Chess - Wikipedia, The Free

8/3/2019 Chess - Wikipedia, The Free..

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Chess

From left, a white king, black rook and queen, white

pawn, black knight, and white bishop

Players 2

Setup time Under one minute

Playing time Casual games without time control

last usually 1060 minutes

Random

chance

None

Skills

required

Tactics, Strategy

Chess

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the Western board game. For other chess games or other uses, see Chess (disambiguation).

Chess is a recreational and competitive game played between two players. Sometimes calledWestern chess or international chess to distinguish it from its predecessors and other chess

variants, the current form of the game emerged in Southern Europe during the second half of the15th century after evolving from similar, much older games of Indian and Persian origin. Today,chess is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide in clubs,online, by correspondence, in tournaments and informally.

The game is played on a square chequered chessboard with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eightsquare. At the start, each player (one controlling the white pieces, the other controlling the blackpieces) controls sixteen pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eightpawns. The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent's king, whereby the king is underimmediate attack (in "check") and there is no way to remove it from attack on the next move.

The tradition of organized competitive chess started in the sixteenth century and has developedextensively. Chess today is a recognized sport of the International Olympic Committee. The firstofficial World Chess Champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, claimed his title in 1886; Viswanathan Anand isthe current World Champion. Theoreticians have developed extensive chess strategies and tactics

since the game's inception. Aspects of art are found in chess composition.

One of the goals of early computer scientists was to create a chess-playing machine, and today'schess is deeply influenced by the abilities of current chess programs and by the possibility to playonline. In 1997, a match between Garry Kasparov, then World Champion, and a computer provedfor the first time that machines are able to beat even the strongest human players.

Contents

1 Rules1.1 Setup1.2 Moves

1.3 Special moves1.3.1 Castling1.3.2 En passant1.3.3 Promotion

1.4 End of the game1.5 Time control

2 Strategy and tactics2.1 Fundamentals of strategy2.2 Fundamentals of tactics2.3 Opening2.4 Middlegame2.5 Endgame

3 History3.1 Predecessors3.2 Origins of the modern game (14501850)

3.3 Birth of a sport (18501945)3.4 Post-war era (1945 and later)4 Place in culture

4.1 Pre-modern4.2 Modern

5 Notation for recording moves6 Chess composition7 Competitive play

7.1 Organization of competitions7.2 Titles and rankings

8 Mathematics and computers9 Psychology10 Variants

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Pieces at the start of a game.

Initial position. First row: rook, knight,bishop, queen, king, bishop, knight,

and rook. Second row: pawns.

Moves of a king Moves of a rook Moves of a bishop

Moves of a queen Moves of a knight Moves of a pawn

11 See also12 Notes13 References14 Further reading15 External links

Rules

For a simple demonstration of the gameplay, see sample chess game.

Setup

Chess is played on a square board of eight rows (called ranksand denoted with numbers 1 to 8) and eight columns (calledfilesand denoted with letters a to h) of squares. The colors of thesixty-four squares alternate and are referred to as "light squares"and "dark squares". The chessboard is placed with a light squareat the right hand end of the rank nearest to each player, and thepieces are set out as shown in the diagram, with each queen onits own color.

The pieces are divided, by convention, into White and Blacksets. Each player is referred to by the color of their pieces andbegins the game with sixteen pieces. These comprise one king,one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns.

White moves first. The players alternate moving one piece at a time (with the exception of castling, when twopieces are moved simultaneously). Pieces are moved to either an unoccupied square, or one occupied by anopponent's piece, capturing it and removing it from play. With one exception (en passant), all pieces captureopponent's pieces by moving to the square that the opponent's piece occupies.

When a king is under immediate attack by the opponent's pieces, the king is said to be in check. When in check, only moves that result in a position inwhich the king is not in check are permitted. Each player must not make any move that would place their king in check. The object of the game is tocheckmate the opponent; this occurs when the opponent's king is in check, and there is no way to remove the king from attack.

Moves

Each chess piece has its own style of moving. The X's mark the squares where the piece can move if no other pieces are on the X's between the piece's

initial position and destination. If there is an opponent's piece at the destination square, then moving piece can capture the opponent's piece. The onlyexception is the pawn which can only capture the white circles.


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An example of visualizing pawn structures

After 12. ... Re8 at Tarrasch Euwe, 1922[3]

and its pawn skeleton ("TheRauzer formation")

The most basic step in evaluating a position is to count the total value of

pieces of both sides.[4] The point values used for this purpose are based onexperience; usually pawns are considered worth one point, knights andbishops about three points each, rooks about five points (the value differencebetween a rook and a bishop being known as the exchange), and queens aboutnine points. In the endgame, the king is generally more powerful than a minorpiece but less powerful than a rook, thus it is sometimes assigned a fightingvalue of four points. These basic values are then modified by other factorslikeposition of the piece (for example, advanced pawns are usually morevaluable than those on initial positions), coordination between pieces (for

example, a pair of bishops usually coordinates better than the pair of a bishopand knight), or type of position (knights are generally better in closedpositions with many pawns while bishops are more powerful in openpositions).

