Origins of chess

Origins of chess

The game of Chess has been attributed to the Indians both by the Persian people and by the Arabs.[1] The words for chess in Old Persian and Arabic are chatrang and shatranj respectively — terms derived from chaturanga in Sanskrit,[2] which literally means an army of four divisions.[3]
Chess spread throughout the world and many variants of the game soon began taking shape.[4] This game was introduced to the Near East from India and became a part of the princely or courtly education of Persian nobility.[3] 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.[4] Chaturanga reached Europe through Persia, the Byzantine empire and the expanding Arabian empire.[5] Muslims carried chess to North Africa, Sicily, and Spain by the 10th century.[4]
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.[6] The modern times saw reliable references works,[7] competitive chess tournaments[8] and exciting new variants add to the popularity of the game,[8] further bolstered by reliable time mechanisms, effective rules[8] and charismatic players

India

The earliest precursor of modern chess is a game called Chaturanga, which flourished in India by the 6th century, and is the earliest known game to have two essential features found in all later chess variations — different pieces having different powers (which was not the case with Checkers and Go), and victory depended on the fate of one piece, the king of modern chess.[4] Other game pieces, often known as "chess pieces," uncovered in archaeological findings are considered as coming from other, distantly related, board games, which may even have boards of 100 squares or more.[4]
As early as the late 19th century, an idea originating mainly from the works of Captain Hiram Cox and Duncan Forbes indicated that a four handed game was the original form of chaturanga.[10] Other scholars have concluded that a two handed version probably existed before the four handed one and evolved later into many other versions, including the four handed version of chaturanga.[2]
In Sanskrit, "Chaturanga" literally means "having four limbs (or parts)" and in epic poetry often means army.[3] The name itself comes from a battle formation mentioned in the Indian epic Mahabharata.[4] Chaturanga was a battle simulation game[3] which faithfully rendered Indian military strategy of the time.[11] Initial gambling and dice aspects of the game — facing condemnation from both the Hindu and Muslim cultures — were removed as the game progressed and branched into newer games.[12]
Ashtāpada, the uncheckered 8x8 board — sometimes with special markers — served as the main board for playing Chaturanga.[13] Other Indian boards included the 10X10 Dasapada and the 9X9 Saturankam.[13]
The Arab scholar Abu al-Hasan 'Alī al-Mas'ūdī detailed the use of chess as a tool for military strategy, mathematics, gambling and even its vague association with astronomy in India and elsewhere.[1] Mas'ūdī notes that Ivory in India was chiefly used for the production of chess and backgammon pieces, and asserts that the game was introduced to Persia from India, along with the book Kelileh va Demneh, during the reign of emperor Nushirwan.[1]
A notable evolution of chaturanga was Shatranj (or chatrang), a popular two-player variant which resembled chaturanga and could be won either by either eliminating all of an opponent's pieces (except the king) or by capturing the king itself.[4] The initial positions of the pawns and horses did not change, but there were some regional and temporal alterations for the other pieces

Middle East

The Karnamak-i Ardeshir-i Papakan, a Pahlavi epical treatise about the founder of the Sassanid Persian Empire, mentions the game of chatrang as one of the accomplishments of the legendary hero, Ardashir I, founder of the Empire.[14] The oldest recorded game in chess history is a 10th century game played between a historian from Baghdad and a pupil.[5]
In the 11th century Shahnameh, Ferdowsi describes a Raja visiting from India who re-enacts the past battles on the chessboard.[1] A translation in English, based on the manuscripts in the British Museum, is given below:[14]
One day an ambassador from the king of Hind arrived at the Persian court of Chosroes, and after an oriental exchange of courtesies, the ambassador produced rich presents from his sovereign and amongst them was an elaborate board with curiously carved pieces of ebony and ivory.He then issues a challenge:"Oh great king, fetch your wise men and let them solve the mysteries of this game. If they succeed my master the king of Hind will pay tribute as an overlord, but if they fail it will be proof that the Persians are of lower intellect and we shall demand tribute from Iran."The courtiers were shown the board, and after a day and a night in deep thought one of them, Buzurjmihir, solved the mystery and was richly rewarded by his delighted sovereign.
The appearance of the chess pieces had altered greatly since the times of chaturanga, with ornate pieces and chess pieces depicting animals giving way to abstract shapes.[15] The Islamic sets of later centuries followed a pattern which assigned names and abstract shapes to the chess pieces as Islam forbids depiction of animals and human beings in art.[15] These pieces were usually made of simple clay and carved stone

East Asia

As a strategy board game played in China, chess is believed to have been derived from the Indian Chaturanga.[16] Chaturanga was transformed and assimilated into a game often placed on the intersection of the lines of the board rather than within the squares.[4] The object of the Chinese variation is similar to Chaturanga, i.e. to capture the opponent's king, sometimes known as general.[16] Chinese chess also borrows elements from the game of Go, which was played in China since at least the 6th century BC.[16] Owing to the influence of Go, Chinese chess is played on the intersections of the lines on the board, rather than in the squares.[16] Chinese chess pieces are usually flat and resemble those used in checkers.[16]
Joseph Needham posits that "image-chess," a recreational game associated with divination, was developed in China and transmitted to India,[17] where it evolved into the form of modern military chess.[18] Needham notes that dice were transmitted to China from India,[19] and were used in the game of "image-chess."[17]
Another alternative theory contends that chess arose from Xiangqi or a predecessor thereof, existing in China since the 2nd century BC.[20] David H. Li, a retired accountant, professor of accounting and translator of ancient Chinese texts, hypothesizes that general Han Xin drew on the earlier game of Liubo to develop an early form of Chinese chess in the winter of 204 BC–203 BC.[20] The German chess historian Peter Banaschak points to the many inconsistencies in Li's theories while noting that the "Xuanguai lu," authored by the Tang Dynasty minister Niu Sengru (779-847) remains the first real source on Chinese chess.[21]
A prominent variant of chess in East Asia is the game of Shogi, transmitted from India to China and Korea before finally reaching Japan.[22] The two distinguishing features of Shogi are: 1) The captured pieces may be used by the captor and played as a part of the captor's forces, and 2) any pawn can capture in the normal, one square straight ahead move

Early History

A variation of chaturanga made its way to Europe through Persia, the Byzantine empire and the expanding Arabian empire.[5] Chess appeared in Southern Europe during the end of the first millennium, often introduced to new lands by conquering armies, such as the Norman Conquest of England.[6] Chess remained largely unpopular among the North European people — who could not relate to the abstract shapes — but started gaining popularity as soon as figurative pieces were introduced.[6]
The social value attached to the game — seen as a prestigious pastime associated with nobility and high culture — is clear by the expensive and exquisitely made chessboards of the medieval era.[23] The popularity of chess in the Western courtly society peaked between the 12th and the 15th centuries.[24] The game found mention in the vernacular and Latin language literature throughout Europe and many works were written on or about chess between the 12th and the 15th centuries.[24] Harold James Ruthven Murray divides the works into three distinct parts: the didactic works eg. Alexander of Neckham's De scaccis (approx. 1180 CE); works of morality like Liber de moribus hominum et officiis nobilium sive super ludo scacchorum (Book of the customs of men and the duties of nobles or the Book of Chess), written by Jacobus de Cessolis; and the works related to various chess problems, written largely after 1205 CE.[24] Chess terms, like check, were used by authors as a metaphor for various situationsChess was soon incorporated to Knighly style of life in Europe.[26] Peter Alfonsi, in his work Disciplina Clericalis, listed chess among the seven skills that a good knight must acquire.[26] Chess also became a subject of art during this period, with caskets and pendants decorated in various chess forms.[27] Queen Margaret of England's green and red chess sets — made of jasper and crystal — symbolized chess's position in royal art treasures.[25] Kings Henry I, Henry II and Richard I of England were chess patrons.[4] Other monarchs who gained similar status were Alfonso X of Spain and Ivan IV of Russia.[4]
Saint Peter Damian denounced the bishop of Florence in 1061 CE for playing chess even when aware of its evil effects on the society.[6] The bishop of Florence defended himself by declaring that chess involved skill and was therefore "unlike other games," similar arguments followed in the coming centuries.[6] Two separate incidents in 13th century London involving men of Essex resorting to violence resulting in death as an outcome of playing chess further caused sensation and alarm.[6] The growing popularity of the game — now associated with revelry and violence — alarmed the Church.[6]
The practice of playing chess for money became so widespread during the 13th century that Louis IX of France issued an ordinance against gambling in 1254 CE.[23] This ordinance turned out to be unenforceable and was largely neglected by the common public, and even the courtly society, which continued to enjoy the now prohibited chess tournaments uninterrupted.[23]
By the Mid 12th century, the pieces of the chess set were depicted as kings, queens, bishops, knights and men at arms.[28] Chessmen made of Ivory began to appear in North-West Europe, and ornate pieces of traditional knight warriors were used as early as the mid 13th century.[29] The initially nondescript pawn had now found association with the, pedes, pedinus,or the footman, which symbolized both infantry and loyal domestic service.[28]
The following table provides a glimpse of the changes in names and character of chess pieces as they transitioned from India through Persia to EuropeThe game, as played during the early middle ages, was slow with many games lasting for days.[6] Some variations in rules began to change the shape of the game in by 1300 CE.[32] A notable, but initially unpopular, change was the ability of the pawn to move two places in the first move instead of one.[32]
New alterations, made after 1475 CE, led to further evolution of the game: the queen — a powerful new piece — was introduced, leading to additional value being attached to the previously minor tactic of pawn promotion.[32] The war elephant of the chaturanga also evolved into the bishop, giving the piece more range.[32] This rise of "unwarlike" figures and a departure from the pure military symbolism prevalent in India and Persia may have bought these pieces closer to the court and ordinary household.[28] Furthermore, checkmate became easier and games could now be won using a smaller number of moves.[32]
The queen and bishop pieces remained relatively weak until the game reached an evolved form, very close to the modern form of chess, by the late 15th century.[6]
An Italian player, Gioacchino Greco, regarded as the one of the first true professionals of the game, authored an analysis of a number of composed games that illustrated two differing approaches to chess.[7] This influential work went to some extent in popularizing chess and demonstrated the many theories regarding gameplay and tactics
The first full work dealing with the various winning combinations was written by François-André Danican Philidor of France, regarded as the best chess player in the world for nearly 50 years, and published in the 18th century.[7] He wrote and published L'Analyze des échecs (Chess Analyzed), an influential work which appeared in more than 100 editions

Rise of the modern game

Competitive chess became visible in 1834, and the 1851 London Chess tournament raised concerns about the time taken by the players to deliberate their moves. [8] On recording time it was found that players often took hours to analyze moves and one player took as many as two hours and 20 minutes to think over a single move at the London tournament.[8] The following years saw the development of speed chess, five-minute chess and the most popular variant, a version allowing a bank of time to each player in which to play a previously agreed number of moves, eg. two hours for 30 moves.[8] In the final variant, the player who made the predetermined number of moves in the agreed time received additional time budget for his next moves.[8] Penalties for exceeding a time limit came in form of fines and forfeiture, since fines were easy to bear for professional players, forfeiture became the only effective penalty
In 1861 the first time limits, using sandglasses, were employed in a tournament match at Bristol, England.[8] The sandglasses were later replaced by pendulums.[8] Modern clocks, consisting of two parallel timers with a small button for a player to press after completing a move, were later employed to aid the players.[8] A tiny latch called a flag further helped settle arguments over players exceeding time limit at the turn of the 19th century.[8]
A Russian composer, Vladimir Korolkov, authored a work entitled "Excelsior" in 1958 in which the White side wins only by making six consecutive captures by a pawn.[9] Position analysis became particularly popular in the 19th century.[9] Many leading players were also accomplished analysts, including Max Euwe, Mikhail Botvinnik, and Vasily Smyslov and Jan Timman.[9] Digital clocks appeared in the

Correspondence chess

Correspondence chess

Correspondence chess is chess played by various forms of long-distance correspondence, usually through a correspondence chess server, through email or by the postal system; less common methods which have been employed include fax and homing pigeon. It is in contrast to over-the-board (OTB) chess, where the players sit at a chessboard at the same time (or perhaps play at the same time remotely).
Correspondence chess allows people or clubs who are geographically distant to play one another without meeting in person. These distant relationships are just one of the many distinct appeals of correspondence chess.[1] The length of a game played by correspondence can vary depending on the method used to transmit the moves: a game played via server or by email might last no more than a few days, weeks, or months, but a game played by post between players in different countries might last several years.

