World Chess Champion (2013-2023), who is the number-one-ranked player in the world. His peak rating is the highest in history as of 2023-04-30.
  • Ding Liren (born 24 October 1992) - Chinese chess Grandmaster, current World Champion and World #2 by rating.
  • more...

Some influential persons who played chess edit

Chess variants edit

Chess variant – games similar to chess but with different rules or pieces.

Variants with a different starting position edit

  • Displacement chess – starting position is slightly altered to negate players' knowledge of openings.
  • Chess960 – variant created by Bobby Fischer, in which the starting position of the pieces on the 1st and 8th ranks are random, resulting in 960 possible starting positions. White and Black starting positions must be mirrored and king must start between rooks allowing castling.
  • Transcendental Chess – similar to Chess960, except that there is no castling, starting positions are not necessarily mirrored, and bishops must start in opposite color squares. There are 8,294,400 possible starting positions.

Variants with different forces edit

  • Chess handicap – giving an advantage to a weaker player to allow equal chances of winning. Usually the advantage given is in material, extra moves or extra time.
  • Dunsany's Chess – Black starts just as in traditional chess, while White starts with only 32 pawns. Black wins by taking all the pawns while avoiding stalemate, White wins by checkmating the black king.

Variants with a different board edit

  • Minichess – board has less squares, e.g. 3×3, 5×5, 5×6, etc.
  • Los Alamos chess – 6×6 variant without bishops.
  • Grid chess – 8×8 board with a 4×4 grid, dividing the board in 16 spaces of 2×2 squares each. Works just like traditional chess, except that a piece must cross at least one grid line at each move.
  • Cylinder chess – played on a cylinder, which results in joining the right and left sides of the board.
  • Circular chess – variant played on a circular board.
  • Alice Chess – played with two boards, one of which starts empty. After the completion of each move, the piece that moved is transferred to the same square of the other board (after a move on the second board, the piece returns to the first board).
  • Hexagonal chess – any of various variants played on a hexagonal board or board with hexagonal cells.
  • Three-dimensional chess – any of various variants with multiple boards at different levels, resulting in gameplay in three dimensions.
  • Cubic Chess – pieces are replaced by cubes, with the piece figures on their sides, making easier to shift the piece types under special rules of promotion.
  • Flying chess – played with two boards, one of which represents the upper level, the other the lower. Only some pieces are allowed to move on the upper level.
  • Dragonchess – created by Gary Gygax, co-creator of the famed role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, the pieces are inspired on characters and monsters from the fantasy RPG.

Variants with unusual rules edit

  • Losing chess – objective of each player is to lose all their pieces instead of checkmating the enemy king. Capturing, as in checkers, is compulsory.
  • Atomic chess – whenever a capture occurs, the surrounding pieces are also captured, resembling the idea of an explosion.
  • Three checks chess – a player wins by checking the opponent king three times.
  • Extinction chess – the objective is to capture all of a particular type of piece of the opponent (e.g., both knights, all pawns, or the queen).
  • Crazyhouse – a captured piece can be introduced back to the board by the player who captured it, as a piece of his own.
  • Knight relay chess – pieces defended by a knight may move as a knight. Knights cannot capture or be captured.
  • Andernach chess – after a capture, the capturing piece changes its color.
  • Checkless chess – any move resulting in check is not allowed, except checkmate.
  • Circe chess – captured pieces instantly return to their starting positions.
  • Legan chess – starting positions of pieces are concentrated on opposite corners of the board. Pawn movement becomes diagonal and capturing orthogonal.
  • Madrasi chess – whenever a piece is attacked by an enemy piece of the same type, it cannot move.
  • Monochromatic chess – a piece may only move to a square of the same color as the one it occupies. Knights follow special rules for movement.
  • Patrol chess – capturing and checking are not allowed unless the capturing or checking piece is guarded by a friendly piece.
  • PlunderChess – capturing pieces gain a limited ability to move as the captured piece.

Variants with incomplete information and elements of chance edit

  • Kriegspiel – a player can see his own pieces, but not the enemy pieces.
  • Dark chess – a player can only see the squares occupied by his own pieces and squares his pieces could move to.
  • Penultima – spectators of the game secretly decide the moving and capturing rules for each piece, which the players gradually find out during the game.
  • Dice chess – players roll dice before each move to determine which piece types may be moved.
  • Knightmare Chess – fantasy variant published by Steve Jackson Games, including cards that change aspects of the game.

Multimove variants edit

  • Marseillais chess – each player moves twice per turn. If the first move gives check, the player doesn't make the second move that turn.
  • Progressive chess – the number of moves played each turn increases progressively. White starts with one move, then Black plays two moves, then White plays 3 moves, etc.
  • Avalanche chess – after each move, it is obligatory for the player to move an opponent pawn one square towards himself.
  • Monster chess – Black plays as in traditional chess, but White has only one king and four pawns, and moves twice a turn.
  • Kung-fu chess – a variant with no turns, pieces can be moved freely, each piece having its own delay time between two moves. A real-time strategy game, played mostly online.

Multiplayer variants edit

  • Bughouse chess – variant with four players and two boards, 2 vs 2, captured pieces by a player are transferred to his partner, who may introduce them to his board.
  • Three-player chess – specially connected three-sided board for three players.
  • Four-player chess – extended cross-shaped board for four players.
  • Forchess – four player variant inside a regular board, with specific initial configuration.
  • Djambi – 9×9 variant for four players with special pieces and rules.
  • Bosworth – four player variant on a 6×6 board, pieces are put into play gradually as the game progresses.
  • Enochian chess – four player variant with complex rules created by William Wynn Westcott, one of the three founders of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

Variants with unusual pieces edit

Variants with bishop+knight and rook+knight compounds edit

Games inspired by chess edit

Historical variants edit

Xiangqi and variants edit

Shogi and variants edit

Other national variants edit

Chess combined with other sports and pastimes edit

Chess variants software edit

Fictional variants edit

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Thomas S. Yukic. Fundamentals of Recreation, 2nd edition. Harpers & Row, 1970, Library of Congress 70-88646. p. 1f.
  2. ^ Garvey, C. (1990). Play. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  3. ^ Recognized Sports of the International Olympic Committee International Olympic Committee official website. Retrieved 2 May 2008.
  4. ^ "In a real tournament can you play 2 queens?". chess.com. Chess Forums. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
  5. ^ FIDE rules (En Passant is rule 3.7, part d)
  6. ^ Mark Weeks. . about.com. Archived from the original on 2008-01-25.
  7. ^ Soltis, A. (2007). Transpo Tricks in Chess. Batsford. ISBN 978-0-7134-9051-0. See review at . chessville.com. Archived from the original on 2008-04-18.
  8. ^ Edward R. Brace, Illustrated Dictionary of Chess (Fodor's Travel Publications, 1978) ISBN 978-0-679-50814-4
  9. ^ Hooper, David; Whyld, Kenneth (1992). The Oxford Companion to Chess (second ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-866164-1.
  10. ^ Discovered Attack Article at Chesscorner.com
  11. ^ Hooper, David; Whyld, Kenneth (1992). The Oxford Companion to Chess (second ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 113. ISBN 978-0-19-866164-1.
  12. ^ Golombek, Harry (1977). Golombek's Encyclopedia of Chess. Crown Publishing. p. 88. ISBN 978-0-517-53146-4.
  13. ^ "Chess Masterclass: Learn to Play Chess!". Skillshare.com. Retrieved 2020-11-09.
  14. ^ (News), Chess com Webmaster. "Chess Tactics – Definitions and Examples". Chess.com. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
  15. ^ "Emil Szalanczy vs Thi Mai Hung Nguyen (2009) Sixth Sense".
  16. ^ Pandolfini, Bruce (1995). Chess thinking. Simon and Schuster. p. 179. ISBN 978-0-671-79502-3.
  17. ^ Edward R. Brace, An Illustrated Dictionary of Chess, McKay, 1977, p. 276. ISBN 0-679-50814-7.
  18. ^ Byrne J. Horton, Dictionary of Modern Chess, Philosophical Library, 1959, p. 199.
  19. ^ I. A. Horowitz and Fred Reinfeld, Chess Traps, Pitfalls and Swindles, Simon and Schuster, 1954, p. 12. ISBN 0-671-21041-6.
  20. ^ Walter Korn, The Brilliant Touch in Chess, Dover Publications, 1966, p. 4. SBN 486-21615-2.
  21. ^ Graham Burgess, The Mammoth Book of Chess, Carroll & Graf, 1997, p. 489. ISBN 0-7867-0431-4.
  22. ^ See, e.g., Ali Mortazavi, The Fine Art of Swindling, Cadogan Books, 1996, p. 44. ISBN 1-85744-105-2 (referring to Em. Lasker–Ed. Lasker, New York 1924, as a "celebrated swindle").
  23. ^ Pritchard, D. B. (1994), The Encyclopedia of Chess Variants, Games & Puzzles Publications, p. 107, ISBN 978-0-9524142-0-9

