Chess Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
- For other meanings, see Chess (disambiguation).
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2 History 3 Notation 4 Computer chess 5 Subject overview 6 See also 7 External links |
Chess is not a game of chance; it is based solely on tactics and strategy, and for this reason, it is sometimes known by the sobriquet the "Game of Kings". Nevertheless, the game is so complex that not even the best players can consider all contingencies.
Introduction
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 (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 most popular games; it has been described not only as a game, but also as an art, science, and sport. 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 are Xiangqi (in China), Janggi (in Korea), Shogi (in Japan), all of which share a common historical ancestor with chess.
Although many countries claim to have invented it, the preponderance of evidence is that chess originated from the Indian game Chaturanga, about 1400 years ago. There is a story that a king in India wanted to reward the poor mathematician, named Sessa, who invented the game. The mathematician requested the king to give him one grain of rice for the first square, two for the second, four for the third and so on, doubling the grains for each successive square. The king, considering this a trivial prize, agreed, and lost his entire granary even before the 40th square was reached. This story is often quoted as an example of a Geometric progression.
Later, chess spread westwards to Europe and eastwards as far as Korea, spawning variants as it went. From India it migrated to Persia, and spread throughout the Islamic world after the Muslim conquest of Persia, although some Islamic scholars consider Chess to be haraam (prohibited), whether or not it is played with the intention of gambling. Chess then 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, 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. However, the origins of chess are still questioned as the oldest archaeological chess piece was found recently in the ancient city of Butrint in Albania.
History
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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 (see pawn for explanation); 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 Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) in 1924.
Chess's international governing body is FIDE, which has presided over the world championship matches for decades. See World Chess Championship for details and a more in-depth history. Most countries of the world have a national chess organization as well. Although chess is not yet an Olympic sport, it has its own Olympiad, held every four years as a team event.
Until the 1970s, at least in English-speaking countries, chess games were recorded and published using descriptive chess notation. This is still used by a dwindling number of mainly older players who emphasise its practical advantages such as being more mistake-proof. However, it has been largely supplanted by the more compact algebraic chess notation. Several notations have emerged, based upon algebraic chess notation, for recording chess games in a format suitable for computer processing. Of these, Portable Game Notation (PGN) is the most common. At the other extreme, a notation which sacrifices playthroughability for concision is Steno-Chess which minimises the number of characters required to store a game. Apart from recording games, there is also a notation Forsyth-Edwards Notation for recording specific positions. This is useful for adjourning a game to resume later or for conveying chess problem positions without a diagram.
Once solely the province of the human mind, chess is now played by both humans and machines. At first considered only a curiosity, the best chess playing computers like Shredder or Fritz 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 February 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 three games and drawing two.
The six-game rematch in May 1997 was won by the machine (informally dubbed Deeper Blue) 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.
Kasparov's defeat to Deeper Blue has inspired the creation of a new game called Arimaa which is still played with a standard chess set, but is much more difficult for computers.
A chess variant is any game derived from or related to chess.
Chess variants can be roughly categorized as follows:
Chess may be played individually or in teams, either with team players participating in the thinking over one game (consultation games) or playing on other boards where consultation is prohibited (team chess). Simultaneous exhibition games are also popular where one (generally stronger) player plays against many players over as many boards. Blindfold chess is another variant where neither opponent can actually see the board but call out the moves.
There is a game played using a chess board called Capture.
This is an Article on Chess. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About Chess See also
Notation
Computer chess
See also
Subject overview
Rules of chess
Basic concepts
Famous chess games
Chess variants
The categories may also be combined.See also
Chess literature
Chess in the arts and literature
External links