Portal:Chess/Selected article archive
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[edit] June 2, 2008 - June 8, 2008
Bughouse Chess (also called Exchange Chess, Siamese Chess, Tandem Chess, Transfer Chess, or simply Bughouse) is a popular chess variant played on two chessboards by four players in teams of two. Normal chess rules apply, except that captured pieces on one board are passed on to the players of the other board, who then have the option of putting these pieces on their board.
The game is usually played at a fast time control; this, together with the passing and dropping of pieces, can make the game look chaotic and random to the casual onlooker. Hence the name bughouse, which is slang for mental hospital. The game is traditionally played as a diversion from regular chess both over the board and online. Yearly, several dedicated bughouse tournaments are organised on a national and an international level.
Read more about Bughouse chess...
[edit] May 26, 2008 - June 1, 2008
In chess, the chess pieces are often assigned certain point values as a heuristic that helps determine how valuable a piece is strategically. These values play no formal role in the game but are useful to players, and are also used in computer chess to help the computer evaluate positions.
Calculations of the value of pieces provide only a rough idea of the state of play. The exact piece values will depend on the game situation, and can differ considerably from those given here. In some positions, a well-placed piece might be much more valuable than indicated by heuristics, while a badly-placed piece may be completely trapped and, thus, almost worthless.
Valuations almost always assign the value 1 point to pawns (typically as the average value of a pawn in the starting position). Computer programs often represent the values of pieces and positions in terms of 'centipawns', where 100 centipawns = 1 pawn, which allows strategic features of the position, worth less than a single pawn, to be evaluated without requiring fractions.
Read more about Chess piece point value...
[edit] May 19, 2008 - May 25, 2008
The Turk or Automaton Chess Player was a chess-playing machine of the late 18th century, exhibited from 1770 for over 84 years, by various owners, as an automaton but later explained in January 1857 as an elaborate hoax. Constructed and unveiled in 1770 by Wolfgang von Kempelen (1734–1804) to impress the Empress Maria Theresa, the mechanism appeared to be able to play a strong game of chess against a human opponent, as well as perform the knight's tour, a puzzle that requires the player to move a knight to occupy every square of a chessboard once and only once.
Publicly promoted as an automaton and given its common name based on its appearance, the Turk was in fact a mechanical illusion that allowed a human chess master hiding inside to operate the machine. With a skilled operator, the Turk won most of the games played during its demonstrations around Europe and the Americas for nearly 84 years until its destruction by fire in 1854, playing and defeating many challengers including statesmen such as Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin. Although many had suspected the hidden human operator, the hoax was formally revealed in a series of articles in The Chess Monthly in 1857.
[edit] May 12, 2008 - May 18, 2008
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In chess, the fortress is an endgame drawing technique in which the side lagging in material sets up a zone of protection around their king that cannot be penetrated by the opponent. Clearly, it only works when the opponent does not have and cannot create a passed pawn, unless that pawn can be stopped (e.g. see the opposite colored bishops example). An elementary fortress is a theoretically drawn position with reduced material in which a passive defense will maintain the draw.
Fortresses are a problem for computer chess: computers are unable to reason about fortress-type positions except to the extent that their endgame tablebase allows.
Read more about Fortress (chess)...
[edit] May 5, 2008 - May 11, 2008
The game of Chess has been attributed to the Indians both by the Persian people and by the Arabs. However, the origin of the game remains lost in antiquity. The words for chess in Old Persian and Arabic are chatrang and shatranj respectively — terms derived from chaturanga in Sanskrit, which literally means an army of four divisions.
Chess spread throughout the world and many variants of the game soon began taking shape. This game was introduced to the Near East from India and became a part of the princely or courtly education of Persian nobility. Buddhist pilgrims, Silk Road traders and others carried it to the Far East where it was transformed and assimilated into a game often played on the intersection of the lines of the board rather than within the squares. Chaturanga reached Europe through Persia, the Byzantine empire and the expanding Arabian empire. Muslims carried chess to North Africa, Sicily, and Spain by the 10th century.
The game was developed extensively in Europe, and by late 15th century, it had survived a series of prohibitions and Christian Church sanctions to almost take the shape of the modern game. The modern times saw reliable references works, competitive chess tournaments and exciting new variants add to the popularity of the game, further bolstered by reliable time mechanisms, effective rules and charismatic players.
Read more about Origins of chess...
