Portal:Chess

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Welcome to the Chess Portal

Introduction

Left to right: white king, black rook, black queen, white pawn, black knight, white bishop

Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to distinguish it from related games such as xiangqi (Chinese chess) and shogi (Japanese chess). The recorded history of chess goes back at least to the emergence of a similar game, chaturanga, in seventh-century India. The rules of chess as they are known today emerged in Europe at the end of the 15th century, with standardization and universal acceptance by the end of the 19th century. Today, chess is one of the world's most popular games, and is played by millions of people worldwide.

Chess is an abstract strategy game that involves no hidden information and no elements of chance. It is played on a chessboard with 64 squares arranged in an 8×8 grid. At the start, each player controls sixteen pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns. White moves first, followed by Black. The game is won by checkmating the opponent's king, i.e. threatening it with inescapable capture. There are also several ways a game can end in a draw.

Organized chess arose in the 19th century. Chess competition today is governed internationally by FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Échecs; the International Chess Federation). The first universally recognized World Chess Champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, claimed his title in 1886; Ding Liren is the current World Champion. A huge body of chess theory has developed since the game's inception. Aspects of art are found in chess composition, and chess in its turn influenced Western culture and the arts, and has connections with other fields such as mathematics, computer science, and psychology. (Full article...)

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A proof game is a type of retrograde analysis chess problem. The solver must construct a game starting from the initial chess position, which ends with a given position (thus proving that that position is reachable) after a specified number of moves. A proof game is called a shortest proof game if no shorter solution exists. In this case the task is simply to construct a shortest possible game ending with the given position.

When published, shortest proof games will normally present the solver with a diagram - which is the final position to be reached - and a caption such as "SPG in 9.0". "SPG" here is short for "shortest proof game" and the "9.0" indicates how many moves must be played to reach the position; 9.0 means the position is reached after black's ninth move, 7.5 would mean the position is reached after seven and a half moves (that is, after white's eighth move) and so on. Sometimes the caption may be more verbose, for example "Position after white's seventh move. How did the game go?". (Full article...)

