Chess
Texts referring to the origins of chess date from the beginning of the seventh century. Three are written in Pahlavi and one, the Harshacharita, is in Sanskrit. The earliest evidence of chess is found in nearby Sasanian Persia around 600 A.D., where the game came to be known by the name chatrang. Chaturanga was played on an 8×8 uncheckered board called ashtāpada. It spread eastward and westward along the Silk Road. The oldest archaeological chess artifacts were excavated in ancient Afrasiab, today's Samarkand, in Uzbekistan, Central Asia, and date to about 760. These ivory pieces came from India. By the year 1000, it had spread throughout both the Muslim Iberia and Latin Europe. A Latin poem called Versus de scachis dated to the late 10th century has been preserved at Einsiedeln Abbey in Switzerland.
Chess is a board game for two players, played on a square board consisting of 64 squares arranged in an 8×8 grid. Each set comes with at least 16 pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns. White moves first after which players alternate turns. One piece is moved per turn except when castling during which two pieces are moved. The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent. Check occurs when a king is under immediate attack. There are three ways to counter a check: capture the checking piece, interpose a piece between the checking piece and the king, or move the king to a square where it is not under attack. Castling consists of moving the king two squares toward either rook of the same color and then placing the rook on the square that the king crossed. Pawns have special moves including en passant and promotion. Promotion happens when a pawn advances to its last rank and is replaced with the player's choice of a queen, rook, bishop, or knight.
In 1913, the chess historian H.J.R. Murray estimated the total number of books, magazines, and chess columns in newspapers to be about 5,000. B.H. Wood estimated the number as of 1949 to be about 20,000. Significant public chess libraries include the John G. White Chess and Checkers Collection at Cleveland Public Library with over 32,000 chess books. Strategy concerns the evaluation of chess positions and setting up goals for future play. Players must take into account factors such as the value of pieces, control of the center, pawn structure, and king safety. The point values used are based on experience: pawns worth one point, knights and bishops about three points each, rooks about five points, and queens about nine points. Chess theory divides games into three phases: the opening, the middlegame, and the endgame. The middlegame typically begins after 10, 20 moves. Tactics refer to short-term maneuvers that can be calculated in advance by a human player. A forced variation involving a sacrifice is called a combination. Brilliant combinations like those in the Immortal Game are considered beautiful.
Organized chess arose in the 19th century. The first modern chess tournament was organized by Howard Staunton and held in London in 1851. It was won by the German Adolf Anderssen. The first universally recognized World Chess Champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, claimed his title in 1886. FIDE's membership consists of national chess organizations from over 180 countries. FIDE has controlled the World Championship since 1948. The current World Champion is Gukesh Dommaraju of India who won the title in 2024. Magnus Carlsen achieved the highest FIDE rating of all time at 2882 twice, in May 2014 and August 2019. In 1975, Bobby Fischer refused to defend his title against Soviet Anatoly Karpov when he was unable to reach agreement on conditions with FIDE. Kasparov became the dominant figure of world chess from the mid-1980s until his retirement from competition in 2005. In 1993, Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short broke ties with FIDE.
The standard system today is short-form algebraic notation. Files are labeled a through h and ranks are labeled 1 through 8. Squares are identified by the file and rank they occur on; g3 is the square on the g-file and the third rank. Moves are recorded as follows: Qg5 means queen moves to g5. Pawns have no letter initials; e4 simply means pawn moves to e4. If a move may be disambiguated by rank or file it is done by file. When a pawn makes a capture the file from which the pawn departed is often listed even when no disambiguation is necessary. Castling is indicated by the special notations 0-0 for castling and 0-0-0 for castling. A move that places the opponent's king in check usually has the notation + suffixed. Checkmate can be indicated by suffixing #. At the end of the game 1, 0 means White won 0, 1 means Black won and ½, ½ indicates a draw. Games or sequences may be recorded in Portable Game Notation (PGN) a text-based file format with support for annotative symbols.
Chess-playing computer programs began to appear in the 1960s. In 1970, the first major computer chess tournament, the North American Computer Chess Championship, was held. Dedicated home chess computers such as Fidelity Electronics' Chess Challenger became commercially available in the late 1970s. The overall standard of computer chess was low until the 1990s. Digital chess clocks were invented in 1973 though they did not become commonplace until the 1990s. By the 1990s, chess engines could consistently defeat most amateurs. In 1997 Deep Blue defeated World Champion Garry Kasparov in a six-game match starting an era of computer dominance at the highest level of chess. In 2017 AlphaZero, a neural network also capable of playing shogi and Go, was introduced. Since then many chess engines based on neural network evaluation have been written. The Internet enabled online chess as a new medium of playing with chess servers allowing users to play other people from different parts of the world in real time. The first such server known as Internet Chess Server (ICS) was developed at the University of Utah in 1992.
Common questions
When did the earliest evidence of chess appear in Sasanian Persia?
The earliest evidence of chess is found in nearby Sasanian Persia around 600 A.D. where the game came to be known by the name chatrang.
What are the rules for castling in Chess?
Castling consists of moving the king two squares toward either rook of the same color and then placing the rook on the square that the king crossed. This move allows two pieces to be moved during a single turn instead of one.
Who won the first modern chess tournament held in London in 1851?
The German Adolf Anderssen won the first modern chess tournament organized by Howard Staunton and held in London in 1851. Wilhelm Steinitz later claimed his title as the first universally recognized World Chess Champion in 1886.
How many countries does FIDE have members from today?
FIDE's membership consists of national chess organizations from over 180 countries. The organization has controlled the World Championship since 1948.
When did Deep Blue defeat World Champion Garry Kasparov?
In 1997 Deep Blue defeated World Champion Garry Kasparov in a six-game match starting an era of computer dominance at the highest level of chess. Digital chess clocks were invented in 1973 though they did not become commonplace until the 1990s.