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{{Infobox_Game | subject_name = Chess | image_link = ] | image_caption = From left, a white [King (chess), black [rook (chess) and [queen (chess), white [pawn (chess), black [knight (chess), and white [bishop (chess) | players = 2 | setup_time = under one minute | playing_time = casual games without time control last usually 10–60 minutes | random_chance = None | skills = [Chess tactics, [Chess strategy -->

Chess is a recreational and competitive game for two players. Sometimes called Western Chess or International Chess to distinguish it from its predecessors and other chess variants, the current form of the game emerged in Southern Europe in the second half of the 15th century after evolving from similar, much older games of Persian origin.

Today, chess is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide in Chess club, online, by correspondence chess, in tournaments and informally. Aspects of art and science are found in chess composition and theory. Chess is also advocated as a way of enhancing Chess as mental training.

The game is played on a square chequered chessboard with 64 squares. At the start, each player ("white" and "black") controls sixteen Chess piece: one king (chess), one queen (chess), two rook (chess), two knight (chess), two bishop (chess), and eight pawn (chess). The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent's king, whereby the king is under immediate attack (in "Check (board game)") and there is no way to remove it from attack on the next move. Theoreticians have developed extensive chess strategy and chess tactics since the game's inception.

The tradition of organized competitive chess started in the 16th century. The first official World Chess Champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, claimed his title in 1886; Viswanathan Anand is the current World Champion. There are also biennial world team events called Chess Olympiads. Since the 20th century, two international organizations, the Fédération Internationale des Échecs and the International Correspondence Chess Federation have organized and overseen the top chess competitions and international titles.

One of the goals of early computer scientists was to create a Computer chess, and today's chess is deeply influenced by the abilities of current chess programs. In 1997, a Deep Blue versus Garry Kasparov between Garry Kasparov, then World Champion, and IBM IBM Deep Blue chess program proved for the first time that computers are able to beat even the strongest human players. The popularity of online chess coincided with the growth of the Internet.

{{Chess diagram|=| tright||=

8 |rd|nd|bd|qd|kd|bd|nd|rd|= 7 |pd|pd|pd|pd|pd|pd|pd|pd|= 6 | | | | | | | | |= 5 | | | | | | | | |= 4 | | | | | | | | |= 3 | | | | | | | | |= 2 |pl|pl|pl|pl|pl|pl|pl|pl|= 1 |rl|nl|bl|ql|kl|bl|nl|rl|= a b c d e f g h

| The position of the pieces at the start of a game of chess.-->.

Rules For a simple demonstration of the gameplay, see b:Transwiki:Sample chess game.

Chess is played on a square Chessboard of eight rows (called rank (chess) and numbered from 1 to 8) and eight columns (called file (chess) and labeled from a to h) of squares. The colors of the sixty-four squares alternate and are referred to as light squares and dark squares. The pieces are divided into two matching sets, by convention called White and Black. Each player, referred to by the color of his pieces, begins the game with sixteen Chess piece: one king (chess), one queen (chess), two rook (chess), two bishop (chess), two knight (chess) and eight pawn (chess). The chessboard is placed with a light square at each player's right on the nearest rank, and the pieces are set out on the two ranks closest to each player, as shown in the diagram. Each Queen (chess) stands on a square of its own color.

The player who is chosen to be White makes the first move. The players then alternate moving one of their own pieces (with the exception of castling, when a rook and the king are moved simultaneously). Each type of piece has its own unique method of movement. Pieces are moved to either an unoccupied square, or one occupied by an opponent's piece. Except for captures en passant, an opponent's piece is captured and removed from play by moving a piece to the square that the enemy piece occupies. When a piece can be captured on the next move, it is said to be "threatened" or "under attack".

When a player's king is under immediate threat of capture, it is said to be in Check (board game). A player is not permitted to make any move that would place the player's own king in check. If a player's king is in check, the player's next move must take it out of check. If this is impossible, the player has been checkmated and loses the game.

Chess games do not have to end in checkmate – either player may Resignation if the situation looks hopeless. Games also may end in a Draw (chess) (tie). A draw can occur in several situations, including draw by agreement, stalemate, threefold repetition of a position, the fifty move rule, or a draw by impossibility of checkmate (usually because of insufficient material to checkmate).

Chess can be played with a time control. This involves assigning each player a set amount of time to make moves. If a player's time runs out before the game is completed, he automatically loses. The timing ranges from up to seven hours for long games to shorter rapid chess games usually lasting 30 minutes or one hour. Even shorter is blitz chess, with a time control of three to fifteen minutes per player and bullet chess, in which the allotment is under three minutes.

The international rules of chess are described in more detail in the FIDE Handbook, section Laws of Chess.World Chess Federation. FIDE Laws of Chess. Retrieved 30 November 2006.

History , 12th century. New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Predecessors Many countries lay claim to the invention of chess. It is presently thought that the game originated in India,, because the Persian word for chess, shatranj, is derived from the Sanskrit chaturanga, which translates as "four divisions of the military", infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariots, represented respectively by pawn, knight, bishop and rook.

Another theory, championed by David H. Li, contends that chess arose from Xiangqi or a predecessor thereof, existing in China since the 2nd century BC.; The Origin of Chess Retrieved 27 February 2007

The first reference to chess in Chess in early literature appears in Persia and dates around the 5th century AD book Karnamag-i Artaxshir-i Papakan. The earliest unambiguous reference in India appears to date from about 625 AD. The earliest documented chess pieces also date to the 7th century. By about 800 the game reached China and was known, with modifications, as Xiangqi. Shatranj was taken up by the Muslim world after the Islamic conquest of Persia, with the pieces largely retaining their Persian names. In Spanish language "shatranj" was rendered as ajedrez, in Portuguese language as xadrez, in Turkish language as satranc and in Greek language as zatrikion, but in the rest of Europe it was replaced by versions of the Persian shāh ("king").

playing chess, 1283.The game reached Western Europe and Russia by at least three routes, the earliest being in the 9th century. By the year 1000 it had spread throughout Europe.Hooper and Whyld, 144-45 (first edition) Introduced into the Iberian Peninsula by the Moors in the 10th century, it was described in a famous 13th century manuscript covering shatranj, backgammon, and dice named the Libro de los juegos. Sonja Musser Golladay's English Translation of Alfonso X's Book of Games. Retrieved 11 December 2006

Origins of the modern game (1450–1850) The pieces in shatranj had limited movement; the elephant or aufin (the predecessor of the modern bishop) could only move by jumping two spaces diagonally, the counselor or fers (the predecessor of the modern queen) could move only one space diagonally, pawns could not advance two spaces on their first move, and there was no castling. Also, pawns could only promote to counselor, which was the weakest piece (after the pawn), due to its limited range.Davidson (1981), p. 9 chess pieces by Nathaniel Cook from 1849, left to right: pawn, rook, knight, bishop, queen, and king.Around 1200, rules started to be modified in southern Europe, and around 1475, several major changes rendered the game essentially as it is known today.Hooper and Whyld, 144-45 (first edition) These modern rules for the basic moves had been adopted in ItalyDavidson (1981), p. 13–17 (or in Spain according to other sourcesCalvo, Ricardo. Valencia Spain: The Cradle of European Chess. Retrieved 10 December 2006): pawns gained the option of advancing two squares on their first move and the en passant capture therewith, while bishops and queens acquired their modern abilities. This made the queen the most powerful piece; consequently modern chess was referred to as "Queen's Chess" or "Mad Queen Chess".An analysis from the feminist perspective: P. 152ff These new rules quickly spread throughout western Europe, with the exception of the rules about stalemate, which varied from place to place and were finalized in the early 19th century.See Stalemate#History of the stalemate rule.