Another important factor in the evaluation of chess positions is the pawnstructure (sometimes known as the pawn skeleton), or the configuration of

pawns on the chessboard.[5] Pawns being the least mobile of the chess pieces,the pawn structure is relatively static and largely determines the strategicnature of the position. Weaknesses in the pawn structure, such as isolated,doubled or backward pawns and holes, once created, are usually permanent.Care must therefore be taken to avoid them unless they are compensated byanother valuable asset (for example, by the possibility to develop an attack).

Fundamentals of tactics


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A tactical puzzle from Lucena's1497 book

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

Simple one-move or two-move tactical actions threats, exchanges of material, double attacks etc. can becombined into more complicated variants, tactical maneuvers, often forced from one side or from both. Theoreticiansdescribed many elementary tactical methods and typical maneuvers, for example pins, forks, skewers, discoveredattacks (especially discovered checks), zwischenzugs, deflections, decoys, sacrifices, underminings, overloadings, and

interferences.

[6]

A forced variant which is connected with a sacrifice and usually results in a tangible gain is named a combination.[7]

Brilliant combinations such as those in the Immortal game are described as beautiful and are admired by chesslovers. 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 openingmoves are referred to as openings and have been given names such as the Ruy Lopez or Sicilian Defence. They are catalogued in reference workssuch as theEncyclopaedia of Chess Openings.

There are dozens of different openings, varying widely in character from quiet positional play (e.g. the Rti 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 3035 moves or more. [8]

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:[9]

Development: To place (develop) the pieces (particularly bishops and knights) on useful squares where they will have an impact on the game.Control of the center: Control of the central squares allows pieces to be moved to any part of the board relatively easily, and can also have acramping effect on the opponent.

King safety: Correct timing of castling can enhance this.Pawn structure: Players strive to avoid the creation of pawn weaknesses such as isolated, doubled or backward pawns, and pawn islands.

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

Most players and theoreticians consider that White, by virtue of the first move, begins the game with a small advantage. Black usually strives toneutralize White's advantage and achieve equality, or to develop dynamic counterplay in an unbalanced position.

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. [10]

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

Middlegame is also the phase in which most combinations occur. Middlegame combinations are often connected with the attack against the opponent'sking; some typical patterns have their own names, for example the Boden's Mate or the LaskerBauer combination.

Another important strategical question in the middlegame is whether and how to reduce material and transform into an endgame (i.e. simplify). Forexample, minor material advantages can generally be transformed into victory only in an endgame, and therefore the stronger side must choose anappropriate 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 bishops on opposite colors is likely to be a draw, even with an advantage of one or two pawns.

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:[11]

During the endgame, pawns become more important; endgames often revolve around attempting to promote apawn by advancing it to the eighth rank.The king, which has to be protected in the middlegame owing to the threat of checkmate, becomes a strongpiece in the endgame and it is often brought to the center of the board where it can protect its own pawns,attack the pawns of opposite color, and hinder movement of the opponent's king.


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An example of zugzwang: Theside which is to make a move is in

a disadvantage.

Iranian chess set, glazedfritware, twelfth century. NewYork Metropolitan Museum of

Art.

Knights Templar playing chess,Libro de los juegos, 1283.

Original Staunton chess piecesby Nathaniel Cook from 1849

Franois-Andr DanicanPhilidor, eighteenth century

French chess Master

Zugzwang, a disadvantage because the player has to make a move, is often a factor in endgames and rarely inother stages of the game. For example, in the diagram on the right, Black on move must go 1...Kb7 and allowwhite to queen after 2.Kd7, while White on move must allow a draw either after 1.Kc6 stalemate or losing thelast pawn by going anywhere else.

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

History

Predecessors

Chess originated in India,[12] where its early form in the 6th century was chaturanga, which translates as "fourdivisions of the military" infantry, cavalry, elephants, and chariots, represented respectively by pawn, knight,bishop, and rook. In Persia around 600 the name became shatranj and the rules were developed further. Shatranjwas taken up by the Muslim world after the Islamic conquest of Persia, with the pieces largely retaining theirPersian names. In Spanish "shatranj" was rendered as ajedrez, in Portuguese asxadrez, and in Greek aszatrikion,but in the rest of Europe it was replaced by versions of the Persianshh ("king").

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.[13]

Introduced into the Iberian Peninsula by the Moors in the 10th century, it wasdescribed in a famous 13th century manuscript covering shatranj, backgammon,and dice named theLibro de los juegos.

Another theory, championed by David H. Li, contends that chess arose from the game xiangqi, or at least a

predecessor thereof, existing in China since the 2nd century BC.[14]

Origins of the modern game (14501850)

Around 1200, rules of shatranj started to be modified in southern Europe, and around 1475, several major changes

rendered the game essentially as it is known today.[13] These modern rules for the basic moves had been adopted in

Italy[15] and in Spain.[16] Pawns gained the option of advancing two squares on their first move, while bishops andqueens 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". [17] These new rules quickly spread throughout western

Europe, with the exception of the rules about stalemate, which were finalized in the early nineteenth century. [18]

This was also the time when chess started to develop a corpus of theory. The oldest preserved printed chess book,Repeticin de Amores y Arte de Ajedrez(Repetition of Love and the Art of Playing Chess) by Spanish churchman Luis Ramirez de Lucena was

published in Salamanca in 1497.[16] Lucena and later masters like Portuguese Pedro Damiano, Italians Giovanni Leonardo Di Bona, Giulio CesarePolerio and Gioachino Greco or Spanish bishop Ruy Lpez de Segura developed elements of openings and started to analyze simple endgames.

