How computers play chess

chess program consists of 3 parts:a.) Move generator: Generates all possible moves in a given positionb.) Search function: Looks at all possible moves and replies and try to find the best continuation. c.) Position evaluator. Gives a score to a position. It consists of a material score (pawn=100; knight=300 etc.) and a positional score (safe king=20; pawn in center=10; etc.) If the king is in checkmate, the score is very high, say 100000. When the computer has to make a move, it does the following: a.) Generate all possible moves. b.) Make one of the moves (a root move) c.) Generate all the replies of the opponent d.) Make one of the moves of the opponent (the computer is now "thinking" 2 plies deep) e.) Evaluate the resulting position and remember the score f.) Unmake the move of the opponent and try another move g.) Evaluate the position and if the score is better for the opponent (worse for us), remember the new score h.) Repeat (f) and (g) until all replies have been looked at i.) Now unmake the root move and give that move the best score for the opponent (worst for computer.) j.) Make another root move and repeat (d) to (i) k.) If the computer has looked at all root moves, it will play the root move with the best score for him (worst for opponent) What I have just described is a simple 2 ply minimax search. The same process can be used to search deeper (make move [root move], make opponent move [ply 2], make move [ply 3], make opponent move [ply 4] etc.) There are a lot of techniques that programmers use to make programs play better; I will briefly describe some of them. Quiescent search A program must always aim to end its search in quiet positions (e.g. positions with no captures) If a program doesn't use quiescent search and the last move of its search is a queen capturing a knight, the program will think it is a good line (it wins a knight) and try to play it. It doesn't take into account that the knight may be defended and thus his queen could also be captured! The same program with quiescent search would search all captures exhaustively and would then see that the queen could be recaptured and that it is actually a bad move!
Iterative deepening When a program using iterative deepening is thinking, it doesn't start its search with the maximum search depth. Instead it first searches only 2-ply deep. When the 2-ply search is finished, it increases the depth to 3-ply then 4-ply etc. This process will go on until either the time it allocated for that move is up or until it found a sufficiently good move (like checkmate.) The main reason programs use iterative deepening is because they don't know how long a search with a fixed depth will take. If they start with say a 10-ply search and their time is finished before all the moves are looked at, they could easily miss the best move (it might even be a mate in 1!) With iterative deepening however, you always have the results of the previous search depth. If the program is forced to make a move and it hasn't finished the current search, it just uses the results of the previous search depth - in which all the moves were tried.
Opening Books You might have noticed that almost all chess programs make the first few moves instantaneous. The reason is that it uses an opening book with a lot of moves preprogrammed into it. Because all games begin the same way, the computer doesn't have to think about the first few moves - it can just look it up in its opening book. As long as the opponent makes a move that is programmed in the book, the program can look up the best reply and make it instantaneously. Sometimes chess players use strange openings against computers to keep them from using their huge opening books and thus have an unfair advantage. Luckily an opening book is not all bad for us humans; it also helps the computer to play more variations and thus not always the same boring opening! Endgame databases Endgame databases work a lot like opening books. Some simple endgames (e.g. Pawn and King against King) have been exhaustively analysed by computers and the results (best moves) stored in a database. When a program reaches one of the endings in its database, it can just look up the best move and play such endings perfectly. Hash Tables (Transposition tables)Hash tables are used to store positions that you have searched earlier so that you don't have to look at them again. A typical hash table will contain the following: A Key: this is unique to each entry and is related to the position (Zobrist keys work well in chess - look it up!) Score: The score for the position Depth: The depth searched Now, the bigger the hash table of your program, the more information will be reused and thus the better your program will be. You might think that with a big hash table it takes longer to retrieve the information than with a small hash table, but that is not so. The information is not stored chronologically, but is indexed by means of the key. Say your hash size is 1000 entries and your Key=11245. An easy way would be to store the key in the following memory position: 11245 modulo 1000 = 245. So if you have a position with a key of 11245, you know the hash entry would be stored in memory position: 11245 modulo 1000 = 245. Of course if your key is 1245, it would also be stored in memory position 245 (1245 modulo 1000 = 245) and we say a collision occurred. To make sure that you are looking at the correct data, you always have to compare the key's. If they are not the same you cannot use the data, because it is for another position.
A Brief Guide to the Rules of Chess The chessboard is placed so that the white square is on the right side of the player. The player with the White pieces always moves first. A pawn on reaching the last rank can be exchanged for a Queen, Rook, Bishop or Knight as part of the same move. The effect of this promoted piece is immediate. So if the pawn is promoted to a Queen, the Queen, if it is in a position to do so, may check or checkmate the enemy King. Each move must be made with only one hand. A piece that is touched must be moved unless moving this piece would place the King in check. This is called the "touch-move rule". If an opponent's piece is touched then it must be captured if possible. If this is not possible then play continues as if that piece had not been touched. A person may adjust a piece on the chessboard on her move by saying "j'adoube" which is French for "I adjust". When castling, the King must be moved first and then the Rook brought to stand on the opposite side to the King. When using a clock, the button must be pressed with the hand which moved the piece on the chessboard. All play should be conducted with respect for the opponent. A player should not distract or annoy her opponent in any way.