External links edit

  • Predator at the Chessboard – A Field Guide to Chess Tactics – Learn chess tactics
  • The Blue Book of Chess; "Teaching the Rudiments of the Game, and Giving an Analysis of All the Recognized Openings" by Howard Staunton
  • ChessGames.com – online chess database and community
  • Chess records – details of longest game, most passed pawns, fewest captures etc.
  • A sample chess game
International organizations
News
  • Chessbase news
  • The Week in Chess
Online play
  • Chess.com Play Online Against Human Players
  • ChessFriends.com
  • Sparkchess

outline, chess, following, outline, provided, overview, topical, guide, chess, starting, position, game, chesschess, player, board, game, played, chessboard, square, checkered, board, with, squares, arranged, eight, eight, grid, chess, game, each, player, begi. The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to chess Starting position of a game of chessChess is a two player board game played on a chessboard a square checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight by eight grid In a chess game each player begins with sixteen pieces one king one queen two rooks two knights two bishops and eight pawns The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent s king whereby the king is under immediate attack in check and there is no way to remove or defend it from attack or force the opposing player to forfeit Contents 1 Nature of chess 2 Chess equipment 2 1 Essential equipment 2 2 Specialized equipment 3 Rules of chess 3 1 Initial set up 3 2 Moves 3 2 1 How each piece moves 3 3 End of the game 3 4 Competition rules and other features 3 5 Minor variants 4 Gameplay 4 1 General situations 4 2 Pawn structure 4 3 Chess tactics 4 3 1 Fundamental tactics 4 3 2 Offensive tactics 4 3 2 1 Checkmate patterns 4 3 3 Defensive tactics 4 3 3 1 Possible responses to an attack 4 4 Chess strategy 4 4 1 Schools of chess 4 4 2 Game phases 4 4 3 Chess openings 4 4 3 1 e4 Openings 4 4 3 1 1 King s Knight Openings 4 4 3 1 2 Sicilian Defense 4 4 3 1 3 Other e4 opening variations 4 4 3 2 d4 Openings 4 4 3 2 1 Queen s Gambit Openings 4 4 3 2 2 Indian Defense 4 4 3 2 3 Other d4 opening variations 4 4 3 3 Flank openings 4 4 3 4 Irregular Openings 4 4 3 5 Openings including a trap 4 4 4 Endgames 5 Venues who and where to play 5 1 Casual play 5 1 1 Chess clubs 5 1 2 Online chess 5 1 3 Correspondence chess 5 2 Competitive chess 5 2 1 Titles 5 3 Computer chess 6 History of chess 6 1 Famous games 6 2 History of chess by period 6 2 1 Years in chess 6 3 Chess players 6 4 World Chess Championships 7 Science of chess 7 1 Psychology and chess 7 2 Chess programming 7 3 Chess theory 8 Chess in culture 9 Chess media 9 1 Chess essays 9 2 Chess video games 9 3 Chess books 9 4 Periodicals 9 5 Chess websites 9 6 Chess in popular media 9 6 1 Chess themed movies 10 Chess organizations 11 Some influential chess persons 11 1 Some influential persons who played chess 12 Chess variants 12 1 Variants with a different starting position 12 2 Variants with different forces 12 3 Variants with a different board 12 4 Variants with unusual rules 12 5 Variants with incomplete information and elements of chance 12 6 Multimove variants 12 7 Multiplayer variants 12 8 Variants with unusual pieces 12 8 1 Variants with bishop knight and rook knight compounds 12 9 Games inspired by chess 12 10 Historical variants 12 11 Xiangqi and variants 12 12 Shogi and variants 12 13 Other national variants 12 14 Chess combined with other sports and pastimes 12 15 Chess variants software 12 16 Fictional variants 13 See also 14 References 15 External linksNature of chess editChess can be described as all of the following Form of entertainment form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight Form of recreation activity of leisure leisure being discretionary time 1 Form of play voluntary intrinsically motivated activity normally associated with recreational pleasure and enjoyment 2 Game structured playing usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool Games are distinct from work which is usually carried out for remuneration and from art which is more often an expression of aesthetic or ideological elements However the distinction is not clear cut and many games are also considered to be work such as professional players of spectator sports games or art such as jigsaw puzzles or games involving an artistic layout such as Mahjong solitaire or some video games Board game game in which counters or pieces are placed removed or moved on a premarked surface or board according to a set of rules Games may be based on pure strategy chance or a mixture of the two and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve Strategy game game e g computer video or board game in which the players uncoerced and often autonomous decision making skills have a high significance in determining the outcome Almost all strategy games require internal decision tree style thinking and typically very high situation awareness Two player game game played by just two players usually against each other Sport form of play but sport is also a category of entertainment in its own right see immediately below for description Sport organized competitive entertaining and skillful activity requiring commitment strategy and fair play in which a winner can be defined by objective means It is governed by a set of rules or customs Chess is recognized as a sport by the International Olympic Committee 3 Mind sport game where the outcome is determined mainly by mental skill rather than by pure chance Chess equipment editEssential equipment edit Chessboard board with 64 squares eight rows and eight columns arranged in two alternating colors light and dark The colors are called black and white although the actual colors vary usually they are dark green and buff for boards used in competition and often natural shades of light and dark woods for home boards Chess boards can be built into chess tables or dispensed with along with pieces if playing mental chess computer chess Internet chess and sometimes correspondence chess Rank horizontal row of squares on the chessboard File vertical i e in the direction from one player to the other column of squares on the chessboard nbsp A Staunton chess setChess set all the pieces required to play a game of chess Chess sets come in various materials and styles and some are considered collectors items and works of art The most popular style for competitive play is the Staunton chess set named after Howard Staunton which are described below some regions have alternate standard shapes for some pieces The relative point values given are approximate and depend on the current game situation Chess pieces two armies of 16 chess pieces one army designated white the other black Each player controls one of the armies for the entire game The pieces in each army include 1 king most important piece and one of the weakest until the endgame The object of the game is checkmate by placing the enemy king in check in a way that it cannot escape capture in the next move On the top of the piece is a cross 1 queen most powerful piece in the game with a relative value of 9 points The top of the piece is crown like Official tournament chess sets have 2 queens of each color to deal with pawns being promoted 4 2 rooks look like castle towers and have a relative value of 5 points each 2 bishops stylized after mitres bishops hats and have a relative value of 3 points each 2 knights usually look like horse heads and have a relative value of 3 points each 8 pawns smallest pieces in the game each topped by a ball Pawns have a relative value of 1 point each Specialized equipment edit nbsp Digital game clockGame clock dual timer used to monitor each player s thinking time Only the timer of the player who is to move is active Used for speed chess and to regulate time in tournament games Score sheet and writing implement Tournament games require scores to be kept and many players like to record other games for later analysis Rules of chess editThe modern rules of chess and breaking them are discussed in separate articles and briefly in the following subsections Rules of chess rules governing the play of the game of chess White and Black in chess one set of pieces is designated white and the other is designated black White moves first Some older sets had white and red some modern sets have tan and brown Cheating in chess methods that have been used to gain an unfair advantage by breaking the rules Initial set up edit Initial set up initial placement of the pieces on the chessboard before any moves are made Moves edit Capture move of a piece to a square occupied by an opposing piece which is removed from the board and from play Check situation in which the king would be subject to capture but the king is never actually captured Checkmate a winning move which makes capture of the opposing king inevitable How each piece moves edit Moving a pawn pawns move straight forward one space at a time but capture diagonally within a one square range On its first move a pawn may move two squares forward instead with no capturing allowed in a two square move Also pawns are subject to the en passant and promotion movement rules see below En passant on the very next move after a player moves a pawn two squares forward from its starting position an opposing pawn that is guarding the