In the eighteenth century the center of European chess life moved from the Southern European countries to France.The two most important French masters were Franois-Andr Danican Philidor, a musician by profession, whodiscovered the importance of pawns for chess strategy, and later Louis-Charles Mah de La Bourdonnais who won a

famous series of matches with the Irish master Alexander McDonnell in 1834.[19] Centers of chess life in this period

were coffee houses in big European cities like Caf de la Rgence in Paris[20] and Simpson's Divan in London.[21]

As the nineteenth 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 Clubplayed against the Edinburgh Chess Club in 1824.[22] Chess problems became a regular part of nineteenth centurynewspapers; Bernhard Horwitz, Josef Kling and Samuel Loyd composed some of the most influential problems. In1843, von der Lasa published his and Bilguer'sHandbuch des Schachspiels (Handbook of Chess), the firstcomprehensive manual of chess theory.

Birth of a sport (18501945)


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The "Immortal Game", Anderssen-Kieseritzky, 1851

Wilhelm Steinitz, thefirst World Chess

Champion

World Champions Jos RalCapablanca (left) and Emanuel

Lasker in 1925

Current World ChampionViswanathan Anand

The first modern chess tournament was held in London in 1851 and won, surprisingly, by German AdolfAnderssen, relatively unknown at the time. Anderssen was hailed as the leading chess master and hisbrilliant, energetic but from today's viewpoint strategically shallow attacking style became typical

for the time.[23] Sparkling games like Anderssen'sImmortal game or Morphy's Opera game were regarded

as the highest possible summit of the chess art .[24]

Deeper insight into the nature of chess came with two younger players. American Paul Morphy, anextraordinary chess prodigy, won against all important competitors, including Anderssen, during his shortchess 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. [25] Prague-born Wilhelm Steinitz later

described how to avoid weaknesses in one's own position and how to create and exploit such weaknessesin the opponent 's position.[26] In addition to his theoretical achievements, Steinitz founded an importanttradition: his triumph over the leading German master Johannes Zukertort in 1886 is regarded as the firstofficial World Chess Championship. Steinitz lost his crown in 1894 to a much younger Germanmathematician Emanuel Lasker, who maintained this title for 27 years, the longest tenure of all World

Champions.[27]

It took a prodigy from Cuba, Jos Ral Capablanca (World champion 192127), 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. Hissuccessor was Russian-French Alexander Alekhine, a strong attacking player, who died as the World champion in 1946,

having briefly lost the title to Dutch player Max Euwe in 1935 and regaining it two years later. [28]

Between the world wars, chess was revolutionized by the new theoretical school of so-called hypermodernists like AronNimzowitsch and Richard Rti. They 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. [29]

Since the end of 19th century, the number of annually held master tournaments and matches quickly grew. Some sourcesstate that in 1914 the title of chess grandmaster was first formally conferred by Tsar Nicholas II of Russia to Lasker,

Capablanca, Alekhine, Tarrasch and Marshall, but this is a disputed claim.[30] This tradition was continued by the WorldChess Federation (FIDE), founded in 1924 in Paris. In 1927, Women's World Chess Championship was established; the first

to hold it was Czech-English master Vera Menchik.[31]

Post-war era (1945 and later)

After 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 anera 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 19721975).[32]

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. [33] FIDE set up a new system of qualifying tournaments andmatches. The world's strongest players were seeded into "Interzonal tournaments", where they were joined byplayers 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 theCandidates 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. [33]

The next championship, the so-called Match of the Century, saw the first non-Soviet challenger since World War II,American Bobby Fischer, who defeated his Candidates opponents by unheard-of margins and clearly won the worldchampionship match. In 1975, however, Fischer refused to defend his title against Soviet Anatoly Karpov when FIDErefused 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. [34]

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; Karpov never won his title back. [35]

In 1993, Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short broke with FIDE to organize their own match for the title and formed acompeting Professional Chess Association (PCA). From then until 2006, there were two simultaneous WorldChampions and World Championships: the PCA or Classical champion extending the Steinitzian tradition in whichthe current champion plays a challenger in a series of many games; the other following FIDE's new format of manyplayers 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.[36] In September 2007, Viswanathan Anand became the next champion by winning a championship

tournament.[37]


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Noble chess players,Germany, c. 1320

Two kings and two queensfrom the Lewis chessmen at the

British Museum.

Honor Daumier, The ChessPlayers

Through the Looking-Glass,Red King snoring, illustration

by John Tenniel

Place in culture

Pre-modern

In the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance, chess was a part of noble culture; it was used to teach war strategy and was

dubbed the "King's Game".[38] Gentlemen are "to be meanly seene in the play at Chestes," says the overview at thebeginning of Baldassare Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier(1528, English 1561 by Sir Thomas Hoby), but chess shouldnot 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 inthe playe of chestes, I beleave he must beestowe much tyme about it, and applie it with so much study, that a manmay assoone learne some noble scyence, or compase any other matter of importaunce, and yet in the ende inbeestowing 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.[39]

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

At the same time, chess was often used as a basis of sermons on morality. An example isLiber de moribus hominum et officiis nobilium sive superludo scacchorum ('Book of the customs of men and the duties of nobles or the Book of Chess'), written by an Italian Dominican monk Jacobus deCessolis 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.[40] 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. [41]