SOYOUWANNA LEARN HOW TO PLAY CHESS?

You might be stupid. A moron. An idiot. A fool. A babbling unintelligent chimp with the IQ of a sack of hammers. But if you are a good chess player, then people will still think that you're smart. Along with nuclear physicists and brain surgeons, great chess players are seen as being among the intellectual giants of the planet. This is partly because chess involves the simultaneous use of strategy, mathematics, and risk-analysis, and partly because the game is such a bitch to learn. But fear the chessboard no more, for we will now teach you the basics of chess. No, we won't teach you enough to start scamming people in Central Park, but you'll at least be able to follow the game and make witty comments. We're first gonna teach you how to set everything up and know how everything moves before we even mention anything about strategy. But just so that you can keep it in mind, the piece called the "king" is the most important piece. The goal of the game is to capture your opponent's king before your opponent captures yours. All of the rest is just details. Your king is all that matters. Long live the king!
If you can't wait to plan your hostile takeover, save some time and view this video, which will have you dethroning your opponent in no time.

1. SET UP THE PIECES PROPERLY
A chess game involves two people sitting on opposite sides of a chessboard. A chess board looks exactly like a checkerboard. But it's not a checkerboard. It's a chessboard. If you don't use the proper terminology, we can just stop right now and you can go back to your pathetic chess-less life. Still here? Good. First, put the board down between you and your opponent. Just for the sake of simplicity, let's name your opponent Moe. We want to start you off easy. In any case, feel free to replace the word "Moe" with "Larry," "Curly" or "Shemp," if it so suits you. Anyway, put the chessboard between you and Moe so that the white square at the bottom is to your right. You can remember this by using the catchy phrase "Right is white." Each player has 6 different types of chess pieces: there are 8 pawns, 2 rooks, 2 knights, 2 bishops, 1 queen, and 1 king. The pawns are the smallest pieces, and you will recognize them because (duh) there are eight of them. The rooks look like tiny little castles with jagged edges along the top. The knights look like little horse heads. The bishops are the things with little balls on the top (they look like Sesame Street's Grover looking up). The king is the tallest piece and has a cross on top. The last piece is the queen, which is the 2nd tallest piece and has a little crown around the top. Now, one player will be the white pieces, and one will be the black pieces. The way to decide is for you to put a pawn in each hand (black in one, white in the other), switch ‘em around behind your back, and then have Moe pick a hand. Whichever color pawn Moe picks, that's the color he'll be for the game. This might seem like a useless detail, but it's actually very important. This is because whoever is white always makes the first move of the game. So, let's say that Moe picked the hand that had a black pawn. That means that you are the white pieces. So you'll take your white pieces and set them up as such: Put your rooks on the two outside corners of the first row.
Next to each rook, put a knight. Next to each knight, put a bishop. The queen goes on the first row on the same color box as the color of your pieces. So if you are the black pieces, put the queen on the remaining black, in the first row, and put the king on the remaining white square. If you are the white pieces, put the queen on the remaining white square and the king on black.
Line up all your pawns on the second row. Was that a tad confusing? Then here's a shortcut: the pieces get taller as you move inwards, and the queen goes on her own color. Your queen will always face your opponent's queen. Same thing goes for the king. In the end, assuming you are the white pieces, your board should look like this: Before we scare you with scary chess terminology, heed our warning: chess players are weirdos. And not normal weirdos, like the people who talk to you at the bus stop, even though you are obviously not going to respond. Chess players are proud to be among the weirdest souls on earth. Case in point: you're not allowed to refer to the rows and columns on a chessboard as a "row" and a "column." You must refer to them as a "rank" and a "file." (Perhaps the vocabulary makes them feel mysterious and dangerous.) Here are two clues to remembering which is which: 1) think of a file like a single file line, which you usually think of as front-to-back, which will remind you that the files are the columns; 2) just remember that "row" and "rank" both begin with an R.And just in case things weren't complicated enough, each rank has a number and each file has a letter, so that everybody can follow what's going on. For example, your knight is in box b1 (you have another one in h1). Moe's king is on e8. You always list the rank, then the file. If you find this difficult to remember, think of the game Battleship: you call out "B3," not "3B."