This was also the time when chess started to develop a corpus of theory. The oldest preserved printed chess book, Repetición de Amores y Arte de Ajedrez (Repetition of Love and the Art of Playing Chess) by Spanish people churchman Luis Ramirez de Lucena was published in Salamanca in 1497.Calvo, Ricardo. Valencia Spain: The Cradle of European Chess. Retrieved 10 December 2006 Lucena and later masters of the 16th and 17th century like Portugal Pedro Damiano, Italians Giovanni Leonardo Di Bona, Giulio Cesare Polerio and Gioachino Greco or Spanish bishop Ruy López de Segura developed elements of openings, such as the Italian Game, King's Gambit and Ruy Lopez, and started to analyze simple endgames., 18th century French chess MasterIn the 18th century the center of European chess life moved from the Southern European countries to France. The two most important French masters were François-André Danican Philidor, a musician by profession, who discovered the importance of pawns for chess strategy, and later Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais who won a famous series of matches with the strongest United Kingdom master of the time, Alexander McDonnell from Ireland, in 1834. Louis Charles Mahe De La Bourdonnai. Chessgames.com. Retrieved 30 November 2006. Centers of chess life in this period were coffee houses in big European cities like Café de la Régence in Paris Online version and Simpson's-in-the-Strand in London.Henry Edward Bird. Chess History and Reminiscences. Retrieved 10 December 2006

As the 19th century progressed, chess organization developed quickly. Many chess clubs, chess books and chess journals appeared. There were correspondence matches between cities; for example the London Chess Club played against the Edinburgh Chess Club in 1824. London Chess Club. Chessgames.com. Retrieved 30 November 2006. Chess problems became a regular part of 19th century newspapers; Bernhard Horwitz, Josef Kling and Samuel Loyd composed some of the most influential problems. In 1843, the first edition of Handbuch des Schachspiels (Handbook of Chess) was published; written by German chess masters Paul Rudolf von Bilguer and Tassilo von Heydebrand und der Lasa, it was the first comprehensive manual of chess theory.

Birth of a sport (1850–1945) ", Anderssen-Kieseritzky, 1851The first modern chess tournament was held in London in 1851 and was won, surprisingly, by German Adolf Anderssen, relatively unknown at the time. Anderssen was hailed as the leading chess master and his brilliant, energetic—but from today's viewpoint strategically shallow—attacking style became typical for the time. Chess history. worldchessnetwork.com. Retrieved 30 November 2006. Sparkling games like Anderssen's Immortal game or Paul Morphy's Opera game—both short casual games with many sacrifices—were regarded as the highest possible summit of the chess art., p. 14.

Deeper insight into the nature of chess battle came with two younger players. United States Paul Morphy, an extraordinary chess prodigy, won against all important competitors, including Anderssen, during his short chess career between 1857 and 1863. Morphy's success stemmed from a combination of brilliant attacks and sound strategy; he intuitively knew how to prepare attacks. This scheme was later reinvented and described by another strong master and theoretician, Prague-born Wilhelm Steinitz.

, the first World Chess ChampionBesides his theoretical successes, Steinitz founded another important tradition: his triumph over the leading German master Johannes Zukertort in 1886 is regarded as the first official World Chess Championship, and Steinitz the first champion. He lost his crown in 1894 to a much younger player, German mathematician Emanuel Lasker, who maintained this title for 27 years, the longest tenure of all World Champions.Kasparov 1983a

It took a prodigy from Cuba, José Raúl Capablanca (World champion 1921—1927), who loved simple positions and endgames, to end the German-speaking dominance in chess; he was undefeated in tournament play for eight years until 1924. His successor was Russian-French Alexander Alekhine, a strong attacking player, who died as the World champion in 1946, having briefly lost the title to Dutch people player Max Euwe in 1935, before regaining it two years later.Kasparov 1983b

Between the two world wars, chess was revolutionized by the new theoretical school of so-called Hypermodernism (chess) like Aron Nimzowitsch or Richard Réti. They denied the simple principles of the established positional school of Steinitz and Tarrasch; hypermodernists advocated controlling the center of the board with distant pieces rather than with pawns, inviting opponents to occupy the center with pawns which become objects of attack.

Since the end of 19th century, the number of annually held master tournaments and matches quickly grew. In 1914, the title of chess International Grandmaster was first formally conferred by Russian Tsar Nicholas II, who awarded it to five finalists of a tournament in Saint Petersburg (Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Tarrasch and Frank Marshall). This tradition was later continued by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs or World Chess Federation (FIDE), founded in 1924 in Paris. In 1927, a World Champion title for women was established; the first to hold it was Czech people-English people master Vera Menchik. Menchik at ChessGames.com. Retrieved 11 December 2006

Post-war era (1945 and later) (left) and Emanuel Lasker in 1925After the death of Alekhine, a new World Champion was sought in a tournament of elite players ruled by FIDE, who have, since then, controlled the title. The winner of the 1948 tournament, Russian Mikhail Botvinnik, started an era of Soviet dominance in the chess world. Until the end of the Soviet Union, there was only one non-Soviet champion, American Bobby Fischer (champion 1972–1975).Kasparov 2003b, 2004a, 2004b, 2006

In the previous informal system, the World Champion decided which challenger he would play for the title and the challenger was forced to seek sponsors for the match. FIDE set up a new system of qualifying tournaments and matches. The world's strongest players were seeded into "Interzonal tournaments", where they were joined by players who had qualified from "Zonal tournaments". The leading finishers in these Interzonals would go on the "Candidates" stage, which was initially a tournament, later a series of knock-out matches. The winner of the Candidates would then play the reigning champion for the title. A champion defeated in a match had a right to play a rematch a year later. This system worked on a three-year cycle.

Botvinnik participated in championship matches over a period of fifteen years. He won the world championship tournament in 1948 and retained the title in tied matches in 1951 and 1954. In 1957, he lost to Vasily Smyslov, but regained the title in a rematch in 1958. In 1960, he lost the title to the Latvian prodigy Mikhail Tal, an accomplished tactician and attacking player. Botvinnik again regained the title in a rematch in 1961.

Following the 1961 event, FIDE abolished the automatic right of a deposed champion to a rematch, and the next champion, Armenian Tigran Petrosian, a genius of defense and strong positional player, was able to hold the title for two cycles, 1963–1969. His successor, Boris Spassky from Russia (1969–1972), was a player able to win in both positional and sharp tactical style.Kasparov 2003b, 2004a

The next championship, the so-called Match of the Century, saw the first non-Soviet finalist since before World War II, American Bobby Fischer, who defeated his Candidates opponents by unheard-of margins and clearly won the world championship match. In 1975, however, Fischer refused to defend his title against Soviet Anatoly Karpov when FIDE refused to meet his demands, and Karpov obtained the title by default. Karpov defended his title twice against Viktor Korchnoi and dominated the 1970s and early 1980s with a string of tournament successes.Kasparov 2003a, 2006

Karpov's reign finally ended in 1985 at the hands of another Russian player, Garry Kasparov. Kasparov and Karpov contested five world title matches between 1984 and 1990: Kasparov narrowly retained his title each time., p. 16. Kasparov would proceed to dominate the chess world until his retirement in 2005, setting records for the highest FIDE Elo rating ever and the most #1 rankings on the FIDE rating list. Kasparov at ChessGames.com. Retrieved 13 December 2006 FIDE Top List statistics. Retrieved May 3 2007

In 1993, Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short broke with FIDE to organize their own match for the title and formed a competing Professional Chess Association (PCA). From then until 2006, there were two simultaneous World Champions and World Championships: the PCA or Classical champion extending the Steinitzian tradition in which the current champion plays a challenger in match format (a series of many games); the other following FIDE's new format of many players competing in a tournament to determine the champion. Kasparov lost his Classical title in 2000 to Vladimir Kramnik of Russia.

The FIDE World Chess Championship 2006 reunified the titles, when Kramnik beat the FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov and became the undisputed World Chess Champion. Kramnik at ChessGames.com. Retrieved 13 December 2006 In September 2007, Viswanathan Anand became the next champion by winning a championship tournament of eight players in Mexico City.

Place in culture Pre-modern In the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance, chess was a part of Nobility culture; Pp. 170–199 it was used to teach war strategy and was dubbed the "Chess or the King's game". Gentlemen are "to be meanly seene in the play at Chestes," says the overview at the beginning of Baldassare Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier (1528, English 1561 by Sir Thomas Hoby), but chess should not be a gentleman's main passion. Castiglione explains it further:

And what say you to the game at chestes?It is truely an honest kynde of enterteynmente and wittie, quoth Syr Friderick. But me think it hath a fault, whiche is, that a man may be to couning at it, for who ever will be excellent in the playe of chestes, I beleave he must beestowe much tyme about it, and applie it with so much study, that a man may assoone learne some noble scyence, or compase any other matter of importaunce, and yet in the ende in beestowing all that laboure, he knoweth no more but a game. Therfore in this I beleave there happeneth a very rare thing, namely, that the meane is more commendable, then the excellency. The Second Book of the Courtier. uoregon.edu Retrieved 9 December 2006. Translated by Sir Thomas Hoby (1561) as edited by Walter Raleigh for David Nutt, Publisher, London, 1900.

Beautiful chess sets used by the aristocracy of the time are mostly lost, but some of the surviving examples, like the 12th century Lewis chessmen, are of high artistic quality.