The knyght ought to be made alle armed upon an hors in suche wyse that he haue an helme on his heed and aspere in his ryght hande/ and coueryd wyth his sheld/ a swerde and a mace on his lyft syde/ Cladd wyth anhawberk and plates to fore his breste/ legge harnoys on his legges/ Spores on his heelis on his handes hisgauntelettes/ his hors well broken and taught and apte to bataylle and couerid with his armes/ whan theknyghtes ben maad they ben bayned or bathed/ that is the signe that they shold lede a newe lyf and newemaners/ also they wake alle the nyght in prayers and orysons vnto god that he wylle gyue hem grace that theymay 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. [42]

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

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 thirteenth century, which starts with the names of chess pieces, Roch, pedites, regina[43]

Modern

To the Age of Enlightenment, chess appeared mainly for self-improvement. Benjamin Franklin, in his article "TheMorals of Chess" (1750), wrote:

"The Game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement; several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in thecourse 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 contendwith, and in which there is a vast variety of good and ill events, that are, in some degree, the effect ofprudence, or the want of it. By playing at Chess then, we may learn: 1st, Foresight, which looks a little intofuturity, and considers the consequences that may attend an action 2nd, Circumspection, which surveys thewhole Chess-board, or scene of action: - the relation of the several Pieces, and their situations 3rd, Caution,

not to make our moves too hastily"

[44]

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.[45] Many schools hold chess clubs and there are many scholastic tournamentsspecifically for children. In addition, many countries have chess federations, such as the United States ChessFederation, that hold tournaments regularly in addition to FIDE.

Moreover, chess is often depicted in the arts; significant works, where chess plays a key role, range from ThomasMiddleton'sA Game at Chess over Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll to The Royal Game by StefanZweig or Vladimir Nabokov's The Defense. Chess is also important in films like Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Sealor Satyajit Ray's The Chess Players.[46]

Chess is also present in the contemporary popular culture. For example, J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter plays "Wizard'sChess" while the characters ofStar Trekprefer "Tri-Dimensional Chess" and the hero ofSearching for Bobby


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Algebraic chess notation

The "Scholar's mate"

Richard RtiOstrauer Morgenzeitung4

December 1921

White to play and draw

One of the most famous chess studiesever. It seems impossible to catch theadvanced black pawn, while the blackking can easily stop the white pawn.

The solution is diagonal advance,bringing the king to both pawns at thesame time: 1. Kg7! h4 2. Kf6 Kb6 (or2. h3 3. Ke7 and the white king can

Fischerstruggles against adopting the aggressive and misanthropic views of a real chess Grandmaster.[47]. Chess has also been used as the core themeof a musical, Chess, by Tim Rice, Bjrn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson.

Notation for recording moves

Chess games and positions are recorded using a special notation, most often algebraic chess notation.[48]

Abbreviated (or short) algebraic notation generally records moves in the format abbreviation of the piecemoved - file where it moved - rank where it moved, e.g. Qg5 means "queen moves to theg-file and 5thrank (that is, to the squareg5). 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.Ngf3means "knight from the g-file moves to the square f3". The letterPindicating a pawn is not used, so thate4 means "pawn moves to the square e4".

If the piece makes a capture, "x" is inserted before the destination square, e.g. Bxf3 means "bishopcaptures on f3". When a pawn makes a capture, the file from which the pawn departed is used in place ofa piece initial, and ranks may be omitted if unambiguous. For example, exd5 (pawn on the e-file capturesthe piece on d5) or exd(pawn on e-file captures something on the d-file).

If a pawn moves to its last rank, achieving promotion, the piece

chosen is indicated after the move,[49]for example e1Q ore1=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 hasthe notation "+" added. Checkmate can be indicated by "#" (occasionally "++", although this is sometimesused for a double check instead). At the end of the game, "1-0" means "White won", "0-1" means "Black

won" and "-" indicates a draw.

Chess moves can be annotated with punctuation marks and other symbols. For example ! indicates a goodmove, !! an excellent move, ? a mistake, ?? a blunder, !? an interesting move that may not be best or ?! adubious 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:

e4 e51.Qh5?! Nc62.Bc4 Nf6??3.Qxf7# 1-04.

Chess compositionChess 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.[50]

Most chess problems exhibit the following features:

The position is composed, that is, it has not been taken from an actual game, but has been invented forthe specific purpose of providing a problem.There is a specificstipulation, that is, a goal to be achieved; for example, to checkmate black within aspecified number of moves.There is a theme (or combination of themes) that the problem has been composed to illustrate: chessproblems typically instantiate particular ideas. Many of these themes have their own names, often bypersons who used them first, for example Novotny or Lacny theme.The problem exhibits economy in its construction: no greater force is employed than that required to

guarantee that the problem's intended solution is indeed a solution and that it is the problem's onlysolution.The problem has aesthetic value. Problems are experienced not only as puzzles but as objects ofbeauty. This is closely related to the fact that problems are organized to exhibit clear ideas in aseconomical a manner as possible.

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

Directmates: white to move first and checkmate black within a specified number of moves against anydefense. These are often referred to as "mate in n" - for example "mate in three" (a three-mover).Studies: orthodox problems in which the stipulation is that white to play must win or draw. Almost allstudies are endgame positions.