skipped square may capture the pawn taking it as it passes by moving to the passed square as if the pawn had stopped there 5 If this is not done on the very next move the right to do so is lost Pawn promotion when a pawn reaches its eighth rank it is exchanged for the player s choice of a queen rook bishop or knight usually a queen since it is the most powerful piece Moving a knight knights move two squares horizontally and one square vertically from their original position or two squares vertically and one square horizontally jumping directly to the destination while ignoring any pieces in the intervening spaces Moving a bishop bishops move any distance in a straight line in either direction along squares connected diagonally One bishop in each army moves diagonally on white squares only and the other bishop is restricted to moving along black squares Moving a rook rook may move any distance along a rank or a file forward backward left or right and can also be used for castling see below Castling special move available to each player once in the game with restrictions see below where the king is moved two squares to the left or right and the rook on that side is moved to the other side of the king Requirements for castling Castling is legal if the following conditions are all met 1 Neither the king nor the rook involved have previously moved 2 There are no pieces in between the king and chosen rook 3 The king is not currently in check For clarification the involved rook may be currently under attack Additionally the king may have previously been in check as long as the king did not move to resolve it 4 The king does not pass through a square that is under attack by an enemy piece For clarification the rook may pass through a square that is under attack by an enemy piece the only such square is the one adjacent to the rook when castling queenside b1 for White and b8 for Black 5 The king does not end in a square that is under attack by an enemy piece Moving the queen queen can move like a rook or like a bishop horizontally vertically or diagonally but no castling Moving the king king may move one square in any direction but may not move into check It may also make a special move called castling see above End of the game edit Resigning a player may end the game by resigning which cedes victory to the opponent Checkmate object of the game a king is in check and has no move to get out of check losing the game Draw neither side wins or loses In competition this usually counts as a half win for each player Draw by agreement players may agree that the game is a draw Stalemate if the player whose turn it is to move has no legal move and is not in check the game is a draw by stalemate Fifty move rule if within the last fifty moves by both sides no pawn has moved and there have been no captures a player may claim a draw Threefold repetition if the same position has occurred three times with the same player to move a player may claim a draw Perpetual check situation in which one king cannot escape an endless series of checks but cannot be checkmated This was formerly a rule of chess to result in a draw and still used informally but superseded by the threefold repetition rule and fifty move rule which make it implicit Competition rules and other features edit Adjournment play stops and the game is resumed later This has become rare since the advent of computer analysis of chess games Chess notation system of recording chess moves Algebraic chess notation most common method of recording moves Descriptive chess notation obsolete method of recording moves it was widely used especially in English and Spanish speaking countries and is still sometimes seen Draw by agreement the two players agree to call the game a draw as neither is likely to win Time control each player must complete either a specified number of moves or all of his moves before a certain time elapses on his game clock Touch move rule if a player touches his own piece he must move it if it has a legal move If he touches an opponent s piece he must capture it if he can legally Minor variants edit Blindfold chess one or both players play without seeing the board and pieces Chess handicap one of the players gives a handicap to the other player usually starting the game without a certain piece Fast chess chess played with a time control limiting each player to a specified time of 60 minutes or less can be as low as 1 minute Gameplay editBlunder very bad move Candidate move move that upon initial observation of the position warrants further analysis Spotting these moves is the key to higher level play Compensation having positional advantages in spite of material disadvantages Chess handicap way to enable a weaker player to have a chance of winning against a stronger one There are a variety of such handicaps such as material odds the stronger player surrenders a certain piece or pieces extra moves the weaker player has an agreed number of extra moves at the beginning of the game extra time on the chess clock and special conditions such as requiring the odds giver to deliver checkmate with a specified piece or pawn Various permutations of these such as pawn and two moves are also possible Chess piece relative value relative value of chess pieces based on their relative power Premove used in fast online games it refers to a player making his next move while his opponent is thinking about his move After the opponent s move the premove will be made if legal taking only 0 1 seconds on the game clock Priyome typical maneuver or technique in chess Ply half turn that is one player s portion of a turn Tempo a unit similar to time equal to one chess move e g to lose a tempo is to waste a move or give the opponent the opportunity of an extra move Sometimes a player may want to lose a tempo General situations edit En prise when an unguarded piece is in position to be captured Initiative situational advantage in which a player can make threats that cannot be ignored forcing the opponent to use his turns to respond to threats rather than make his own Transposition sequence of moves resulting in a position which may also be reached by another common sequence of moves Transpositions are particularly common in openings where a given position may be reached by different sequences of moves Players sometimes use transpositions deliberately in order to avoid variations they dislike lure opponents into unfamiliar or uncomfortable territory or simply to worry opponents 6 7 Time trouble having little thinking time left in a timed game thereby increasing the likelihood of making weak or losing moves or overlooking strong or winning moves Zugzwang situation in which a player would prefer to pass and make no move because he has no move that does not worsen his position Pawn structure edit Pawn structure describes features of the positions of the pawns Pawn structure may be used for tactical or strategic effect or both Backward pawn pawn that is not supported by other pawns and cannot advance Connected pawns pawns of the same color on adjacent files so that they can protect each other Doubled pawns two pawns of the same color on the same file so that one blocks the other Half open file file that has pawns of one color only Isolated pawn pawn with no pawns of the same color on adjacent files Maroczy Bind formation with white pawns on c4 and e4 after the exchange of White s d pawn for Black s c pawn Open file file void of pawns Passed pawn pawn that can advance to its eighth rank without being blocked by an opposing pawn and without the possibility of being captured by a pawn on an adjacent file Chess tactics edit Chess tactics a chess tactic is a move or sequence of moves which may result in tangible gain or limits the opponent s options Tactics are usually contrasted with strategy in which advantages take longer to be realized and the opponent is less constrained in responding Anti computer tactics tactics used by humans in games against computers that the program cannot handle very well Capture to remove an opposing piece from the board by taking it with one of your own Except in the case of an en passant capture the capturing man replaces the captured man on its square Also a move that captures Captures can be executed offensively or defensively Combination series of moves often with an exchange or sacrifice to achieve some advantage Exchange capturing a piece in return for allowing another piece to be captured The exchange exchange of a bishop or knight for a rook The rook is generally the stronger piece unless a player obtains other advantages for allowing the exchange Flight square square that the king can retreat to if attacked Fundamental tactics edit Fundamental tactics include 8 Battery two or more pieces that can move and attack along a shared path situated on the same rank file or diagonal e g the queen and a bishop or the queen and a rook or both rooks or the queen and both rooks Block blocking an attack interposing a piece between another piece and its attacker When the piece being attacked is the king this is blocking a check Deflection tactic that forces an opposing piece to leave the square rank or file it occupies thus exposing the king or a valuable piece Discovered attack moving a piece uncovers an attack by another piece along a straight line Fork attack on two or more pieces by one piece Interference blocking the