At the same time, chess was often used as a basis of sermons on morality. An example is Liber de moribus hominum et officiis nobilium sive super ludo scacchorum ('Book of the customs of men and the duties of nobles or the Book of Chess'), written by an Italian Dominican Order monk Jacobus de Cessolis circa 1300. The popular work was translated into many other languages (first printed edition at Utrecht in 1473) and was the basis for William Caxton's The Game and Playe of the Chesse (1474), one of the first books printed in English language.The Introduction of Printing into England and the Early Work of the Press: The First Book printed in English (1907), from The Cambridge History of English and American Literature, Vol II. Online at bartleby.com. Retrieved 12 December 2006 Different chess pieces were used as metaphors for different classes of people, and human duties were derived from the rules of the game or from visual properties of the chess pieces. at the British Museum.

The knyght ought to be made alle armed upon an hors in suche wyse that he haue an helme on his heed and a spere in his ryght hande/ and coueryd wyth his sheld/ a swerde and a mace on his lyft syde/ Cladd wyth an hawberk and plates to fore his breste/ legge harnoys on his legges/ Spores on his heelis on his handes his gauntelettes/ his hors well broken and taught and apte to bataylle and couerid with his armes/ whan the knyghtes ben maad they ben bayned or bathed/ that is the signe that they shold lede a newe lyf and newe maners/ also they wake alle the nyght in prayers and orysons vnto god that he wylle gyue hem grace that they may gete that thynge that they may not gete by nature/ The kynge or prynce gyrdeth a boute them a swerde in signe/ that they shold abyde and kepe hym of whom they take theyr dispenses and dignyte.Caxton, William. The Game and Playe of the Chesse. Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 9 December 2006.

On the other side, political and religious authorities in many places forbade chess as frivolous or as a sort of gambling.

Known in the circles of clerics, students and merchants, chess entered into the popular culture of Middle Ages. An example is the 209th song of Carmina Burana from the 13th century, which starts with the names of chess pieces, Roch, pedites, regina... Camina Burana. Bibliotheca Augustana. Retrieved 2 November 2006.

, The Chess Players

Modern To the Age of Enlightenment, chess appeared mainly for self-improvement. Benjamin Franklin, in his article "The Morals of Chess" (1750), wrote:"The Game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement; several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired and strengthened by it, so as to become habits ready on all occasions; for life is a kind of Chess, in which we have often points to gain, and competitors or adversaries to contend with, and in which there is a vast variety of good and ill events, that are, in some degree, the effect of prudence, or the want of it. By playing at Chess then, we may learn:1st, Foresight, which looks a little into futurity, and considers the consequences that may attend an action ...2nd, Circumspection, which surveys the whole Chess-board, or scene of action: - the relation of the several Pieces, and their situations; ...3rd, Caution, not to make our moves too hastily...."Franklin, Benjamin. The Morals of Chess. metajedrez.com.ar. Retrieved 2 December 2006., Red King snoring, illustration by John Tenniel With these or similar hopes, chess is taught to children in schools around the world today and used in armies to train minds of cadets and officers. National Scholastic Chess Foundation. Retrieved 10 December 2006

Moreover, chess is often depicted in the arts, used for example as a metaphor of a struggle of two, as a symbol of cold logic, or - in the spirit of medieval moralists - as an allegory of society's life. Significant works, where chess plays a key role, range from Thomas Middleton's A Game at Chess over Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll to The Royal Game by Stefan Zweig or Vladimir Nabokov's The Defense. In Ingmar Bergman's 1957 movie The Seventh Seal, a knight plays chess with Death.

Chess is also present in the contemporary popular culture. For example, J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter plays "Magical objects in Harry Potter" while the characters of Star Trek prefer "Three-dimensional chess#Tri-Dimensional Chess" and the hero of Searching for Bobby Fischer struggles against adopting the aggressive and misanthropic views of a real chess Grandmaster.

Notation for recording moves Chess games and positions are recorded using a special notation, most often algebraic chess notation. FIDE Laws of Chess, App. E. Retrieved 11 December 2006 Abbreviated (or short) algebraic notation generally records moves in the format abbreviation of the piece moved - file where it moved - rank where it moved, e.g. Qg5 means "queen moves to the g-file and 5th rank (that is, to the square g5). If there are two pieces of the same type that can move to the same square, one more letter or number is added to indicate the file or rank from which the piece moved, e.g. Ngf3 means "knight from the g-file moves to the square f3". The letter P indicating a pawn is not used, so that e4 means "pawn moves to the square e4".

If the piece makes a capture, "x" is inserted behind the abbreviation of the piece, e.g. Bxf3 means "bishop captures on f3". When a pawn makes a capture, the file from which the pawn departed is used in place of a piece initial. For example, exd5 (pawn on the e-file captures the piece on d5).{]"|-|}If a pawn moves to its last rank, achieving promotion, the piece chosen is indicated after the move, for example e1Q or e1=Q. Castling is indicated by the special notations 0-0 for kingside castling and 0-0-0 for queenside. A move which places the opponent's king in check usually has the notation "+" added. Checkmate can be indicated by "#" (occasionally "++", although this is occasionally used for a double check instead). At the end of the game, "1-0" means "White won", "0-1" means "Black won" and "½-½" indicates a draw.

Chess moves can be annotated with punctuation (chess). For example ! indicates a good move, !! an excellent move,? a mistake, ?? a blunder, !? an interesting move that may not be best or ?! a dubious move, but not easily refuted.

For example, one variant of a simple trap known as the Scholar's mate, animated in the picture to the right, can be recorded:1. e4 e5 2. Qh5?! Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6?? 4. Qxf7# 1-0

Strategy and tactics Chess strategy consists of setting and achieving long-term goals during the game — for example, where to place different pieces — while tactics concentrate on immediate maneuver. These two parts of chess thinking cannot be completely separated, because strategic goals are mostly achieved by the means of tactics, while the tactical opportunities are based on the previous strategy of play.

Because of different strategic and tactical patterns, a game of chess is usually divided into three distinct phases: Chess opening, usually the first 10 to 25 moves, when players develop their armies and set up the stage for the coming battle; middlegame, the developed phase of the game; and endgame, when most of the pieces are gone and kings start to take an active part in the struggle.

Fundamentals of strategy Chess strategy is concerned with evaluation of chess positions and with setting up goals and long-term plans for the future play. During the evaluation, players must take into account the value of pieces on board, pawn structure, king safety, space, and control of key squares and groups of squares (for example, diagonals, open-files, and dark or light squares).{| class="toccolours" border="1" cellpadding="4" style="float: right; margin: 0 0 1em 1em; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 95%; clear: right"|colspan="2" align="center"|An Example of Visualizing Pawn Structures|-|{{Chess diagram small|=| tright||=

|rd| |bd| |rd| |kd| |=|pd|pd| |nd| |pd|bd|pd|=| | |pd|rl| |nd|pd| |=| | | | |pd| | | |=| | |pl| |pl| | | |=| | |nl| |bl|nl| |pl|=|pl|pl| | | |pl|pl| |=| | |kl| | |bl| |rl|= a b c d e f g h

| A chess position (Tarrasch - Euwe, 1922)...-->|{{Chess diagram small|=| tright||=| | | | | | | | |=|pd|pd| | | |pd| |pd|=| | |pd| | | |pd| |=| | | | |pd| | | |=| | |pl| |pl| | | |=| | | | | | | |pl|=|pl|pl| | | |pl|pl| |=| | | | | | | | |=| ...and its pawn skeleton ("The Rauzer formation")-->|-|}The most basic is to count the total value of pieces of both sides.Harding (2003), p. 1–7 The point values used for this purpose are based on experience; usually pawns are considered worth one point, knights and bishops about three points each, rooks about five points (the value difference between a rook and a bishop being known as The exchange (chess)), and queens about nine points. In the endgame, the king is generally more powerful than a minor piece but less powerful than a rook, thus it is sometimes assigned a fighting value of four points. These basic values are then modified by other factors like position of the piece (for example, advanced pawns are usually more valuable than those on initial positions), coordination between pieces (for example, a pair of bishops usually coordinates better than the pair bishop + knight), or type of position (knights are generally better in closed positions with many pawns while bishops are more powerful in open positions).

Another important factor in the evaluation of chess positions is the pawn structure (sometimes known as the pawn skeleton), or the configuration of pawns on the chessboard.Harding (2003), p. 138ff Pawns being the least mobile of the chess pieces, the pawn structure is relatively static, and largely determines the strategic nature of the position. Weaknesses in the pawn structure, such as Isolated pawn, Doubled pawns or Backward pawn pawns and chess terminology#H, once created, are usually permanent. Care must therefore be taken to avoid them unless they are compensated by another valuable asset (for example, by the possibility to develop an attack).