History of chess

Have you ever played chess? Did you know that chess is the oldest skill game in the world? But chess is more than just a game of skill. It can tell you much about the way people lived in medieval times. If you look at the way a chess board is set up, then study the pieces and how they are used, you will realize that chess is a history of medieval times in miniature. The six different chess pieces on the board represent a cross section of medieval life with its many ceremonies, grandeur, and wars. Chess was played many centuries ago in China, India, and Persia. No one really knows for sure in which country it originated. Then, in the eighth century, armies of Arabs known as Moors invaded Persia. The Moors learned chess from the Persians. When the Moors later invaded Spain, the soldiers brought the game of chess with them. Soon the Spanish were playing chess, too. From Spain, chess quickly spread throughout all of Europe.
Europeans gave chess pieces the names we know today; they probably had trouble pronouncing and spelling the Persian names, so they modernized them to reflect the way they lived. Today, the names certainly aren’t modern but a thousand years ago they represented the very way in which both ordinary people and persons of rank lived their lives. The pawns on the chess board represent serfs, or laborers. There are more of them than any other piece on the board, and often they are sacrificed to save the more valuable pieces. In medieval times, serfs were considered no more than property of landowners, or chattel. Life was brutally hard for serfs during this era of history. They worked hard and died young. They were often left unprotected while wars raged around them. They could be traded, used as a diversion, or even sacrificed to allow the landowners to escape harm. The castle piece on a chess board is the home, or the refuge, just as it was a home in medieval times. In chess, each side has two castles, or rooks, as they are sometimes called. he knight on a chess board represents the professional soldier of medieval times whose job it was to protect persons of rank, and there are two of them per each side in a game of chess. Knights in a game of chess are more important than pawns, but less important than bishops, kings, or queens. Their purpose in the game of chess is to protect the more important pieces, and they can be sacrificed to save those pieces just as pawns can.
There is a bishop in the game of chess, who represents the church. The church was a rich and mighty force in medieval times, and religion played a large part in every person’s life. It is no wonder that a figure that represented the concept of religion found its way into the game. A bishop was the name for a priest in the Catholic church who had risen through the ranks to a more powerful position. In the game of chess, there are two bishops for each side.
The queen is the only piece on the board during a chess game that represents a woman, and she is the most powerful piece of the game. In the game of chess, there is only one queen for each side. Many people do not realize that queens in medieval times often held a powerful, yet precarious, position. The king was often guided by her advice, and in many cases the queen played games of intrigue at court. But kings could set wives aside or even imprison them in nunneries with the approval of the church (and without the queen’s approval), and many women schemed merely to hold her place at court. The machinations of queens working either for or against their kings are well noted in history throughout medieval times, and often she held more power than the king did. The king is the tallest piece on the board, and is as well defended on the chessboard as in medieval life. In medieval times, the surrender of the king would mean the loss of the kingdom to invading armies and that could mean change for the worse. It was to everyone’s advantage, from the lowest serf to the highest-ranking official, to keep the king safe from harm. The king is the most important, but not the most powerful piece in chess. If you do not protect your king, you lose the game. The next time you set up your chessboard and get ready to play a friendly game or two, think of chess as a history lesson. The pieces on the board represent a way of life that is no more, and the real life dramas that occurred in medieval times are now only a game. Learn to play chess If you want to learn how to play chess this is the place to be. The site contains articles on both the basic rules of chess and on the more advanced elements such as tactic, theory of the middle game, end game and opening. ChessGuru.net focus mainly on teaching beginning and intermediate players and it does that in a series of step by step, easy to follow chess tutorials. If you don't know anything about chess you may want to start with chess rules. You will learn here about the rules: the pieces, how to move, how to setup the chess board and so on... One of the many problems a beginner faces in a chess game, once he is familiar with the rules, is what to do when playing the game, how should he start the game, how to attack his opponent position and defend his own at the same time? This is one of the issues this site deals with and you can read about it at get better. One of the most interesting things when playing chess is the use of various tricks in the game. The use of such maneuvers is quite startling as they are usually hard to spot. All of this maneuvers constitute the tactic in chess, a well covered subject on this site Practice makes perfect There is a very important thing you should know: practice makes perfect! This is a rule that applies to almost everything in life, including chess. If you are an enthusiastic beginner you could probably miss out on this important detail. So, the best way you can learn chess is by playing chess, but not before studding a little bit.