List of selected articles

General images

The following are images from various chess-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Georgian writers, Ilia Chavchavadze and Ivane Machabeli playing chess in Saint Petersburg, 1873 (from Chess in the arts)
Image 2Some of the earliest examples of chess-related art are medieval illustrations accompanying books or manuscripts, such as this chess problem from the 1283 Libro de los juegos. (from Chess in the arts)
Image 3Current World Champion Ding Liren (from History of chess)
Image 4Gustaf Lundberg, 1775, Portrait of Gustav Badin, pastel, 74 x 57 cm, Nationalmuseum, Sweden (from Chess in the arts)
Image 5A Chess Dispute (1903) (from Chess in the arts)
Image 6Animation of the Immortal Game, in which Adolf Anderssen, playing white, beat Lionel Kieseritzky in June 1851 (from History of chess)
Image 7RZA at a Hip Hop Chess Federation Tournament (from Chess in the arts)
Image 8Persian manuscript from the 14th century describing how an ambassador from India brought chess to the Persian court (from History of chess)
Image 9Chess game between Tha'ālibī and Bākhazarī, 1896 painting by Ludwig Deutsch (from History of chess)
Image 10Honoré Daumier, 1863, The Chess Players (from Chess in the arts)
Image 11Bobby Fischer vs. Mikhail Tal (from History of chess)
Image 12Niccolò di Pietro, 1413–15, The Conversion of Saint Augustin, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon (from Chess in the arts)
Image 13Karel van Mander, 1600 (attributed to), Les joueurs d'échecs (from Chess in the arts)
Image 14Hans Muelich, 1552, Duke Albrecht V. of Bavaria and his wife Anna of Austria playing chess (from Chess in the arts)
Image 15Edward Harrison May, 1867, Lady Howe mating Benjamin Franklin (from Chess in the arts)
Image 16John Lavery, 1929, The Chess Players (from Chess in the arts)
Image 17Sofonisba Anguissola, The Chess Game, 1555, National Museum, Poznań, Poland (from Chess in the arts)
Image 18Thomas Eakins, 1876, The Chess Players (from Chess in the arts)
Image 19Chess Set by Man Ray (from Chess in the arts)
Image 20The 12th-century Lewis chessmen in the collection of the National Museum of Scotland (from History of chess)
Image 21In 1975, former President of Pakistan Zulfi Bhutto gifted a carved ivory set of chess to the former United States President Gerald Ford. (from Chess in the arts)
Image 22Shams-i Tabrīzī as portrayed in a 1500 painting in a page of a copy of Rumi's poem dedicated to Shams (from History of chess)
Image 23Richard Creifelds, c. 1886, The Veterans, Brooklyn Museum (from Chess in the arts)
Image 24Final match of the 1575 tournament in El Escorial. Painting by Luigi Mussini. (from History of chess)
Image 25World Champions José Raúl Capablanca (left) and Emanuel Lasker in 1925 (from History of chess)
Image 26Liberale da Verona, The Chess Players, c. 1475 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) (from Chess in the arts)
Image 27Iranian shatranj set, glazed fritware, 12th century, New York Metropolitan Museum of Art (from History of chess)
Image 28Bauhaus chess set by Josef Hartwig (from Chess in the arts)
Image 29Stamp of the USSR devoted to the accomplished Estonian player and analyst Paul Keres, 1991 (from History of chess)
Image 30Paris Bordone, c. 1545, Chess players, oil on canvas, Mailand, Wohnhaus (from Chess in the arts)
Image 31Lucas van Leyden, c. 1508, The Game of Chess, oil on oak, 27 x 35 cm, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin (from Chess in the arts)
Image 32Moors from Andalusia playing chess, Book of Games by King Alfonso X, 1283 (from Chess in the arts)
Image 33Book of the customs of men and the duties of nobles or the Book of Chess (1473) (from Chess in the arts)
Image 34Wilhelm Steinitz, the first official World Chess Champion (from History of chess)
Image 35Antonis Mor, 1549, Von Sachsen vs. a Spaniard (from Chess in the arts)
Image 36The Chess Players by Henry Fox Talbot, 1847 (from History of chess)
Image 37Krishna and Radha playing chaturanga on an 8×8 Ashtāpada (from History of chess)
Image 38Moors from Andalusia playing chess, Book of Games by King Alfonso X, 1283 (from History of chess)

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Image 1Click to enlarge and view description
Image 2Click to enlarge and view description
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FIDE world ranking

Rank	Player	Rating
1	Magnus Carlsen	2830
2	Fabiano Caruana	2803
3	Hikaru Nakamura	2789
4	Nodirbek Abdusattorov	2765
5	Ding Liren	2762
6	Alireza Firouzja	2760
7	Ian Nepomniachtchi	2758
8	Wesley So	2757
9	Erigaisi Arjun	2756
10	Wei Yi	2755
11	Viswanathan Anand	2751
12	Sergey Karjakin	2750
13	Leinier Dominguez	2748
14	Praggnanandhaa R	2747
15	Anish Giri	2745
16	Gukesh D	2743
17	Shakhriyar Mamedyarov	2733
18	Parham Maghsoodloo	2732
19	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	2732
20	Jan-Krzysztof Duda	2731

Top 10 WikiProject Chess Popular articles of the month

This following chess-related articles is a most visited articles of WikiProject Chess, See complete list at Wikipedia:WikiProject Chess/Popular pages.

Image 1
Algebraic notation

Algebraic notation is the standard method for recording and describing the moves in a game of chess. It is based on a system of coordinates to uniquely identify each square on the board. It is used by most books, magazines, and newspapers. (Full article...)
Image 2

Portrait by Joseph Duplessis, 1778

Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 [O.S. January 6, 1705] – April 17, 1790) was an American polymath, a leading writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Among the most influential intellectuals of his time, Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States; a drafter and signer of the Declaration of Independence; and the first postmaster general. (Full article...)
Image 3

Kubrick c. 1973–74

Stanley Kubrick (/ˈkuːbrɪk/; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American filmmaker and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films were nearly all adaptations of novels or short stories, spanning a number of genres and gaining recognition for their intense attention to detail, innovative cinematography, extensive set design, and dark humor. (Full article...)
Image 4