line along which an enemy piece is defended leaving it vulnerable to capture Overloading giving a defensive piece an additional defensive assignment which it cannot complete without abandoning its original defensive assignment Pin piece is under attack and either cannot legally move because it would put its king in check or should not move because it will allow an attack on a more valuable piece Skewer if a piece under attack moves it will allow an attack on another piece Undermining capturing a defensive piece leaving one of the opponent s pieces undefended or underdefended Also known as removal of the guard X ray 1 synonym for skewer The term is also sometimes used to refer to a tactic where a piece either 2 indirectly attacks an enemy piece through another piece or pieces or 3 defends a friendly piece through an enemy piece Offensive tactics edit Battery two or more pieces that can move and attack along a shared path situated on the same rank file or diagonal e g the queen and a bishop or the queen and a rook or both rooks or the queen and both rooks Alekhine s gun formation named after the former World Chess Champion Alexander Alekhine which consists of placing the two rooks stacked one behind another and the queen at the rear Cross check tactic in which a check is played in response to a check especially when the original check is blocked by a piece that itself either delivers check or reveals a discovered check from another piece Decoy ensnaring a piece usually the king or queen by forcing it to move to a poisoned square with a sacrifice on that square Deflection forces an opposing piece to leave the square rank or file it occupies thus exposing the king or a valuable piece 9 Discovered attack attack revealed when one piece moves out of the way of another 10 Discovered check discovered attack that is also a check Domination occurs when a piece has a relatively wide choice of destination squares but nevertheless cannot avoid being captured Double attack attack on two pieces at once such as in a fork or via a discovered attack where the piece that was blocked attacks one piece while the piece moving out of the way threatens another Double check check delivered by two pieces at the same time 11 12 In chess notation it is sometimes symbolized by Fork when a piece attacks two or more enemy pieces at the same time 13 Interference interrupting the line between an attacked piece and its defender by sacrificially interposing a piece Opportunities for interference are rare because the defended object must be more valuable than the sacrificed piece and the interposition must itself represent a threat King walk several successive movements of the king usually in the endgame to get it from a safe square where it was hiding during the middlegame to a more active position Not to be confused with king hunt where a player forces his opponent s king out of safety and chases it across the board with a series of checks Outpost square where a piece can attack the opponent s position without being attacked by enemy pawns Knights are good pieces to occupy outposts Overloading giving a defensive piece an additional defensive assignment which it cannot complete without abandoning its original defensive assignment Pawn promotion moving a pawn to the back row to be promoted to a knight a bishop a rook or a queen While this is a rule it is also a type of move with tactical significance Pawn promotion or the threat of it often decides the result of a chess endgame Underpromotion promotion to a knight bishop or rook is known as an underpromotion Although these pieces are less powerful than the queen there are some situations where it is advantageous to underpromote 14 For example since the knight moves in a way which the queen cannot knight underpromotions can be very useful and are the most common type of underpromotion Promoting to a rook or bishop is advantageous in cases where promoting to a queen would result in an immediate stalemate In FIDE tournament play spare queens are provided one of each colour In a tournament match between Emil Szalanczy and Thi Mai Hung Nguyen in Budapest 2009 six queens were on the board at the same time 15 Pawn storm several pawns are moved in rapid succession toward the opponent s defenses 16 Pin piece is under attack and either cannot legally move because it would put its king in check or should not move because it will allow an attack on a more valuable piece Absolute pin pin against the king is called absolute since the pinned piece cannot legally move as moving it would expose the king to check Relative pin where the piece shielded by the pinned piece is a piece other than the king but typically more valuable than the pinned piece Partial pin when a rook or queen is pinned along a file or rank or a bishop or queen is pinned along a diagonal Situational pin when a pinned piece is shielding a square and moving out of the way will allow the enemy to move there resulting in a detrimental situation for the player of the pinned piece such as checkmate Sacrifice move which deliberately allows the loss of material either because the player can win the material back or deliver checkmate if it is taken sham sacrifice or pseudosacrifice or because the player judges he will have positional compensation true or positional sacrifice Greek gift sacrifice typical sacrifice of a bishop by White playing Bxh7 or Black playing Bxh2 Queen sacrifice sacrifice of the queen invariably tactical in nature Plachutta a piece sacrifices itself on a square where it could be captured by two different pieces in order to deflect them both from crucial squares Skewer attack upon two pieces in a line and is similar to a pin In fact a skewer is sometimes described as a reverse pin the difference is that in a skewer the more valuable piece is in front of the piece of lesser or equal value Absolute skewer when the King is skewered forcing him to move out of check exposing the piece behind him in the line of attack Relative skewer the skewered piece can be moved but doesn t have to be because it is not the King in check Swindle ruse by which a player in a losing position tricks his opponent and thereby achieves a win or draw instead of the expected loss 17 18 19 20 21 It may also refer more generally to obtaining a win or draw from a clearly losing position 22 The exchange see Chess tactics above Triangulation technique of making three moves to wind up in the same position while the opponent has to make two moves to wind up in the same position The reason is to lose a tempo and put the opponent in zugzwang Undermining capturing a defensive piece leaving one of the opponent s pieces undefended or underdefended Also known as removal of the guard Windmill repeated series of discovered checks which the opponent cannot avoid winning large amounts of material X ray attack indirect attack of a piece through another piece Zwischenzug Intermediate move To make an intermediate move before the expected move to gain an advantage Checkmate patterns edit Checkmate pattern a particular checkmate Some checkmate patterns occur sufficiently frequently or are otherwise of such interest to scholars that they have acquired specific names in chess commentary Here are some of the most notorious Back rank checkmate checkmate accomplished by a rook or queen on the opponent s first rank because the king is blocked in by its own pieces almost always pawns on its second rank Bishop and knight checkmate fundamental checkmate with a minimum amount of material It is notoriously difficult to achieve Boden s Mate checkmate pattern characterized by a king being mated by two bishops on criss crossing diagonals with possible flight squares blocked by friendly pieces Fool s mate shortest possible checkmate on Black s second move It is rare in practice Scholar s mate checkmate in as few as four moves by a player accomplished by a queen supported by a bishop usually in an attack on the f7 or f2 square It is fairly common at the novice level Smothered mate checkmate accomplished by only a knight because the king s own pieces occupy squares to which it would be able to escape Defensive tactics edit Artificial castling also known as castling by hand taking several moves to get the king to the position it would be in if castling could have been done Block blocking an attack interposing a piece between another piece and its attacker When the piece being attacked is the king this is blocking a check Blockade to block a passed pawn with a piece Desperado piece that seems determined to give itself up typically either 1 to sell itself as dearly as possible in a situation where both sides have hanging pieces or 2 to bring about stalemate if it is captured or in some instances to force a draw by threefold repetition if it is not captured Luft German for air meaning squares available for the king to escape an attack typically through a fortress X ray defense indirect defense of a piece through another piece Possible responses to an attack edit Capture the attacking piece Move the attacked piece Block interpose another piece in between the two Guard the attacked piece and permit an exchange Pin the attacking piece so the capture becomes illegal or unprofitable Use a zwischenzug Create a counter threatChess strategy edit Chess strategy aspect of chess playing concerned with evaluation of chess positions and setting of goals and