[edit] April 28, 2008 - May 4, 2008
An endgame tablebase is a computerized database of all chess positions within certain endgames. The tablebase reveals the game-theoretical value of each position (win, loss, or draw), and how many moves it will take to achieve that result with perfect play. Thus, the tablebase acts as an oracle, always providing the optimal moves for both White and Black.
Tablebases are generated by retrograde analysis, working backwards from a checkmated or stalemated position. Tablebases have solved chess for every position with six or fewer pieces (including the two kings). The results of the solution have profoundly advanced the chess community's understanding of endgame theory. Some positions which humans had analyzed as draws were proved to be winnable; the tablebase could see a mate in 100 moves or more, far beyond the horizon of both humans and computers. Tablebases have enhanced competitive play and facilitated the composition of endgame studies. They provide a powerful analytical tool, enabling students of chess to discover its deepest secrets.
Read more about Endgame tablebase...
[edit] April 21, 2008 - April 27, 2008
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Corresponding squares in chess are squares of reciprocal (or mutual) zugzwang. They occur most often in king and pawn endgames, especially with triangulation, opposition, and mined squares (see Zugzwang). A square that White can move to corresponds to a square that Black can move to. If one player moves to such a square, the opponent moves to the corresponding square to put the opponent in zugzwang.
Read more about Corresponding squares...
[edit] April 14, 2008 - April 20, 2008
The Turk or Automaton Chess Player was a chess-playing machine of the late 18th century, exhibited from 1770 for over 84 years, by various owners, as an automaton but later explained in January 1857 as an elaborate hoax. Constructed and unveiled in 1770 by Wolfgang von Kempelen (1734–1804) to impress the Empress Maria Theresa, the mechanism appeared to be able to play a strong game of chess against a human opponent, as well as perform the knight's tour, a puzzle that requires the player to move a knight to occupy every square of a chessboard once and only once.
Publicly promoted as an automaton and given its common name based on its appearance, the Turk was in fact a mechanical illusion that allowed a human chess master hiding inside to operate the machine. With a skilled operator, the Turk won most of the games played during its demonstrations around Europe and the Americas for nearly 84 years until its destruction by fire in 1854, playing and defeating many challengers including statesmen such as Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin. Although many had suspected the hidden human operator, the hoax was formally revealed in a series of articles in The Chess Monthly in 1857.
[edit] April 7, 2008 - April 13, 2008
The World Chess Championship is played to determine the World Champion in the board game chess. Both men and women are eligible to contest this title.
The official world championship is generally regarded to have begun in 1886, when the two leading players in the world played a match. From 1886 to 1946, the championship was conducted on an informal basis, with a challenger having to defeat the incumbent in a match to become the new world champion. From 1948 to 1993, the championship was administered by FIDE, the international chess organization. In 1993, the reigning champion (Garry Kasparov) broke away from FIDE, meaning there were two rival championships. This situation remained until 2006, when the title was unified at the World Chess Championship 2006. The most recent championship was the World Chess Championship 2007, won by Viswanathan Anand.
In addition, there is a separate event for women only, for the title of Women's World Champion, and separate competitions and titles for juniors, seniors and computers. However, these days the strongest competitors in the junior, senior, and women's categories often forego these niche title events in order to pursue top level competition, although they continue to be part of chess tradition. Computers are barred from competing for the open title.
Read more about World Chess Championship...
[edit] March 31, 2008 - April 6, 2008
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The Budapest Gambit (or Budapest Defense) is a chess opening beginning with the moves
- 1.d4 Nf6
- 2.c4 e5
It is rarely played in top-level chess, but it is occasionally seen at amateur levels. It has two codes in the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings, A51 (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5) and A52 (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 Ng4).
Black's second move attacks White's centre, sacrificing, at least temporarily, a pawn to do so. White most often will not cling to the extra pawn since that ties his pieces to defence and often gives Black a lead in development. Instead White usually develops his pieces and hopes to gain a lead in development while Black spends time regaining his pawn. After 3.dxe5 (the only serious try for an advantage) Black must move his knight again.
Read more about Budapest Gambit...
[edit] March 30, 2008
Bughouse Chess (also called Exchange Chess, Siamese Chess, Tandem Chess, Transfer Chess, or simply Bughouse) is a popular chess variant played on two chessboards by four players in teams of two. Normal chess rules apply, except that captured pieces on one board are passed on to the players of the other board, who then have the option of putting these pieces on their board.
