Chess

Chess is a board game involving two players. It is played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. At the beginning of the game each player controls sixteen pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns. The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent's king, whereby the king is under immediate attack (in "check") and there is no way to remove or defend it from attack on the next move.
The game's present form emerged in Europe during the second half of the 15th century, an evolution of an older Indian game, Shatranj. Theoreticians have developed extensive chess strategies and tactics since the game's inception. Computers have been used for many years to create chess-playing machines, and their abilities and insights have contributed significantly to modern chess theory. One, Deep Blue, was the first machine to beat a reigning World Chess Champion when it defeated Garry Kasparov in 1997.
Chess originated in India in the 6th century. It was called "chaturanga", which means literary "four divisions of the military". Another theory is that is started in China around the 2nd century BC. Chess reached Europe and Russia around the 10th century. What we do know is that today Chess Games are held any where, in homes, at clubs, online and by mail either for recreation or in a competition or tournament. The most important aim of the game is to checkmate the opponent's king!

Most chess players, who evolved into masters, became students at an early age. World chess champion Jose Capablanca began to play chess at the age of four after watching his father, Anatoly Karpov was taught the moves of chess also at four years old and then went on to become a grandmaster and world champion, and Boris Spassky learned the strategies of the game at the age of five. International grandmaster is one of the highest titles you can receive, Judit Polgar achieved this at 15 years old and Bobby Fischer was awarded the title of international master at 14 years old. Of course chess isn't only for the very young; it's popular with all ages. Gyorgy Negyesy who died in 1992, just before his 99th birthday, was the longest living master chess player.

Chess games can last hours or minutes depending on the skill of the players or even their fortune. It is unbelievable but there have been games which involved only 1 move, amazing! A famous game like this was held between Rogoff and Huber in 1972. But the longest game ever recorded was between Nikolic and Arsovic, held in Yugoslavia in 1989. This chess game involved 269 moves and took over 20 hours and no one won.

Not only men but women regularly win championships and claim world titles as well. Nona Gaprindashvili was the first woman to win a men's chess tournament in 1977. Here she tied for first place and after this went on to achieve men's international grandmaster status in 1978. Maia Chiburdanidze who was 17 years old was the youngest women's world champion of all when she won the women's title in 1978. The first woman in history to qualify for the men's world championship was Susan Polgar in the year 1986. Again is does not matter what age you are because Edith Price was 76 when she won the British ladies championship in 1946.

Not satisfied with a 'normal' game of chess, some players like to set themselves a challenge and that's exactly what George Koltanowski did when he played 56 consecutive games in 1960. In 1977, Czechoslovakian Vlastimil Hort played 550 opponents, 201 of them simultaneously. He won all but 10 games in just over thirty hours. He won 50 and drew the other 6. He also played blindfolded! In 1997, Dimitrije Bjelica played 312 games simultaneously, winning 219, losing 1 and drawing 92. Not everyone is a winner of course as was proved when Austrian master Josef Krejcik played 25 games simultaneously in 1910 and lost every one.

The first official World Chess Champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, claimed his title in 1886; the current World Champion is Viswanathan Anand from India. In addition to the World Championship, there is also the Women's World Championship, the Junior World Championship, the World Senior Championship, the Correspondence Chess World Championship, the World Computer Chess Championship, and Blitz and Rapid World Championships (see fast chess). The Chess Olympiad is a popular competition among teams from different nations. Online chess has opened amateur and professional competition to a wide and varied group of players.
Chess is a recognized sport of the International Olympic Committee, and is led by the FIDE. Today, chess is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments. Some other popular forms of chess are fast chess and computer chess, and there are many chess variants.


Chess Sets:

Chess sets are not only simple and practical, many of them are beautifully hand crafted. A unique chess set was discovered in 1170. Carved from walrus tusks, each of the characters is shown in a bad mood, ranging from anger to depression. If you are looking for unique chess pieces, Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali's did an amazing job with a design that exchanged the traditional chessmen with fingers and thumbs made of silver based on his own digits.




Facts:

(AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR CHESS)