Fundamentals of tactics 1497 book

In chess, tactics in general concentrate on short-term actions — so short-term that they can be calculated in advance by a human player or by a computer. The possible depth of calculation depends on the player's ability or speed of the processor. In quiet positions with many possibilities on both sides, a deep calculation is not possible, while in "tactical" positions with a limited number of forced variants, it is possible to calculate very long sequences of moves.

Simple one-move or two-move tactical actions — threats, exchanges of material, double attacks etc. — can be combined into more complicated variants, tactical maneuvers, often forced from one side or from both. Theoreticians described many elementary tactical methods and typical maneuvers, for example Pin (chess), Fork (chess), Skewer (chess), discovered attacks (especially discovered checks), zwischenzugs, deflections, decoy (chess)s, Sacrifice (chess), undermining (chess), Overloading (chess), and Interference (chess).Harding (2003), p. 8ff

A forced variant which is connected with a sacrifice and usually results in a tangible gain is named a combination (chess).Harding (2003), p. 70ff Brilliant combinations — such as those in the Immortal game — are described as beautiful and are admired by chess lovers. Finding a combination is also a common type of chess puzzle aimed at development of players' skills.

Opening A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a game (the "opening moves"). Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings and have been given names such as the Ruy Lopez or Sicilian Defense. They are catalogued in reference works such as the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings.

There are dozens of different openings, varying widely in character from quiet positional play (e.g. the Réti Opening) to very aggressive (e.g. the Latvian Gambit). In some opening lines, the exact sequence considered best for both sides has been worked out to 30–35 moves or more. Professional players spend years studying openings, and continue doing so throughout their careers, as opening theory continues to evolve.

The fundamental strategic aims of most openings are similar:

Apart from these fundamentals, other strategic plans or tactical sequences may be employed in the opening.

Middlegame The middlegame is the part of the game when most pieces have been developed. Because the opening theory has ended, players have to assess the position, to form plans based on the features of the positions, and at the same time to take into account the tactical possibilities in the position.Harding (2003), p. 32–151

Typical plans or strategical themes — for example the minority attack, that is the attack of Chess terminology#Q pawns against an opponent who has more pawns on the queenside — are often appropriate just for some pawn structures, resulting from a specific group of openings. The study of openings should therefore be connected with the preparation of plans typical for resulting middlegames.

Middlegame is also the phase in which most Combination (chess) occur. Middlegame combinations are often connected with the attack against the opponent's king; some typical patterns have their own names, for example the Boden's Mate or the Lasker - Bauer, Amsterdam, 1889 combination.

Another important strategical question in the middlegame is whether and how to reduce material and transform into an endgame. For example, minor material advantages can generally be transformed into victory only in an endgame, and therefore the stronger side must choose an appropriate way to achieve an ending. Not every reduction of material is good for this purpose; for example, if one side keeps a light-squared bishop and the opponent has a dark-squared one, the transformation into a bishops and pawns ending is usually advantageous for the weaker side only, because an endgame with Endgame#Bishops on opposite colors is likely to be a draw, even with an advantage of one or two pawns.{{Chess diagram|=| tright||=8 | | |kd| | | | | |= 7 | | |pl| | | | | |= 6 | | | |kl| | | | |= 5 | | | | | | | | |= 4 | | | | | | | | |= 3 | | | | | | | | |= 2 | | | | | | | | |= 1 | | | | | | | | |= a b c d e f g h | An example of zugzwang: The side which is to make a move is in a disadvantage. Black on move must go 1. ... Kb7 and allow white to queen after 2. Kd7. White on move must allow a draw either after 1. Kc6 stalemate, or through insufficient material after losing his last pawn.-->

Endgame The endgame (or end game or ending) is the stage of the game when there are few pieces left on the board. There are three main strategic differences between earlier stages of the game and endgame:Harding (2003), p. 187ff

Endgames can be classified according to the type of pieces that remain on board. Checkmate#Basic checkmates are positions in which one side has only a king and the other side has one or two pieces and can checkmate the opposing king, with the pieces working together with their king. Endgame#King and pawn endings involve only kings and pawns on one or both sides and the task of the stronger side is to promote one of the pawns. Other more complicated endings are classified according to the pieces on board other than kings, e.g. "rook and pawn versus rook endgame".

Chess composition {{Chess diagram|=| tright| Richard Réti
Ostrava Morgenzeitung
4 December 1921|=

8 | | | | | | | |kl|= 7 | | | | | | | | |= 6 |kd| |pl| | | | | |= 5 | | | | | | | |pd|= 4 | | | | | | | | |= 3 | | | | | | | | |= 2 | | | | | | | | |= 1 | | | | | | | | |= a b c d e f g h

|White to play and drawOne of the most famous chess studies ever composed. It seems impossible to catch the advanced black pawn, while the white pawn can be easily stopped by the black king. The idea of the solution is to advance to both pawns at the same time using specific properties of the board's geometry. 1. Kg7! h4 2. Kf6 Kb6 (or 2. ... h3 3. Ke7 and the white king can support its own pawn) 3. Ke5!! (and now the white king comes just in time to the white pawn, or catches the black one) 3. ... h3 4. Kd6 draw.-->Chess composition is the art of creating chess problems (these problems themselves are sometimes also called chess compositions). A person who creates such problems is known as a chess composer.

Most chess problems exhibit the following features:

There are many types of chess problems. The two most important are:

Chess composition is a distinct branch of chess sport, and tournaments (or tourneys) exist for both the composition and solving of chess problems.

Competitive play Organization of competitions Contemporary chess is an organized sport with structured international and national leagues, tournaments and congresses. Chess's international governing body is FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Échecs). Most countries have a national chess organization as well (such as the United States Chess Federation and English Chess Federation), which in turn is a member of FIDE. FIDE is a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), but the game of chess has never been part of the Olympic Games; chess does have its own Chess Olympiad, held every two years as a team event. An estimated 605 million people worldwide know how to play chess, and 7.5 million are members of national chess federations, which exist in 160 countries worldwide. This makes chess one of the most popular sports worldwide. Chess in the Olympics. Retrieved 19 December 2006

The current World Chess Champion is Viswanathan Anand of India, India's Anand seizes chess title the reigning Women's World Champion is Xu Yuhua from China. However, the world's highest rated female player, Judit Polgar, has never participated in the Women's World Chess Championship, instead preferring to compete with the leading men.

Other competitions for individuals include the World Junior Chess Championship, the European Individual Chess Championship and the List of national chess championships. Invitation-only tournaments regularly attract the world's strongest players and these include Spain's Linares chess tournament event, Monte Carlo's Melody Amber tournament, the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting meeting, Sofia's M-tel Masters and Wijk aan Zee's Corus chess tournament tournament.

Regular team chess events include the aforementioned Chess Olympiad and the European Team Championship. The 37th Chess Olympiad was held 2006 in Turin, Italy; Armenia won the gold in the unrestricted event, and Ukraine took the top medal for the women. The World Chess Solving Championship and World Correspondence Chess Championships are both team and individual events.

Besides these prestigious competitions, there are thousands of other chess tournaments, matches and festivals held around the world every year, which cater to players of all levels, from beginners to experts.

Titles and rankings Garry Kasparov, former World Chess ChampionshipThe best players can be awarded specific lifetime titles by the world chess organization FIDE:World Chess Federation. FIDE Handbook: Chess Rules. 1.0. Requirements for the titles designated in 0.31. Retrieved 9 December 2006. All the titles are open to men and women. Separate women-only titles, such as Woman Grandmaster (WGM), are also available. Beginning with Nona Gaprindashvili in 1978, a number of women have earned the GM title, and most of the top ten women in 2006 hold the unrestricted GM title.Current FIDE lists of top players with their titles are online at fide.com. Retrieved 11 December 2006

International titles are awarded to composers and solvers of chess problems, and to correspondence chess players (by the International Correspondence Chess Federation). Moreover, national chess organizations may also award titles, usually to the advanced players still under the level needed for international titles; an example is the Chess expert title used in the USA.