long term plans for future play While evaluating a position strategically a player must take into account such factors as the relative value of the pieces on the board pawn structure king safety position of pieces and control of key squares and groups of squares e g diagonals open files individual squares Corresponding squares usually used as a tool in king and pawn endgames a pair of corresponding squares are such that if one king is on one of them the opposing king needs to be on the other Fianchetto moving the pawn in front of the knight and placing the bishop on that square Permanent brain thinking when it is the opponent s turn to move Prophylaxis move that prevents some tactical moves by the opponent First move advantage in chess theory that White s having the first move gives him an advantage Schools of chess edit School of chess group of players that share common ideas about the strategy of the game There have been several schools in the history of modern chess Today there is less dependence on schools players draw on many sources and play according to their personal style Modenese Masters school of chess thought based on teachings of 18th century Italian masters it emphasized an attack on the opposing king Hypermodernism school of thought based on ideas of some early 20th century masters Rather than occupying the center of the board with pawns in the opening control the center by attacking it with knights and bishops from the side Game phases edit Chess opening first phase of the game where pieces are developed before the main battle begins Chess middlegame second phase of the game usually where the main battle is Many games end in the middlegame Chess endgame third and final phase of the game where there are only a few pieces left Chess openings edit Chess opening group of initial moves of a chess game Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings as finished by White or defenses as finished by Black but opening is also used as the general term Fool s mate also known as the Two Move Checkmate it is the quickest possible checkmate in chess A prime example consists of the moves 1 f3 e5 2 g4 Qh4 Scholar s mate checkmate achieved by the moves 1 e4 e5 2 Qh5 Nc6 3 Bc4 Nf6 4 Qxf7 The moves might be played in a different order or in slight variation but the basic idea is the same the queen and bishop combine in a simple mating attack on f7 or f2 if Black is performing the mate Smothered mate checkmate delivered by a knight in which the mated king is unable to move because he is surrounded or smothered by his own pieces Back rank checkmate checkmate delivered by a rook or queen along a back rank that is the row on which the pieces not pawns stand at the start of the game in which the mated king is unable to move up the board because the king is blocked by friendly pieces usually pawns on the second rank Burgess 2009 16 Boden s mate checkmating pattern in chess characterized by bishops on two criss crossing diagonals for example bishops on a6 and f4 delivering mate to a king on c8 with possible flight squares for the king being occupied by friendly pieces Most often the checkmated king has castled queenside and is mated on c8 or c1 Epaulette mate checkmate where two parallel retreat squares for a checked king are occupied by his own pieces preventing his escape The most common Epaulette mate involves the king on his back rank trapped between two rooks Legal s mate chess opening trap characterized by a queen sacrifice followed by checkmate with minor pieces if Black accepts the sacrifice The trap is named after the French player Sire de Legal 1702 1792 Chess Informant Chess opening theory table Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings Gambit sacrifice of material usually a pawn to gain a positional advantage usually faster development of pieces List of chess openings List of chess openings named after people List of chess openings named after placese4 Openings edit King s Pawn Game Games that start with White moving 1 e4 Open Game Games that start with 1 e4 followed by 1 e5 by Black Semi Open Game Games that start with 1 e4 followed by a move other than 1 e5 by Black King s Knight Openings edit King s Knight Opening Damiano Defense Elephant Gambit Evans Gambit Four Knights Game Giuoco Piano Greco Defense Gunderam Defense Halloween Gambit Hungarian Defense Inverted Hungarian Opening Irish Gambit Italian Gambit Italian Game Italian Game Blackburne Shilling Gambit Jerome Gambit Konstantinopolsky Opening Latvian Gambit Petrov s Defense Philidor Defense Ponziani Opening Rousseau Gambit Ruy Lopez Ruy Lopez Exchange Variation Scotch Game Three Knights Opening Two Knights Defense Two Knights Defense Fried Liver Attack Sicilian Defense edit Sicilian Defense Chekhover Sicilian Sicilian Defense Accelerated Dragon Sicilian Defense Alapin Variation Sicilian Defense Dragon Variation Sicilian Defense Najdorf Variation Sicilian Defense Scheveningen Variation Sicilian Dragon Yugoslav attack 9 Bc4 Smith Morra Gambit Wing Gambit Other e4 opening variations edit Alapin s Opening Alekhine s Defense Balogh Defense Bishop s Opening Bongcloud Attack Caro Kann Defense Center Game Danish Gambit Falkbeer Countergambit Fischer Defense Frankenstein Dracula Variation French Defense King s Gambit Centre Pawn Opening Modern Defense Monkey s Bum Napoleon Opening Nimzowitsch Defense Owen s Defense Pirc Defense Pirc Defense Austrian Attack Portuguese Opening Rice Gambit Scandinavian Defense St George Defense Vienna Game Wayward Queen Attack d4 Openings edit Queen s Pawn Game Closed Game Semi Closed GameQueen s Gambit Openings edit Queen s Gambit Queen s Gambit Accepted Queen s Gambit Declined Albin Countergambit Baltic Defense Cambridge Springs Defense Chigorin Defense Marshall Defense Semi Slav Defense Slav Defense Symmetrical Defense Tarrasch Defense Indian Defense edit Indian Defense Black Knights Tango Bogo Indian Defense Budapest Gambit East Indian Defense Grunfeld Defense Grunfeld Defense Nadanian Variation King s Indian Defense King s Indian Defense Four Pawns Attack Neo Indian Attack Nimzo Indian Defense Old Indian Defense Queen s Indian Defense Torre Attack Trompowsky Attack Other d4 opening variations edit Alapin Diemer Gambit Benko Gambit Benoni Defense Blackmar Diemer Gambit Blumenfeld Gambit Catalan Opening Diemer Duhm Gambit Dutch Defense English Defense Englund Gambit Keres Defense London System Queen s Knight Defense Polish Defense Richter Veresov Attack Staunton Gambit Wade Defense Flank openings edit Benko s Opening Bird s Opening English Opening Flank opening Larsen s Opening Reti Opening Zukertort Opening Reti Opening King s Indian Attack Irregular Openings edit Amar Opening Anderssen s Opening Barnes Opening Clemenz Opening Desprez Opening Dunst Opening Durkin Opening Grob s Attack Irregular chess opening Mieses Opening Saragossa Opening Sokolsky Opening Van t Kruijs Opening Ware Opening Openings including a trap edit Fool s mate Scholar s mate Elephant Trap Halosar Trap Kieninger Trap Lasker Trap Legal Trap Magnus Smith Trap Marshall Trap Monticelli Trap Mortimer Trap Noah s Ark Trap Rubinstein Trap Siberian Trap Tarrasch Trap Wurzburger Trap Endgames edit Endgame phase of the game after the middlegame when there are few pieces left on the board Checkmate patterns Patterns of checkmate that occur reasonably often Chess endgame literature Literature on chess endgames Endgame maneuvers Prokes maneuver maneuver from an endgame study that sometimes occurs in games Endgame positions Endgame study A composed position with a goal of either winning or drawing Reti endgame study endgame study illustrate how a king can pursue two goals at the same time Saavedra position endgame study in which a surprising underpromotion leads to a win Particular endgame situations Bare king situation in which one player has only the king left on the board Fortress position in which a player with weaker material is able to keep the stronger side at bay and draw the game instead of lose it King and pawn versus king endgame fundamental endgame with a king and pawn versus a king Key square square that a player needs to occupy usually by the king in a king and pawn endgame to achieve some goal Opposite colored bishops endgame Endgames in which each side has one bishop and the bishops are on opposite colors of the board Opposition When two kings face each other with one square in between with generalizations Pawnless chess endgame Endgames without pawns Queen and pawn versus queen endgame difficult endgame with a queen and pawn versus a queen Queen versus pawn endgame fundamental endgame with a queen versus an advanced pawn protected by its king Rook and bishop versus rook endgame well studied endgame with a rook and bishop versus a rook Rook and pawn versus rook endgame fundamental and well studied endgame with a rook and pawn versus a rook Lucena position one of the most famous and important positions in chess endgame theory where if the side with the pawn can reach this type of position he can forcibly win the game Philidor position if the side without the pawn reaches the Philidor Position he will force a draw Two knights endgame endgame with two knights versus a lone king cannot force checkmate but they may be able to force a win if the defender has a pawn Wrong bishop situation in some endgames where a player s bishop is on the wrong color of square to accomplish