- The longest Chess game theoretically possible is 5,949 moves.
- Judit Polgar (1976- ), at the age of 9 in 1986, won the unrated section of the NY Open, winning 7 games and 1 game drawn. At 11 she was rated 2350 and earned an International Master title, younger than Fischer or Kasparov. At age 12 she was rated 2555 and was awarded the Woman Gm title. At 13 she was the FIDE's highest rated woman. Grandmaster at age 15 years, 4 months, and 27 days.
- The record of moves without capture is of 100 moves during the Match between Thorton and M. Walker in 1992
- After each side has played three moves, the pieces could form any one of over nine million possible positions on the board
- The 12th and last Inca Emperor of Peru, Atahualpa (1500-1533), who was imprisoned by Francisco Pizarro and the Spanish Conquistadors in 1533 in Cajamarca Peru, learned Chess by watching his guards play and before long, he was beating them all
- n 1985, the Soviet player Garry Kasparov became the youngest World Chess Champion ever at the age of 22 years and 210 days
- The longest time for a Castling move to take place was the match game between Bobotsor vs. Irkov in 1966: 46. 0-0
- The Chinese Emperor Wen-ti executed two foreign Chess Players after learning that one of the pieces was called 'Emperor.' He was upset that his title of Emperor could be associated with a mere game and forbade the game
- The longest time recorded for a Chess player to make a move, goes to the International Grand Master Trois from Brazil with 2 hours and 20 minutes on the 7th move
- The first Chessboard with alternating light and dark squares appears in Europe in 1090.
- A boy gave General Rahl of the British Army a note from a spy that George Washington was about to cross the Delaware and attack. The general was so immersed in a Chess game that he put the note in his pocket unopened. There it was found when he was mortally wounded in the subsequent battle
- During World War II, some of the top Chess players were also code breakers. British masters Harry Golombek, Stuart Milner-Barry and H. O'D. Alexander were on the team which broke the Nazi Enigma code
- The number of possible ways of playing the first four moves per side in a game of Chess is 318,979,564,000
- The first mention of Chess in America occurred in the year of 1641 in Esther Singleton's history of Dutch settlers. The first American Chess tournament was held in New York in 1843
- As late as 1561, Castling was two moves. You had to play R-KB1 on one move and K-KN1 on the next move
- Ray Charles, the legendary Genius of Soul, learned Chess in 1965 after being busted and hospitalized for heroin addiction. He learned Chess in the hospital where he went cold turkey
- Rookies or, players in their first year, are named after the Rook in Chess. Rooks generally are the last pieces to be moved into action, and the same goes for Rookies
- According to the America's Foundation for Chess, there are 169, 518, 829, 100, 544, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000 ways to play the first 10 moves of a game of Chess
- The word "Checkmate" in Chess comes from the Persian phrase "Shah Mat," which means "the King is dead
- The first Computer program that played proper Chess was written at MIT by Alex Bernstein in 1959. The first Chess tournament in which the only players were Computer programs was held in New York in 1970
- There were 72 consecutive Queen moves in the Mason-Mackenzie game at London in 1882
- John Lennon and Ringo Starr played chess. Yoko Ono, Lennon's widow, is an avid chess player and supporter.
- BELLE, the first Computer awarded the title of U.S. Chess Master, in 1983. BELLE won the 1980 World Computer Championship in Linz, running on a PDP 11/23. BELLE was created by Ken Thompson and Joe Condon
- lbert Einstein was a good friend of World Chess Champion Emanuel Lasker. In an interview with the New York Times in 1936 Albert said, "I do not play any games. There is no time for it. When I get through work I don't want anything which requires the working of the mind." He did take up Chess in his later life
- The shortest game ending in mate after two moves: 1. g4 e6 or e5, 2. f3 or f4 Qh4 mate
- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), wrote the first Chess article published in America: "The Morals of Chess
- The Police raided a Chess Tournament in Cleveland in 1973, arrested the Tournament director and confiscated the Chess sets on charges of allowing gambling (cash prizes to winners) and possession of gambling devices (the Chess sets)
- The folding Chess board was originally invented in 1125 by a Chess-playing priest. Since the Church forbid priests to play Chess, he hid his Chess board by making one that looked simply like two books lying together
- Anatoly Karpov, the first world champion to win the title without playing a Chess match. He got the title in 1975 when Fischer refused to defend his title. Anatoly became a Candidate Master at the age of 11, a Master at 15, an International Grandmaster at 19, and World Champion at 24
- The number of possibilities of a Knight's tour is over 122 million
- Labourdonnais and MacDonnell played 85 games, the largest number of games ever played successively in match conditions. Neither knew a word of the other's language. Labourdonnais spent his time spitting, cursing, singing, and laughing. MacDonnell spent up to an hour and a half to make a single move
- n 1985, Eric Knoppert played 500 games of 10-minute Chess in 68 hours
- ewis Chessmen is the oldest known Chess pieces in existence, carved from walrus ivory. Seventy-eight pieces were found in a stone chamber in a sand bank on the west coast of the Isle of Lewis in 1831. They date back to 1150-1170. The pieces were discovered by a peasant who found a mysterious stone building buried under several feet of sand. The pieces reside in the British Museum and the National Museum in Edinburgh. The most striking piece is the Rook, which is the form of a captain afoot, rather than a castle
- The longest Chess game is 269 moves (I. Nikolic - Arsovic, Belgrade 1989) which ended in a draw
- The worst loss by a player was Macleod of Canada who lost 31 games in the New York double-round robin of 1889
- The youngest Master was Jordy Mont-Reynaud at 10 years, 7 months (1994). The oldest player to become a Chess Master was Oscar Shapiro, at age 74
- From the starting position, there are eight different ways to Mate in two moves and 355 different ways to Mate in three moves
- The United States is the only country to defeat the USSR twice in the Chess Olympiad
- The most popular PBS TV show aired was the 1972 Bobby Fischer-Boris Spassky Chess match.
- The very first postage stamp depicting a Chess motif was issued in Bulgaria in 1947
- The first child prodigy of Chess was Paul Morphy. He learned the moves at the age of 8 and beat the strongest players in New Orleans at 11
- The first Chess game between space and earth was played on June 9, 1970 by the Soyez-9 crew. The game ended in a draw.
- Kirk and Spock have played Chess three times on STAR TREK. Kirk won every game.
- David Strauss (1946- ), first International Master to lose to a Computer. In 1986, an experimental Fidelity machine defeated Strauss at the 1986 U.S. Open.



Famous people to play chess:


- King Alfonso of Spain
- Woody Allen
- Clive Anderson
- Yasa Arafat
- Francis Bacon
- Boris Becker
- Beethoven
- Bono
- David Bowie
- Marlon Brando
- Frank Bruno
- Al Capone
- Lewis Carrol
- Jimmy Carter
- Ray Charles
- Bob Dylan
- Hitler
- JFK
- Lennox Lewis
- Charles Manson
- George Orwell
- Keanu Reeve
- Chris Rock
- Shakespeare
- John Wayne