Why chess?

Why not! Chess is a fun game with relatively easy to learn rules. This game can help you develop your ability to solve everyday problems, it can help you become more patient. After all, this is a game that relies on the mind's ability to find solutions to problems. Now, I don't know the reason why you've decided to learn to play chess. I can only guess that you are curios about the game or that you've probably played before with your friends and lost miserably (it happen to me once upon a time). Or maybe you just want to learn new interesting things. No matter what your reason is I can assure you that you won't regret spending time in learning chess on this site .
Can this site help me learn everything about chess? Before I give you the answer to that question you should ask yourself: do I really want to learn everything about chess? If your answer is yes than you should know that it will probably take you a few good years in order to really perform at this game. That's right! Don't be surprised! There is a huge volume of information covering this game, things like : the openings, end game studies, strategy, middle game and so on... If you want to reach an acceptable level of knowledge in chess I believe that this site is pretty much all you need to know. Of course there is always room for improvement so you can always learn more on this subject... I hope that this site will help you in your pursuit to learn to play chess. Just follow the articles step by step and at the end of your study you will be able to say that you really know how to play chess.

Rules

Chess is played on a square board which is sub-divided into 64 squares of alternating light and dark colors. Some of the more common colors used for the chess board squares are white (or off-white) and green, white and black, and tan and brown; but regardless of their actual colors, they are typically referred to as “light” and “dark” or “white” and “black.” The 64 squares of the chess board are arranged in an 8 by 8 grid, the horizontal rows of which are referred to as “ranks”, the vertical columns as “files”, and the diagonal lines as “diagonals.” Chess is played with 32 pieces, divided into two sets of 16 pieces each. Each set of 16 pieces is comprised of one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns. One set is light-colored (most often white or tan) and the other set is dark-colored (most often black or brown); but regardless of their actual colors, they are typically referred to as “white” and “black.”
The player who has the white pieces is typically referred to as the white player or just plain “White.” The player who has the black pieces is typically referred to as the black player or just plain “Black.” The player with the white pieces moves first. Moves are alternated until the end of the game. No player may make more than one move per turn, and no player may “pass” or skip a turn: moving is mandatory. For casual games, it is customary to use some random method to decide who gets the white pieces. A common method is for one player to take a different colored pawn in each hand and place them behind his or her back, having the other player choose a hand, and thereby a color.At the start of the game, the pieces are arranged on the board as in the diagram at the top of this page, with each of the two players sitting behind their respective pieces. Notice the following things about this initial position: 1) The board is oriented so that there is a light square in the right corner of the board from each player’s perspective. It is important to orient the board correctly so that the pieces may be placed properly. 2) White’s pieces are arranged thus: on the back rank (closest to the White player) from left to right: rook, knight, bishop, queen, king, bishop, knight, rook. The eight pawns are placed on the eight squares of the second rank. Notice that the white queen stands on a white square: “Queen on color,” as the saying goes.3) Black’s pieces are arranged likewise on his or her back two ranks. Notice that the black queen stands on a black square: again, “Queen on color.”