Structure of correspondence chess

Correspondence chess differs from over-the-board play in several respects. While players in OTB chess generally play one at a time (an exception being a simultaneous exhibition), correspondence players often have several games going at once. Tournament games are played concurrently, and some players may have more than one hundred games continuing at the same time.
Time limits in correspondence play are usually between 30 and 60 days for every 10 moves (plus transmission time in postal chess). This time allows for far deeper calculation, meaning that blunders can be less frequent. Certain forms of assistance, including books, chess databases and sometimes chess programs, are often allowed. Books and databases are almost universally acceptable, but organizations vary as to whether chess engine use is permitted. Hobby players new to the distinctive appeal of correspondence chess sometimes shun all assistance

Computer Assistance

The new phenomenon of computer assistance has altered the essence of correspondence chess and in addition to profound chess knowledge and analytical discipline, the ability to interpret and guide computer analysis has become important. Given that even players with poor chess knowledge can use the strongest computer programs to analyse their games, the gap between the beginner and master player has narrowed in recent years. However, the influence of computer assistance remains controversial in both official and casual play, and consensus on the issue of whether to allow computer aid is still lacking.
Also at stake is human supremacy over computer chess programs; some argue that a chess program — if left alone — is no match for a top-level correspondence player. An interesting parallel match between correspondence chess grandmaster Arno Nickel and six computer programs on the now defunct Chessfriend server ended +1=3-2. Nickel also played a two-game match against Hydra, currently the strongest chess machine, winning 2-0. In the rematch, the first game was drawn. The second game has been postponed because of the parties' schedules and server problems. Arno Nickel played in the final of the second CSS/PAL Freestyle (see Advanced Chess) on Playchess, becoming the only player to obtain a winning position against the tournament winner Hydra Syclla, reaffirming his "anti-Hydra" status. He eventually lost the game because of time trouble in the revised shorter time-control

Regulatory bodies of correspondence chess

Correspondence chess tournaments are usually played under the auspices of an official regulatory body, most importantly International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF), which is affiliated with FIDE, the international chess organization. However, the ICCF, which organizes postal and email events, is not the only organization involved in correspondence chess. There are numerous national and regional bodies for postal chess, as well as a number of organisations devoted to organize email play[2]. However it should be noted that groups other than the ICCF are not sanctioned by FIDE.
The ICCF awards the titles International Master, Senior International Master and International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster — these are equivalent to similar titles awarded by FIDE for over-the-board chess. The ICCF also runs the World Correspondence Chess Championships. Because these events can last a long time, they may overlap: for instance, in February 2005 Joop van Oosterom was declared winner of the eighteenth Championship (which began in June 2003), though the winner of the seventeenth Championship (which began in March 2002) had not yet been determined.
Up until 2004, ICCF correspondence chess was played only via email and postal mail. For playing by these two forms of transmission, the ICCF developed their own game notation, known as the ICCF Numeric notation, especially for the purpose of ICCF correspondence chess.
In recent years, the use of increasingly powerful chess programs have brought forth new challenges for organizations like the ICCF and the U.S. Chess Federation, necessitating sometimes controversial decisions on the admissibility of such programs in official correspondence play.[3]
Moreover, the emergence of the Internet has brought new opportunities for correspondence chess, not all of which are organized by official bodies. Casual correspondence chess includes correspondence play initiated through correspondence chess servers and games played between individuals who meet and play on their own. Casual correspondence play does not lead to official ratings, though some chess servers will calculate ratings for the players based on results on that server

Types of correspondence chess

There are three main types of correspondence chess, with server based correspondence chess becoming the most popular form in the world today, with major correspondence servers becoming as large and popular as the online blitz chess servers

Server-based Correspondence Chess

Correspondence chess servers are usually database-driven and carry with them a web-based interface for submitting moves to the database. But they do create the possibility of facilitating any method of transmission, as long as the transmitted moves are audited within the server's database.
Server fees vary. Most casual servers use a yearly charging model, whereby players can play as many tournaments or games as they want all year round. Also more casual servers allow the use of nicknames, and have a real-time rating system which often adjusts a player's rating after each rated game. Casual servers also tend to have a wide range of facilities, such as online games databases, social and chess improvement forums, teams, and player homepages. More traditionally based correspondence chess servers often charge per tournament and still force the use of real names, which is arguably a very controversial thing to do in the modern world of online hackers.
The International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) closely cooperates with the world chess organization FIDE. All ICCF titles, championships and ratings are recognised by FIDE

Email based correspondence chess

There are organisations devoted to organising email play. But email play is gradually declining in popularity due to issues such as email viruses, the possibility of opponents claiming they have not received moves, and similar impediments. Many email players are abandoning it in favor of server based chess

Postal (Snail Mail) correspondence chess

There are organisations who use traditional "snail mail" to facilitate moves between players. This form of correspondence chess was arguably superseded by email-based correspondence chess, which offers much cheaper play per game — each move usually delivered free by email and also instantaneously. But email-based chess itself has arguably been superseded by server based correspondence chess, where usually the interface to a chess server is a web-based interface. Traditional postal correspondence organizations, such as the International Correspondence Chess Association and the United States Chess Federation , have added email and server-based options to their correspondence play.[4]
It should be noted that correspondence chess servers can have any interface to submit moves to it — they are like a virtual "bank", and the method of transmission is less important, as long as the move transactions are audited into the "bank". For example, if carrier pigeons carried moves to a place where their moves were scanned in, those moves could be entered into the correspondence chess server

Over-the-board players who also play correspondence chess

Although nowadays the strongest correspondence players are specialists, a number of notable players in over-the-board (OTB) chess have in the past played postal games during their chess career. Olga Rubtsova won both the world OTB and correspondence championships for women. Former world correspondence champions Yakov Estrin, Alberic O'Kelly de Galway and Viacheslav Ragozin were all OTB Grandmasters, and C.J.S. Purdy and Mikhail Umansky were OTB International Masters. Players who have received the GM title in both fields include Ulf Andersson, Igor Bondarevsky, Aivars Gipslis, Curt Hansen, Jonny Hector, Jānis Klovāns, Olita Rause(WGM), Lothar Schmid and Duncan Suttles. Correspondence GMs Janos Balogh, Olaf Barda, Jean Hebert, Jonathan Penrose and Richard Polaczek are also OTB International Masters, and OTB GM Alexander Tolush was a correspondence IM. Correspondence GM Martin Kreuzer is an FM in OTB. Paul Keres, an Estonian sometimes regarded as the strongest player never to become world champion, played many games of correspondence chess, apparently because he had difficulty finding players in his native country anywhere near strong enough to give him a decent game. OTB world champions Alexander Alekhine and Max Euwe also played. Ulf Andersson also achieved very high ratings in both ICCF and FIDE, remaining in the FIDE Top 100 unto June 2002 and consistently ranked second on ICCF. Andrei Sokolov is another OTB GM who has recently taken up email chess.

List of chess games

This is a list of notable Chess games sorted chronologically.
Bowdler - Conway, London, 1788, Thomas Bowdler offers the first example of the famous double rook sacrifice;
The Immortal game between Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky (1851);
The Evergreen game between Adolf Anderssen and Jean Dufresne (1852);
The opera game between Paul Morphy and two allies, the Duke of Brunswick and Count Isouard (1858);
Lasker - Bauer, Amsterdam, 1889, the first example of the famous double bishop sacrifice;
Levitsky - Marshall, 1912, widely considered one of the greatest queen sacrifices ever played;
Bogoljubov - Alekhine, Hastings 1922 was called the greatest game of chess ever played by Irving Chernev : "Alekhine's subtle strategy involves manoeuvres which encompass the entire chessboard as a battlefield. There are exciting plots and counterplots. There are fascinating combinations and brilliant sacrifices of Queens and Rooks. There are two remarkable promotions of Pawns and a third in the offing, before White decides to capitulate." (The Chess Companion, Chernev, Faber & Faber Ltd, 1970)
The Immortal Zugzwang Game between Fritz Sämisch and Aron Nimzowitsch, Copenhagen 1923;
The Polish Immortal, features Glucksberg vs. Najdorf (circa 1930). Black sacrifices all 4 minor pieces for victory;
The Peruvian Immortal (1934), sees Peruvian master Esteban Canal demolish his amateur opponent with the sacrifice of 2 rooks and queen;
The Pearl of Zandvoort. Savielly Tartakower gave this name to the decisive game of the Max Euwe v. Alexander Alekhine 1935 World Championship Match.
The Game of the Century between Bobby Fischer and Donald Byrne (1956);
The Immortal losing game occurred in 1957 between Bogdan Sliwa and David Bronstein. Black has a lost game but sets some elegant traps in attempting to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat;
The Octopus Knight, game 16 of the 1985 World Chess Championship match. Garry Kasparov as black gets a dominating knight (called an "Octopus knight" by Raymond Keene) on d3 against Anatoly Karpov.
Deep Blue - Kasparov, 1996, Game 1, the first game in which a chess-playing computer defeated a reigning world champion using normal time controls (1996);
Deep Blue - Kasparov, 1997, Game 6, the last game of the 1997 rematch, which Deep Blue won, making it the first computer to defeat a world champion in a match over several games;
Kasparov versus The World, in which the reigning world champion played, via the Internet, against the entire rest of the world in consultation (1999);
Kasparov - Topalov, Wijk aan Zee, 1999, rook sacrifice with a 15+ moves forced sacrificial combination. One of the most commented chess games ever, with extensive press coverage.