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


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support its pawn) 3. Ke5!! (now thewhite king comes just in time to hispawn, or catches the black one) 3.

h3 4. Kd6 draw.

Grandmaster Garry Kasparov,former World Chess Champion

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 internationalgoverning body is FIDE (Fdration Internationale des checs). Most countries have a national chess organization as well (such as the US ChessFederation and English Chess Federation), which in turn is a member of FIDE. FIDE is a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), butthe game of chess has never been part of the Olympic Games; chess does have its own 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 countriesworldwide. This makes chess one of the most popular sports worldwide.[51]

The current World Chess Champion is Viswanathan Anand of India.[52] 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 competewith the leading men and maintaining a ranking among the top 20 male players.

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

Regular team chess events include the aforementioned Chess Olympiad and the European Team Championship. The 37th Chess Olympiad was held2006 in Turin, Italy; Armenia won the gold in the unrestricted event, and Ukraine took the top medal for the women. The World Chess SolvingChampionship 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, whichcater to players of all levels, from beginners to experts.

Titles and rankings

The best players can be awarded specific lifetime titles by the world chess organization FIDE:[53]

Grandmaster(shortened as GM, sometimesInternational Grandmasteror IGM is used) is awarded to world-classchess masters. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain. Before FIDEwill confer the title on a player, the player must have an Elo chess rating (see below) of at least 2500 at one time andthree favorable results (called norms) in tournaments involving other Grandmasters, including some from countriesother than the applicant's. There are also other milestones a player can achieve to attain the title, such as winning theWorld Junior Championship.

International Master(shortened as IM). The conditions are similar to GM, but less demanding. The minimum ratingfor the IM title is 2400.

FIDE Master(shortened as FM). The usual way for a player to qualify for the FIDE Master title is by achieving aFIDE Rating of 2300 or more.Candidate Master(shortened as CM). Similar to FM, but with a FIDE Rating of at least 2200.

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. [54]

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

In order to rank players, FIDE, ICCF and national chess organizations use the Elo rating system developed by Arpad Elo. Elo is a statistical systembased on assumption that the chess performance of each player in their 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 US ChessFederation implemented Elo's suggestions in 1960, and the system quickly gained recognition as being both fairer and more accurate than older

systems; it was adopted by FIDE in 1970.[55]

The highest ever FIDE rating was 2851, which Garry Kasparov had on the July 1999 and January 2000 lists.[56] In the most recent list (January 2008),the highest rated players are the current world champion Viswanathan Anand of India and the former one Vladimir Kramnik of Russia with a rating of

2799.[57]

Mathematics and computers

Chess is interesting from the mathematical point of view. Many combinatorical and topological problems connectedto chess were known of for hundreds of years. In 1913, Ernst Zermelo used it as a basis for his theory of game

strategies, which is considered as one of the predecessors of game theory. [58]


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1990s chess-playing computer

The number of legal positions in chess is estimated to be between 1043 and 1050, with a game-tree complexity of approximately 10123. The game-tree

complexity of chess was first calculated by Claude Shannon as 10120, a number known as the Shannon number.[59] Typically an average position hasthirty to forty possible moves, but there may be as few as zero (in the case of checkmate or stalemate) or as many as 218.

The most important mathematical challenge of chess is the development of algorithms which can play chess. The idea of creating a chess playingmachine dates to the eighteenth century; around 1769, the chess playing automaton called The Turk became famous before being exposed as a

hoax.[60] Serious trials based on automatons, such as El Ajedrecista, were too complex and limited to be useful.

Since the advent of the digital computer in the 1950s, chess enthusiasts and computer engineers have built, with increasing degrees of seriousness andsuccess, chess-playing machines and computer programs. The groundbreaking paper on computer chess, "Programming a Computer for Playing

Chess", was published in 1950 by Shannon. He wrote:The chess machine is an ideal one to start with, since: (1) the problem is sharply defined both in allowed operations (the moves) and in theultimate goal (checkmate); (2) it is neither so simple as to be trivial nor too difficult for satisfactory solution; (3) chess is generallyconsidered to require "thinking" for skillful play; a solution of this problem will force us either to admit the possibility of a mechanizedthinking or to further restrict our concept of "thinking"; (4) the discrete structure of chess fits well into the digital nature of modern

computers.[61]

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) held the first major chess tournament for computers, the NorthAmerican Computer Chess Championship, in September 1970. CHESS 3.0, a chess program from NorthwesternUniversity, won the championship. At first considered only a curiosity, the best chess playing programs, for exampleRybka or Hydra, have become extremely strong. Garry Kasparov, then ranked number one in the world, lost a

match against IBM's Deep Blue in 1997.[62] Nevertheless, from the point of view of artificial intelligence, chess-playing programs are relatively simple: they essentially explore huge numbers of potential future moves by bothplayers and apply an evaluation function to the resulting positions, an approach described as "brute force" because itrelies on the sheer speed of the computer.

With huge databases of past games and high analytical ability, computers also help players to learn chess andprepare for matches. Additionally, Internet Chess Servers allow people to find and play opponents all over the

world. The presence of computers and modern communication tools have also raised concerns regarding cheating during games, most notably the"bathroom controversy" during the 2006 World Championship.

