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| Setup at the start
of a game. |
Chess
Chess is a board game for two players. It is played in a
square board, made of 64 smaller squares, with eight
squares on each side. Each player starts with sixteen
pieces: eight pawns, two knights, two bishops, two
rooks, one queen and one king. The goal of the game is
for each player to try and checkmate the king of the
opponent. Checkmate is a threat ('check') to the
opposing king which no move can stop. It ends the game.
During the game the two opponents take turns to move one
of their pieces to a different square of the board. One
player ('White') has pieces of a light color; the other
player ('Black') has pieces of a dark color. There are
rules about how pieces move, and about taking the
opponent's pieces off the board. The player with white
pieces always makes the first move. Because of this,
White has a small advantage, and wins more often than
Black in tournament games.
Chess is popular and is often played in competitions
called chess tournaments. It is enjoyed in many
countries, and is a national hobby in Russia.
Note: This page makes
references to many graphics. Please visit the Kiddle
link at the bottom of this page to see those graphics.
History
Most historians agree that the game of chess was first
played in northern India during the Gupta Empire in the
6th century AD. This early type of chess was known as
Chaturanga, a Sanskrit word for the military. The Gupta
chess pieces were divided like their military into the
infantry, cavalry, elephants, and chariots. In time,
these pieces became the pawn, knight, bishop, and rook.
The English words chess and check both come from the
Persian word shāh meaning king.
The earliest written evidence of chess is found in three
romances (epic stories) written in Sassanid Persia
around 600AD. The game was known as chatrang or shatranj.
When Persia was taken over by Muslims (633–644) the game
was spread to all parts of the Muslim world. Muslim
traders carried the game to Russia and to Western
Europe. By the year 1000 it had spread all over Europe.
In the 13th century a Spanish manuscript called Libro de
los Juegos describes the games of shatranj (chess),
backgammon, and dice.
The game changed greatly between about 1470 to 1495. The
rules of the older game were changed in the West so that
some of the pieces (queen, bishop) had more scope,
development of the pieces was faster, and the game more
exciting. The new game formed the basis of modern
international chess. Historians of chess consider this
as the most important change since the game was
invented. |
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Rules
The rules of chess are governed by the World Chess
Federation, which is known by the initials FIDE, meaning
Fédération Internationale des Échecs. The rules are in
the section Laws of Chess of the FIDE Handbook. FIDE
also give rules and guidelines for chess tournaments.
Setup
Chess is played on a square board divided into eight
rows of squares called ranks and eight columns called
files, with a dark square in each player's lower left
corner. This is altogether 64 squares. The colors of the
squares are laid out in a checker (chequer) pattern in
light and dark squares. To make speaking and writing
about chess easy, each square has a name. Each rank has
a number from 1 to 8, and each file a letter from a to
h. This means that every square on the board has its own
label, such as g1 or f5. The pieces are in white and
black sets. The players are called White and Black, and
at the start of a game each player has 16 pieces. The 16
pieces are one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops,
two knights and eight pawns. in this game out can get up
to a quadruple pon, king, knight, queen, and also the
king although it is very rare.
Movement
Definitions: vertical lines are files; horizontal lines
are ranks; lines at 45° are diagonals. Each piece has
its own way of moving around the board. The X marks the
squares where the piece can move. |
- The knight is the only piece that
can jump over another piece.
- No piece may move to a square
occupied by a piece of the same color.
- All pieces capture the same way they
move, except pawns.
- The king's move is one square in any
direction. The king (K for short) may not move to any
square where it is threatened by an opposing piece.
However, the king can move to a square that is occupied
by an opponent's piece and capture the piece, taking it
off the board.
- The queen (Q) can move any distance
in any direction on the ranks, files and diagonals.
- The rooks (R) move any distance on
the ranks or files.
- The bishops (B) move diagonally on
the board. Since a bishop can only move diagonally, it
will always be on the same color square.
- The knights (Kt or N) move in an "L"
shape. Each move must be either two squares along a rank
and one square along a file, or two squares along a file
and one square along a rank. It is the only piece that
can jump over other pieces. Like the other pieces, it
captures an opposing piece by landing on its square.
- The pawns can only move up the
board. On its first move a pawn may move either one or
two squares forward. A pawn captures one square
diagonally, not as it moves: see white circles on its
diagram. Besides, in some situations pawns can capture
opponent's pawns in a special way called en passant,
which means in passing in French (see below).
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Capturing
Most pieces capture as they move. If a piece lands on an
opponent's piece, the opposing piece is taken off the board.
There are three special cases:
The king cannot be taken (see check and checkmate).
No piece can be taken while castling (see below).
Pawns take one square diagonally.