Seirawan Chess: The Advantages

The idea of adding pieces to chess is hardly new. "Chancellor chess", which introduced a rook-knight on a 9x9 board, was proposed in 1889 by Ben Foster, an American. The rook-knight (as the "Centaur") apparently dates back to 1617. The bishop-knight has a long pedigree as well, and in the 1920s Cuban World Champion Jose Raoul Capablanca proposed "Capablanca chess", adding both pieces (the "Chancellor" and the "Archbishop") on a 10x10 board.The motivation behind all the proposed reforms of chess have been the same - rather than becoming a test of skill, imagination and creativity, chess had become a matter of knowledge and technique. Capablanca's pessimistic view that chess was "played out" some 80 years ago was shown by the subsequent development of chess to be premature and unjustified, although in retrospect Capablanca was prescient and his views were hardly deserving of the ridicule they received. The feeling that chess was played too much by rote has been shared by many players for many years. For example, Capablanca was quoted in the Charleston Gazette on February 12, 1928: "In chess today everything is known to great players. There are no new moves, no new tactics to consider. If the game is to grow it will have to be modified."With the advances and elaboration of opening theory and the advent of the internet, databases and chess-playing computer engines, Capablanca's intuition has been vindicated, just as it has been in so many of his games. At the highest level, new moves are seen only after 20, 25 or more theoretical moves are played, if they are seen at all. A player who knows the theory of an opening will beat a player who doesn't. Preparation and memorization count for more than skill and ability. Players no longer have to work things out, even before the game - computers will do that and the player's job is to memorize the results.Many players, especially younger players, quit chess not because they no longer enjoy playing, but because there is so much emphasis on studying and memorization that they can't afford the time to keep up with those few players who do study intensely. For kids, chess becomes too much like school, and for adults chess becomes too much like work. From being a interesting, challenging and social game, it becomes a burden.Prohibiting adjournments (so that computer analysis can't be used for ongoing games), faster time controls in tournaments (to pressure players into making mistakes) and other stopgap measures can't fully revive chess. What is needed is something new, to put players on their own resources again and allow them to experience the joy of discovering new aspects to an ancient game.Capablanca almost had it right, but the variations of chess proposed to date have had the significant drawback of requiring an expanded board. This creates several problems. From the theoretical point of view, the size of the board affects the relative value of the pieces, the most obvious example being that a larger board decreases the power of the short-range knight and king relative to the other pieces. Pawns also can't come to grips with the opposing forces as readily, and the pawn structures familiar to experienced players disappear. Conceptually, an expanded board throws out the baby with the bathwater.From the practical point of view, an expanded board means that existing boards become obsolete and have to be replaced. In addition, more pawns are needed. This makes upgrading existing sets much more cumbersome and expensive, and creates an unnecessary barrier to the acceptance of the improvement."Seirawan chess" does not require a new set or board - only four additional pieces. The game starts as a normal chess game. The players will not be disoriented. But the placement of the pieces on squares vacated by the existing pieces changes the game and creates innumerable possibilities which render all existing opening theory open to reexamination and opens up many new possibilities as well. Players who understand the principles of opening play will do well, while players who rely primarily on memorizing variations will find themselves in trouble. For the foreseeable future, computers won't be part of the game and human thought will once again be essential to understanding the game. We won't know all the answers, whether in the opening, middle game or endgame.


THE CHESS PORTAL

The starting point for this link collection has been that it should be easy to navigate. Therefore I have created different categories and subcategories and sorted the sites in them, which sometimes is difficult. It is not always very easy to categorize a site.
I have commented on every link. You should not have to click through all links in order to see if there is something useful. The extent of the comment is sometimes directly related to the degree of my interest of the site in question. In some cases my comments might be noncommital. Furthermore I have sometimes arranged that a site with different functions to be sorted in several categories, so that the visitor will not miss it.
I have not had the ambition to compete with the most extensive link collections on the net, as for example Clink´s link collection and that of Chessopolis, in spite of the fact that this link collection starts with about 700 links* (of which some intentionally are duplicates). There are other things in life than chess. The intention with this link collection is simply to function as a portal, a gateway, that it shall work as a guide to the best and the most interesting in chess on the Internet.
I have also visited all the websites, which are registered in this link collection. The degree of penetration varies of course. I am grateful for all comments on The Chess Portal and I will appreciate all suggestions on new, interesting links. I plan to update The Chess Portal every fortnight.

What is Coffee Chinese Chess

Coffee Chinese Chess is a Java applet (written in the Java programming language) for multi-purposes of Chinese Chess: a real game program for playing (you can play against a computer or human) or practicing opening books and endgames; a game viewer for studying / reviewing any previous games; a board picture viewer of Chinese Chess (with much reduced download). It also provides many functions as a normal program.
Additionally, you could customize its appearances and abilities into a totally new one for your home pages.

1.No installation, ready to run anywhere and any computer
The Cafe Chinese Chess software is an applet. So it could be run without having to first download and install, as well as worrying about your computer platform. The only thing you need is a normal web browser. Just open a home page which embeds this software and it will be ready for you.

2. Now, you can play Chinese chess on the WWW
Unlike many pictures of Chinese chess games, this software can be interactive. It is easy for your readers to follow a game from beginning till end by clicking a button and the happening can be seen directly. Additionally, more than a viewer of games, it is a real Chinese chess program. You can play against a computer (some levels are not easy to defeat).
With increasing CPU speeds, the Java applets are becoming more competitive with platform specific applications.

3. Very small, but full features
The software is very tiny (around 27 kilobyte). It is only two times as large as a gif picture of game board (and much smaller than any family's photo). As a result, the time to download via Internet will be considerably short.
Even though very small, the software provides many of the functions you are probably already familiar with, such as setting to play against a computer or human, undo, redo, reset, choice of strong (level) of computer, move list, and so on. The software also has a large build-in opening book (145 openings).

4. Economic and effective
After the first download (very quickly), any other appearances of this program need not to be downloaded again (it means free). If you want to introduce more than two board pictures, it is more effective to use this program for some reason: reducing the download times; easily setting up without any graphic skill or tools. Furthermore, your work in next update is very easy - upload a small text file for new game.

5. Flexible
The software allows easy customization. It could display in totally different ways (one program, many appearances). You can also set up sound, choose difficulty levels, change the kinds of notation, decide the game input methods (by setting parameters or by reading from text files). You can see there are some ways for doing the same work - all for your convenience. There are many parameters which help you to choose the fittest display / program abilities / comfortable for your needs.

The chess problem of the day

Welcome on Bruno's Chess Problem of The Day. As its name indicates it, you will find here, every day, a new chess problem. You will find also a big chess problems archive, chess news, chess articles, ChessMasters games in PGN and of course The chess directory.
To help you to direct you on Bruno's Chess Problem, all the sections are described below. Have a good visit! Do you spend your day looking for logic puzzles, free chess strategies or tactics? Come on, visit my site and find lot of free chess games. Visit this site daily before or after work and try to solve free online chess games.

The chess problem of the day

Today a checkmate in 2 [ I.Kisis, 3rd Pr., Magyar Sakkelet, 1974 ]. Try to solve this problem of the day. If you do not find the solution, return tomorrow and choose Yesterday in the menu.
For each problem, a group of * indicates his difficulty. Only one means a very simple problem. Our most difficult chess problems have six *. Today, the checkmate is rated: **. Whatever you play chess online or offline, chess strategy is needed, but don't forget tactics.
Do you like my chess problems? You cannot connect you every day to solve my free checkmates problems? You will find here our 10 days archive for your pleasure and to help you improve your chess tactic. Improve this skill with my free online chess games puzzles.

The chess problems archive

Do you want more? All the 1172 checkmates, from mate in one to mate in six, I had published from 2000 to 2003 on Bruno's Chess Problem of the day are available online. Don't miss this big chess problem database. You could browse it by date I published it here or you could use the advanced search feature.
You are bored with the black and white chessboard! You should select one of my enhanced chess sets: many sizes, colors, or the java applet to move pieces... If you want a new chess set drop me a note with the contact form, I will study it.

All chess news

You should read it every day to know what happens in the chess world. I compile for you several chess news providers. So do not hesitate! With only one page you will know all the latest chess news.

Chess Articles

This chess article section will help you to improve your chess strategies and your chess knowledge. I write some of its myself and find others on internet and published its here with the author agreement.

Download PGN games

These thousands games of chess masters will help you to progress. Discover the strategies of the Chess Masters. Find your way in the dark world of the chess openings.
All the games are in PGN format, and sort by famous chess players and eco code.

The chess directory

You can find much things on Bruno Chess Problem but of course not all. Also, I offer you a directory of other sites, classified by categories: chess shops, play on line, chess improve... You will find also other non chess sites.

Play with chess openings

Do you want something else, try Easy MEMO - THE Concentration Game. You will find a lot of advanced features with this powerful memory game and all its free add-ons. There is a chess dedicated add-on. Download it and play with famous chess openings.