In order to rank players, FIDE, ICCF and national chess organizations use the Elo rating system developed by Arpad Elo. Elo is a Statistical model based on assumption that the chess performance of each player in his games is a random variable. Arpad Elo thought of a player's true skill as the average of that player's performance random variable, and showed how to estimate the average from results of player's games. The {{Infobox_Game | subject_name = Chess | image_link = ] | image_caption = From left, a white [King (chess), black [rook (chess) and [queen (chess), white [pawn (chess), black [knight (chess), and white [bishop (chess) | players = 2 | setup_time = under one minute | playing_time = casual games without time control last usually 10–60 minutes | random_chance = None | skills = [Chess tactics, [Chess strategy -->

Chess is a recreational and competitive game for two players. Sometimes called Western Chess or International Chess to distinguish it from its predecessors and other chess variants, the current form of the game emerged in Southern Europe in the second half of the 15th century after evolving from similar, much older games of Persian origin.

Today, chess is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide in Chess club, online, by correspondence chess, in tournaments and informally. Aspects of art and science are found in chess composition and theory. Chess is also advocated as a way of enhancing Chess as mental training.

The game is played on a square chequered chessboard with 64 squares. At the start, each player ("white" and "black") controls sixteen Chess piece: one king (chess), one queen (chess), two rook (chess), two knight (chess), two bishop (chess), and eight pawn (chess). The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent's king, whereby the king is under immediate attack (in "Check (board game)") and there is no way to remove it from attack on the next move. Theoreticians have developed extensive chess strategy and chess tactics since the game's inception.

The tradition of organized competitive chess started in the 16th century. The first official World Chess Champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, claimed his title in 1886; Viswanathan Anand is the current World Champion. There are also biennial world team events called Chess Olympiads. Since the 20th century, two international organizations, the Fédération Internationale des Échecs and the International Correspondence Chess Federation have organized and overseen the top chess competitions and international titles.

One of the goals of early computer scientists was to create a Computer chess, and today's chess is deeply influenced by the abilities of current chess programs. In 1997, a Deep Blue versus Garry Kasparov between Garry Kasparov, then World Champion, and IBM IBM Deep Blue chess program proved for the first time that computers are able to beat even the strongest human players. The popularity of online chess coincided with the growth of the Internet.

{{Chess diagram|=| tright||=

8 |rd|nd|bd|qd|kd|bd|nd|rd|= 7 |pd|pd|pd|pd|pd|pd|pd|pd|= 6 | | | | | | | | |= 5 | | | | | | | | |= 4 | | | | | | | | |= 3 | | | | | | | | |= 2 |pl|pl|pl|pl|pl|pl|pl|pl|= 1 |rl|nl|bl|ql|kl|bl|nl|rl|= a b c d e f g h

| The position of the pieces at the start of a game of chess.-->.

Rules For a simple demonstration of the gameplay, see b:Transwiki:Sample chess game.

Chess is played on a square Chessboard of eight rows (called rank (chess) and numbered from 1 to 8) and eight columns (called file (chess) and labeled from a to h) of squares. The colors of the sixty-four squares alternate and are referred to as light squares and dark squares. The pieces are divided into two matching sets, by convention called White and Black. Each player, referred to by the color of his pieces, begins the game with sixteen Chess piece: one king (chess), one queen (chess), two rook (chess), two bishop (chess), two knight (chess) and eight pawn (chess). The chessboard is placed with a light square at each player's right on the nearest rank, and the pieces are set out on the two ranks closest to each player, as shown in the diagram. Each Queen (chess) stands on a square of its own color.

The player who is chosen to be White makes the first move. The players then alternate moving one of their own pieces (with the exception of castling, when a rook and the king are moved simultaneously). Each type of piece has its own unique method of movement. Pieces are moved to either an unoccupied square, or one occupied by an opponent's piece. Except for captures en passant, an opponent's piece is captured and removed from play by moving a piece to the square that the enemy piece occupies. When a piece can be captured on the next move, it is said to be "threatened" or "under attack".

When a player's king is under immediate threat of capture, it is said to be in Check (board game). A player is not permitted to make any move that would place the player's own king in check. If a player's king is in check, the player's next move must take it out of check. If this is impossible, the player has been checkmated and loses the game.

Chess games do not have to end in checkmate – either player may Resignation if the situation looks hopeless. Games also may end in a Draw (chess) (tie). A draw can occur in several situations, including draw by agreement, stalemate, threefold repetition of a position, the fifty move rule, or a draw by impossibility of checkmate (usually because of insufficient material to checkmate).

Chess can be played with a time control. This involves assigning each player a set amount of time to make moves. If a player's time runs out before the game is completed, he automatically loses. The timing ranges from up to seven hours for long games to shorter rapid chess games usually lasting 30 minutes or one hour. Even shorter is blitz chess, with a time control of three to fifteen minutes per player and bullet chess, in which the allotment is under three minutes.

The international rules of chess are described in more detail in the FIDE Handbook, section Laws of Chess.World Chess Federation. FIDE Laws of Chess. Retrieved 30 November 2006.

History , 12th century. New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Predecessors Many countries lay claim to the invention of chess. It is presently thought that the game originated in India,, because the Persian word for chess, shatranj, is derived from the Sanskrit chaturanga, which translates as "four divisions of the military", infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariots, represented respectively by pawn, knight, bishop and rook.

Another theory, championed by David H. Li, contends that chess arose from Xiangqi or a predecessor thereof, existing in China since the 2nd century BC.; The Origin of Chess Retrieved 27 February 2007

The first reference to chess in Chess in early literature appears in Persia and dates around the 5th century AD book Karnamag-i Artaxshir-i Papakan. The earliest unambiguous reference in India appears to date from about 625 AD. The earliest documented chess pieces also date to the 7th century. By about 800 the game reached China and was known, with modifications, as Xiangqi. Shatranj was taken up by the Muslim world after the Islamic conquest of Persia, with the pieces largely retaining their Persian names. In Spanish language "shatranj" was rendered as ajedrez, in Portuguese language as xadrez, in Turkish language as satranc and in Greek language as zatrikion, but in the rest of Europe it was replaced by versions of the Persian shāh ("king").

playing chess, 1283.The game reached Western Europe and Russia by at least three routes, the earliest being in the 9th century. By the year 1000 it had spread throughout Europe.Hooper and Whyld, 144-45 (first edition) Introduced into the Iberian Peninsula by the Moors in the 10th century, it was described in a famous 13th century manuscript covering shatranj, backgammon, and dice named the Libro de los juegos. Sonja Musser Golladay's English Translation of Alfonso X's Book of Games. Retrieved 11 December 2006

Origins of the modern game (1450–1850) The pieces in shatranj had limited movement; the elephant or aufin (the predecessor of the modern bishop) could only move by jumping two spaces diagonally, the counselor or fers (the predecessor of the modern queen) could move only one space diagonally, pawns could not advance two spaces on their first move, and there was no castling. Also, pawns could only promote to counselor, which was the weakest piece (after the pawn), due to its limited range.Davidson (1981), p. 9 chess pieces by Nathaniel Cook from 1849, left to right: pawn, rook, knight, bishop, queen, and king.Around 1200, rules started to be modified in southern Europe, and around 1475, several major changes rendered the game essentially as it is known today.Hooper and Whyld, 144-45 (first edition) These modern rules for the basic moves had been adopted in ItalyDavidson (1981), p. 13–17 (or in Spain according to other sourcesCalvo, Ricardo. Valencia Spain: The Cradle of European Chess. Retrieved 10 December 2006): pawns gained the option of advancing two squares on their first move and the en passant capture therewith, while bishops and queens acquired their modern abilities. This made the queen the most powerful piece; consequently modern chess was referred to as "Queen's Chess" or "Mad Queen Chess".An analysis from the feminist perspective: P. 152ff These new rules quickly spread throughout western Europe, with the exception of the rules about stalemate, which varied from place to place and were finalized in the early 19th century.See Stalemate#History of the stalemate rule.

