Chess
Chess is an
abstract strategy board game and
mental sport for two players. The object of the game is to
checkmate the opponent's
king. This occurs when the king is under immediate attack (in
check) and there is no way to prevent it from being captured on the next move.
Chess is one of the world's most
popular games; it is played both recreationally and competitively in
clubs, tournaments, online, and
by mail (
correspondence chess).
Many
variants and relatives of chess are played throughout the world. The most popular, in descending order by number of players, are
xiangqi in
China,
shogi in
Japan,
janggi in
Korea, and
makruk in
Thailand. The game described in this article is sometimes known as
FIDE Chess,
Western Chess or
International Chess to distinguish it from other variants.
Overview of the game
[[Image:ChessSet.jpg|thumbnail|right|250px|From left, a white {{King (chess)|king}}, black {{rook (chess)|rook}} and {{queen (chess)|queen}}, white {{pawn (chess)|pawn}}, black {{knight (chess)|knight}}, and white {{bishop (chess)|bishop}} in a set of {{Howard Staunton|Staunton}} {{Chess piece|chess pieces}}.]]{{Chess diagram|=
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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.Chess is played on a square board of 8 rows (called ranks) and 8 columns (called files), giving 64 squares of alternating light and dark color, which are referred to as "light squares" and "dark squares".
Each player begins the game with 16 pieces which can move in defined directions (and in some instances, limited range) and can remove other pieces from the board: each player's pieces comprise 8 pawns, 2 knights, 2 bishops, 2 rooks, 1 queen and 1 king. All pieces can remove opponent's pieces by landing on the space they occupy.
One player controls the white pieces and the other player controls the black pieces; the player that controls white is always the first player to move. In chess, when a king is directly threatened with capture by one or more of the opponent's pieces, the player is said to be in check. When in check, only moves that can evade check, block check, or take the offending piece are permitted. The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent; this occurs when the opponent's king is in check, and no move can be made that would prevent the king's capture. Normally a checkmate will require the cooperation of several pieces, but can also be achieved with one. A stalemate, which is a draw, occurs if a player's king is not in check and no legal moves are available; A draw can also occur if there are insufficient pieces left on the board to produce a checkmate (for example, if only the two kings remain).
Chess has been described not only as a game but also as an art and a science. It is sometimes seen as an abstract war game; as a "mental martial art", and teaching chess has been advocated as a way of enhancing mental prowess.Rules of chessMain article: Rules of chess When a game begins, one player controls the sixteen white pieces while the other uses the sixteen black pieces. The colors are chosen either by a friendly agreement, by a game of chance such as pick-a-hand, or by a tournament director. The first player, referred to as White, always moves first and therefore has a slight advantage over Black. The chessboard is placed so that each player has a white square in the near right hand corner, and the pieces are set out as shown in the diagram.
Each kind of chess piece moves a different way. The rook (colloquially known as a "castle") moves any number of vacant spaces vertically or horizontally, while the bishop moves any number of vacant spaces in any direction diagonally (meaning a bishop will always remain on the same color; note that each side has a bishop for each colored square, and between them they cover the whole board. Losing one bishop often creates weaknesses on the same colored square as the lost bishop). The queen is a combination of the rook and bishop (it can move any number of spaces diagonally, horizontally, or vertically). The king can move only one square horizontally, vertically, or diagonally except when a player castles. The knight can jump over occupied squares and moves two spaces horizontally and one space vertically (or vice versa), making an L shape; a knight in the middle of the board has eight squares it can move to. Note that every time a knight moves, it changes square color.
With the exception of the knight, pieces cannot jump over each other. One's own pieces ("friendly pieces") cannot be passed if they are in the line of movement, and a friendly piece can never replace another friendly piece. Enemy pieces cannot be passed, but they can be "captured". When a piece is captured (or taken), the attacking piece replaces the enemy piece on its square (en passant being the only exception). The king cannot be captured in regular chess, only put in check. If a player is unable to get the king out of check, checkmate results, with the loss of the game.
Pawns capture differently than they move; they can capture an enemy piece on either of the two spaces adjacent to the space in front of them (i.e., the two squares diagonally in front of them), but cannot move to these spaces if they are vacant; conversely, a pawn can move forward one square, but only if that square is unoccupied. Alternatively, a pawn can move two squares forward if it has not moved yet and both squares are empty. If a pawn advances all the way to the eighth rank, it can be promoted to any other piece, except a King or another pawn â€" in practice, the pawn is most often promoted to a queen.
Chess games do not have to end in checkmate â€" either player may resign if the situation looks hopeless. Also, games may end in a draw (tie). A draw can occur in several situations, including draw by agreement, draw by impossibility of checkmate (usually because of insufficient material to checkmate), stalemate, threefold repetition, or the fifty move rule.