The game is usually played at a fast time control; this, together with the passing and dropping of pieces, can make the game look chaotic and random to the casual onlooker. Hence the name bughouse, which is slang for mental hospital. The game is traditionally played as a diversion from regular chess both over the board and online. Yearly, several dedicated bughouse tournaments are organised on a national and an international level.
Read more about Bughouse chess...
[edit] December 1, 2007 - March 29, 2008
This article examines a number of methodologies that have been suggested for the task of comparing top chess players throughout history, particularly the question of comparing the greatest players of different eras. Statistical methods offer objectivity but, whilst there is agreement on systems to rate the strengths of current players, there is disagreement and controversy on whether such techniques can be applied to players from different generations who never competed against each other.
Read more about Comparing top chess players throughout history...
[edit] October 1, 2007 - November 30, 2007
An endgame tablebase is a computerized database of all chess positions within certain endgames. The tablebase reveals the game-theoretical value of each position (win, loss, or draw), and how many moves it will take to achieve that result with perfect play. Thus, the tablebase acts as an oracle, always providing the optimal moves for both White and Black.
Tablebases are generated by retrograde analysis, working backwards from a checkmated or stalemated position. Tablebases have solved chess for every position with six or fewer pieces (including the two kings). The results of the solution have profoundly advanced the chess community's understanding of endgame theory. Some positions which humans had analyzed as draws were proved to be winnable; the tablebase could see a mate in 100 moves or more, far beyond the horizon of both humans and computers. Tablebases have enhanced competitive play and facilitated the composition of endgame studies. They provide a powerful analytical tool, enabling students of chess to discover its deepest secrets.
Read more about Endgame tablebase...
[edit] September 1, 2007 - September 30, 2007
This article examines a number of methodologies that have been suggested for the task of comparing top chess players throughout history, particularly the question of comparing the greatest players of different eras. Statistical methods offer objectivity but, whilst there is agreement on systems to rate the strengths of current players, there is disagreement and controversy on whether such techniques can be applied to players from different generations who never competed against each other.
Read more about Comparing top chess players throughout history...
[edit] July 1, 2007 - August 31, 2007
An endgame tablebase is a computerized database of all chess positions within certain endgames. The tablebase reveals the game-theoretical value of each position (win, loss, or draw), and how many moves it will take to achieve that result with perfect play. Thus, the tablebase acts as an oracle, always providing the optimal moves for both White and Black.
Tablebases are generated by retrograde analysis, working backwards from a checkmated or stalemated position. Tablebases have solved chess for every position with six or fewer pieces (including the two kings). The results of the solution have profoundly advanced the chess community's understanding of endgame theory. Some positions which humans had analyzed as draws were proved to be winnable; the tablebase could see a mate in 100 moves or more, far beyond the horizon of both humans and computers. Tablebases have enhanced competitive play and facilitated the composition of endgame studies. They provide a powerful analytical tool, enabling students of chess to discover its deepest secrets.
Read more about Endgame tablebase...
[edit] June 1, 2007 - June 30, 2007
This article examines a number of methodologies that have been suggested for the task of comparing top chess players throughout history, particularly the question of comparing the greatest players of different eras. Statistical methods offer objectivity but, whilst there is agreement on systems to rate the strengths of current players, there is disagreement and controversy on whether such techniques can be applied to players from different generations who never competed against each other.
Read more about Comparing top chess players throughout history...
[edit] April 21, 2007 - May 31, 2007
The Turk or Automaton Chess Player was a chess-playing machine of the late 18th century, exhibited from 1770 for over 84 years, by various owners, as an automaton but later explained in January 1857 as an elaborate hoax. Constructed and unveiled in 1770 by Wolfgang von Kempelen (1734–1804) to impress the Empress Maria Theresa, the mechanism appeared to be able to play a strong game of chess against a human opponent, as well as perform the knight's tour, a puzzle that requires the player to move a knight to occupy every square of a chessboard once and only once.
Publicly promoted as an automaton and given its common name based on its appearance, the Turk was in fact a mechanical illusion that allowed a human chess master hiding inside to operate the machine. With a skilled operator, the Turk won most of the games played during its demonstrations around Europe and the Americas for nearly 84 years until its destruction by fire in 1854, playing and defeating many challengers including statesmen such as Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin. Although many had suspected the hidden human operator, the hoax was formally revealed in a series of articles in The Chess Monthly in 1857.