This was also the time when chess started to develop a corpus of theory. The oldest preserved printed chess book, Repetición de Amores y Arte de Ajedrez (Repetition of Love and the Art of Playing Chess) by Spanish people churchman Luis Ramirez de Lucena was published in Salamanca in 1497.Calvo, Ricardo. Valencia Spain: The Cradle of European Chess. Retrieved 10 December 2006 Lucena and later masters of the 16th and 17th century like Portugal Pedro Damiano, Italians Giovanni Leonardo Di Bona, Giulio Cesare Polerio and Gioachino Greco or Spanish bishop Ruy López de Segura developed elements of openings, such as the Italian Game, King's Gambit and Ruy Lopez, and started to analyze simple endgames., 18th century French chess MasterIn the 18th century the center of European chess life moved from the Southern European countries to France. The two most important French masters were François-André Danican Philidor, a musician by profession, who discovered the importance of pawns for chess strategy, and later Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais who won a famous series of matches with the strongest United Kingdom master of the time, Alexander McDonnell from Ireland, in 1834. Louis Charles Mahe De La Bourdonnai. Chessgames.com. Retrieved 30 November 2006. Centers of chess life in this period were coffee houses in big European cities like Café de la Régence in Paris Online version and Simpson's-in-the-Strand in London.Henry Edward Bird. Chess History and Reminiscences. Retrieved 10 December 2006

As the 19th century progressed, chess organization developed quickly. Many chess clubs, chess books and chess journals appeared. There were correspondence matches between cities; for example the London Chess Club played against the Edinburgh Chess Club in 1824. London Chess Club. Chessgames.com. Retrieved 30 November 2006. Chess problems became a regular part of 19th century newspapers; Bernhard Horwitz, Josef Kling and Samuel Loyd composed some of the most influential problems. In 1843, the first edition of Handbuch des Schachspiels (Handbook of Chess) was published; written by German chess masters Paul Rudolf von Bilguer and Tassilo von Heydebrand und der Lasa, it was the first comprehensive manual of chess theory.

Birth of a sport (1850–1945) ", Anderssen-Kieseritzky, 1851The first modern chess tournament was held in London in 1851 and was won, surprisingly, by German Adolf Anderssen, relatively unknown at the time. Anderssen was hailed as the leading chess master and his brilliant, energetic—but from today's viewpoint strategically shallow—attacking style became typical for the time. Chess history. worldchessnetwork.com. Retrieved 30 November 2006. Sparkling games like Anderssen's Immortal game or Paul Morphy's Opera game—both short casual games with many sacrifices—were regarded as the highest possible summit of the chess art., p. 14.

Deeper insight into the nature of chess battle came with two younger players. United States Paul Morphy, an extraordinary chess prodigy, won against all important competitors, including Anderssen, during his short chess career between 1857 and 1863. Morphy's success stemmed from a combination of brilliant attacks and sound strategy; he intuitively knew how to prepare attacks. This scheme was later reinvented and described by another strong master and theoretician, Prague-born Wilhelm Steinitz.

, the first World Chess ChampionBesides his theoretical successes, Steinitz founded another important tradition: his triumph over the leading German master Johannes Zukertort in 1886 is regarded as the first official World Chess Championship, and Steinitz the first champion. He lost his crown in 1894 to a much younger player, German mathematician Emanuel Lasker, who maintained this title for 27 years, the longest tenure of all World Champions.Kasparov 1983a

It took a prodigy from Cuba, José Raúl Capablanca (World champion 1921—1927), who loved simple positions and endgames, to end the German-speaking dominance in chess; he was undefeated in tournament play for eight years until 1924. His successor was Russian-French Alexander Alekhine, a strong attacking player, who died as the World champion in 1946, having briefly lost the title to Dutch people player Max Euwe in 1935, before regaining it two years later.Kasparov 1983b

Between the two world wars, chess was revolutionized by the new theoretical school of so-called Hypermodernism (chess) like Aron Nimzowitsch or Richard Réti. They denied the simple principles of the established positional school of Steinitz and Tarrasch; hypermodernists advocated controlling the center of the board with distant pieces rather than with pawns, inviting opponents to occupy the center with pawns which become objects of attack.

Since the end of 19th century, the number of annually held master tournaments and matches quickly grew. In 1914, the title of chess International Grandmaster was first formally conferred by Russian Tsar Nicholas II, who awarded it to five finalists of a tournament in Saint Petersburg (Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Tarrasch and Frank Marshall). This tradition was later continued by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs or World Chess Federation (FIDE), founded in 1924 in Paris. In 1927, a World Champion title for women was established; the first to hold it was Czech people-English people master Vera Menchik. Menchik at ChessGames.com. Retrieved 11 December 2006

Post-war era (1945 and later) (left) and Emanuel Lasker in 1925After the death of Alekhine, a new World Champion was sought in a tournament of elite players ruled by FIDE, who have, since then, controlled the title. The winner of the 1948 tournament, Russian Mikhail Botvinnik, started an era of Soviet dominance in the chess world. Until the end of the Soviet Union, there was only one non-Soviet champion, American Bobby Fischer (champion 1972–1975).Kasparov 2003b, 2004a, 2004b, 2006

In the previous informal system, the World Champion decided which challenger he would play for the title and the challenger was forced to seek sponsors for the match. FIDE set up a new system of qualifying tournaments and matches. The world's strongest players were seeded into "Interzonal tournaments", where they were joined by players who had qualified from "Zonal tournaments". The leading finishers in these Interzonals would go on the "Candidates" stage, which was initially a tournament, later a series of knock-out matches. The winner of the Candidates would then play the reigning champion for the title. A champion defeated in a match had a right to play a rematch a year later. This system worked on a three-year cycle.

Botvinnik participated in championship matches over a period of fifteen years. He won the world championship tournament in 1948 and retained the title in tied matches in 1951 and 1954. In 1957, he lost to Vasily Smyslov, but regained the title in a rematch in 1958. In 1960, he lost the title to the Latvian prodigy Mikhail Tal, an accomplished tactician and attacking player. Botvinnik again regained the title in a rematch in 1961.

Following the 1961 event, FIDE abolished the automatic right of a deposed champion to a rematch, and the next champion, Armenian Tigran Petrosian, a genius of defense and strong positional player, was able to hold the title for two cycles, 1963–1969. His successor, Boris Spassky from Russia (1969–1972), was a player able to win in both positional and sharp tactical style.Kasparov 2003b, 2004a

The next championship, the so-called Match of the Century, saw the first non-Soviet finalist since before World War II, American Bobby Fischer, who defeated his Candidates opponents by unheard-of margins and clearly won the world championship match. In 1975, however, Fischer refused to defend his title against Soviet Anatoly Karpov when FIDE refused to meet his demands, and Karpov obtained the title by default. Karpov defended his title twice against Viktor Korchnoi and dominated the 1970s and early 1980s with a string of tournament successes.Kasparov 2003a, 2006

Karpov's reign finally ended in 1985 at the hands of another Russian player, Garry Kasparov. Kasparov and Karpov contested five world title matches between 1984 and 1990: Kasparov narrowly retained his title each time., p. 16. Kasparov would proceed to dominate the chess world until his retirement in 2005, setting records for the highest FIDE Elo rating ever and the most #1 rankings on the FIDE rating list. Kasparov at ChessGames.com. Retrieved 13 December 2006 FIDE Top List statistics. Retrieved May 3 2007

In 1993, Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short broke with FIDE to organize their own match for the title and formed a competing Professional Chess Association (PCA). From then until 2006, there were two simultaneous World Champions and World Championships: the PCA or Classical champion extending the Steinitzian tradition in which the current champion plays a challenger in match format (a series of many games); the other following FIDE's new format of many players competing in a tournament to determine the champion. Kasparov lost his Classical title in 2000 to Vladimir Kramnik of Russia.

The FIDE World Chess Championship 2006 reunified the titles, when Kramnik beat the FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov and became the undisputed World Chess Champion. Kramnik at ChessGames.com. Retrieved 13 December 2006 In September 2007, Viswanathan Anand became the next champion by winning a championship tournament of eight players in Mexico City.

Place in culture Pre-modern In the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance, chess was a part of Nobility culture; Pp. 170–199 it was used to teach war strategy and was dubbed the "Chess or the King's game". Gentlemen are "to be meanly seene in the play at Chestes," says the overview at the beginning of Baldassare Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier (1528, English 1561 by Sir Thomas Hoby), but chess should not be a gentleman's main passion. Castiglione explains it further:

And what say you to the game at chestes?It is truely an honest kynde of enterteynmente and wittie, quoth Syr Friderick. But me think it hath a fault, whiche is, that a man may be to couning at it, for who ever will be excellent in the playe of chestes, I beleave he must beestowe much tyme about it, and applie it with so much study, that a man may assoone learne some noble scyence, or compase any other matter of importaunce, and yet in the ende in beestowing all that laboure, he knoweth no more but a game. Therfore in this I beleave there happeneth a very rare thing, namely, that the meane is more commendable, then the excellency. The Second Book of the Courtier. uoregon.edu Retrieved 9 December 2006. Translated by Sir Thomas Hoby (1561) as edited by Walter Raleigh for David Nutt, Publisher, London, 1900.

Beautiful chess sets used by the aristocracy of the time are mostly lost, but some of the surviving examples, like the 12th century Lewis chessmen, are of high artistic quality.