Chess Games

Chess on Yahoo! Games Chess on Yahoo! Games is a popular aspect of Yahoo! Games. It allows users to play rated or unrated chess, including tournaments, leagues, and ladders. Yahoo! Games can be accessed for chess using a Java enabled browser. Efforts to emulate chess servers are in development through YICS, wherein Yahoo! Games may be accessed through a standard FICS-style chess client.[1] Yahoo! Games is currently one of the large online sites where chess players meet, but has been criticized for its rating and computer abuse, spammers, failure to implement the Portable Game Notation standard, and awkward structure.[2] Chess on Yahoo! Games lacks many of the features of standard chess servers Chess variant A chess variant is a game derived from, related to or similar to chess in at least one respect.[1] The difference from chess can include one or more of the following: Different board (larger or smaller, non-square board shape overall or different spaces used within the board such as triangles or hexagons instead of squares). Fairy pieces different from those used within chess. Different rules for capture, move order, game goal, etc. National chess variants which are older than Western chess, such as chaturanga, shatranj, xiangqi, and shogi, are traditionally also called chess variants in the Western world. They have some similarities to chess and share a common ancestor game. The number of possible chess variants is unlimited. D.B. Pritchard, the author of Encyclopedia of Chess Variants, estimates that there are over 2000 chess variants,[2] confining the number to published ones. In 1998 Zillions of Games software program was created. It enables non-programmers to design and playtest most types of chess variants using an AI opponent. As a result a large number of chess variants were implemented for Zillions of Games.[3] In the context of chess problems, chess variants are called fantasy chess, heterodox chess or fairy chess. Some chess variants are used only in chess composition and not for playing. The Game of the Century (chess) The Game of the Century usually refers to a chess game played between Donald Byrne and 13-year old Bobby Fischer in the Rosenwald Memorial Tournament in New York City on October 17, 1956. It was nicknamed "The Game of the Century" by Hans Kmoch in Chess Review. (Others, such as Larry Evans,[1], have offered different games as candidates for this description, such as the game between Garry Kasparov and Veselin Topalov at the Wijk aan Zee Corus tournament in 1999.)[2] The term "Game of the Century" is a bit hyperbolic. Byrne's play (11.Bg5?; 18.Bxb6?) was weak; had a strong grandmaster rather than a 13-year-old played Black, it would still be an outstanding game, but probably not the Game of the Century. Many players consider the game inferior to later games of Fischer's, such as his stunning win over Donald's brother Robert at the 1963 U.S. Championship.[3] Donald Byrne (1930–1976) was one of the leading American chess masters at the time of this game. He had won the 1953 U.S. Open Championship, and would later represent the United States in the 1962, 1964, and 1968 Olympiads. He became an International Master in 1962, and would likely have risen further if not for ill health. Robert "Bobby" Fischer (b. 1943) was at this time a promising young master. Following this game, he had a meteoric rise, winning the 1957 U.S. Open on tiebreaks, winning the 1957-58 U.S. (Closed) Championship (and all seven later championships he played in), qualifying for the Candidates Tournament and becoming the world's youngest grandmaster at age 15 1/2 in 1958. He won the world championship in 1972, and is considered one of the greatest chessplayers in history. In this game, Fischer (playing Black) demonstrates brilliance, innovation, improvisation and poetry. Byrne (playing white), after a standard opening, makes a minor mistake on move 11, moving the same piece twice (wasting time). Fischer pounces, with brilliant sacrificial play, culminating in an incredible queen sacrifice on move 17. Byrne captures the queen, but Fischer gets far too much material for it -- a rook, two bishops, and a pawn. At the end, Fischer's pieces coordinate to force checkmate, while Byrne's queen sits, helpless, at the other end of the board. Chess book author Graham Burgess suggests three lessons to be learned from this game, which can be summarized as follows: In general, don't waste time by moving the same piece twice in an opening; get your other pieces developed first. Material sacrifices are likely to be effective if your opponent's king is still in the middle and a central file is open. Even at 13, Fischer was a player to be reckoned with. A Game at Chess A Game at Chess is a comic satirical play by Thomas Middleton, first staged in August 1624 by the King's Men at the Globe Theatre, and notable for its political content. The play seems to be about a chess match, and even contains a genuine chess opening: the Queen's Gambit Declined. Instead of personal names, the characters are known as the White Knight, the Black King, etc. However, audiences immediately recognized the play as an allegory for the stormy relationship between Spain (the black pieces) and Great Britain (the white pieces). King James I of England is the White King; King Philip IV of Spain is the Black King. In particular, the play dramatizes the struggle of negotiations over the proposed marriage of the then Prince Charles with the Spanish princess, the Infanta Maria. It focuses on the journey by Prince Charles (the "White Knight") and George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham (the "White Duke", or rook) to Madrid in 1623. Among the secondary targets of the satire was the former Archbishop of Split, Markantun de Dominis, who was caricatured as the Fat Bishop (played by William Rowley). De Dominis was a famous turncoat of his day: he had left the Roman Catholic Church to join the Anglican Church—and then returned to Rome again. The traitorous White King's Pawn is a composite of several figures, including Lionel Cranfield, the Earl of Middlesex, a former Lord Treasurer who was impeached before the House of Lords in April 1624. The former Spanish ambassador to London, Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, conde de Gondomar, was blatantly satirized and caricatured in the play as the Machiavellian Black Knight. (The King's Men went so far as to buy discarded items of Gondomar's wardrobe for the role.)[1] His successor recognized the satire and complained to King James. His description of the crowd's reaction to the play yields a vivid picture of the scene: There was such merriment, hubbub and applause that even if I had been many leagues away it would not have been possible for me not to have taken notice of it.[2] The play was stopped after nine performances (August 6-16, Sundays omitted), but not before it had become "the greatest box-office hit of early modern London" [1]. The Privy Council opened a prosecution against the actors and the author of the play on Aug. 18 (it was then illegal to portray any modern Christian king on the stage). The Globe Theatre was shut down by the prosecution, though Middleton was able to acquit himself by showing that the play had been passed by the Master of the Revels, Sir Henry Herbert. Nevertheless, further performance of the play was forbidden and Middleton and the actors were reprimanded and fined. Middleton never wrote another play. An obvious question arises: if the play was clearly offensive, why did the Master of the Revels license it on July 12 of that summer? Herbert may have been acting in collusion with the "war party" of the day, which included figures as prominent as Prince Charles and the Duke of Buckingham; they were eager for a war with Spain and happy to see public ire roused against the Spanish. If this is true, Middleton and the King's Men were themselves pawns in a geopolitical game of chess. A Game at Chess is unique in that it exists in more 17th-century manuscripts than printed texts (only three of which survive). Of the six extant manuscripts, one is an authorial holograph, and two are the work of Ralph Crane, a professional scribe who worked for the King's Men in this era and who is thought to have prepared some of the play texts for the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays

Computer chess

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. Before the development of digital computing, serious trials based on automatons such as El Ajedrecista of 1912, were too complex and limited to be useful for playing full games of chess. 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. Chess-playing computers are now available at a very low cost. There are many programs such as Crafty, Fruit and GNU Chess that can be downloaded from the Internet for free, and yet play a game that with the aid of virtually any modern personal computer, can defeat most master players under tournament conditions. Top commercial programs like Shredder or Fritz have surpassed even world champion caliber players at blitz and short time controls. As of February 2007, Rybka is top-rated in many rating lists such CCRL, CEGT, SSDF, SCCT, and CSS rating lists [1] and has won many recent official computer chess tournaments such as CCT 8 and 9 [2], 2006 Dutch Open Computer Championship [3], the 16th IPCCC [4], and the 15th World Computer Chess Championship. Motivation The prime motivations for computerized chess playing have been solo entertainment (allowing players to practice and to amuse themselves when no human opponents are available), as aids to chess analysis, for computer chess competitions, and as research to provide insights into human cognition. For the first two purposes, computer chess has been a phenomenal success — going from the earliest real attempts to programs which challenge the best human players took less than fifty years. However, to the surprise and disappointment of many, chess has taught us little about building machines that offer human-like intelligence, or indeed do anything except play excellent chess[citation needed]. For this reason, computer chess, (as with other games, like Scrabble) is no longer of great academic interest to researchers in artificial intelligence, and has largely been replaced by more intuitive games such as Go as a testing paradigm[citation needed]. Chess-playing programs essentially explore huge numbers of potential future moves by both players and apply a relatively simple evaluation function to the positions that result, whereas computer Go challenges programmers to consider conceptual approaches to play. Brute force versus selective search The first paper on the subject by Claude Shannon, published in 1950 before anyone had programmed a computer to play chess, successfully predicted the two main possible search strategies which would be used, which he labeled 'Type A' and 'Type B' (Shannon 1950). Type A programs would use a "brute force search" approach, examining every possible position for a fixed number of moves using the minimax algorithm. Shannon believed this would be impractical for two reasons. First, with approximately thirty moves possible in a typical real-life position, he expected that searching the approximately 306 (over 700,000,000) positions involved in looking three moves ahead for both side (six plies) would take about sixteen minutes, even in the "very optimistic" case that the chess computer evaluated a million positions every second. (It took about forty years to achieve this speed.) Second, it ignored the problem of quiescence, trying to only evaluate a position that is at the end of an exchange of pieces or other important sequence of moves ('lines'). He expected that adapting type A to cope with this would greatly increase the number of positions needing to be looked at and slow the program down still further. Instead of wasting processing power examining bad or trivial moves, Shannon suggested that type B programs would use a "strategic AI (Artificial Intelligence)" approach to solve this problem by only looking at a few good moves for each position. This would enable them to look further ahead ('deeper') at the most significant lines in a reasonable time. Adriaan de Groot interviewed a number of chess players of varying strengths, and concluded that both masters and beginners look at around forty to fifty positions before deciding which move to play. What makes the former much better players is that they use pattern recognition skills built from experience. This enables them to examine some lines in much greater depth than others by simply not considering moves they can assume to be poor. More evidence for this being the case is the way that good human players find it much easier to recall positions from genuine chess games, breaking them down into a small number of recognizable sub-positions, than completely random arrangements of the same pieces. In contrast, poor players have the same level of recall for both. The problem with type B is that it relies on the program being able to decide which moves are good enough to be worthy of consideration ('plausible') in any given position and this proved to be a much harder problem to solve than speeding up type A searches with superior hardware. One of the few chess grandmasters to devote himself seriously to computer chess was former World Chess Champion Mikhail Botvinnik, who wrote several works on the subject. He also held a doctorate in Electrical engineering. Working with relatively primitive hardware available in the Soviet Union in the early 1960s, Botvinnik had no choice but to investigate software move selection techniques; at the time only the most powerful computers could achieve much beyond a three-ply full-width search, and Botvinnik had no such machines. In 1965 Botvinnik was a consultant to the ITEP team in a US-Soviet computer chess match (see Kotok-McCarthy). One milestone was the abandonment of type B in 1973 by the team from Northwestern University responsible for the Chess series of programs, who had won the first three ACM Computer Chess Championships (1970-72). The resulting program, Chess 4.0, won that year's championship and its successors went on to come second in both the 1974 ACM Championship and that year's inaugural World Computer Chess Championship, before winning the ACM Championship again in 1975, 1976 and 1977. One reason they gave for the switch was that they found it less stressful during competition, because it was difficult to anticipate which moves their type B programs would play, and why. They also reported that type A was much easier to debug in the four months they had available and turned out to be just as fast: in the time it used to take to decide which moves were worthy of being searched, it was possible just to search all of them. In fact, Chess 4.0 set the paradigm that was and still is followed essentially by all modern Chess programs today. Chess 4.0 type programs won out for the simple reason that their programs simply played better chess. Such programs did not try to mimic human thought processes, but relied on full width alpha-beta and negascout searches. Most such programs (including all modern programs today) also included a fairly limited selective part of the search based around quiescence searches, and usually extensions and pruning (particularly null move pruning from the 1990s onwards) which were triggered based on certain conditions in an attempt to weed out or reduce obviously bad moves (history moves) or to investigate interesting nodes (e.g. check extensions, passed pawns on seventh rank, etc). Extension and pruning triggers have to be used very carefully however. Over extend and the program wastes too much time looking at uninteresting positions. If too much is pruned, there is a risk cutting out interesting nodes. Chess programs differ in terms of how and what types of pruning and extension rules are included as well as in the evaluation function. Some programs are believed to be more selective than others (for example Deep Blue was known to be less selective than most commercial programs because they could afford to do more complete full width searches), but all have a base full width search as a foundation and all have some selective components (Q-search, pruning/extensions). Though such additions meant that the program did not truly examine every node within its search depth (so it would not be truly brute force in that sense), the rare mistakes due to these selective search was found to be worth the extra time it saved because it could search deeper. In that way Chess programs can get the best of both worlds. Furthermore, technological advances by orders of magnitude in processing power have made the brute force approach far more incisive than was the case in the early years. The result is that a very solid, tactical AI player aided by some limited positional knowledge built in by the evaluation function and pruning/extension rules began to match the best players in the world. It turned out to produce excellent results, at least in the field of chess, to let computers do what they do best (calculate) rather than coax them into imitating human thought processes and knowledge. In 1997 Deep Blue defeated World Champion Garry Kasparov, marking the first time a computer has defeated a reigning world chess champion in standard time control. Computers versus humans However for a long time in the 1970s and 1980s it remained an open question whether any Chess program would ever be able to defeat the expertise of top humans. In 1968, International Master David Levy made a famous bet that no chess computer would be able to beat him within ten years. He won his bet in 1978 by beating Chess 4.7 (the strongest computer at the time), but acknowledged then that it would not be long before he would be surpassed. In 1989, Levy was crushed by the computer Deep Thought in an exhibition match. Deep Thought, however, was still considerably below World Championship Level, as the then reigning world champion Garry Kasparov demonstrated in two sterling wins in 1989. It wasn't until a 1996 match with IBM's Deep Blue that Kasparov lost his first game to a computer at tournament time controls in Deep Blue - Kasparov, 1996, Game 1. This game was, in fact, the first time a reigning world champion had lost to a computer using regular time controls. However, Kasparov regrouped to win three and draw two of the remaining five games of the match, for a convincing victory. In May 1997, an updated version of Deep Blue defeated Kasparov 3½-2½ in a return match. The latter claimed that IBM had cheated by using a human player during the game to increase the strategic strength of the computer. A documentary mainly about the confrontation was made in 2003, titled Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine. IBM keeps a web site of the event. While not an official world championship, the outcome of the match is often taken to mean that the strongest player in the world is a computer.[citation needed] Such a claim is open to strong debate, as a truly fair human-machine match is difficult to arrange. Seen as unfair is that human players must win their title in tournaments which pit them against a diverse set of opponents' styles, while computers are occasionally optimized for the current opponent.[citation needed] Also, unlike the human opponent, computers have access to huge databases for opening and end play. IBM dismantled Deep Blue after the match and it has not played since. However, other "Man vs. Machine" matches continue to be played. With increasing processing power, Chess programs running on regular workstations began to rival top flight players. In 1998, Rebel 10 defeated Viswanathan Anand who at the time was ranked second in the world, by a score of 5-3. However most of those games were not played at normal time controls. Out of the eight games, four were blitz games (five minutes plus five seconds Fischer delay (see time control) for each move) these Rebel won 3-1. Then two were semi-blitz games (fifteen minutes for each side) which Rebel won as well (1½-½). Finally two games were played as regular tournament games (forty moves in two hours, one hour sudden death) here it was Anand who won ½-1½ [5]. At least in fast games computers played better than humans but at classical time controls - at which a player's rating is determined - the advantage was not so clear. In the early 2000s, commercially available programs such as Junior and Fritz were able to draw matches against former world champion Garry Kasparov and former "classical" world champion Vladimir Kramnik. In October 2002, Vladimir Kramnik and Deep Fritz competed in the eight-game Brains in Bahrain match, which ended in a draw. Kramnik won games 2 and 3 by "conventional" anti-computer tactics - play conservatively for a long-term advantage the computer is not able to see in its game tree search. Fritz, however, won game 5 after a severe blunder by Kramnik. Game 6 was described by the tournament commentators as "spectacular." Kramnik, in a better position in the early middlegame, tried a piece sacrifice to achieve a strong tactical attack, a strategy known to be highly risky against computers who are at their strongest defending against such attacks. True to form, Fritz found a watertight defense and Kramnik's attack petered out leaving him in a bad position. Kramnik resigned the game, believing the position lost. However, post-game human and computer analysis has shown that the Fritz program was unlikely to have been able to force a win and Kramnik effectively sacrificed a drawn position. The final two games were draws. Given the circumstances, most commentators still rate Kramnik the stronger player in the match. In January 2003, Garry Kasparov played Junior, another chess computer program, in New York. The match ended 3-3. In November 2003, Garry Kasparov played X3D Fritz. The match ended 2-2. In 2005, Hydra, a dedicated chess computer with custom hardware and sixty-four processors and also winner of the 14th IPCCC in 2005, crushed seventh-ranked Michael Adams 5½-½ in a six-game match (though Adams' preparation was far less thorough than Kramnik's for the 2002 series). Some commentators [6] believe that Hydra will ultimately prove clearly superior to the very best human players, or if not its direct successor will. In November-December 2006, World Champion Vladimir Kramnik played Deep Fritz. This time the computer won, the match ended 2-4.