something i e the result would be different if the bishop was on the other color Wrong rook pawn an endgame situation very closely related to the wrong bishop where having the other rook pawn would have a different result Endgame principles Tarrasch rule guideline that rooks should usually be placed behind passed pawns both its own pawns and the opponent s Endgame tablebase computer database of endgame positions giving optimal moves for both sides and the result of optimal moves a win for one player or a draw Venues who and where to play editCasual play edit Chess clubs edit Chess clubOnline chess edit Internet chess server Chess com RedhotPawn com Schemingmind com GameKnot com Lichess org Open source Playchess Chessbase com chess24 comCorrespondence chess edit Correspondence chess Correspondence chess server arguably the most convenient form of correspondence chess Competitive chess edit Chess around the world Chess rating system dynamic rating system based on a player s performance with a higher number indicating a better player Chess tournament chess competition among several to many players Swiss system tournament A tournament format designed to handle a relatively large number of players playing a small number of rounds in a relatively short time Round robin tournament A tournament format for a small to moderate number of players in which each player plays each other table It may be lengthy depending on the number of rounds played Knockout tournament A tournament format of several stages in which players are paired off and half are eliminated in each stage Internet Computer Chess Tournament tournament for chess engines held over the Internet FIDE World Rankings list of the highest rated players in the world Simultaneous exhibition demonstration in which one player plays against a large number of opponents simultaneously Titles edit Chess title Grandmaster the highest title other than World Champion International Master lower title than Grandmaster FIDE Master lower title than International Master Candidate Master Lower title than FIDE Master Chess expert A title awarded by the United States Chess Federation to players of below master strength Woman Grandmaster Available to women only lower requirements than Grandmaster Woman International Master Available to women only lower requirements than International Master Woman FIDE Master Available to women only lower requirements than FIDE Master Woman Candidate Master Available to women only lower requirements than Candidate Master International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster The highest title awarded by the International Correspondence Chess Federation FIDE titles lifetime titles awarded by FIDEComputer chess edit Computer chess Chess engine Human computer chess matches Internet chess server Chess software History of chess editHistory of chess Shatranj old form of chess from which modern chess gradually developed that came to the Western world from India via Sassanid Persia Romantic chess Cafe de la Regence Human computer chess matches Deep Blue chess computer Deep Blue versus Garry Kasparov Deep Blue Kasparov 1996 Game 1 Deep Blue Kasparov 1997 Game 6 Online chessFamous games edit Immortal Game Immortal losing game Immortal Zugzwang Game Immortal Draw Evergreen game Polish Immortal Peruvian Immortal The Game of the Century Lasker versus Bauer Amsterdam 1889 Morphy versus the Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard the Opera Game Kasparov versus the World Poole versus HAL 9000 more History of chess by period edit Timeline of chess Years in chess edit 1914 in chess 1915 in chess 1916 in chess 1917 in chess 1918 in chess 1932 in chess 1933 in chess 1939 in chess 1940 in chess 1941 in chess 1942 in chess 1943 in chess 1944 in chess 1945 in chess 1962 in chess 1969 in chess 1970 in chess 1971 in chess 1972 in chess 1973 in chess 1974 in chess 1975 in chess 1976 in chess 1988 in chess 1989 in chess 1990 in chess 1991 in chess 1992 in chess 1993 in chess 1994 in chess 1995 in chess 1996 in chess 1997 in chess 1998 in chess 1999 in chess 2000 in chess 2001 in chess 2002 in chess 2003 in chess 2004 in chess 2005 in chess 2006 in chess 2007 in chess 2008 in chess 2009 in chess 2010 in chess 2011 in chess 2012 in chess 2013 in chess 2014 in chess 2015 in chess 2016 in chess 2017 in chess 2018 in chess 2019 in chess 2020 in chess 2021 in chess 2022 in chess 2023 in chess Chess players edit Chess prodigy child who plays chess so well as to be able to beat Masters and even Grandmasters often at a very young age List of chess families List of chess grandmasters List of chess players Comparison of top chess players throughout history World chess championshipWorld Chess Championships edit World Chess Championship 1886 World Chess Championship 1889 World Chess Championship 1891 World Chess Championship 1892 World Chess Championship 1894 World Chess Championship 1897 World Chess Championship 1907 World Chess Championship 1908 World Chess Championship 1910 Lasker Janowski World Chess Championship 1910 Lasker Schlechter World Chess Championship 1921 World Chess Championship 1927 World Chess Championship 1929 World Chess Championship 1934 World Chess Championship 1935 World Chess Championship 1937 World Chess Championship 1948 World Chess Championship 1951 World Chess Championship 1954 World Chess Championship 1957 World Chess Championship 1958 World Chess Championship 1960 World Chess Championship 1961 World Chess Championship 1963 World Chess Championship 1966 World Chess Championship 1969 World Chess Championship 1972 World Chess Championship 1975 World Chess Championship 1978 World Chess Championship 1981 World Chess Championship 1984 World Chess Championship 1985 World Chess Championship 1986 World Chess Championship 1987 World Chess Championship 1990 World Chess Championship 1993 Classical World Chess Championship 1995 Classical World Chess Championship 2000 Classical World Chess Championship 2004 FIDE World Chess Championship 1996 FIDE World Chess Championship 1998 FIDE World Chess Championships 1998 2004 FIDE World Chess Championship 1999 FIDE World Chess Championship 2000 FIDE World Chess Championship 2002 FIDE World Chess Championship 2004 FIDE World Chess Championship 2005 World Chess Championship 2006 World Chess Championship 2007 World Chess Championship 2008 World Chess Championship 2010 World Chess Championship 2012 World Chess Championship 2013 World Chess Championship 2014 World Chess Championship 2016 World Chess Championship 2018 World Chess Championship 2021 Women s World Chess Championship List of chess world championship matches World Amateur Chess Championship Candidates Tournament World Championship of Chess Composition World Computer Chess Championship World Computer Speed Chess Championship Interregnum of World Chess Champions Interzonal World Junior Chess Championship World Senior Chess Championship World Chess Solving Championship World Team Chess Championship World Youth Chess ChampionshipScience of chess editPsychology and chess edit Chess blindness Chess as mental training Chess therapy Chess programming edit Board representation Chess engine Minimax Null move heuristic Portable Game Notation Transposition table Endgame tablebase Chess theory edit Chess theory First move advantage in chess Chess opening theory table Chess problem Chess composer Endgame study Glossary of chess problems Motif chess composition Rundlauf Types of chess problems Directmates White to move first and checkmate Black within a specified number of moves against any defense These are often referred to as mate in n where n is the number of moves within which mate must be delivered In composing and solving competitions directmates are further broken down into three classes Two movers White to move and checkmate Black in two moves against any defense Three movers White to move and checkmate Black in no more than three moves against any defense More movers White to move and checkmate Black in n moves against any defense where n is some particular number greater than three Fairy chess chess problems that differ from classical also called orthodox chess problems in that they are not direct mates Although the term fairy chess is sometimes used for games it is usually applied to problems with new stipulations new rules a new board or fairy chess pieces to express an idea or theme impossible in orthochess 23 See also the section on chess variants below Helpmates Black to move first cooperates with White to get Black s own king mated in a specified number of moves Selfmates White moves first and forces Black in a specified number of moves to checkmate White Helpselfmates White to move first cooperates with Black to get a position of selfmate in one move Reflexmates form of selfmate with the added stipulation that each side must give mate if it is able to do so When this stipulation applies only to Black it is a semi reflexmate Seriesmovers one side makes a series of moves without reply to achieve a stipulated aim Check may not be given except on the last move A seriesmover may take various forms Seriesmate directmate with White playing a series of moves without reply to checkmate Black Serieshelpmate helpmate in which Black plays a series of moves without reply after which White plays one move to checkmate Black Seriesselfmate selfmate in which White plays a series of moves leading to a position