Psychology

There is an extensive scientific literature on chess psychology.[63][64][65] Alfred Binet and others showed that knowledge and verbal, rather than

visuospatial, ability lies at the core of expertise.[66][67] Adriaan de Groot, in his doctoral thesis, showed that chess masters can rapidly perceive the

key features of a position.[68] According to de Groot, this perception, made possible by years of practice and study, is more important than the sheerability to anticipate moves. De Groot also showed that chess masters can memorize positions shown for a few seconds almost perfectly. Memorization

ability alone does not account for this skill, since masters and novices, when faced with random arrangements of chess pieces, had equivalent recall(about half a dozen positions in each case). Rather, it is the ability to recognize patterns, which are then memorized, which distinguished the skilled

players from the novices. When the positions of the pieces were taken from an actual game, the masters had almost total positional recall. [69]

More recent research has focused on the respective roles of knowledge and look-ahead search; brain imaging studies of chess masters and novices;blindfold chess; the role of personality and intelligence in chess skill, gender differences, and computational models of chess expertise. In addition, therole of practice and talent in the development of chess and other domains of expertise has led to a lot of research recently. Ericsson and colleagues

have argued that deliberate practice is sufficient for reaching high levels of expertise, like master in chess. [70] However, more recent research indicatesthat factors other than practice are important. For example, Gobet and colleagues have shown that stronger players start playing chess earlier, that

they are more likely to be left-handed, and that they are more likely to be born in late winter and early spring.[71]

There are also some attempts to use the game of chess as mental training.

Variants


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Glinski's hexagonal chess, achess variant popular in 1930s

Chess portal

Chess variants are forms of chess where the game is played with a different board, special fairy pieces or differentrules. There are more than two thousand published chess variants, the most popular being xiangqi in China and shogi

in Japan.[72][73]

Chess variants can be divided into:

Direct predecessors of chess, chaturanga and shatranj.Traditional national or regional chess variants like xiangqi, shogi, janggi and makruk, which share commonpredecessors with Western chess.Modern variants of chess, such as Chess960, where the initial position is selected randomly before each game.

This random positioning makes it more difficult to prepare the opening play in advance.[74]

See also

List of chess topicsList of chess world championship matchesList of chess playersList of famous chess gamesList of strong chess tournaments

Chess terminologyChess OlympiadChess around the worldChess in early literatureComparing top chess players throughout history

Notes^ "The rules of chess (http://www.chessvariants.org/d.chess/chess.html) ".Retrieved on 2008-01-07.

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^ World Chess Federation. FIDE Laws of Chess. (http://www.fide.com /official/handbook.asp?level=EE101) Retrieved 30 November 2006.

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^ "Tarrasch vs Euwe on chessgames.com (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1006866) ". (Java needed)

3.

^ Harding (2003), p. 174.^ Harding (2003), p. 138ff5.^ Harding (2003), p. 8ff6.^ Harding (2003), p. 70ff7.^ Collins, Sam (2005). Understanding the Chess Openings. GambitPublications. ISBN 1-904600-28-X.

8.

^ Tarrasch, Siegbert (1987). The Game of Chess. Courier DoverPublications. ISBN 0-486-25447-X.

9.

^ Harding (2003), p. 3215110.^ Harding (2003), p. 187ff11.^ Murray, H.J.R. (1913).A History of Chess. Benjamin Press (originallypublished by Oxford University Press). ISBN 0-936317-01-9.

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âb Hooper and Whyld, 144-45 (first edition)13.^ Li, David H. (1998). The Genealogy of Chess. Premier Pub. Co. ISBN0-9637852-2-2.

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^ Davidson (1981), p. 131715.âb Calvo, Ricardo. Valencia Spain: The Cradle of European Chess(http://www.goddesschess.com/chessays/ricardovalencia.html) . Retrieved10 December 2006

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^ An analysis from the feminist perspective: Weissberger, Barbara F.(2004).Isabel Rules: constructing queenship, wielding power. Universityof Minnesota Press. ISBN 0-8166-4164-1. P. 152ff

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^ See History of the stalemate rule.18.

^ Louis Charles Mahe De La Bourdonnai. (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=31596)Chessgames.com. Retrieved 30 November2006.

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^ Metzner, Paul (1998). Crescendo of the Virtuoso: Spectacle, Skill, andSelf-Promotion in Paris during the Age of Revolution. Berkeley:University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-20684-3. Online version(http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft438nb2b6/)

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^ Bird, Henry Edward. Chess History and Reminiscences(http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/4902) . Retrieved 10 December 2006

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^ London Chess Club. (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=80740)Chessgames.com. Retrieved 30 November2006.

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^ World Title Matches and Tournaments - Chess history.(http://web.archive.org/web/2006/worldchessnetwork.com/English/chessHistory/salute/matchesTournaments/london1851.php)

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worldchessnetwork.com

^ Burgess, Graham, Nunn, John and Emms, John (1998). The MammothBook of the World's Greatest Chess Games. Carroll & Graf Publishers.ISBN 0-7867-0587-6., p. 14.

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^ Steinitz, William and Landsberger, Kurt (2002). The Steinitz Papers:Letters and Documents of the First World Chess Champion. McFarland& Company. ISBN 0-7864-1193-7.