Endgame tablebases

Computers have been used to analyze some chess endgame positions completely. Such endgame databases are generated in advance using a form of retrograde analysis, starting with positions where the final result is known (e.g. where one side has been mated) and seeing which other positions are one move away from them, then which are one move from those etc. Ken Thompson, perhaps better known as the key designer of the UNIX operating system, was a pioneer in this area. Endgame play had long been one of the great weaknesses of chess programs because of the depth of search needed, with some otherwise master-level programs being unable to win in positions that even intermediate human players would be able to force a win. The results of the computer analysis sometimes surprised people. In 1977 Thompson's Belle chess machine used the endgame tablebase for a king and rook against king and queen and was able to draw that theoretically lost ending against several masters (see Philidor position#Queen versus rook). This was despite not following the usual strategy to delay defeat by keeping the defending king and rook close together for as long as possible. Asked to explain the reasons behind some of the program's moves, Thompson was unable to do so beyond saying the program's database simply evaluated its moves as best it could. Most grandmasters declined to play against the computer in the queen versus rook endgame, but Walter Browne accepted the challenge. A queen versus rook position was set up in which the queen can win in thirty moves, with perfect play. Browne was allowed 2½ hours to play fifty moves, otherwise a draw would be claimed under the fifty move rule. After forty-five moves, Browne agreed to a draw, being unable to force checkmate or win the rook within the next five moves. In the final position, Browne was still seventeen moves away from checkmate, but not quite that far away from winning the rook. Browne studied the endgame, and played the computer again a week later in a different position in which the queen can win in thirty moves. This time, he captured the rook on the fiftieth move, giving him a winning position (Levy & Newborn 1991:144-48), (Nunn 2002:49). Other positions, long believed to be won, turned out to take more moves against perfect play to actually win than were allowed by chess's fifty move rule. As a consequence, for some years the official laws of chess were changed to extend the number of moves allowed in these endings. After a while, the law reverted back to fifty moves in all positions — more such positions were discovered, complicating the rule still further, and it made no difference in human play, as they could not play the positions perfectly. Over the years, other endgame database formats have been released including the Edward Tablebases, the De Koning Endgame Database (released in 2002) and the Nalimov Endgame Tablebases which is the current standard supported by most chess programs such as Rybka, Shredder or Fritz. All endgames with five or fewer pieces have been analyzed completely. Of endgames with six men all positions have been analyzed except for positions with five pieces against a lone king [7]. Some seven-piece endgames, have been analyzed by Marc Bourzutschky and Yakov Konoval [8]. In all of these endgame databases it is assumed that castling is no longer possible. The databases are generated by storing in memory the values of positions which have been encountered so far, and using these results to lop off the ends of the search trees if they arise again. Although the number of possible games after a number of moves rises exponentially with the number of moves, the number of possible positions with a few pieces is exponential only in the number of pieces — and effectively limited however many end game moves are searched. The simple expediency of remembering the value of all previously reached positions means that the limiting factor in solving end games is simply the amount of memory available in the computer. While computer memory sizes are increasing exponentially, there is no reason why end games of increasing complexity should not continue to be solved. A computer using these databases will, upon reaching a position in them, be able to play perfectly, and immediately determine whether the position is a win, loss or draw, plus the fastest or longest way of getting to that result. Knowledge of whether a position is a win, loss or draw is also helpful in advance since this can help the computer avoid or head towards such positions depending on the situation. Endgame databases featured prominently in 1999, when Kasparov played an exhibition match on the Internet against the Rest of the World. A seven piece Queen and pawn endgame was reached with the World Team fighting to salvage a draw. Eugene Nalimov helped by generating the six piece ending tablebase where both sides had two Queens which was used heavily to aid analysis by both sides.