in which Black is forced to give mate Seriesreflexmate reflexmate in which White plays a series of moves leading to a position in which Black can and therefore must give mate Chess puzzle Joke chess problem Combinatorial game theory Solving chess Retrograde analysis Chess in culture editChess aesthetics Chess in the arts Chess game collections Chess libraries Chess media Chess in popular media Chess organizations Chess venues who and where to play Chess variantsChess media editChess columns in newspapers Chess endgame literature Chess librariesChess essays edit The Morals of Chess by Benjamin FranklinChess video games edit Further information Comparison of chess video games Battle Chess Chessmaster FritzChess books edit A History of Chess Basic Chess Endings Chess endgame literature Chess opening book Encyclopedia of Chess Openings Gottingen manuscript Handbuch des Schachspiels Lasker s Manual of Chess Modern Chess Openings My 60 Memorable Games My Great Predecessors My System The Game and Playe of the Chesse The Game of Chess The Oxford Companion to Chess more Periodicals edit British Chess Magazine Chess Informant Chess Life CHESS magazine EG New In Chess Shakhmatny Bulletin Shakhmaty v SSSR The Week in Chess 64 more Chess websites edit ChessCafe com publishes endgame studies book reviews and other articles related to chess on a weekly basis It was founded in 1996 by Hanon Russell and is well known as a repository of articles about chess and its history Chessgames com Internet chess community with over 197 000 members The site maintains a large database of chess games where each game has its own discussion page for comments and analysis FIDE Online Arena Federation internationale des echecs or World Chess Federation s FIDE commercial Internet chess server devoted to chess playing and related activities Internet chess servers websites that allow players to play each other online Free Internet Chess Server volunteer run Internet chess server It was organized as a free alternative to the Internet Chess Club ICC after that site began charging for membership Internet Chess Club commercial Internet chess server devoted to the play and discussion of chess and chess variants Playchess commercial Internet chess server edited by ChessBase devoted to the play and discussion of chess and chess variants SchemingMind privately owned international correspondence chess club founded in 2002 Most games and tournaments are played on a correspondence chess server owned by the club for this purpose The Week in Chess one of the first if not the first Internet based chess news services Chess in popular media edit Chess in the arts and literature Chess in early literatureChess themed movies edit Knight Moves Pawn Sacrifice Searching for Bobby FischerChess organizations editFIDE Professional Chess AssociationSome influential chess persons editFurther information Comparison of top chess players throughout history Paul Morphy June 22 1837 July 10 1884 American chess player He is considered to have been the greatest chess master of his era and an unofficial World Chess Champion He was called The Pride and Sorrow of Chess because he had a brief and brilliant chess career retiring from the game at the age of 21 Wilhelm later William Steinitz May 17 1836 August 12 1900 Austrian and then American chess player and the first undisputed world chess champion from 1886 to 1894 From the 1870s onwards commentators have debated whether Steinitz was effectively the champion earlier Emanuel Lasker December 24 1868 January 11 1941 was a German chess player mathematician and philosopher who was the second formally recognized World Chess Champion a position from which he dominated chess for 27 years from 1894 to 1921 Jose Raul Capablanca 19 November 1888 8 March 1942 Cuban chess player who was world chess champion from 1921 to 1927 Nicknamed the Human Chess Machine due to his mastery over the board and his relatively simple style of play he was renowned for his exceptional endgame skill and speed of play and is widely regarded as the most naturally talented chess player in history 15 Founders of FIDE established FIDE on July 20 1924 at the 1st unofficial Chess Olympiad Alexander Alekhine October 31 1892 March 24 1946 in 1927 he became the fourth World Chess Champion by defeating Capablanca widely considered invincible in what would stand as the longest chess championship match held until 1985 Alekhine is highly regarded as a chess writer and theoretician producing innovations in a wide range of chess openings and giving his name to Alekhine s Defense and several other opening variations Mikhail Botvinnik August 4 1911 May 5 1995 Soviet and Russian International Grandmaster and three time World Chess Champion Working as an electrical engineer and computer scientist at the same time he was one of the very few famous chess players who achieved distinction in another career while playing top class competitive chess He was also a pioneer of computer chess He was World Champion from 1948 to 1963 with two interruptions He briefly lost the World Championship to Vasily Smyslov and then to Mikhail Tal but won it back from both of them in rematches Mikhail Tal November 9 1936 June 28 1992 Soviet Latvian chess Grandmaster and the eighth World Chess Champion widely regarded as a creative genius and the best attacking player of all time known above all for improvisation and unpredictability Every game he once said was as inimitable and invaluable as a poem Vasily Smyslov Soviet and Russian chess grandmaster and World Chess Champion from 1957 to 1958 known for his positional style and in particular his precise handling of the endgame but many of his games featured spectacular tactical shots as well He made enormous contributions to chess opening theory in many openings including the English Opening Grunfeld Defense and the Sicilian Defense Tigran Petrosian June 17 1929 August 13 1984 Soviet Armenian grandmaster and World Chess Champion from 1963 to 1969 He was nicknamed Iron Tigran due to his almost impenetrable defensive playing style which emphasized safety above all else Boris Spassky born January 30 1937 the 10th World Chess Champion and a prominent Soviet and later French player Bobby Fischer March 9 1943 January 17 2008 American chess Grandmaster and the 11th World Chess Champion He is widely considered the greatest chess player of all time Fischer was also a best selling chess author Anatoly Karpov born May 23 1951 Russian chess grandmaster and former World Champion a position he held from 1975 to 1985 and from 1993 to 1999 when he resigned his title in protest against FIDE s new world championship rules Garry Kasparov born 13 April 1963 Russian formerly Soviet chess grandmaster a former World Chess Champion writer and political activist considered by many to be the greatest chess player of all time He held the official FIDE world title from 1985 until 1993 when a dispute with FIDE led him to set up a rival organization the Professional Chess Association Viswanathan Anand born 11 December 1969 Indian chess Grandmaster Anand has won the World Chess Championship five times 2000 2007 2008 2010 2012 and was undisputed World Champion from 2007 to 2013 Magnus Carlsen born 30 November 1990 Norwegian chess Grandmaster former chess prodigy and five time World Chess Champion 2013 2023 who is the number one ranked player in the world His peak rating is the highest in history as of 2023 04 30 Ding Liren born 24 October 1992 Chinese chess Grandmaster current World Champion and World 2 by rating more Some influential persons who played chess edit Ben FranklinChess variants editMain articles Chess variant and List of chess variants Chess variant games similar to chess but with different rules or pieces Fairy chess piece pieces used in chess variants other than the usual pieces Variants with a different starting position edit Displacement chess starting position is slightly altered to negate players knowledge of openings Chess960 variant created by Bobby Fischer in which the starting position of the pieces on the 1st and 8th ranks are random resulting in 960 possible starting positions White and Black starting positions must be mirrored and king must start between rooks allowing castling Transcendental Chess similar to Chess960 except that there is no castling starting positions are not necessarily mirrored and bishops must start in opposite color squares There are 8 294 400 possible starting positions Variants with different forces edit Chess handicap giving an advantage to a weaker player to allow equal chances of winning Usually the advantage given is in material extra moves or extra time Dunsany s Chess Black starts just as in traditional chess while White starts with only 32 pawns Black wins by taking all the pawns while avoiding stalemate White wins by checkmating the black king Variants with a different board edit Minichess board has less squares e g 3 3 5 5 5 6 etc Los Alamos chess 6 6 variant without bishops Grid chess 8 8 board with a 4 4 grid dividing the board in 16 spaces of 2 2 squares each Works just like traditional chess except that a piece must cross at least one grid line at each move Cylinder chess played on a cylinder which results in joining the right and left sides of the board Circular chess variant played on a circular board Alice Chess played with two boards one of which starts empty After