Wikipedia

Chess

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Chess (the "Game of Kings") is a board game for two players, which requires 32 chesspieces (or chessmen), 16 for each player, usually marked by contrasting color (though other schema exist). The board is square, with eight rows by eight columns of squares of alternating colors (typically white and black). Chess is not a game of chance; it is based solely on tactics and strategy. Nevertheless, the game is so complex that even the best players can't consider all contingencies.

A typical Staunton-design set and clock

The number of legal positions in chess is estimated to be between 1043 and 1050, and the game-tree complexity approximately 10123. The game-tree complexity of chess was first calculated by Claude Shannon (father of information theory) as 10120, a number now known as the "Shannon number". Typically an average position has thirty to forty possible moves, but there may be as few as zero (in the case of checkmate or stalemate) or as many as 218.

Chess is one of humanity's more popular games; it is has been described not only as a game, but also as both art and science. Chess is sometimes seen as an abstract wargame; as a "mental martial art". Chess is played both recreationally and competitively in clubs, tournaments, on-line, and by mail (correspondence chess). Many variants and relatives of chess are played throughout the world; amongst them, the most popular are Xiangqi (in China), Shogi (in Japan), and Buddhi Chal (in Nepal), all of which come from the same historical stem as chess.

Introduction

Although many countries make claims to have invented it, the preponderance of evidence is that chess originated from the Indian game Chaturanga, about 1400 years ago and spread westwards to Europe and eastwards as far as Korea, spawning variants as it went. It reached Russia via Mongolia, where it was played at the beginning of the 7th century. From India it migrated to Persia, and spread throughout the Islamic world after the Muslim conquest of Persia. It was introduced into Spain by the Moors in the 10th century, where a famous games manuscript covering chess, backgammon, and dice named the Libro de los juegos, was written under the sponsorship of Alfonso X of Castile during the 13th century. Chess reached England in the 11th century, and evolved through various versions such as Courier.

File:StauntonSet.jpg
Another Staunton set

By the end of the 15th century, the modern rules for the basic moves had been adopted from Italy: pawns gained the option of moving two squares on their first move and the en passant capture therewith; bishops could move arbitrarily far along an open diagonal (previously being limited to a move of exactly two squares diagonally) while losing the ability to jump over the intervening square, and the queen was allowed to move arbitrarily far in any direction, making it the most powerful piece. (Before, she could only move one square diagonally.) There were still variations in rules for castling and the outcome in the case of stalemate.

These changes collectively helped make chess more open to analysis and thereby develop a more devoted following. The game in Europe since that time has been almost the same as is played today. The current rules were finalized in the early 19th century, except for the exact conditions for a draw.

The most popular piece design, the "Staunton" set, was created by Nathaniel Cook in 1849, endorsed by Howard Staunton, a leading player of the time, and officially adopted by FIDE in 1924.

At one time, chess games were recorded using descriptive chess notation, a somewhat clumsy notation that takes more space, more time to say, and more time to explain than its replacement, algebraic chess notation. Portable Game Notation (PGN) is the most common standard computer-processable format for recording chess games, and is based on algebraic chess notation.

Once the sole province of the human mind, chess is now played by both humans, and machines. At first considered only a curiosity, chess playing computers have risen in ability to the point where they can seriously challenge and even defeat the best humans.

Garry Kasparov, then ranked number one in the world, played a six-game match against IBM's chess computer Deep Blue in 1996. Deep Blue shocked the world by winning the first game in Deep Blue - Kasparov, 1996, Game 1, but Kasparov convincingly won the match by winning 3 games and drawing 2. The six-game rematch in 1997 was won by the machine which was subsequently retired by IBM. In October, 2002, Vladimir Kramnik drew in an eight-game match with the computer program Deep Fritz. In 2003, Kasparov drew both a six-game match with the computer program Deep Junior in February, and a four-game match against X3D Fritz in November.

Quotes

  • "Chess is the game which reflects most honour on human wit." -- Voltaire
  • "Chess is eminently and emphatically the philosopher's game." -- Paul Morphy
  • "Chess is a sea in which a gnat may drink and an elephant may bathe." -- Indian proverb
  • "The chess-board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the Universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us." -- Thomas Huxley

Subject overview

See also: Game theory, ELO rating system

For secondary uses of the word "chess" see

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