The History Of Chess

The true age of the game known to the western world as chess is some what of a mystery. Several unsubstantiated theories placed the date of the invention of chess far earlier than can be supported by historic evidence. According to one tale, the game of chess was invented about 1000 B.C., by an Indian mathematician who is also credited with the invention of the concept of powers in mathematics. Also there are unsubstantiated stories pushing the date of chess as far back as 3000 years ago, based on archeological discoveries in Egypt, Iraq, and India. However, since there is no mention of the game in ancient literature before the year A.D. 570, many historians have categorically recognized that date to be the birth date of chess. The first mention of the game of chess is in a Persian poem dated A.D. 600 according to which the advent of chess took place in India. The introduction of chess from India into ancient Iran (Persia) during the reign of King Chosroe I Anushiravan (531-579), is described in a Persian book dated 650-750. The same book describes chess terminology and the name and the functions of the pieces in great detail. Mentions of the game of chess are found in the poems of Firdousi, a Persian poet living at the turn of the 10th century A.D. In a poem he describes gifts being introduced by a convoy from the Rajah of India at the court of the Persian king Chosroe I. Anushiravan. Among these gifts, according to the poem, there was a game which depicted the battle of two armies. After the Persian empire was conquered by the Arab Moslems, the game of chess started to spread throughout the civilized world. Chess was introduced to the western world by the Moslems who conquered the lands from India and Persia to the East, and Spain to the West. The rout of the game of chess through different cultures and languages can be summed up in the following:

Indo Persian ----> Arabian ----> European.

Chess was brought to Spain by the Moors and the first reference toward chess in the Christian World is in the Catalonian Testament of A.D.1010. Although chess was known in Europe at earlier times. According to some legends, an expensive and elaborate chess set was given as a gift to Charlemagne (8th- 9th centuries) from the famous Moslem ruler Haroon-al-Rashid. There is also poetry describing chess being present at the court of the legendary King Arthur. Chess came to Germany in 10th-11th century, with the earliest reference in German literature made by a Monk, Froumund von Tegermsee written in 1030-1050. It is said that Svetoslav Surinj of Croatia beat the Venetian Doge Peter II in a game for the right to rule the Dalmatian towns. From Germany Chess spread into Italy and later England. The following diagram is the rout of Chess in Europe:

France---->Spain \ Germany---->Italy---->England
By the 10th -11th centuries, Chess was known in Scandinavia and later on in the 11th century it reach Bohemia from Italy. An essential archaeological discovery at Novgorod, Russia, which consisted of Chess pieces being of characteristically Muslim abstract, proved that before arriving from Europe, Chess had reached Russia directly through the Middle East. To this day, the names of Chess pieces in Russia indicate Persian and Arabic origins. In old Russian folk poems there are mentions of Chess as a popular game. The present day European Chess was, however, brought to Russia from Italy, through Poland. There is a theory that Chess was brought into Russia by the Tartars who were the Mogul conquerors of the Far East and Middle East and who learned the game from the Persians and Arabs.Chess was forbidden in Europe for a period of time by the Christian church because often it was used for gambling and some claimed that it has signs of paganism in it. However, nothing could stop the growing popularity of the game which is proven by a great deal of literature that has been produced throughout the years regarding it. The oldest known chess related writings are from the middle of the 9th century from the Arab author Al-Adli. These writing known a Mansubat are discussed in the next section. The popularity of chess continued to grow and soon the entire world knew and cherished this most popular game of the ancient world. The following chart outlines the route through which and time when chess reached different parts of the world: Original form of Chess: It has been historically established that chess at its origins was a four sided game, meaning there were four sets of pieces. Hence, still today in many parts of the world, the original name Shatrang (derived from Indian Sanskrit, Chatur meaning "four," and anga meaning "detachment") is used. In Persian literature during the Sassanid dynasty (A.D. 242-651) a book has been discovered written in the Pahlavi (Middle Persian) language named, Chatrang namakwor, "A Manual of Chess. In modern Persian nearly the same word shatranj is used to refer to the game. Popular historical theory is that Shatrang (chess) according to ancient Indian mysticism represents the Universe. The four sides illustrate the four elements: earth, air, fire, and water; as well as the four seasons or the four "humors" of mankind. It is also said that the word chess is Driven from the Persian word "King" (Shah) and the term checkmate is Driven from the Persian term "The King died." The following is the conversion of the European names for the pieces of chess to the oldest version of these names still used in India, Iran, and many other parts of the world It should be noted that although the names used for Chess pieces in slightly different in different parts of the world but the form and movement of the pieces are almost identical. The Arab Moslems had perhaps more influence in the game of chess than any other culture. The name 'Chess' was originally Driven from the Persian word for King Shah and the term 'Mate' from the Arabic word mat, meaning dead. The contribution of the early Moslems to the games of chess include: Blindfold play, mentioned as early as 700 A.D., the advent of the first tournaments and qualifying contests, as early as the second half of the 8th century, the first known Chess problems, nearly at the same time, the writing of the first book on Chess was by Al-Adli about A.D. The writings of Al Adli contained openings, the first chess problems called "mansubat", and discussed the differences between the Persian and Hindu rules.Unfortunately, this valuable book is lost today. However in a Yugoslav library a valuable Arabic manuscript of the early 9th century which contained mansubat was discovered and later exhibited in 1958. Some of these mansubat (chess problems) were based on legends such as one called "the Dilaram mate." According to the legend, Dilaram was a chess player who gambled all that he had on the game and eventually lost everything. In haste he gambled his wife on one final game and because of his reckless behavior he was losing the game and the odds were against him until his wife noticed that he could mate his opponent in a few moves by sacrificing both of his rooks. So she whispered this in his ear and he won the game. The following table is a table of some of the oldest knownArabic usage still popular today for chess pieces and their meaning: Byzantine chess, Zatrikion played on a round board, but the chessmen and their moves are similar to Arabic style of the same period After the introduction of chess to Europe, there appeared many popular manuscripts of the game. Perhaps the most important and valuable of these manuscripts, from the Middle ages, is one authored by the Spanish king, Alfonso the Wise in 1283.This great work contains 150 miniatures in color, based on the original Persian paintings. Its chess include a collection of end games derived from Arabian literature. Chess was, early on, introduced to many cultures each of which contributed greatly to the reform of the game. Today the official game of chess is remarkably very well preserved and not much different from the original played in Indian nearly 1430 years ago.

History of the world chess championship

The first match proclaimed by the players as for the world championship was the match that Wilhelm Steinitz won against Johannes Zukertort in 1886. However, a line of players regarded as the strongest (or at least the most famous) in the world extends back hundreds of years beyond them, and these players are sometimes considered the world champions of their time. They include Ruy López de Segura around 1560, Paolo Boi and Leonardo da Cutri around 1575, Alessandro Salvio around 1600, and Gioachino Greco around 1620. In the 18th and early 19th century, French players dominated, with Legall de Kermeur (1730–1747), Francois-André Philidor (1747–1795), Alexandre Deschapelles (1800–1820) and Louis de la Bourdonnais (1820–1840) all widely regarded as the strongest players of their time. La Bourdonnais played a series of six matches — and 85 games — against the Irishman Alexander McDonnell, with many of the encounters later being annotated by the American Paul Morphy.The Englishman Howard Staunton's match victory over another Frenchman, Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant, in 1843 is considered to have established him as the world's strongest player.[1] In 1851 Staunton organised the first international tournament in London. He finished fourth, with the decisive winner, the German Adolf Anderssen establishing himself as the leading player in the world.

The Origin of Chess

The Origin of Chess Is Obscure: Where did chess come from? Was it invented by a single person or did it evolve over time? Many eminent chess historians have been fascinated by these questions. While there is considerable controversy over the facts, the most widely accepted scenario is that chess appeared in India around 600 A.D., was adopted in Persia around 700 A.D., and was absorbed by Arab culture around 800 A.D. The Arab / Muslim influence was responsible for its later introduction into other cultures.The Evidence for Early Chess: There is no confirmed physical evidence from the early days of chess. No chess boards or complete chess sets have been found. Some objects excavated by archaeologists might have been early chess pieces, but they might just as easily have served a purpose that had nothing to do with a game. The evidence that we have is taken from literature, and even that is subject to interpretation. Does a certain word translate as 'chess', as some other board game, or as something else entirely?The Early Chess Historians: Many chess players know Sir William Jones (1746-1794) as the author of 'Caissa', a poem composed in 1763. He was also an accomplished linguist; knew Arabic, Persian, and Sanskrit; and while living in India, published a paper ‘On the Indian game of Chess’ (1790), which identified India as the birthplace of chess. Later, Duncan Forbes (1798-1868), a professor of oriental languages, published 'The History of Chess' (1860), confirming his theory of India as birthplace 5000 years earlier.