Check and checkmate
If a move is made which attacks the opposing king, that king
is said to be 'in check'. The player whose king is checked
must make a move to remove the check. The options are:
moving the king, capturing the threatening piece, or moving
another piece between the threatening piece and the king. If
the player whose king is in danger cannot do any of these
things, it is checkmate, and the player loses the game.
Special moves
Castling
Once in every game, each king can make a special move, known
as castling. When the king castles, it moves two squares to
the left or right. When this happens, the rook is moved to
stand on the opposite side of the King. Castling is only
allowed if all of these rules are kept: |
- Neither piece doing the castling may
have been moved during the game.
- There must be no pieces between the
king and the rook.
- The king may not be currently in
check, nor may the king pass through any square attacked
by the opponent. As with any move, castling is not
allowed if it would place the king in check.
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En passant
En passant ('in passing' in French) is a special capture. It
is only available when a pawn moves forward two squares past
an opposing pawn on an adjacent file. The opposing pawn must
be on the 5th rank from its own side. Then the opponent's
pawn can capture the double-mover as if it had only moved
one square forward. This option is open on the next move
only.
For example, if the black pawn has just moved up two squares
from g7 to g5, then the white pawn on f5 can take it by en
passant on g6. The en passant rule was developed when pawns
were allowed to make their double move. The rule made it
more difficult for players to avoid pawn exchanges and
blockade the position. It kept the game more open.
Promotion
When a pawn moves to its eighth rank, it must be changed for
a piece: a queen, rook, bishop, or knight of the same color
(player's choice). Normally, the pawn is queened, but in
some advantageous cases another piece is chosen, called
'under-promotion'.
Ways a game may end
Checkmates are rare in competitive chess. The most common
ends are decisions made by one or both players.
Wins |
- Checkmate. When a king is in check,
and cannot get out of it.
- Resignation. A player may resign at
any time, usually because his/her position is hopeless.
A losing player is able to resign by placing their king
on its side on the chessboard.
- Out of time. If player's clock time
is over (exceeding the time control). Strictly speaking,
this is not part of the rules of the game, but part of
the rules of tournament and match chess where chess
clocks are used.
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Draws |
- Draw agreed. A game may end in a
draw at any time if one player offers a draw and the
other accepts.
- Insufficient Material Or Dead
Position . A position where no series of legal moves
could lead to a mate (example: K+B vs K). The game is
drawn.
- Stalemate. If a player cannot make a
move, and the player's king is not in check, this is
also a draw. This kind of draw is called a stalemate,
and is rare.
- 50-move rule. A game will also end
in a draw if no piece is captured and no pawn has moved
after fifty moves. This is called the fifty-move rule,
and happens late in the game.
- Threefold repetition. If the exactly
same position is repeated three times during a game with
the same player to move each time, the player next to
move may claim a draw. The game is now drawn. This is
called a draw by threefold repetition.
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Competition rules
The FIDE rules for competitive chess include all the
above rules, plus several others.
Touch and move law
If players wish to adjust a piece on the board, they
must first say "J'adoube" (I adjust) or the equivalent.
Apart from that, if a piece is touched it must be moved
if possible. This is the 'touch and move' law. If no
legal move is possible with the touched piece, the
player must make a legal move with another piece.Section
4p90 et seq When a player's hand leaves a piece after
moving it then the move is over and may not be changed
(if the move was legal).
There are a few famous cases where players appeared to
break this rule without being punished. The most famous
example was by the then World Champion Garry Kasparov
against Judit Polgar in a top-class tournament.
Chess clocks
Competitive games of chess must be played with special
chess clocks which time a player only when it is his/her
turn to move. The essence is that a player has to make a
certain number of moves in a certain total time. After
moving, the player presses a button on the clock. This
stops the player's clock, and start's the opponent's
clock. Usually the clocks are mechanical, but some are
electronic.Article 6p92 et seq Electronic clocks can be
set to various programs, and they can count moves
made.chapter 8
Notation for recording moves
The moves of a chess game are written down by using a
special chess notation. This is compulsory for any
competitive game.Article 8 & Appendix E Usually
algebraic chess notation is used. In algebraic notation,
each square has one and only one name (whether you are
looking from White's side of the board or Black's).
Here, moves are written in the format of: initial of
piece moved – file where it moved – rank where it moved.
For example, 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 show 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 showing a pawn is not used, so that e4 means
"pawn moves to the square e4".
If the piece makes a capture, "x" is written before the
square in which the capturing piece lands on. Example:
Bxf3 means "bishop captures on f3". When a pawn makes a
capture, the file from which the pawn left is used in
place of a piece initial. For example: exd5 means "pawn
captures on d5."