26.

^ Kasparov (1983a)27.^ Kasparov 1983b28.^ Fine (1952)29.^ This is stated for example in The Encyclopaedia of Chess (1970, p.223by Anne Sunnucks, but this is also disputed by Edward Winter (chess

historian) in his Chess Notes 5144 and 5152 (http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:Uv0K9qUrveUJ:www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter38.html+site:chesshistory.com/winter+Grandmaster+Tsar&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us) .

30.

^ Menchik at ChessGames.com (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=13277) . Retrieved 11 December 2006

31.

^ Kasparov 2003b, 2004a, 2004b, 200632.âb "Chess History (http://www.thechessplace.com/page/976499) ".Retrieved on 2008-01-07.

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^ Kasparov 2003a, 200634.^ Keene, Raymond (1993). Gary Kasparov's Best Games. B. T. BatsfordLtd.. ISBN 0-7134-7296-0., p. 16.

35.

^ Kramnik at ChessGames.com (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=12295) . Retrieved 13 December 2006

36.

^ "Viswanathan Anand regains world chess title (http://in.reuters.com /article/sportsNews/idINIndia-29785520070930) ", Reuters (2007-09-30).Retrieved on 2007-12-13.

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^ Vale, Malcolm (2001). The Princely Court: Medieval Courts andCulture in North-West Europe, 12701380. Oxford University Press.ISBN 0-19-926993-9. Pp. 170199

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^ The Second Book of the Courtier. (http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~rbear/courtier/courtier2.html) Translated by Sir Thomas Hoby (1561) as editedby Walter Raleigh for David Nutt, Publisher, London, 1900. Online atUniversity of Oregon. Retrieved 21 Feb 2008

39.

^ The Introduction of Printing into England and the Early Work of thePress: The First Book printed in English (http://www.bartleby.com/212/1303.html) , from The Cambridge History of English and AmericanLiterature, Vol II. (1907) Online at bartleby.com. Retrieved 12 December2006

40.

^ Adams, Jenny (2006).Power Play: The Literature and Politics ofChess in the Late Middle Ages. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN

41.


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0-8122-3944-X.^ Caxton, William. The Game and Playe of the Chesse.(http://www.classicistranieri.com/english/1/0/6/7/10672/10672-h/10672-h.htm)Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 9 December 2006

42.

^ Camina Burana. (http://www.fh-augsburg.de/~harsch/Chronologia/Lspost13/CarminaBurana/bur_cpo2.html)Bibliotheca Augustana.Retrieved 2 November 2006

43.

^ Franklin, Benjamin. The Morals of Chess.(http://www.metajedrez.com.ar/franklineng.htm) metajedrez.com.ar.Retrieved 2 December 2006

44.

^ National Scholastic Chess Foundation (http://www.nscfchess.org/nscfmiss.html) . Retrieved 10 December 2006

45.

^ Ranjan Das: Shatranj Ke Khiladi (1977) (http://www.upperstall.com/films/shatranj_ke_khiladi.html) , analysis at upperstall.com. Retrieved 21Feb 2008

46.

^ Eamonn O'Neill: Josh Waitzkins (http://www.eamonnoneill.net/articles/Josh%20Waitzkins.PDF) PDF Retrieved 20 December 2007

47.

^ FIDE Laws of Chess, App. E (http://www.fide.com/official/handbook.asp?level=EE102) . Retrieved 11 December 2006

48.

^ "Learn Chess Notation (http://www.chesshouse.com/howto/How-to-Read-and-Write-Chess-Notation.asp) ". Retrieved on 2008-01-07.

49.

^ Howard, Kenneth S (1961).How to Solve Chess Problems. CourierDover Publications. ISBN 0-486-20748-X.

50.

^ Chess in the Olympics (http://www.turowski.com/chess/world2005.html) . Retrieved 19 December 2006

51.

^ [http://www.usatoday.com/sports/2007-09-30-anand_N.htm India'sAnand seizes chess title

52.

^ World Chess Federation. FIDE Handbook: Chess Rules. 1.0.Requirements for the titles designated in 0.31. (http://www.fide.com /official/handbook.asp?level=B0101) Retrieved 9 December 2006.

53.

^ Current FIDE lists of top players with their titles are online at fide.com(http://www.fide.com/ratings/toplist.phtml) . Retrieved 11 December 2006

54.

^ FIDE Handbook The working of the FIDE Rating System(http://www.fide.com/official/handbook.asp?level=B0210) . Retrieved 13December 2006

55.

^ European Chess Union (http://www.eurochess.org/content/view/26/9/) .Retrieved 11 December 2006

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^ "FIDE Top 100 Players (http://www.fide.com/ratings/top.phtml?list=men) ".

57.

^ Zermelo, Ernst (1913), Uber eine Anwendung der Mengenlehre auf dieTheorie des Schachspiels, Proceedings of the Fifth International Congressof Mathematicians 2, 501-4. Cited from Eichhorn, Christoph: Der Beginnder Formalen Spieltheorie: Zermelo (1913), http://www.mathematik.uni-

muenchen.de/~spielth/artikel/Zermelo.pdf Retrieved March 23, 2007.

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^ Chess. (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Chess.html)Mathworld.Wolfram.com. Retrieved 5 December 2006.