World Chess Championship
The World Chess Championship is played to determine the World Champion in the board game chess. Both men and women are eligible to contest this title. In addition, there is a separate event for women only, for the title of "Women's World Champion", and separate competitions and titles for juniors, seniors and computers. However, these days the strongest competitors in the junior, senior, and women's categories often forego these niche title events in order to pursue top level competition, although they continue to be part of chess tradition. Computers are barred from competing for the open title. The official world championship is generally regarded to have begun in 1886, when the two leading players in the world played a match. From 1886 to 1946, the championship was conducted on an informal basis, with a challenger having to defeat the incumbent in a match to become the new world champion. From 1948 to 1993, the championship was administered by FIDE, the international chess organization. In 1993, the reigning champion (Garry Kasparov) broke away from FIDE, meaning there were two rival championships. This situation remained until 2006, when the title was unified at the World Chess Championship 2006. The most recent championship was the World Chess Championship 2007, won by Viswanathan Anand.

World Chess Network and Chess Live

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.

The Origins of Chess
Chess as we know it today emerged in southern Europe near the end of the 15th century. The earliest recorded games and analyses of modern chess come from Italy and Spain. The exploits and writings of Ruy Lopez and Greco in the 16th and 17th centuries influenced generations. The roots of the game go back much further, to 7th century India and the game chaturanga. Soon variations appeared in the Islamic world and it is believed that the game entered Europe via the Moorish conquests of Spain and Sicily. The great French player Philidor, also a renown composer, was by far the most important figure of 18th century chess. His understanding of the game was so far ahead of its time that his concepts were not fully understood by others until 100 years after his death. The modern competitive age of chess began in London in 1851 when the first international tournament was organized by the great English player Howard Staunton. Much to his surprise he was defeated by the eventual winner of the tournament, Adolf Anderssen of Germany, whose attacking brilliance made him the dominant player of the period with one brief, spectacular, exception. Modern Methods The American Paul Morphy appeared on the chess scene suddenly and disappeared just as quickly. But from 1857 to 1859 he shook the chess world with a new style. Instead of the wild attacks of the Romantic school, Morphy developed his pieces and only went on the offensive when success was all but guaranteed. He swept aside all opposition during a tour of Europe and was hailed as the first great international champion. With no one to challenge him, Morphy returned to the US and soon gave up chess for an unsuccessful law career. The lessons of Philidor and Morphy were forgotten until Wilhelm Steinitz began to formulate his precepts for correct play toward the end of the 19th century. Steinitz went beyond Morphy and documented his system of play in decades of prolific literary output. In 1886 he defeated the other leading player of the day, Zukertort, and declared himself World Champion. Today he is considered the first official world champion and so began a long history of title succession. The first half of the 20th century saw a chess title that was owned by the champion. Title matches were arranged, or not arranged, privately. Steinitz' successor, Emanuel Lasker - and his successors Jose Capablanca, Alexander Alekhine, and Max Euwe - spent much of their time and energy arranging (or avoiding) title matches.
After World War II the international chess federation, known by its French acronym FIDE, took over the organization of the world championship. Tournaments, and later matches, were held to select the challenger of the reigning champion and a title match was held every three years. Chess surged in popularity worldwide, becoming a truly international game.
The Soviet Union had aggressively promoted chess among its citizens for decades and its players dominated, beginning with Mikhail Botvinnik in 1948. Vasily Smyslov, Mikhail Tal, and Tigran Petrosian all held the highest title during this "first among equals" period of Soviet hegemony. Botvinnik's rigorous training methods added a greater degree of science to the artistic and sporting elements of the game. The Professionals The title stayed in the Soviet family for 24 years. Then American Bobby Fischer beat Boris Spassky in Iceland in 1972 and changed the chess world on and off the board. The brilliant and eccentric Fischer continued the tradition of Alekhine and Botvinnik by working harder than his peers. His fanatical dedication raised the level of the game to new heights at the board while his uncompromising nature did the same in the realm of prize money. Unfortunately, the good Fischer did for the popularity of the game was not as good for him personally. After a conflict with FIDE over the rules for his title defense he banished himself from chess much as his countryman Morphy had done over 100 years earlier. His legacy was an improvement in conditions for all players and an international wave of interest in the game, another parallel with Morphy. Fischer's forfeit left the title to a new young representative of the Soviet school, Anatoly Karpov. The 12th champion quickly dispelled doubts about his legitimacy by winning every tournament in sight and defending his title twice against Viktor Korchnoi. Karpov's dominance ended only with the arrival of Garry Kasparov 10 years later and even then it wasn't immediately clear which of them would emerge triumphant. Garry Kasparov in one of his many famous matches against computer opponents. In 1996 he beat the IBM computer Deep Blue, but the machine got revenge the following year. Kasparov played matches against two top programs, Fritz and Junior, in 2003. The now-legendary Kasparov-Karpov duels brought the game to its highest level. The two greatest players clashed again and again in five consecutive world championship matches. Kasparov took the title in 1985 and held off Karpov until, at last, another challenger emerged for the 1993 match. That challenger was Nigel Short, the first westerner to challenge for the title since Fischer. It turned out that the action off the board before the match started would be more memorable than the games. Unhappy with FIDE's management of bid negotiations, Short made a fateful phone call to Kasparov to suggest they break away from the organization. Thus the Professional Chess Association was born and the world championship title was split. Computers and the Future of Chess Along the way the game itself had changed. The time controls - the amount of time the players get for their moves - has consistently speeded up. Blitz and rapid chess events, in which the players have minutes instead of hours, have become popular. In the 1990's computers began to have an impact and were competing with Grandmasters. Now every top player uses them to study and prepare and games are analyzed with software programs. The various financial and political crises in the chess world have not deterred a very strong new generation of chessplayers from appearing. With the help of computer training, younger and younger Grandmasters appear on a regular basis. The current record-holder, Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine, achieved the title at the tender age of 12! Computers are having ever more influence on the sport as players and as analytical tools. Human-machine events draw tremendous interest and only the top players can compete with current programs. The game has moved very successfully onto the internet and chess is reaching a new audience of millions each year. Fans who used to wait months to find out the results of tournaments can now follow the games live with expert commentary. The upcoming World Championship tournament in Mexico City will break new ground in this department, with full video coverage and commentary on-site and online.