At the same time, chess was often used as a basis of sermons on morality. An example is Liber de moribus hominum et officiis nobilium sive super ludo scacchorum ('Book of the customs of men and the duties of nobles or the Book of Chess'), written by an Italian Dominican Order monk Jacobus de Cessolis circa 1300. The popular work was translated into many other languages (first printed edition at Utrecht in 1473) and was the basis for William Caxton's The Game and Playe of the Chesse (1474), one of the first books printed in English language.The Introduction of Printing into England and the Early Work of the Press: The First Book printed in English (1907), from The Cambridge History of English and American Literature, Vol II. Online at bartleby.com. Retrieved 12 December 2006 Different chess pieces were used as metaphors for different classes of people, and human duties were derived from the rules of the game or from visual properties of the chess pieces. at the British Museum.

The knyght ought to be made alle armed upon an hors in suche wyse that he haue an helme on his heed and a spere in his ryght hande/ and coueryd wyth his sheld/ a swerde and a mace on his lyft syde/ Cladd wyth an hawberk and plates to fore his breste/ legge harnoys on his legges/ Spores on his heelis on his handes his gauntelettes/ his hors well broken and taught and apte to bataylle and couerid with his armes/ whan the knyghtes ben maad they ben bayned or bathed/ that is the signe that they shold lede a newe lyf and newe maners/ also they wake alle the nyght in prayers and orysons vnto god that he wylle gyue hem grace that they may gete that thynge that they may not gete by nature/ The kynge or prynce gyrdeth a boute them a swerde in signe/ that they shold abyde and kepe hym of whom they take theyr dispenses and dignyte.Caxton, William. The Game and Playe of the Chesse. Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 9 December 2006.

On the other side, political and religious authorities in many places forbade chess as frivolous or as a sort of gambling.

Known in the circles of clerics, students and merchants, chess entered into the popular culture of Middle Ages. An example is the 209th song of Carmina Burana from the 13th century, which starts with the names of chess pieces, Roch, pedites, regina... Camina Burana. Bibliotheca Augustana. Retrieved 2 November 2006.

, The Chess Players

Modern To the Age of Enlightenment, chess appeared mainly for self-improvement. Benjamin Franklin, in his article "The Morals of Chess" (1750), wrote:"The Game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement; several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired and strengthened by it, so as to become habits ready on all occasions; for life is a kind of Chess, in which we have often points to gain, and competitors or adversaries to contend with, and in which there is a vast variety of good and ill events, that are, in some degree, the effect of prudence, or the want of it. By playing at Chess then, we may learn:1st, Foresight, which looks a little into futurity, and considers the consequences that may attend an action ...2nd, Circumspection, which surveys the whole Chess-board, or scene of action: - the relation of the several Pieces, and their situations; ...3rd, Caution, not to make our moves too hastily...."Franklin, Benjamin. The Morals of Chess. metajedrez.com.ar. Retrieved 2 December 2006., Red King snoring, illustration by John Tenniel With these or similar hopes, chess is taught to children in schools around the world today and used in armies to train minds of cadets and officers. National Scholastic Chess Foundation. Retrieved 10 December 2006

Moreover, chess is often depicted in the arts, used for example as a metaphor of a struggle of two, as a symbol of cold logic, or - in the spirit of medieval moralists - as an allegory of society's life. Significant works, where chess plays a key role, range from Thomas Middleton's A Game at Chess over Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll to The Royal Game by Stefan Zweig or Vladimir Nabokov's The Defense. In Ingmar Bergman's 1957 movie The Seventh Seal, a knight plays chess with Death.

Chess is also present in the contemporary popular culture. For example, J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter plays "Magical objects in Harry Potter" while the characters of Star Trek prefer "Three-dimensional chess#Tri-Dimensional Chess" and the hero of Searching for Bobby Fischer struggles against adopting the aggressive and misanthropic views of a real chess Grandmaster.

Notation for recording moves Chess games and positions are recorded using a special notation, most often algebraic chess notation. FIDE Laws of Chess, App. E. Retrieved 11 December 2006 Abbreviated (or short) algebraic notation generally records moves in the format abbreviation of the piece moved - file where it moved - rank where it moved, e.g. Qg5 means "queen moves to the g-file and 5th rank (that is, to the square g5). If there are two pieces of the same type that can move to the same square, one more letter or number is added to indicate the file or rank from which the piece moved, e.g. Ngf3 means "knight from the g-file moves to the square f3". The letter P indicating a pawn is not used, so that e4 means "pawn moves to the square e4".

If the piece makes a capture, "x" is inserted behind the abbreviation of the piece, e.g. Bxf3 means "bishop captures on f3". When a pawn makes a capture, the file from which the pawn departed is used in place of a piece initial. For example, exd5 (pawn on the e-file captures the piece on d5).{]"|-|}If a pawn moves to its last rank, achieving promotion, the piece chosen is indicated after the move, for example e1Q or e1=Q. Castling is indicated by the special notations 0-0 for kingside castling and 0-0-0 for queenside. A move which places the opponent's king in check usually has the notation "+" added. Checkmate can be indicated by "#" (occasionally "++", although this is occasionally used for a double check instead). At the end of the game, "1-0" means "White won", "0-1" means "Black won" and "½-½" indicates a draw.

Chess moves can be annotated with punctuation (chess). For example ! indicates a good move, !! an excellent move,? a mistake, ?? a blunder, !? an interesting move that may not be best or ?! a dubious move, but not easily refuted.

For example, one variant of a simple trap known as the Scholar's mate, animated in the picture to the right, can be recorded:1. e4 e5 2. Qh5?! Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6?? 4. Qxf7# 1-0

Strategy and tactics Chess strategy consists of setting and achieving long-term goals during the game — for example, where to place different pieces — while tactics concentrate on immediate maneuver. These two parts of chess thinking cannot be completely separated, because strategic goals are mostly achieved by the means of tactics, while the tactical opportunities are based on the previous strategy of play.

Because of different strategic and tactical patterns, a game of chess is usually divided into three distinct phases: Chess opening, usually the first 10 to 25 moves, when players develop their armies and set up the stage for the coming battle; middlegame, the developed phase of the game; and endgame, when most of the pieces are gone and kings start to take an active part in the struggle.

Fundamentals of strategy Chess strategy is concerned with evaluation of chess positions and with setting up goals and long-term plans for the future play. During the evaluation, players must take into account the value of pieces on board, pawn structure, king safety, space, and control of key squares and groups of squares (for example, diagonals, open-files, and dark or light squares).{| class="toccolours" border="1" cellpadding="4" style="float: right; margin: 0 0 1em 1em; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 95%; clear: right"|colspan="2" align="center"|An Example of Visualizing Pawn Structures|-|{{Chess diagram small|=| tright||=

|rd| |bd| |rd| |kd| |=|pd|pd| |nd| |pd|bd|pd|=| | |pd|rl| |nd|pd| |=| | | | |pd| | | |=| | |pl| |pl| | | |=| | |nl| |bl|nl| |pl|=|pl|pl| | | |pl|pl| |=| | |kl| | |bl| |rl|= a b c d e f g h

| A chess position (Tarrasch - Euwe, 1922)...-->|{{Chess diagram small|=| tright||=| | | | | | | | |=|pd|pd| | | |pd| |pd|=| | |pd| | | |pd| |=| | | | |pd| | | |=| | |pl| |pl| | | |=| | | | | | | |pl|=|pl|pl| | | |pl|pl| |=| | | | | | | | |=| ...and its pawn skeleton ("The Rauzer formation")-->|-|}The most basic is to count the total value of pieces of both sides.Harding (2003), p. 1–7 The point values used for this purpose are based on experience; usually pawns are considered worth one point, knights and bishops about three points each, rooks about five points (the value difference between a rook and a bishop being known as The exchange (chess)), and queens about nine points. In the endgame, the king is generally more powerful than a minor piece but less powerful than a rook, thus it is sometimes assigned a fighting value of four points. These basic values are then modified by other factors like position of the piece (for example, advanced pawns are usually more valuable than those on initial positions), coordination between pieces (for example, a pair of bishops usually coordinates better than the pair bishop + knight), or type of position (knights are generally better in closed positions with many pawns while bishops are more powerful in open positions).

Another important factor in the evaluation of chess positions is the pawn structure (sometimes known as the pawn skeleton), or the configuration of pawns on the chessboard.Harding (2003), p. 138ff Pawns being the least mobile of the chess pieces, the pawn structure is relatively static, and largely determines the strategic nature of the position. Weaknesses in the pawn structure, such as Isolated pawn, Doubled pawns or Backward pawn pawns and chess terminology#H, once created, are usually permanent. Care must therefore be taken to avoid them unless they are compensated by another valuable asset (for example, by the possibility to develop an attack).