[edit] February 9, 2007 - April 25, 2007
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The Ruy Lopez, generally called the Spanish Game outside of English speaking countries, is a chess opening characterised by the moves (in algebraic notation):
The Ruy Lopez is one of the most popular openings. It has such a vast number of variations that in the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings all codes from C60 to C99 are assigned to them.
The opening is named after the 16th century Spanish priest Ruy López de Segura. He made a systematic study of this and other openings in the 150-page book on chess Libro del Ajedrez written in 1561 (which also included some unusual suggestions that some would consider unsporting, such as setting up the board so the sun shines in one's opponent's eyes). However, although it is named after him, this particular opening was known earlier; it is included in the Göttingen manuscript, which dates from 1490. Popular use of the Ruy Lopez opening did not develop, however, until the mid-1800s when Carl Jaenisch, a Russian theoretician, "rediscovered" its potential. The opening is still in active use as the double king's pawn opening most commonly used in master play; it has been adopted by almost all players at some point in their careers and many play it from both the white and black sides.
Read more about the Ruy Lopez...
[edit] July 25, 2006 - February 9, 2007
The Philidor position (known also as the third rank defense) is a chess endgame the reaching of which produces, with perfect play and unlike certain other rook-and-pawn endgames, a draw for the defending player, who possesses a rook and king against a player with a rook, king, and pawn, thought to have been first analyzed in 1777 by French chess master, music composer, and chess theoretician François-André Danican Philidor, pictured, on the cover of his 1749 treatise Analyse du jeu des Échecs.
Where neither an opponent's pawn nor his king has yet reached the defender's third rank, a defender, irrespective of the file on which his opponent's pawn would promote, seeks to place his king on the square on which such promotion would occur (referred to most often as the queening square, inasmuch as most promotions are to queens) or one directly thereto, attendant to which he seeks to place his rook on that third rank, such that the opposing king, lest he should incur check, may not progress farther.
Should the opponent seek to permit his king to pass by moving his rook onto the same rank on which the defender's rook sits, the defender may readily exchange rooks; in the absence of the rooks, the king-and-pawn-versus-king endgame is drawn, in view of the defender's having the opposition. Should the opponent seek to effect a simple rook checkmate by moving his pawn and thereafter his king to the third rank, the defender may retreat his rook to the seventh or eighth rank, after which he may offer checks repeatedly, toward a draw, often by threefold repetition or under the fifty-move rule.
[edit] July 3, 2006 - July 25, 2006
A series of interzonal tournaments composed the third of five stages in the cycle implemented by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs, the sport's governing body, in 1948, just after the death of reigining world champion Russian Alexander Alekhine, to determine the world chess champion; the cycle remained unchanged until 1996, when a schism betwixt FIDE and the Professional Chess Association as to how properly to award the world championship developed–a single-elimination format has been used bienially since 1999 to determine a FIDE world champion.
Early in each three-year cycle, each FIDE-member nation would conduct a national championship, the winner (or, for larger nations, such as the United States and Soviet Union, the top three finishers) of which would proceed to a zonal tournament, in which they would play a round robin tournament against players from proximate nations; the strength and number of FIDE-rated players determined the number of nations to be grouped, such that nations from South and Central America comprised a single zone whilst those in Europe were divided into several zones.
At the interzonal level, the top-performing players from each zonal contested a round robin tournament, the top six to twelve finishers of which advanced to a candidates tournament, in which they, joined by the top two finishers from the candidates tournaments contested during the previous cycle, competed in an additional round robin (prior to 1965) or seeded knockout tournament (in 1965 and thereafter, with each mini-match's consisting of four to eight games); the winner of the candidates tournament proceeded to a 24-game world championship match with the titleholder.
Image:David Ionovich Bronstein.jpg
The first interzonal, played in Saltsjobaden, Sweden, featured all zonal winners and saw ten players, led by Grandmasterss David Bronstein (Soviet Union), pictured, László Szabó (Hungary), and Isaac Boleslavsky (Soviet Union), advance to candidates competition in Budapest, Hungary; Bronstein and Boleslavksy would go on to finish two points clear of future world champion Grandmaster Vasily Smyslov, and, after defeating Boleslavksy in a fourteen-game playoff, Bronstein would draw a 24-game match with Mikhail Botvinnik, whereupon Botvinnik retained his title.