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^ Levitt, Gerald M. (2000). The Turk, chess automaton. McFarland &Company. ISBN 0-7864-0778-6.

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^ Shannon, Claude E. XXII. Programming a Computer for Playing Chess.61.

Philosophical Magazine, Ser.7, Vol. 41, No. 314 - March 1950.Available online at computerhistory.org(http://archive.computerhistory.org/projects/chess/related_materials/text/2-0%20and%202-1.Programming_a_computer_for_playing_chess.sha/2-0%20and%202-1.Programming_a_computer_for_playing_chess.shannoPDF (175 KiB) Retrieved 6 December 2006.^ Feng-Hsiung Hsu (2002).Behind Deep Blue: Building the Computerthat Defeated the World Chess Champion. Princeton University Press.ISBN 0-691-09065-3.; Deep Blue Kasparov Match.(http://www.research.ibm.com/deepblue/watch/html/c.shtml)research.ibm.com. Retrieved 30 November 2006.

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^ Gobet, Fernand, de Voogt, Alex, & Retschitzki, Jean (2004). Moves inmind: The psychology of board games. Psychology Press. ISBN1-84169-336-7.

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^ Holding, Dennis (1985). The psychology of chess skill. Erlbaum. ISBN978-0-89859-575-8.

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^ Saariluoma, Pertti (1995). Chess players' thinking: A cognitivepsychological approach. Routledge. ISBN 0415120799-1-DBS.

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^ Binet, A. (1894). Psychologie des grands calculateurs et joueursd'checs. Paris: Hachette.

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^ De Groot A.D. (1965). Thought and choice in chess (first Dutch editionin 1946). The Hague: Mouton Publishers.

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^ Richards J. Heuer, Jr.Psychology of Intelligence Analysis Center forthe Study of Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency 1999 (see [Chapter3 (https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence

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^ Ericsson, K. A., Krampe, R. Th., & Tesch-Rmer, C. (1993). Therole of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance.(http://www.freakonomics.com/pdf/DeliberatePractice(PsychologicalReview).pdf) PDF (1.25 MiB) Psychological Review, 100, 363406. Retrieved 15 July 2007.

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^ Gobet, F. & Chassy, P. (in press). Season of birth and chessexpertise. (http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/736/1/Seasonality+and+chess.pdf) PDF (65.8 KB)Journal of BiosocialScience.Gobet, F. & Campitelli, G. (2007). The role of domain-specificpractice, handedness and starting age in chess. (http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/611/1/Gobet_DevPsyc_Final.pdf) PDF (196 KB)Developmental Psychology , 43, 159172. Both retrieved 15 July 2007.

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References

Davidson, Henry A. (1949, 1981).A Short History of Chess. McKay. ISBN 0-679-14550-8.Harding, Tim (2003).Better Chess for Average Players. Courier Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-29029-8.Hooper, David and Whyld, Kenneth (1992). The Oxford Companion to Chess, Second edition. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-866164-9.Reprint: (1996) ISBN 0-19-280049-3Kasparov, Garry (2003a). My Great Predecessors, part I. Everyman Chess. ISBN 1-85744-330-6.Kasparov, Garry (2003b).

My Great Predecessors, part II. Everyman Chess. ISBN 1-85744-342-X.

Kasparov, Garry (2004a). My Great Predecessors, part III. Everyman Chess. ISBN 1-85744-371-3.Kasparov, Garry (2004b). My Great Predecessors, part IV. Everyman Chess. ISBN 1-85744-395-0.Kasparov, Garry (2006). My Great Predecessors, part V. Everyman Chess. ISBN 1-85744-404-3.Wilkinson, Charles K. (May, 1943). "Chessmen and Chess". The Metropolitan Museum of Art BulletinNew Series, Vol. 1, No. 9: 271279.doi:10.2307/3257111.

Further reading

Fine, Reuben (1983). The World's Great Chess Games. Courier Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-24512-8.Gobet, Fernand, de Voogt, Alex, & Retschitzki, Jean (2004). Moves in mind: The psychology of board games. Psychology Press. ISBN1-84169-336-7.Mason, James (1947). The Art of Chess. Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-20463-4. (see the included supplement, "How Do You Play Chess")Rizzitano, James (2004). Understanding Your Chess. Gambit Publications. ISBN 1-904600-07-7.


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David Shenk (2006). The Immortal Game: A History of Chess. Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-51010-1.Tarrasch, Siegbert (1994). The Game of Chess. Algebraic Edition. Hays Publishing. ISBN 1-880673-94-0.

External links

International organizations

FIDE (http://www.fide.com/) - World Chess Federation

Official rules - FIDE Laws of Chess (http://www.fide.com/component/handbook/?id=124&view=article)

FIDE list of top rated players (http://www.fide.com/ratings/toplist.phtml)ICCF (http://www.iccf.com/) - International Correspondence Chess FederationACP (http://www.chess-players.org/eng/index.html) - Association of Chess Professionals

News

Chessbase news (http://www.chessbase.com/)The Week in Chess (http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/twic.html)

Other

ChessGames.com (http://www.chessgames.com/) - online chess database and communityChessLive (http://www.chesslive.de/) - online databaseMathworld (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Chess.html) - chess and mathematicsJmrw.com (http://www.jmrw.com/Chess/Tableau_echecs/) - chess and art

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