WORLD CHESS NEWS

WORLD CHESS NEWS

The Internet Chess Club (“ICC”), the world’s premier online subscription chess service, has today announced the acquisition of two competitive online chess services, World Chess Network, from Master Games International, and Chess Live, from GamesParlor. The two services will be merged together to form a new service, separate from ICC, to be called World Chess Live. Founded in 1997 and with the long time support of one of the world’s most respected patrons of chess, Dato’ Tan Chin Nam, the World Chess Network has developed a friendly, loyal community of chess players from around the world who enjoy playing and talking together as well as participating in a variety of fun and educational chess activities. Chess Live, positioned as the family-friendly online chess community, was created in 2000 as the online chess service of the U.S. Chess Federation, but has since expanded to welcome chess players of all countries. In contrast to these other online chess services, ICC has traditionally been the first choice of chess professionals and those who strive for the top ranks, including among its members more than half of the world’s chess Grandmasters. “We recognize,” says Joel Berez, President and CEO of ICC, “that both the World Chess Network and Chess Live communities have cultures and traditions that are much more similar to each other than they are to the ICC community. Therefore keeping them together in a new service with an atmosphere similar to what they already enjoy makes more sense than forcing them to move to ICC and will hopefully be better appreciated.” In keeping with the spirit of moving both communities with minimal disruption to the members, the new World Chess Live administrative staff will be headed by Julie Trottier, long time Chief Administrator of the World Chess Network, assisted by Chris Fitzgerald, who held a similar position on Chess Live, as well as other administrators drawn from both services. According to Martin Grund, ICC’s Vice President of Online Operations, “Julie and Chris have both done a remarkable job of maintaining happy and healthy communities with limited resources and I’m honored to welcome them into the ICC family.” World Chess Live, while separate from ICC, will enjoy the benefit of much shared content and chess activities, such as: The most feature-rich online chess software platform on the Internet. ICC Chess.FM audio and video regular shows, plus live coverage of major chess events around the world. An extensive library of chess educational material and special interest programs. Online events hosted by the world’s top players, such as a recent charity chess simul conducted by #1 rated GM Vishy Anand. Founded in 1995 as one of the first premium gaming sites on the Internet, today ICC is firmly established as the premier online chess service, with more members, more Grandmasters, more volunteers, and more loyalty from its members than any other classical game service on the Internet. More than 35,000 paying members from all over the world regularly enjoy playing casual or tournament chess games against each other; watching others play, including hundreds of titled chess masters; attending online lectures, classes, and special events; or simply socializing with fellow chess enthusiasts in a club house that’s always open. Telegraph chess: Tiger shows his stripes -- 31-Oct-07Tiger Hillarp-Persson won the Guernsey Chess Festival with a score of 6/7. ‘The Tiger’ arrived late but had organised a first round half point bye in advance. He won his first five games and then drew with the Russian GM Vladimir Epishin before defeating Robert Bellin in the last round – see below. Epishin scored 5.5. R Bellin – T Hillarp-Perssonn 33rd Guernsey Open (7) Sicilian Najdorf ... Telegraph chess: Ivanchuk chucks Leko -- 30-Oct-07In a recent interview, Alexander Morozevich stated that Vasily Ivanchuk is the best chess player in the world. Morozevich pointed out that Ivanchuk has risen to world number two without the assistance of a big analytical team. Before travelling to Crete to play on the top board for Ukraine at the European Team Chess Championships Ivanchuk played a challenge match against world number five Peter Leko of Hungary in the Ukrainian town of Mukachevo. Games were played at a rate of 10 minutes plus an increment of 10 seconds per move. Ivanchuk took a two game lead but Leko levelled the score in game eleven and the final Rapid game was drawn. The chess match went to a Blitz playoff which Ivanchuk won. England played Scotland in ... Telegraph chess: Nakamura triumphs -- 29-Oct-07The nineteen year old American GM Hikaru Nakamura scored one of his finest tournament victories to date as he won the Casino Barcelona chess tournament by a clear point with a score of 7/9. A last round win over the Spanish GM Marc Narciso Dublan ensured his victory. Nakamura was his combative self and drew just two games. The Cuban Lenier Dominguez was second on 6/9. The Israeli chess grandmaster Viktor Mikhalevski won the Calvia Open on the island of Majorca ahead of a very strong field after winning his first seven games. He slowed down and drew the last two but still finished a point clear of former WCC Candidate Kevin Spraggett who was second. The British Women’s Chess Champion Ketevan Arakhamia Grant of Edinburgh scored her second GM norm after ... Chess with Jonathan Speelman -- 28-Oct-07The 11th annual Essent Chess Tournament took place in Hoogeveen in Holland from 12-20 October. First held in 1997, this always comprises several different sections with at the top an elite four player double rounder. Last year's tournament was won jointly by Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Judit Polgar and Mamedyarov was back together with Ruslan Ponomariov, Loek Van Wely and the 2006 World Junior Chess Champion Zaven Andriasian (Armenia), who was invited since the World Junior Champion is traditionally included in the field. This was both extremely flattering for Andriasian, who is rated in the mid 2500s more than 160 points less than the average of the others, and potentially exceedingly treacherous. It's impossible to convey here what it's like to play chess in ... Barden on chess -- 27-Oct-07It sounded an attractive chess event. The elite teens Sergey Karjakin, 17, and Magnus Carlsen, 16, the all-time No1 woman, Judit Polgar, and the combative Veselin Topalov were all in a six-player double-rounder in Bilbao last week. Unfortunately the small print was that it was blind chess, played with a keyboard and an empty chessboard, at a fast time limit. The games were littered with blunders. Monaco's Amber chess event also has blind games but there the board is on a computer screen rather than physically on the table, and this factor seems to have disoriented the GM thought patterns in Bilbao. China's Bu Xiangzhi was the surprise winner. This gimmicky chess tournament was a wasted opportunity. If the Spaniards had staged a Karjakin v Carlsen match ... Telegraph chess: The usual suspects... -- 26-Oct-07The European Team Chess Championships start tomorrow in Crete and run until 7th November at the Maris Conference Hotel. Forty countries have registered and I expect the medals to go to three of either: Russia, Ukraine, Armenia or Azerbaijan although France, Spain and Israel may also challenge. Hungary would have been amongst the favourites were it not for the absence of Peter Leko and Judit Polgar. England’s days of challenging for medals are long gone and the chess team is weakened by the absence of Nigel Short and what appears to be the retirement of Luke McShane who has taken a job in the City of London. Scotland and Wales are represented although by amateur chess teams, presumably due to lack of funds. Only three of the world’s top ten rated chess players will ... Telegraph chess: A wily win for Van Wely -- 25-Oct-07Shakriyaz Mamedyarov won the Crown Group of the Essent chess tournament in Holland by virtue of his first round win over Loek Van Wely. Subsequently the three world class chess grandmasters concentrated on making life miserable for the debutant Devan Andriasian by defeating him in every game. The chess tournament was held in the town of Hoogeveen which is famous for its glass manufacturing and the players used glass pieces. Mamedyarov 2752 - 4.5, Van Wely 2680 - 4.0, Ponomariov 2705 - 3.5, Andriasian 2546 - 0. Loek Van Wely secured second place with this victory over the former Fide chess champion Ruslan Ponomariov. R Ponomariov - L Van Wely, Essent Crown Group, Hoogeveen (6), Sicilian Najdorf ... Telegraph chess: Britain's puzzle kings -- 24-Oct-07British solvers have recorded a unique hat trick of victories by taking the gold medals at the World Chess Problem Solving Championship. The competition was held at the 50th World Congress for Chess Compositions in Rhodes and the British team was supported by Winton Capital Management whose assistance ensured the participation of our leading trio of solvers. John Nunn’s magnificent individual performance was the foundation of the victory and his score of 89/90 secured his second individual world solving title ahead of a galaxy of former world champion solvers. Nunn’s team mates were David Friedgood and Jonathan Mestel and the team total of 163/180 was comfortably ahead of Russia on 158.5 and Germany on 158. In chess problem solving, points ... Barden on chess -- 20-Oct-07An English gold medal at last! Not in the way you would expect it, though. Michael Adams scored 4.5/7 for Linex Magic Merida, the Spanish chess champions, who were seeded only fifth but won the European Club Cup in Turkey. The all-ex-Soviet No2 and 3 seeds, from Tomsk (winners of the last three cups) and Sverdlovsk, took silver and bronze. It seems even easier in chess than in football for top European teams to field mercenaries. Besides Adams, Merida had chess grandmasters from the US, Russia, Armenia and Bulgaria, with one token Spaniard. Nigel Short played fifth board for Sarajevo, and in contrast Hilsmark Kingfisher, sole representatives from the UK league, fielded only one GM. Probably it does not matter. This way the Eurocup attracts ... Telegraph chess: Aggressive Adly aces it -- 19-Oct-07The Egyptian GM Ahmed Adly has pulled off a famous victory at the World Junior Chess Championship held at Yerevan and becomes the first chess player from the Arab world to win a world title and the first from Africa. Adly played consistently aggressive chess even though he avoided the main lines of opening theory, particularly with the white pieces. Adly played so uncompromisingly he did not draw a single game out of thirteen played. After losing in round one he won seven on the trot before losing twice and then winning his last three. Adly follows in the steps of four world chess champions, Boris Spassky, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov and Vishy Anand who all won the world junior. Tony Miles is the only English chess player ever to ... Telegraph chess: Black days at Essent -- 18-Oct-07The Armenian GM Zaven Andriasian is having a baptism of fire at the 11th Essent chess tournament and if his dreams are being shattered, it is due to more to a lack of opening preparation than the frequency his pieces, made of glass, are going into the box. Andriasian was also very unlucky. Greatly out-rated by his three rivals he must have hoped for a couple of early games with the white pieces but, horror of horrors, he was the only player to get two successive blacks in the first two rounds. We saw his defeat by former Fide chess champion Ruslan Ponomariov on Monday and he fared no better against Shakriyaz Mamedyarov. If you concede the two bishops and space to a world class player, he will ... Telegraph chess: Defeat at the double -- 17-Oct-07The winning run of the Egyptian GM Ahmed Adly came to an end at the World Junior in Yerevan when he was defeated by Wang Hao of China in the ninth round. After seven straight wins Adly’s loss led to another as so often happens when momentum is lost. GM Ivan Popov of Russia led by half a point on 8.5/11 with Adly, Georg Meier of Germany and Wang Hao half a point behind, but Adly won again to join Popov on 9/12 with a game to play. The English challenge started well but faltered, however both Gawain Jones, who is on 7.5/12 and David Howell, on 7/12, have played some fine, aggressive chess. T Sanikidze - G Jones World Junior Yerevan (10) ... World chess king hopes sport makes Olympic debut -- 16-Oct-07Reigning world chess champion Vishwanathan Anand of India said Tuesday that he hoped his sport would one day be included in the Olympic Games as a medal discipline. The bespectacled Anand, crowned chess king two weeks ago after toppling Russia's Vladimir Kramnik in Mexico City, said it would be some time before chess made it to that level -- but he was optimistic. "Hopefully some time in the near future chess would make it as a regular Olympic discipline," said the 37-year-old nicknamed the "Tiger from Madras" -- the old name for his home city of Chennai. Chess has been accepted by the International Olympic Committee as an associate sport and was played at the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, in December last year. ... Telegraph chess: Gruesome slaughter -- 15-Oct-07In the mid 1960s the Yugoslav chess grandmaster Dragoljbub Velimirovic developed a system that was to terrorise a generation of Sicilian Scheveningen adherents. The Scheveningen Variation was popularised at a chess tournament in a Dutch town of the same name in 1923 and involves Black playing with pawns on e6 and d6. In Velimirovic’s plan White plays Bc4, Qe2, castles queenside and launches