Part of a Staunton chess set
Left to right: white king, black rook, black queen, white pawn, black knight, white bishop

Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to distinguish it from related games such as xiangqi (Chinese chess) and shogi (Japanese chess). The recorded history of chess goes back at least to the emergence of a similar game, chaturanga, in seventh-century India. The rules of chess as they are known today emerged in Europe at the end of the 15th century, with standardization and universal acceptance by the end of the 19th century. Today, chess is one of the world's most popular games, and is played by millions of people worldwide. (Full article...)
Image 5

Bogart in 1940

Humphrey DeForest Bogart (/ˈboʊɡɑːrt/ BOH-gart; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), colloquially nicknamed Bogie, was an American actor. His performances in classic Hollywood cinema films made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film Institute selected Bogart as the greatest male star of classic American cinema. (Full article...)
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Tie-breakers for first place: (1) results in tie-break games for first place; (Full article...)

Carlsen at the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2023

Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian chess grandmaster. He is a five-time World Chess Champion, the reigning five-time World Rapid Chess Champion, the reigning seven-time World Blitz Chess Champion, and the reigning Chess World Cup Champion. He has held the No. 1 position in the FIDE world chess rankings since 1 July 2011 and trails only Garry Kasparov in time spent as the highest-rated player in the world, while holding the record for longest consecutive reign. His peak rating of 2882 is the highest in history. He also holds the record for the longest unbeaten streak at an elite level in classical chess at 125 games. (Full article...)

Fischer in 1972

Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943 – January 17, 2008) was an American chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Championships at the age of 14. In 1964, he won with an 11–0 score, the only perfect score in the history of the tournament. Qualifying for the 1972 World Championship, Fischer swept matches with Mark Taimanov and Bent Larsen by 6–0 scores. After winning another qualifying match against Tigran Petrosian, Fischer won the title match against Boris Spassky of the USSR, in Reykjavík, Iceland. Publicized as a Cold War confrontation between the US and USSR, the match attracted more worldwide interest than any chess championship before or since. (Full article...)

In chess, en passant (French: [ɑ̃ pasɑ̃], lit. "in passing") describes the capture by a pawn of an enemy pawn on the same rank and an adjacent file that has just made an initial two-square advance. The capturing pawn moves to the square that the enemy pawn passed over, as if the enemy pawn had advanced only one square. The rule ensures that a pawn cannot use its two-square move to safely skip past an enemy pawn. (Full article...)

Kasparov in 2015

Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born Garik Kimovich Weinstein on 13 April 1963) is a Russian chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion (1985–2000), political activist and writer. His peak FIDE chess rating of 2851, achieved in 1999, was the highest recorded until being surpassed by Magnus Carlsen in 2013. From 1984 until his retirement from regular competitive chess in 2005, Kasparov was ranked world no. 1 for a record 255 months overall. Kasparov also holds records for the most consecutive professional tournament victories (15) and Chess Oscars (11). (Full article...)

Did you know...

... that Magnus Carlsen, the current World Chess Champion, resigned a recent tournament game after only one move?

Reviewed articles

Featured articles	Good articles
First-move advantage in chess	42nd Chess Olympiad	Goryachkina, Aleksandra
Gossip, George H. D.	43rd Chess Olympiad	Guramishvili, Sopiko
List of female chess grandmasters	Abdumalik, Zhansaya	Kazarian, Anna-Maja
Mechanical Turk	Alekhine, Alexander	Kristjánsson, Stefán
44th Chess Olympiad	Anderssen, Adolf	Lasker, Emanuel
	Belenkaya, Dina	Mammadzada, Gunay
	Bindrich, Falko	Milner-Barry, Stuart
	Blübaum, Matthias	Modern Benoni
	Budapest Gambit	Muzychuk, Anna
	Bughouse chess	Nadanian, Ashot
	Carlsen, Magnus	Rudolf, Anna
	Chess in Armenia	Rules of chess
	Cramling, Anna	Staunton, Howard
	Deep Blue (Chess computer)	Steinitz, Wilhelm
	En passant	Turochamp
	Endgame tablebase	World Chess Championship 1972
	Fischer, Bobby	Zhou, Qiyu