[edit] May 26, 2006 - July 3, 2006
Shatranj is an old two-player strategic game from which modern chess is thought to have evolved. The game came to Persia from India, where it was known as chaturanga, around the seventh century CE. Originally known as chatrang, and believed to have been very similar to chaturanga, shatranj took on its present name when it spread throughout the Muslim world. The game was popular for nearly 1000 years before the ascendance of modern chess...
[edit] March 11, 2006 - May 26, 2006
Xiangqi (listen)), is a two-player Chinese game in a family of strategic board games of which Western chess, Indian chaturanga, Japanese shogi, and the more similar Korean janggi are also members. The first character, xiàng, here has the meaning "image" or "representational", hence Xiangqi can be literally translated as "representational chess". Although the character can also mean elephant, the game is more appropriately and more commonly called Chinese chess in the West.
[edit] February 24, 2006 - March 11, 2006
The idea of creating a chess-playing machine dates back to the eighteenth century. Around 1769, the chess playing automaton called The Turk became famous before being exposed as a hoax. After that, the field of mechanical chess research languished until the advent of the digital computer in the 1950s. Since then, chess enthusiasts and computer engineers have built, with increasing degrees of seriousness and success, chess-playing machines and computer programs.
[edit] December 24, 2005 - February 24, 2006
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The Sicilian Defence is a chess opening which begins with:
This is the most popular response to 1.e4 at the master level. Black immediately fights for the centre, but by attacking from the c-file (instead of mirroring White's move) he creates an asymmetrical position that leads to complicated situations. Typically, White has the initiative on the kingside while Black obtains counterplay on the queenside, particularly on the c-file after the exchange of Black's c-pawn for White's d-pawn.
The opening was named by Gioacchino Greco in the 17th century.
[edit] September 4, 2005 - December 24, 2005
A proof game is a type of chess problem in which the solver must construct a game, starting from the initial position in chess, which ends with a given position after a given number of moves. A proof game is called a shortest proof game if no shorter solution exists, in which case sometimes no number of moves is given and the task is simply to construct the shortest possible game ending with the given position. If you win you get to keep all of the persons players
[edit] August 22, 2005 – September 4, 2005
In chess the fianchetto (Italian "little flanking") is a pattern of development wherein a bishop is developed to the second rank of the adjacent knight file, the knight pawn having been moved one or two squares forward. In Italian, fianchetto is pronounced with a hard k sound as in "cat", but many English-speaking chess players mispronounce this word with a ch sound as in "church".
[edit] August 8, 2005 – August 21, 2005
The World Chess Championship is played to determine the World Champion in the board game chess. While there has never been a female World Champion, women are eligible to hold the title. In addition, there is a separate world championship for women only, for the title of "Woman's World Champion", and separate competitions and titles for juniors, seniors and computers.
[edit] July 19, 2005 – August 7, 2005
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| "Excelsior" by Sam Loyd. White to move and mate in five "with the least likely piece or pawn". See "Excelsior" for the solution. |
A chess problem, formally called a chess composition, is a puzzle set by somebody using chess pieces on a chess board, presenting the solver with a particular task to be achieved. For instance, a position might be given with the instruction that white is to move first, and checkmate black in two moves against any possible defence. A person who creates such problems is known as a "composer". There is a good deal of specialised jargon used in chess problems; see chess problem terminology for a list.
Exactly what constitutes a chess problem is, to a degree, open to debate. However, the kinds of things published in the problem section of chess magazines, in specialist chess problem magazines, and in collections of chess problems in book form, tend to have certain common characteristics:
- The position is composed - that is, it has not been taken from an actual game, but has been invented for the specific purpose of providing a problem.
- There is a specific aim, for example, to checkmate black within a specified number of moves.
- There is a theme and the problem is aesthetically pleasing. A problem's theme is an underlying idea, giving coherence and beauty to its solution.
[edit] July 12, 2005 – July 18, 2005
The king (
) is the most important piece in the game of chess. The king represents the prize the opposition seeks to win. If a player's king is threatened and cannot escape capture, the king is said to be in checkmate, and the player which own's said king loses the game.
In a conventional game of chess, both players start with their king in the middle-right of their first rank (between the queen and the king-side bishop). In algebraic notation, the white king starts on e1 and the black king on e8.