If a pawn moves to its eighth rank, getting a promotion,
the piece chosen is written after the move, for example
e1Q or e1=Q. Castling is written 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 normally has the notation "+" added. Checkmate can
be written as # or ++. At the end of the game, 1-0 means
"White won", 0-1 means "Black won" and ½-½ is a draw.
In print, figurines (like those in diagrams, but
smaller) are used for the pieces rather than initials.
This has the advantage of being language-free, whereas
the initials of pieces are different in every language.
Typefaces which include figurines can be purchased by
chess authors. Also, basic notes can be added by using a
system of well-known punctuation marks and other
symbols. For example: ! means a good move, !! means a
very good move, ? means a bad move, ?? a very bad move
(sometimes called a blunder), !? a creative move that
may be good, and ?! a doubtful move. The purpose of
these methods is to make publications readable in a
wider range of countries. For example, one kind of a
simple "trap" known as the Scholar's mate, as in the
diagram to the right, may be recorded: |
- 1. e4 e5
- 2. Qh5?! Nc6
- 3. Bc4 Nf6?? (3...Qe7 would prevent
the mate, with 4...Nf6 next move)
- 4. Qxf7# 1-0
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With figurines in place of the initials, this would be
understood by players everywhere.
Playing arena
Players may not smoke in the playing area, but only in areas
designated by the organiser. Mobile phones may not be used
or even switched on. Players may not use any sources of
advice, and may not analyse on any device. These and other
matters are covered by the FIDE Laws on the conduct of the
players.Article 12
Stages of a game
Chess is an easy game to learn the moves, but a difficult
game to master. Strategy is an important part of the game.
First of all comes the openings, about which a great deal is
now known. The best-known move, the King's Pawn opening, is
the white player moving his king's pawn on e2 forward two
spaces to e4. Black can reply to that move in various ways.
Opening
The first moves of a chess game are called the opening. A
chess opening is a name given to a series of opening moves.
Recognized patterns of opening moves are openings and have
been given names such as the Ruy Lopez or Sicilian defence.
They are listed in reference works such as the Encyclopaedia
of Chess Openings. There are dozens of different openings.
They range from gambits, where a pawn, say, is offered for
fast development (e.g. the King's Gambit), to slower
openings which lead to a maneuvering type of game (e.g. the
Réti opening). In some opening lines, the sequence thought
best for both sides has been worked out to 20–30 moves, but
most players avoid such lines. Expert players study openings
throughout their chess career, as opening theory keeps on
developing.
The basic aims of the opening phase are: |
- Development: to place (develop) the
pieces (mostly bishops and knights) on useful squares
where they will have the most powerful impact on the
game.
- Control of the center: the center is
the most important part of the board. The player who
controls the center can move his/her pieces around
freely. His/her opponent, on the other hand, will find
his/her pieces cramped, and difficult to move about.
- King safety: keeping the king safe
from danger. Castling (see section above) can often do
this.
- Pawn structure: pawns can be used to
control the center. Players try to avoid making pawn
weaknesses such as isolated, doubled or backward pawns,
and pawn islands – and to force such weaknesses in the
opponent's position.
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Players think, and chess databases prove, that White, by
virtue of the first move, begins the game with a better
chance. Black normally tries to equalise, or to get some
counterplay.
Middlegame
The middlegame is the part of the game after most pieces
have been developed. It is where most games are won and
lost. Many games will end in resignation even before an
endgame takes place.
A middlegame position has a structure. That structure is
determined by the opening. The simplest way to learn the
middlegame is to select an opening and learn it well (see
examples in English opening and French defense).
These are some things to look for when looking at a
middlegame position: |
- Material: changes in the balance of
material are critical. To lose a piece for nothing is
enough to lose a game. If the players are evenly
matched, then a rough material balance of pieces is
normal. Material balance is often quite static: it does
not change for many moves.
- Development: the opening may have
left one player with a lead in development. That player
has the initiative, and may attack before the opponent
can get his pieces out. It is a temporary asset: if a
lead in development is not used effectively, it will
disappear.
- The centre: in the centre pieces
have their greatest effect, and some (such as the
knight) attack more squares in the centre than at the
sides. The player who controls the centre will almost
always have the advantage.
- Mobility: a position is mobile if
the pieces can get where they need to. Almost all middle
game positions have some limitations to mobility. Look
for open files for the rooks, and open diagonals for the
bishops. Outposts are what knights need, places where
they can not easily be dislodged.
- King safety: where is the king?
Ideally, a king should be castled, and kept behind a
screen of pawns. Many other things may happen in
practice. If a king is weak, it may be put under direct
attack.
- Pawns: they provide the skeleton of
a position. They move slowly, and may become blocked for
many moves. Everything takes place round the pawns.
Different openings produce different pawn structures. In
this way openings influence the whole game (Philidor:
"Pawns are the soul of chess").