the completion of each move the piece that moved is transferred to the same square of the other board after a move on the second board the piece returns to the first board Hexagonal chess any of various variants played on a hexagonal board or board with hexagonal cells Three dimensional chess any of various variants with multiple boards at different levels resulting in gameplay in three dimensions Star Trek Tri Dimensional Chess Cubic Chess pieces are replaced by cubes with the piece figures on their sides making easier to shift the piece types under special rules of promotion Flying chess played with two boards one of which represents the upper level the other the lower Only some pieces are allowed to move on the upper level Dragonchess created by Gary Gygax co creator of the famed role playing game Dungeons amp Dragons the pieces are inspired on characters and monsters from the fantasy RPG Variants with unusual rules edit Losing chess objective of each player is to lose all their pieces instead of checkmating the enemy king Capturing as in checkers is compulsory Atomic chess whenever a capture occurs the surrounding pieces are also captured resembling the idea of an explosion Three checks chess a player wins by checking the opponent king three times Extinction chess the objective is to capture all of a particular type of piece of the opponent e g both knights all pawns or the queen Crazyhouse a captured piece can be introduced back to the board by the player who captured it as a piece of his own Knight relay chess pieces defended by a knight may move as a knight Knights cannot capture or be captured Andernach chess after a capture the capturing piece changes its color Checkless chess any move resulting in check is not allowed except checkmate Circe chess captured pieces instantly return to their starting positions Legan chess starting positions of pieces are concentrated on opposite corners of the board Pawn movement becomes diagonal and capturing orthogonal Madrasi chess whenever a piece is attacked by an enemy piece of the same type it cannot move Monochromatic chess a piece may only move to a square of the same color as the one it occupies Knights follow special rules for movement Patrol chess capturing and checking are not allowed unless the capturing or checking piece is guarded by a friendly piece PlunderChess capturing pieces gain a limited ability to move as the captured piece Variants with incomplete information and elements of chance edit Kriegspiel a player can see his own pieces but not the enemy pieces Dark chess a player can only see the squares occupied by his own pieces and squares his pieces could move to Penultima spectators of the game secretly decide the moving and capturing rules for each piece which the players gradually find out during the game Dice chess players roll dice before each move to determine which piece types may be moved Knightmare Chess fantasy variant published by Steve Jackson Games including cards that change aspects of the game Multimove variants edit Marseillais chess each player moves twice per turn If the first move gives check the player doesn t make the second move that turn Progressive chess the number of moves played each turn increases progressively White starts with one move then Black plays two moves then White plays 3 moves etc Avalanche chess after each move it is obligatory for the player to move an opponent pawn one square towards himself Monster chess Black plays as in traditional chess but White has only one king and four pawns and moves twice a turn Kung fu chess a variant with no turns pieces can be moved freely each piece having its own delay time between two moves A real time strategy game played mostly online Multiplayer variants edit Bughouse chess variant with four players and two boards 2 vs 2 captured pieces by a player are transferred to his partner who may introduce them to his board Three player chess specially connected three sided board for three players Four player chess extended cross shaped board for four players Forchess four player variant inside a regular board with specific initial configuration Djambi 9 9 variant for four players with special pieces and rules Bosworth four player variant on a 6 6 board pieces are put into play gradually as the game progresses Enochian chess four player variant with complex rules created by William Wynn Westcott one of the three founders of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn Variants with unusual pieces edit Fairy chess piece Hippogonal Grasshopper Grasshopper chess Berolina chess Maharajah and the Sepoys Omega Chess Stealth Chess Pocket Mutation Chess Baroque chess Butterfly chess Chess with different armies Duell Gess Wildebeest ChessVariants with bishop knight and rook knight compounds edit Seirawan chess Janus Chess Capablanca Chess Capablanca Random Chess Embassy Chess Modern chess Grand ChessGames inspired by chess edit Arimaa Icehouse pieces Martian chessHistorical variants edit History of chess Cox Forbes theory Liubo Chaturanga Chaturaji Shatranj Abu Bakr bin Yahya al Suli Tamerlane chess Hiashatar Senterej Lewis chessmenXiangqi and variants edit Xiangqi Encyclopedia of Chinese Chess Openings BanqiShogi and variants edit Shogi Shogi strategy and tactics History of shogi Meijin Ryu oh Computer shogi Shogi variant Micro shogi Minishogi Kyoto shogi Judkins shogi Whale shogi Tori shogi Yari shogi Heian shogi Sho shogi Cannon shogi Hasami shogi Annan shogi Unashogi Wa shogi Chu shogi Heian dai shogi Akuro Dai shogi Tenjiku shogi Dai dai shogi Maka dai dai shogi Ko shogi Tai shogi Taikyoku shogi Sannin shogi Yonin shogi Edo era shogi sources Other national variants edit Janggi Makruk SittuyinChess combined with other sports and pastimes edit Chess boxing Human chess Shot chess Strip chessChess variants software edit ChessV Fairy MaxFictional variants edit Wizard s chessSee also edit nbsp Chess portalGlossary of chess Glossary of chess problems Hippogonal Morphy numberReferences edit Thomas S Yukic Fundamentals of Recreation 2nd edition Harpers amp Row 1970 Library of Congress 70 88646 p 1f Garvey C 1990 Play Cambridge MA Harvard University Press Recognized Sports of the International Olympic Committee International Olympic Committee official website Retrieved 2 May 2008 In a real tournament can you play 2 queens chess com Chess Forums Retrieved 4 April 2018 FIDE rules En Passant is rule 3 7 part d Mark Weeks Chess Opening Tutorial Introduction to 1 d4 about com Archived from the original on 2008 01 25 Soltis A 2007 Transpo Tricks in Chess Batsford ISBN 978 0 7134 9051 0 See review at Transpo Tricks in Chess review chessville com Archived from the original on 2008 04 18 Edward R Brace Illustrated Dictionary of Chess Fodor s Travel Publications 1978 ISBN 978 0 679 50814 4 Hooper David Whyld Kenneth 1992 The Oxford Companion to Chess second ed Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 866164 1 Discovered Attack Article at Chesscorner com Hooper David Whyld Kenneth 1992 The Oxford Companion to Chess second ed Oxford University Press p 113 ISBN 978 0 19 866164 1 Golombek Harry 1977 Golombek s Encyclopedia of Chess Crown Publishing p 88 ISBN 978 0 517 53146 4 Chess Masterclass Learn to Play Chess Skillshare com Retrieved 2020 11 09 News Chess com Webmaster Chess Tactics Definitions and Examples Chess com Retrieved 4 April 2018 Emil Szalanczy vs Thi Mai Hung Nguyen 2009 Sixth Sense Pandolfini Bruce 1995 Chess thinking Simon and Schuster p 179 ISBN 978 0 671 79502 3 Edward R Brace An Illustrated Dictionary of Chess McKay 1977 p 276 ISBN 0 679 50814 7 Byrne J Horton Dictionary of Modern Chess Philosophical Library 1959 p 199 I A Horowitz and Fred Reinfeld Chess Traps Pitfalls and Swindles Simon and Schuster 1954 p 12 ISBN 0 671 21041 6 Walter Korn The Brilliant Touch in Chess Dover Publications 1966 p 4 SBN 486 21615 2 Graham Burgess The Mammoth Book of Chess Carroll amp Graf 1997 p 489 ISBN 0 7867 0431 4 See e g Ali Mortazavi The Fine Art of Swindling Cadogan Books 1996 p 44 ISBN 1 85744 105 2 referring to Em Lasker Ed Lasker New York 1924 as a celebrated swindle Pritchard D B 1994 The Encyclopedia of Chess Variants Games amp Puzzles Publications p 107 ISBN 978 0 9524142 0 9External links editChess at Wikipedia s sister projects nbsp Definitions from Wiktionary nbsp Media from Commons nbsp News from Wikinews nbsp Quotations from Wikiquote nbsp Texts from Wikisource nbsp Textbooks from Wikibooks nbsp Resources from Wikiversity Predator at the Chessboard A Field Guide to Chess Tactics Learn chess tactics The Blue Book of Chess Teaching the Rudiments of the Game and Giving an Analysis of All the Recognized Openings by Howard Staunton ChessGames com online chess database and community Chess records details of longest game most passed pawns fewest captures etc A sample chess gameInternational organizationsFIDE World Chess Federation Official rules FIDE Laws of Chess FIDE list of top rated players ICCF International Correspondence Chess Federation ACP Association of Chess ProfessionalsNewsChessbase news The Week in ChessOnline playChess com Play Online Against Human Players ChessFriends com Sparkchess Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Outline of chess amp oldid 1193192887 Venues who and where to play, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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