Until the 1970s, at least in English-speaking countries, chess games were recorded and published using descriptive chess notation. This has been supplanted by the more compact algebraic chess notation. Several notations have emerged, based upon algebraic chess notation, for recording chess games in a format suitable for computer processing. Of these, Portable Game Notation (PGN) is the most common. Apart from recording games, there is also a notation Forsyth-Edwards Notation for recording specific positions. This is useful for adjourning a game to resume later or for conveying chess problem positions without a diagram.Sample gameA sample chess game is made to help understand how to play chess and its rules. It explains chess through a simple demonstration, move after move. Please read this sample chess game for details.Strategy and tacticsMain article: Chess strategy and tactics Chess openings are a sequence of moves, often memorized, which will help a player build up their position and prepare for the middlegame. Openings are often designed to take hold of the center of the board (e4, e5, d4 and d5), develop pieces, protect the king, and create a strong pawn structure. The Classical School of chess expounds the virtues of occupying the center early using pawns and/or pieces, while Hypermodernism advocates the control of the center not by using pawns but with distant pieces. It is often important for a player to castle (a special move that moves the king from the center of the board two squares towards one of the corners) to protect the king. While studying openings can greatly improve one's results, it is important to understand the underlying reasons for each sequence of moves in an opening. This can greatly reduce the need to rely on rote memorization of the opening phase of the game. Of the utmost importance in the opening is maintaining balance, or equality. Chess plays central role in the following creations of arts in literature:
Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
Knights of the South Bronx
Searching for Bobby Fischer
The Luzhin Defence
The Royal Game by Stefan Zweig
*Chess and music
Checkmate, a ballet by the composer Arthur Bliss
*The Lewis chessmen also inspired Noggin the Nog
Shatranj Ke Khiladi
Knight Moves
Twin Peaks
The Seventh Seal
The Shawshank Redemption
*The X-Men
*Gundam SEED Destiny
* "Wizard's Chess" in the Harry Potter book and film series.
Chess, a musical by Tim Rice and Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson of ABBA
The Eight by Katherine Neville (1998)
The Flanders Panel by Arturo Perez-Reverte
The Tower Struck By Lightning by Fernando Arrabal
Fresh, a 1994 film
All the King's Horses, a short story by Kurt Vonnegut from 'Welcome to the Monkey House'
Striding Folly, a short story by Dorothy L. Sayers (1939)
*Tridimensional Chess featured in several episodes of the various Star Trek series
The Prisoner television series features outdoor chess using people as piecesSee also extensive compilation of movies featuring chess.* List of chess topics - Popular topic areas arranged alphabetically.
* Chess terminology - Common and not so common chess terms explained.
* List of chess players - Persons who are, or who have been, notable chess players.
* List of famous chess games - Those games in history that have been singled out as exceptional or unique.
* Timeline of chess - A chronology of important events in the world of chess.
* Chess problem - Individual positions on a chessboard that test a player's knowledge, visualisation skills and calculation prowess.
* Chess opening - Recognised moves that constitute the start of a game and lead to the development of the pieces.
* Endgame - The phase of the game that may result from the multiple exchange of pawns and pieces.
* Middlegame - Falling between the opening and endgame, it is normally the phase of the game where planning and strategy are most effective.
* Greatest chess player of all time - Comparison of the all time great players using different methodologies.
* Computer chess - About computers playing chess.
**Reprint: (1996) ISBN 0192800493
* (see the included supplement, "How Do You Play Chess")
*Learning chess* Wikichess - Open chess repertoire project, chess openings explained and related by players.
* Chess terminology - illustrated chess glossary for important chess terminology.
* Official FIDE rules
* Chess.FM - annotated grandmaster games and tutorials
* How to Play Chess - for Beginners and Parents.
* IchessU.com - learn to play chess online- International Chess UniversityChess news* Chessbase news
* Chessville
* The week in chessCollections of games*Chess News- It's all about chess Regularly updated news
*Chess Game Collection - Over 500,000 chess games in pgn format
* Chess-Database.com - online chess database
* ChessGames.com - online chess database and community
* ChessBase online database - games are filtered by year, player, opening, etc..
* University of Pittsburgh Chess Page - medium pgn collection including world championship games, miniatures, and trapsFree chess softwareSee Free, open chess games
* Brutal Chess - An open source 3D chess game using OpenGL inspired by Battle Chess.
* ChessBase Light - Older version of Chessbase, which allows to view games in CBH and PGN format.
* CompWebChess - Open source application, which allows to start own chess server.
* GNU chess - One of the oldest computer chess programs for Unix-based computers from the Free Software Foundation and has been ported to several other platforms (now default on Mac OS X). It is considered to be very powerful as it gets about 2000 points according to the US Chess Federation Standard.
* Some Chess - An open source online multiplayer chess program using PHP and MySQL (no java or javascript).
* Chess Assistant Light - A database program which reads the Chess Assistant and PGN formats. It can also be used to connect to ICC(Internet Chess Club).Internet servers to play chess* Comparison of chess servers - list of most popular real time chess servers.
* Comparison of chess servers - list of most popular web based correspondence chess servers.Other external links*Quotes about chess
* 'Birth of the Chess Queen'
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