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Here is an example from the borderline between opening and
middlegame. In the diagram to the left, White will operate
mainly on the Q-side, and Black on the K-side.
White, to play, may wish to cope with Black playing
10...Nf4. He can do this by playing 10.g3, or by playing
10.Re1 so that if 10...Nf4 11.Bf1 will preserve the bishop
(in this position an important defensive piece). Or maybe
White will plough ahead with 10.c5, the key move on the
Q-side.
ChessBase shows that the number of tournament games with
these choices were:
10.Re1 2198
10.g3 419
10.c5 416
The data base also shows that the overall results were
significantly better for 10.Re1. What the player does is
note the features on the board, and formulate a plan which
takes the features into account. Then the player works out a
sequence of moves. Of course, in practice, the opponent is
interfering with the plan at every step!
Endgame
The endgame (or end game or ending) is the part of the game
when there are few pieces left on the board. There are three
main strategic differences between earlier parts of the game
and endgame: |
- Pawns: during the endgame, pawns
become more special. In the endgame, one thing players
try to do is to promote a pawn by advancing it to the
eighth rank.
- Kings: may become strong pieces in
the endgame. The king may be brought towards the center
of the board. There it can support its own pawns, attack
the opponent's pawns, and oppose the opponent's king.
- Draws: in the endgame, a game may be
drawn because there are too few pieces on the board to
allow a player to win. This is one of the main reasons
for games to be drawn.
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All endgame positions can be put into two camps. On the one
hand are positions which may be won by force. On the other
hand, are positions which are drawn, or which should be
drawn. The ones that are drawn for certain may be legally
drawn (mate could not happen) or drawn by chess experience
(no sane defence could lose). All endgames in master chess
revolve around the borderline between winning and drawing.
Generally, once a 'textbook' drawn position is reached the
players will agree a draw; otherwise they play on.
Endgames can be studied according to the types of pieces
that remain on board. For example, king and pawn endgames
have only kings and pawns on one or both sides and the task
of the stronger side is to promote one of the pawns. Other
endings are studied according to the pieces on board other
than kings, e.g. rook and pawn versus rook endgame.
Basic checkmates
Basic checkmates are positions in which one side has only a
king and the other side has one or two pieces, enough to
checkmate the opponent's king. They are usually learned at
the beginner stage. Examples are mate with K+Q v K; K+R v K;
K+2B v K; K+B&N v K (this one is quite difficult). |
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Chess and computers
There are two types of chess programs. One is to play
against you; the other is to help you become a better
player by learning more. The two types can be made to
work together, though they have different functions.
Chess engines
Chess engines are computer systems that can play chess
games against human opponents. Quite a number have been
devised; they can play at master level, though their
processes are quite different from a human being.p87
Fritz
Fritz is a German chess program by Frans Morsch and
Mathias Feist, published by ChessBase. It is the current
market leader. There is also a different kind of Fritz
called Deep Fritz that is made for multi-processing. The
latest kinds of the consumer products are Deep Fritz 12
and Fritz 12. They came with reviews by Josh Waitzkin,
who said that "Fritz is like a woman that you can't get
with. It just drives (makes) you to think in ways you've
never thought before".
Shredder
Shredder, also a ChessBase product, is claimed to be the
strongest engine at present.
Rybka
Rybka, a product by Vasik Rajlich, is Shredder's main
rival.
Chess databases
Chess databases do not actually play. They give access
to the recorded history of master chess. There are two
components. First, there is the software, which lets one
search and organise the database material. Then there is
the actual database, typically one to four million
games.
In practice, databases are used for two purposes. First,
for a player to train his/her ability at specific
openings. Second, to look up specific opponents to see
what they play, and prepare against them beforehand.
The existence of chess databases is one of the reasons
young players can achieve mastery at an early age.
ChessBase
ChessBase is the biggest database, and widely used by
masters. Although it can be used online, most users
download the software and data onto their computer. If
that computer happens to be a laptop, then they might
take the laptop to tournaments, to help prepare for
games. Players may not use computers or any other aid
during games, but much preparation goes on behind the
scenes. ChessBase has to be purchased, and it is not
cheap.
New in Chess
This is a Dutch magazine for advanced players, which
runs an on-line database called NicBase as part of its
services. NicBase is free, and has over a million games.
Chessgames
Chessgames.com runs an on-line database of games. It is
partly free, but requires registration. Full access to
all its facilities is by a fairly modest subscription.
It has over half a million games on its database.
On-line playing sites
There are websites which a player can join (for a fee)
and play on line. In this case, the subscriber will play
against other subscribers, not a computer. All standards
of players are amongst the members, and various events
are on offer at different rates of play. The two leaders
in this market are: |
- Internet Chess Club
- Playchess
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Wikipedia: Chess |
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