Chess

For other meanings, see Chess (disambiguation).

Chess Portal

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Chess From left, a white king, black rook and queen, white pawn, black knight, and white bishop in a set of Staunton chess pieces. Players 2 Age range Recommended for 8 years or older. Setup time 30-60 seconds Playing time Varies, clocks are used. A game can last from anywhere from two minutes to 10+ hours long! Rules complexity Medium Strategy depth High Random chance None Skills required Tactics, Strategy

Chess. Starting position

Chess is a board game and mental-skill game for two players. It is played on a square board of eight rows (called ranks) and eight columns (called files), giving 64 squares of alternating colour, light and dark, with each player having a light square at the near right corner when facing the board. 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 eight pawns, two knights, two bishops, two rooks, one queen and one king. One player (who is always first to move) controls the white pieces; the other player controls the black pieces.

In chess, when a player's king is directly threatened 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 or block check 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 escape from check.

Introduction

Chess is not a game of chance; it is based solely on tactics and strategy. Nevertheless, the game is so complex that not even the best players can consider all contingencies: although only 64 squares and 32 pieces are on the board, the number of possible games that can be played far exceeds the number of atoms in the universe (see Shannon number).

Chess is one of the world's most popular games; it has been described not only as a game but also as an art and a science. Chess is sometimes seen as an abstract wargame; as a "mental martial art", and teaching chess has been advocated as a way of enhancing mental prowess. Chess 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, and janggi in Korea.

History

Main article: Origins of chess

Persian youth playing chess with two suitors Illustration to the "Haft Awrang" of Jami, in the story A Father Advises his Son About Love Freer and Sackler Galleries, The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.

A chess table is a table with a chessboard painted or engraved on it. The photograph shows a chess table in a park.

Two men playing chess on a Central Park bench in New York City, May 1946.

Many countries claim to have invented the chess game in some incipient form. The most commonly held belief is that chess originated in India, where it was called Chaturanga, which appears to have been invented in the 6th century AD. Although this is commonly believed, it is thought that Persians created a more modern version of the game after the Indians. In fact, the oldest known chess pieces have been found in excavations of ancient Persian territories.

Another theory exists that chess arose from the similar game of Chinese chess, or at least a predecessor thereof, existing in China since the 2nd century BC. Joseph Needham and David Li are two of many scholars who have favored this theory.

Chess eventually spread westward to Europe and eastward as far as Japan, spawning variants as it went. One theory suggests that it migrated from India to Persia, where its terminology was translated into Persian, and its name changed to chatrang. The entrance of chess into Europe, notably, is marked by a massive improvement in the powers of the queen. The oldest known texts describing chess seem to indicate a bi-directional spread from the Persian empire. In fact, the oldest known reference points to Shah Ardashir as being a master of the game, his rule was from 224 - 241 AD. This would indicate that chess was invented some time before his rule.

From Persia it entered the Islamic world, where the names of its pieces largely remained in their Persian forms in early Islamic times. Its name became shatranj, which continued in Spanish as ajedrez and in Greek as zatrikion, but in most of Europe was replaced by versions of the Persian word shāh = "king".

There is a theory that this name replacement happened because, before the game of chess came to Europe, merchants coming to Europe brought ornamental chess kings as curiosities and with them their name shāh, which Europeans mispronounced in various ways.

• checkmate: This is the English rendition of shāh māt, which is Persian for "the king is finished".
• rook: From the Persian rukh, which means "chariot", but also means "cheek" (part of the face). The piece resembles a siege tower. It is also believed that it was named after the mythical Persian bird of great power called the roc.
• bishop. From the Persian pīl means "the elephant", but in Europe and the western part of the Islamic world people knew little or nothing about elephants, and the name of the chessman entered Western Europe as Latin alfinus and similar, a word with no other meaning (in Spanish, for example, it evolved to the name "alfil"). This word "alfil" is actually the Arabic for "elephant" hence the Spanish word would most certainly have been taken from the Islamic provinces of Spain. The English name "bishop" is a rename inspired by the conventional shape of the piece. In Russia, the piece is, however, known as слон = "elephant".
• queen. Persian farzīn = "vizier" became Arabic firzān, which entered western European languages as forms such as alfferza, fers, etc but was later replaced by "queen".

The game spread throughout the Islamic world after the Muslim conquest of Persia. Chess eventually reached Russia via Mongolia, where it was played at the beginning of the 7th century. It was introduced into Spain by the Moors in the 10th century, and described in a famous 13th century manuscript covering chess, backgammon, and dice named the Libro de los juegos. Chess also found its way across Siberia into Alaska.

Gameplay

Rules of chess

Name	Letter	Picture
Pawn	None
Knight	N
Bishop	B
Rook	R
Queen	Q
King	K

The eight queens puzzle is the problem of putting eight queens onto a chessboard such that none of them is attacking any other. This is one of twelve solutions.

See Rules of chess for some important details not covered here.

When a game of chess begins, one player controls the sixteen black pieces while the other uses the white pieces. The colors are chosen either by a friendly agreement, by a game of chance, or by a tournament director. White always moves first and therefore has a slight advantage over black. The chess pieces should be set up on a standard chessboard with a white square in the near right hand corner.

Each kind of chess piece moves a different way. The rook moves any number of spaces vertically or horizontally, while the bishop moves any number of spaces in any direction diagonally (meaning a bishop will always remain on the same color). 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. 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.

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 their king out of check it is called checkmate and they have lost 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.

Chess games do not have to end in checkmate. Either player may resign if the situation looks hopeless; also, games may end in a draw (tie). A draw can occur in many situations, including mutual agreement to draw, draw by insufficient material, stalemate, threefold repetition or the fifty move rule. Draws are very common among high-level chess players.

Strategy and tactics

For more details on this topic, see 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. 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. See the list of chess openings for more information.