a quick attack with g2-g4-g5. Velimirovic and others found numerous sacrificial ideas involving the sacrifice of the bishop on e6 or the sacrifice of knights on d5 or f5 to destroy Black’s defensive line. Over the years antidotes were found and the Velimirovic Attack became something of a rarity in comparison to the plan of Be3 and Qd2 which ... Speelman on Chess -- 14-Oct-07The 23rd European Club Cup for Men and 12th European Club Cup for Women took place in the Turkish holiday village of Kemer near Antalya from 2-10 October. The world's premier international club competition, this brings together the winners of all the various European chess leagues and since these vary wildly in strength so do the teams, ranging from purely amateur outfits, via clubs with one or two professionals and some good amateurs, up finally to a hard core of about a dozen-and-a-half fully professional chess teams with some absolute monsters at the pinnacle. Of those monsters the greatest behemoth of all was OSC Baden Baden, led by none other than the new world chess champion Viswanathan Anand. Chess is a hectic ... Barden on chess -- 13-Oct-07The annual world junior chess championship has an impressive history of producing winners who go on to capture the senior world crown. Boris Spassky, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov and Vishy Anand all took that route. In recent years the junior title has become rather devalued as most of the elite teens have stayed away. One reason is that the U20 champion's automatic grandmaster title award is not much of an incentive if you have already been a GM for some years. It is still a strong chess event, though. The current contest in Yerevan, Armenia, includes 15 GMs, among them England's bright young duo Gawain Jones, 19, and David Howell, 16. There were hopes that one of them might emulate the late Tony Miles, whose 1974 victory is ... Telegraph chess: A whiff of controversy -- 12-Oct-07The field for the Tal Memorial at Moscow has been announced with all ten chess players ranked in the world’s top 20. The World Blitz Championship will follow the elite chess tournament which runs from November 9th -19th. Fixture congestion looks likely as the first stage of the World Chess Championship, the World Cup, starts in Siberia just three days afterwards. The whiff of scandal blows over the Blitz chess event as the title holder Alexander Grischuk has reportedly been denied automatic qualification for the final and will have to play the qualifier. Grischuk won the 2006 World Blitz at Rishon le Zion in Israel after an epic last round battle with Peter Svidler. The Egyptian grandmaster Ahmed Adly leads the World Junior at Yerevan on ... Homeless man is chess king of Washington -- 11-Oct-07He sleeps on a bench, but he is king of chess during the day at Washington's Dupont Circle, where he dazzles beginners and masters alike with his winning moves on the park's stone chessboards. Tom Murphy, 49, makes what little money he has from teaching his prodigious knowledge of the chess game to passersby for a few dollars. "He has the title of expert in chess. This is the second highest American title; above him are master. So it means he is quite good," said Washington's Chess Center director David Mehler. A former math and science major and a celebrity among amateurs, Murphy has made the Dupont Circle public square America's most prestigious chess park after New York's fabled Washington Square, according to some chess ... Telegraph chess: Business as usual -- 10-Oct-07The pretenders were put in their place at the European Club Cup as the favourites all scored big wins in the fifth round. England number one Michael Adams won for his Spanish chess team Merida against Kiril Georgiev of Alkaloid Skopje as Merida joined the two leading Russian chess teams in the lead. Ural Sverdlosk and Tomsk-400 both won easily with the latter particularly severe on their Czech opponents, beating them 6-0. Nigel Short’s Bosna Sarajevo chess team won their local derby against Zeleznicar Sarajevo. Short drew his game. The world chess champion Vishy Anand entered the fray for his German team Baden Baden but was probably worse when he agreed a draw with Murtaz Kazhgalyev of Cannes. ... Telegraph chess: Watch out for Skopje! -- 09-Oct-07Alkaloid of Skopje were the surprise leaders of the European Club Cup after four rounds. The Croatians, with the Azeri Shakriyaz Mamedyarov on top board defeated Keystone of the Ukraine to remain the only chess team with four match wins. Mamedyarov drew solidly with black in the Ruy Lopez against former Fide chess champion Ruslan Ponomariov. The leading Russian teams Ural Sverdlosk and Tomsk-400 played out six draws in their match. Bosna Sarajevo drew with the Bundesliga chess champions Baden Baden who brought in Peter Svidler who had a little time off to recover from his exertions and jet lag after the WCC at Mexico City. Svidler held Vasily Ivanchuk to a draw and Sarajevo suffered two defeats before Short saved ... Telegraph chess: Big catch for Kingfisher -- 08-Oct-07Hilsmark Kingfisher scored a second round victory over the Finnish chess team Espoo in the second round of the European Club Cup 2007 at Kemer in Turkey. There were wins for Andrew Greet, Jovanka Houska and Chris Briscoe, who also held Nigel Short to a draw in the first round. Only Ural Sverdlosk won all twelve games while Bundesliga chess champions Baden-Baden and Alkaloid Skopje were on 11/12 with Nigel Short’s Sarajevo on 10. Michael Adams is playing for Linex Magic of Merida in Spain who struggled against Ashdod of Israel before Adams defeated Ilya Smirin to save a 3-3 draw. The holders Tomsk 400 were unlucky to face another top flight team Saratov of Russia in the second round and conceded three draws to ... Chess Group Officials Accused of Using Internet to Hurt Rivals -- 08-Oct-07A lawsuit filed in federal court last week accuses two officers of the nation’s leading chess organization of posting inflammatory remarks on the Internet under false names in order to win election to the group’s board. The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in Federal District Court in Manhattan, says that Susan Polgar and Paul Truong, who are married and who were elected to the board of the United States Chess Federation in July, posted thousands of remarks, many obscene or defamatory, over the last two years on two public Internet bulletin boards. The suit was filed by Samuel H. Sloan ... Barden on Chess -- 06-Oct-07Vishy Anand became world chess champion in Mexico City last weekend after a nervous penultimate round where he wriggled a draw a pawn down. The 37-year-old, once voted India's sporting hero behind only Sachin Tendulkar, is the first non-Slav to win the title since Bobby Fischer in 1972, and the only one of the eight finalists whose chess education came outside eastern Europe. Final scores were Anand 9/14, Gelfand 8, Kramnik 7.5, Leko 7, Aronian 6.5, Grischuk, Morozevich and Svidler 6. Many still regard a crown from a chess tournament as inferior to a one-to-one chess match so Anand's planned series against Kramnik next year will be a definitive test, with no clear favourite. ... Telegraph chess: Britons outclassed -- 05-Oct-07The European Club Cup 2007 is underway at Kemer in Turkey with the holders Tomsk 400 facing a tough challenge from their compatriots Ural and the Bundesliga Champions Baden-Baden. Many of the world’s top chess players are on the teams including Vasily Ivanchuk, Alexander Morozevich and three former FIDE Chess Champions; Veselin Topalov, Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Ruslan Ponomariov. In comparison the British chess teams are minnows and in the first round Hilsmark Kingfisher found themselves up against the might of Bosna Sarajevo, former winners of the competition who had no less than Nigel Short on the fifth board. Keith Arkell was outplayed by Vasily Ivanchuk and Andrew Greet missed his drawing chances against Zoltan Almasi but ... Anand ridicules World Championships rules -- 04-Oct-07Newly-crowned world chess champion Viswanathan Anand today ridiculed the chess championship rules that will require him to play the former chess champion Vladimir Kramnik in a few months' time to retain the title. The 37-year-old Indian Grandmaster, who won the chess championships last week in Mexico, told PTI from Madrid that the International Chess Federation (FIDE) formulated the complicated rules to win a few votes during their election last week and hoped such a cycle would not be repeated in future. "These are ridiculous rules. It was decided by FIDE during their elections last year in order to win a few votes. I hope it is not repeated in future," Anand said. Under the FIDE rules, Anand will have to play Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, the previous Chess Champion who ... Telegraph chess: Isle of Man blues for Brits -- 03-Oct-07Yet another Eastern European carve-up marked the end of the 16th Monarch Assurance chess tournament at Port Erin on the Isle of Man. Although this chess event is to be the last one supported by the original sponsor there will be a different form of chess event on the island next year. British chess is indebted to Patrick Taylor of Monarch Assurance and Dennis Hemsley the original organiser of the tournament. Final scores: Yuri Yakovich, Mikhail Kobalia (Russia), Vitali Golod, Michael Roiz (Israel), Zahar Efimenko (Ukraine), Mateusz Bartel (Poland) 6½/9 British chess players have done badly at the Isle of Man but I cannot remember a Monarch chess tournament where there was no Briton in the top 25 finishers as happened ... Telegraph chess: Vishy is victorious -- 02-Oct-07The cross table from Mexico City shows Vishy Anand is the 15th World Chess Champion. Anand drew his last two games and his victory was almost certain after the round thirteen game between his closest rivals Boris Gelfand and the now former chess champion Vladimir Kramnik, was drawn. Round 13 results: Grischuk draw Anand Slav Defence Anti Moscow Gambit Gelfand draw Kramnik Slav Meran Aronian draw Svidler English 4 Knights Leko 1-0 Morozevich Sicilian Richter Rauzer Round 14: Anand draw Leko Ruy Lopez Marshall Kramnik 1-0 Aronian Queen’s Indian Svidler 1-0 Grischuk Sicilian Najdorf 6.Be3 Ng4 Morozevich draw Gelfand Petroff Defence ... Telegraph chess: Anand takes world title -- 01-Oct-07Vishy Anand is the 15th World Chess Champion. The 37 year old from Madras agreed a quick draw with Peter Leko in the fourteenth and final round at Mexico City to win the eight-player title contest with 9/14. Anand, the only unbeaten chess player, becomes the first non-Russian since Bobby Fischer in 1972 to win the undisputed world title and will play the former chess champion Vladimir Kramnik in a match next year. Kramnik finished equal second with Boris Gelfand as only the three oldest players finished on positive scores. Anand was in serious difficulties just once, in the penultimate round but Alexander Grischuk, who finished last, missed a win in ... Speelman on Chess -- 30-Sep-07I find myself today in the position of a sports writer who has to file two minutes before the final whistle. The lead is enormous and surely nothing can go wrong: but if it does then he will look exceedingly foolish. In any case, let us begin by hailing the new World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand, who completed victory at the Sheraton Centro Histórico Hotel in Mexico City last night by a margin of, oh, say, 1.5 points. In a chess tournament in which wins have been at an absolute premium, Anand has been totally dominant and as I write on Wednesday - the final rest day with just three rounds to go - he leads Boris Gelfand by 1.5 points and the pack by 2: though he does have a double Black against Peter Svidler then Alexander Grischuk in ... Barden on chess -- 29-Sep-07Vishy Anand will be crowned world chess champion this weekend barring a last-minute disaster. The Indian has led all the way in Mexico City and with only two rounds left, he had scored an unbeaten 8/12, a point ahead of his nearest rival, Israel's Boris Gelfand. In contrast the holder Vlad Kramnik has given a subdued performance with two wins, one loss and a large bunch of draws. Kramnik probably had an ambivalent attitude to the chess tournament, lacking the motivation to chase really hard. The rules now guarantee him a one-to-one series against the new chess champion in 2008, which means a lucrative match against Anand. Had Kramnik won in Mexico, he would instead have been obliged to play a rematch against Veselin Topalov, with whom ... Telegraph chess: Anand stakes his claim -- 28-Sep-07There was a rest day at the Fide World Chess Championship tournament in Mexico. A glance at the crosstable shows Vishy Anand to be in a virtually impregnable position with three to play. 1 Anand 7.5 2 Gelfand 6 3 Kramnik 5.5 4 Leko 5.5 5 Aronian 5.5 6 Grischuk 5 7 Svidler 4.5 8 Morozevich 4.5 Here is the game that has almost certainly secured the world chess title for Anand. V Anand – A Morozevich ... Open verdict on chess star death -- 27-Sep-07An open verdict has been recorded at an inquest into the death of a chess prodigy who fell from a hotel window in the Czech Republic. Jessica Gilbert, 19, from Croydon, south London, plunged from the eighth floor of the complex in Pardubice. Her death came weeks before her father Ian Gilbert was due to face trial on five counts of raping her over a period of five years. He was later cleared. ... Telegraph chess: Kramnik surrenders -- 27-Sep-07The world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik effectively threw in the towel yesterday with a tame 