Fundamentals of tactics 1497 book

In chess, tactics in general concentrate on short-term actions — so short-term that they can be calculated in advance by a human player or by a computer. The possible depth of calculation depends on the player's ability or speed of the processor. In quiet positions with many possibilities on both sides, a deep calculation is not possible, while in "tactical" positions with a limited number of forced variants, it is possible to calculate very long sequences of moves.

Simple one-move or two-move tactical actions — threats, exchanges of material, double attacks etc. — can be combined into more complicated variants, tactical maneuvers, often forced from one side or from both. Theoreticians described many elementary tactical methods and typical maneuvers, for example Pin (chess), Fork (chess), Skewer (chess), discovered attacks (especially discovered checks), zwischenzugs, deflections, decoy (chess)s, Sacrifice (chess), undermining (chess), Overloading (chess), and Interference (chess).Harding (2003), p. 8ff

A forced variant which is connected with a sacrifice and usually results in a tangible gain is named a combination (chess).Harding (2003), p. 70ff Brilliant combinations — such as those in the Immortal game — are described as beautiful and are admired by chess lovers. Finding a combination is also a common type of chess puzzle aimed at development of players' skills.

Opening A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a game (the "opening moves"). Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings and have been given names such as the Ruy Lopez or Sicilian Defense. They are catalogued in reference works such as the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings.

There are dozens of different openings, varying widely in character from quiet positional play (e.g. the Réti Opening) to very aggressive (e.g. the Latvian Gambit). In some opening lines, the exact sequence considered best for both sides has been worked out to 30–35 moves or more. Professional players spend years studying openings, and continue doing so throughout their careers, as opening theory continues to evolve.

The fundamental strategic aims of most openings are similar:

Apart from these fundamentals, other strategic plans or tactical sequences may be employed in the opening.

Middlegame The middlegame is the part of the game when most pieces have been developed. Because the opening theory has ended, players have to assess the position, to form plans based on the features of the positions, and at the same time to take into account the tactical possibilities in the position.Harding (2003), p. 32–151

Typical plans or strategical themes — for example the minority attack, that is the attack of Chess terminology#Q pawns against an opponent who has more pawns on the queenside — are often appropriate just for some pawn structures, resulting from a specific group of openings. The study of openings should therefore be connected with the preparation of plans typical for resulting middlegames.

Middlegame is also the phase in which most Combination (chess) occur. Middlegame combinations are often connected with the attack against the opponent's king; some typical patterns have their own names, for example the Boden's Mate or the Lasker - Bauer, Amsterdam, 1889 combination.

Another important strategical question in the middlegame is whether and how to reduce material and transform into an endgame. For example, minor material advantages can generally be transformed into victory only in an endgame, and therefore the stronger side must choose an appropriate way to achieve an ending. Not every reduction of material is good for this purpose; for example, if one side keeps a light-squared bishop and the opponent has a dark-squared one, the transformation into a bishops and pawns ending is usually advantageous for the weaker side only, because an endgame with Endgame#Bishops on opposite colors is likely to be a draw, even with an advantage of one or two pawns.{{Chess diagram|=| tright||=8 | | |kd| | | | | |= 7 | | |pl| | | | | |= 6 | | | |kl| | | | |= 5 | | | | | | | | |= 4 | | | | | | | | |= 3 | | | | | | | | |= 2 | | | | | | | | |= 1 | | | | | | | | |= a b c d e f g h | An example of zugzwang: The side which is to make a move is in a disadvantage. Black on move must go 1. ... Kb7 and allow white to queen after 2. Kd7. White on move must allow a draw either after 1. Kc6 stalemate, or through insufficient material after losing his last pawn.-->

Endgame The endgame (or end game or ending) is the stage of the game when there are few pieces left on the board. There are three main strategic differences between earlier stages of the game and endgame:Harding (2003), p. 187ff

Endgames can be classified according to the type of pieces that remain on board. Checkmate#Basic checkmates are positions in which one side has only a king and the other side has one or two pieces and can checkmate the opposing king, with the pieces working together with their king. Endgame#King and pawn endings involve only kings and pawns on one or both sides and the task of the stronger side is to promote one of the pawns. Other more complicated endings are classified according to the pieces on board other than kings, e.g. "rook and pawn versus rook endgame".

Chess composition {{Chess diagram|=| tright| Richard Réti
Ostrava Morgenzeitung
4 December 1921|=

8 | | | | | | | |kl|= 7 | | | | | | | | |= 6 |kd| |pl| | | | | |= 5 | | | | | | | |pd|= 4 | | | | | | | | |= 3 | | | | | | | | |= 2 | | | | | | | | |= 1 | | | | | | | | |= a b c d e f g h

|White to play and drawOne of the most famous chess studies ever composed. It seems impossible to catch the advanced black pawn, while the white pawn can be easily stopped by the black king. The idea of the solution is to advance to both pawns at the same time using specific properties of the board's geometry. 1. Kg7! h4 2. Kf6 Kb6 (or 2. ... h3 3. Ke7 and the white king can support its own pawn) 3. Ke5!! (and now the white king comes just in time to the white pawn, or catches the black one) 3. ... h3 4. Kd6 draw.-->Chess composition is the art of creating chess problems (these problems themselves are sometimes also called chess compositions). A person who creates such problems is known as a chess composer.

Most chess problems exhibit the following features:

There are many types of chess problems. The two most important are:

Chess composition is a distinct branch of chess sport, and tournaments (or tourneys) exist for both the composition and solving of chess problems.

Competitive play Organization of competitions Contemporary chess is an organized sport with structured international and national leagues, tournaments and congresses. Chess's international governing body is FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Échecs). Most countries have a national chess organization as well (such as the United States Chess Federation and English Chess Federation), which in turn is a member of FIDE. FIDE is a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), but the game of chess has never been part of the Olympic Games; chess does have its own Chess Olympiad, held every two years as a team event. An estimated 605 million people worldwide know how to play chess, and 7.5 million are members of national chess federations, which exist in 160 countries worldwide. This makes chess one of the most popular sports worldwide. Chess in the Olympics. Retrieved 19 December 2006

The current World Chess Champion is Viswanathan Anand of India, India's Anand seizes chess title the reigning Women's World Champion is Xu Yuhua from China. However, the world's highest rated female player, Judit Polgar, has never participated in the Women's World Chess Championship, instead preferring to compete with the leading men.

Other competitions for individuals include the World Junior Chess Championship, the European Individual Chess Championship and the List of national chess championships. Invitation-only tournaments regularly attract the world's strongest players and these include Spain's Linares chess tournament event, Monte Carlo's Melody Amber tournament, the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting meeting, Sofia's M-tel Masters and Wijk aan Zee's Corus chess tournament tournament.

Regular team chess events include the aforementioned Chess Olympiad and the European Team Championship. The 37th Chess Olympiad was held 2006 in Turin, Italy; Armenia won the gold in the unrestricted event, and Ukraine took the top medal for the women. The World Chess Solving Championship and World Correspondence Chess Championships are both team and individual events.

Besides these prestigious competitions, there are thousands of other chess tournaments, matches and festivals held around the world every year, which cater to players of all levels, from beginners to experts.

Titles and rankings Garry Kasparov, former World Chess ChampionshipThe best players can be awarded specific lifetime titles by the world chess organization FIDE:World Chess Federation. FIDE Handbook: Chess Rules. 1.0. Requirements for the titles designated in 0.31. Retrieved 9 December 2006. All the titles are open to men and women. Separate women-only titles, such as Woman Grandmaster (WGM), are also available. Beginning with Nona Gaprindashvili in 1978, a number of women have earned the GM title, and most of the top ten women in 2006 hold the unrestricted GM title.Current FIDE lists of top players with their titles are online at fide.com. Retrieved 11 December 2006

International titles are awarded to composers and solvers of chess problems, and to correspondence chess players (by the International Correspondence Chess Federation). Moreover, national chess organizations may also award titles, usually to the advanced players still under the level needed for international titles; an example is the Chess expert title used in the USA.

In order to rank players, FIDE, ICCF and national chess organizations use the Elo rating system developed by Arpad Elo. Elo is a Statistical model based on assumption that the chess performance of each player in his games is a random variable. Arpad Elo thought of a player's true skill as the average of that player's performance random variable, and showed how to estimate the average from results of player's games. The

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