Introduction
Chess is a board game for two players. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to distinguish it from related games such as xiangqi (Chinese chess) and shogi (Japanese chess).
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. The players, referred to as "White" and "Black", each control sixteen pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns. White moves first, followed by Black. The game is typically won by checkmating the opponent's king, i.e. threatening it with inescapable capture. There are several ways a game can end in a draw.
The recorded history of chess goes back at least to the emergence of a similar game, chaturanga, in seventh-century India. After its introduction in Persia, it spread to the Arab world and then to Europe. 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...)
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The Göttingen manuscript is the earliest known work devoted entirely to modern chess. It is a Latin text of 33 pages held at the University of Göttingen. A quarto parchment manuscript of 33 pages, ff. 1–15a are a discussion of twelve chess openings, f. 16 is blank, and ff. 17–31b are a selection of thirty chess problems, one on each page with a diagram and solution. Authorship and exact date of the manuscript are unknown. Similarities to Lucena's Repeticion de Amores e Arte de Axedres con CL iuegos de partido (c. 1497) have led some scholars to surmise that it was written by Lucena or that it was one of Lucena's sources. Although the manuscript is generally assumed to be older than Lucena's work, this is not established. The manuscript has been ascribed possible writing dates of 1500–1505 or 1471.
The manuscript is exclusively devoted to modern chess (using the modern rules of movement for the pawn, bishop, and queen, although castling had not yet taken its current form), and no mention is made of the earlier form. The rules are not explained, so the manuscript must have been written at a time and place when the new rules were well established, or it was addressed to a player familiar with the new rules. The addressee of the manuscript is not named, but was evidently a nobleman of high rank. Some particulars of the manuscript suggest that the author was from Spain or Portugal and that it was copied at some point in France, although this is not certain.
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FIDE world ranking
Rank | Player | Rating |
---|---|---|
1 | ![]() |
2832 |
2 | ![]() |
2802 |
3 | ![]() |
2793 |
4 | ![]() |
2778 |
5 | ![]() |
2767 |
6 | ![]() |
2766 |
7 | ![]() |
2762 |
8 | ![]() |
2762 |
9 | ![]() |
2751 |
10 | ![]() |
2751 |
11 | ![]() |
2751 |
12 | ![]() |
2749 |
13 | ![]() |
2748 |
14 | ![]() |
2746 |
15 | ![]() |
2745 |
16 | ![]() |
2741 |
17 | ![]() |
2733 |
18 | ![]() |
2733 |
19 | ![]() |
2729 |
20 | ![]() |
2723 |
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Did you know...
- ... that Magnus Carlsen, the current World Chess Champion, resigned a recent tournament game after only one move?
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Chess from A to Z
Index: | A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z (0–9) |
Glossary: | A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
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