13 move draw playing black against Alexander Grischuk in the eleventh round of the Fide World Chess Championship tournament at Mexico City. Vishy Anand continued his march to the world title with victory over Alexander Morozevich who defended with only the second Sicilian Defence of the chess event so far. Anand increased his lead over Boris Gelfand who remains in second place 1.5 points behind and only these two are on more than 50%. Just three games remain, so barring a complete collapse Anand will become the 15th undisputed world chess champion. Anand and Gelfand aside, the rest of the field are separated by ... Telegraph chess: Anand well on the way -- 26-Sep-07The world number one Vishy Anand can scent victory after defying the efforts of Vladimir Kramnik in what must surely have been a must-win game for the world chess champion in the tenth round of the Fide World Chess Championship tournament at Mexico City. The Indian leads Boris Gelfand by a full point and Kramnik is a further half point adrift with only four games to play. Playing with the advantage of the white pieces Kramnik entered the Moscow Gambit, one of the sharpest lines of opening theory. Anand successfully defused a novelty from Kramnik as the chess players bashed out their moves at speed. By the time Kramnik and Anand had passed move 30, Levon Aronian and Alexander Grischuk were still trying to figure out their ninth moves. Both chess players were ... Telegraph chess: Anand scents victory -- 25-Sep-07When Vishy Anand took a short draw with white against Levon Aronian there was a collective groan from the online audience but it seems to have been an inspired decision as the Indian is on the brink of victory at the Fide World Chess Championship tournament at Mexico City even with five games to go. Anand saw his two closest rivals Boris Gelfand and Vladimir Kramnik defeated by Alexander Grischuk and Alexander Morozevich respectively and he leads by a full point. Should Anand draw with black against Kramnik in round ten he will surely triumph. Gelfand appeared to have an attack of nerves at the prospect of taking the joint lead. Gelfand stood better but played so passively he allowed Grischuk to gain a complete grip but ... Telegraph chess: Queen's Indian with spice -- 24-Sep-07Peter Leko was the sole winner in the eighth round of the 1.3 million dollar Fide World Chess Championship tournament at Mexico City but his victory over Alexander Grischuk only brought him to 50%. The leaders were involved in short but rather tense draws and as ever it was left to Alexander Morozevich to take the role of entertainer in his game against Levon Aronian. Morozevich played the Queen’s Indian with black but he can spice up even the dullest chess opening and he chose to refine a pawn sacrifice he played against Boris Gelfand two rounds earlier. The concept looked risky as Aronian’s position had no serious weaknesses but after a series of errors by both sides, during which Aronian missed chances to ... Telegraph chess: A fitting punishment -- 23-Sep-07The world number one Vishy Anand enjoys a full point lead over Vladimir Kramnik at the halfway stage of the 1.3 million dollar Fide World Chess Championship tournament at Mexico City. Kramnik could not overcome the Israeli number one Boris Gelfand who remains undefeated and is in second place half a point behind Anand. Anand moved clear of the field with a well crafted victory over Alexander Grischuk whose legendary impatience cost him dear when he lashed out in an uncomfortable position playing black in the Ruy Lopez. The other two games were drawn after advantages came and went. Peter Svidler stood well against Levon Aronian but his bad form persists and after an injudicious king move his superiority evaporated and ... Barden on chess -- 22-Sep-07Vlad Kramnik has a fight on his hands to retain his world title next week after the Russian trailed his main rival, India's Vishy Anand, by a full point at halfway in the chess championship tournament in Mexico City. Anand has 5/7, the oldest player, Israel's Boris Gelfand, a surprising 4.5/7, and Kramnik 4/7 with this week's game his only win so far. When reacting as Black to 1 e4, these elite chess grandmasters have voted with their pawns, or rather with their knights. The Petroff 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nf6 is the gilt-edged banker when aiming to halve out. Kramnik, whose Berlin Wall famously baffled the legendary Garry Kasparov in their London 2000 title series, has long since joined the Petroff club, and used it in ... Telegraph chess: Anand takes advantage -- 20-Sep-07Vishy Anand took the lead of the 1.3 million dollar Fide World Chess Championship tournament at Mexico City with victory over Peter Svidler in a fifth round that saw three decisive games. Anand has 3.5/5, half a point ahead. The eight chess players are now divided into two groups; those on positive scores and those below 50%. Some of Svidler’s previous reverses have been attributed to his passion for watching too many England cricket matches during chess tournaments but this defeat was down to some superior opening preparation from Anand and I doubt that even Svidler would have been watching the defeat to New Zealand in the 20-20 World Cup as it started well after bedtime in ... Telegraph chess: Prickly predicaments -- 19-Sep-07Two more escapes from seemingly hopeless situations ensured that the Fide World Chess Championship tournament remains very closely contested as the chess players enjoyed the first rest day at Mexico City. The favourites Vladimir Kramnik and Vishy Anand may have cause to rue their missed opportunities to establish a full point lead over the field. Kramnik was visibly annoyed with himself after his compatriot Alexander Grischuk engineered a miraculous escape from a grisly position after being nearly ninety minutes behind on the clock at one stage. Grischuk’s prowess at Blitz Chess served him well as managed to exchange into an endgame less a pawn that ... Telegraph chess: Close calls in Mexico -- 18-Sep-07There were two rearguard actions in the third round of the World Chess Championship tournament at Mexico City as Peter Leko and Vishy Anand held endgames a pawn down to Boris Gelfand and Vladimir Kramnik respectively. Peter Svidler lost horribly to Alexander Morozevich as his two knights were no match for two bishops in open play. Anand must be mightily relived as he once lost a similar rook and pawn endgame to Garry Kasparov but this time his technique was sound. Had he lost, the Indian would have been a point behind the world chess champion and still to face him with the black pieces. Anand managed to secure the draw after 65 moves but Leko had ... Telegraph chess: Stars light up round two -- 17-Sep-07The FIDE World Chess Championship tournament at Mexico City came alive in the second round and it was world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik and world number one Vishy Anand who scored fine victories over Alexander Morozevich and Levon Aronian respectively to take the early lead. Kramnik played a piece sacrifice that bordered on the magical but the clock times said it all; Kramnik was playing quickly, this was something that had been cooked up at home. Morozevich had refused an initial double pawn sacrifice but he could not resist the second offer and took a piece. Kramnik secured extra development and two strong passed pawns but the complications were so immense they ... Telegraph chess: Deadly when cornered -- 17-Sep-07There is so much at stake in the 1.3 million dollar FIDE World Chess Championship tournament at Mexico City that it was no surprise to see the first four games drawn. Most of the players looked tentative and in two games time trouble was looming when the draw was agreed. Predictably Alexander Morozevich was the exception and from the early opening he tried to attack on the kingside. However Aronian applied the maxim - oft repeated in this column - the best response to an early flank attack is a blow in the centre and he levelled the game easily. The attack vanished and Aronian was slightly better but went wrong and a drawish position resulted. ... Barden on Chess -- 15-Sep-07UK v China at Liverpool's St George's Hall last week was an imaginatively organised chess event. It was part of the city's 800th-anniversary celebrations and a prelude to an elite grandmaster tournament in Liverpool next year. China's chess team, average age 20, tied the women's match 6-6 but outplayed the home chess team 22-14 in the men's section - and this with a 13-year-old girl, Hou Yifan, taking on Michael Adams and Nigel Short. The impressive performance reminded me of half a century ago in 1954 when I was part of the British chess team crushed 18.5-1.5 by the emergent Soviets before a silent crowd at London's Caxton Hall. The USSR went on to dominate chess for decades, aside for the Bobby Fischer interlude, and ... Norway's chess prodigy, young Grandmaster who wants to be king -- 14-Sep-07He grew up among knights, kings and queens but that has not affected Norway's chess prodigy Magnus Carlsen, who at 16 is pushing his pawns wisely in a bid to become the youngest world chess champion. Carlsen, who was initiated to the game by his father Henrik when he was but a little boy, became an international grandmaster at 13 years, four months and 27 days and is now 17th in the World Chess Federation's ranking of the world's top chess players. "I'm going for the world championship," says a proud Magnus, the third youngest grandmaster in world history. "It would be great (to win) but although I don't know if it will happen I'm not ruling it out," he says. Russia's Garry Kasparov, who ... Telegraph chess: Time to commit hari-kiri -- 14-Sep-07The pairings for the FIDE World Chess Championship tournament were drawn at the opening ceremony held on Tuesday night in Mexico City. The favourites World chess champion Vladimir Kramnik and world number one Vishy Anand both drew white in round one but as this is a double round all play all the advantage is purely psychological, each player will receive seven whites and seven blacks. Round one: Anand - Gelfand; Grischuk - Leko; Kramnik - Svidler; Morozevich - Aronian. There will be metal detectors at the entrance to screen for electronic devices and no mobile phones are allowed in the playing hall so hopefully there will be none of the kind of nonsense seen at Elista last year. The prize fund is 1.3 million dollars. A round one ... Telegraph chess: A complex soap opera -- 13-Sep-07The FIDE World Chess Championship tournament starts tonight in Mexico City. There will be fourteen rounds as the participants of the eight player all play all will face each other with both colours. The octet is composed of three players from the last Fide world chess championship event at San Luis in 2005, the reigning champion Vladimir Kramnik plus four qualifiers from the Candidates matches held at Elista earlier this year. This is the strongest chess tournaments held in the post Kasparov era and one of the strongest of all time. The full line up is: Vishy Anand (India) ranked 1, qualified from San Luis 2005; Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) ranked 3, world chess champion; Alexander Morozevich (Russia) ranked 5, qualified ... Telegraph chess: China finish in control -- 11-Sep-07The UK – China Chess Summit ended in a comfortable victory for the visitors as they won rounds five and six to emerge victorious by a score of 28-20 at St Georges Hall in Liverpool. One the final day the UK only managed to win their ‘banker’ as Michael Adams efficiently dismantled the Sicilian Defence of 13 year old Hou Yifan. The UK sorely missed Luke McShane who has taken a job in the City of London and although Nick Pert, Gawain Jones and David Howell battled hard they were significantly out-rated. Howell showed great promise and it was pure inexperience that lost him his last round game when after having outplayed Wang Yue he went wrong in a favourable endgame. Jones played extremely well and missed wins in a couple of games yet his tournament rating performance was near 2600. The chess match might ... Telegraph chess: China steals the lead -- 10-Sep-07The Chinese chess team reasserted their superiority in the fourth round of the UK v China Summit at St Georges Hall in Liverpool. With two games to play China lead 18-14. On top board there was the rare sight of Michael Adams losing with the white pieces as Zhang Pengxiang showed his tactical prowess. One bright spot for the UK has been the form of 16 year old David Howell who was given a stern examination by Ni Hua but drew after 60 moves playing black in a game where he was somewhat worse for a long time but recovered well and nearly won. Adams’ defeat by Zhang makes Howell’s win over the same opponent in the previous round look even more impressive. Jonathan Rowson was happy just to ... Chess with Errol Tiwari: More than a mere game -- 09-Sep-07 In an age dominated by religious zeal and ideological fanaticism, the development and promotion of chess is crucial. Chess is a sobering philosophical pastime that transports you away from the exhausting world of violence, confusion and uncertainty. When you face an opponent over the board, you distance yourself in mind from the ugly travails of international conflicts and the extreme difficulties which confront you every day on the home front. The game has a soothing effect on its devotees. It is little wonder, therefore, that it is so meaningful to the powerful, such as CEOs, chairmen, managing directors, ministers of government, prime ministers and presidents, who will keep a chess board and ...