Capturing Tech History for the Ages

The original Computer Museum was founded in Marlboro, Massachusetts in 1979. Funded by several computer companies and private individuals, it offered the history of the industry as well as hands-on exhibits for kids and adults. You could literally walk through the world's largest computer. Its displays are now located in Boston's Museum of Science.

A Short History of Computer Chess

Chess and computers was a marriage waiting to happen, and when it did, so we had the reality of computer chess. The following; derrived from books and other sources of info, covers some of the earliest roots of computer chess; technological milestones in their own right that has led to the situation we have today, where average-strength, off-the shelf computer programs/chess computers regularly outplay good players, and where the strongest one's are able to beat even Grand Masters. Leonardo Torres y QuevedoIn the Polytechnic University of Madrid can be found, still working, the true ancestor of the chess playing computer. It is not very ambitious in its aims, but considering that it was built in 1890 and uses only electro-mechanical devices then it is worthy of admiration. Its inventor was the Spanish scientist Leonardo Torres y Quevedo whose experiments and theories on automation led him to produce this as an example of the possibilities of robots. The object of the device was to checkmate a human opponent's king using only its own king and rook. It consisted of a board on which the three pieces moved along slots. Electrical connections made by the pieces in their various positions served to sense the current board position and electromagnets provided the means of moving the chess pieces. A light bulb lit up if the human player had made an illegal move and a device similar to an early gramophone produced the words CHECK and MATE where appropriate.Decision making was performed by a series of electromagnetic relay switches. It had no software control as such, the device being similar to a modern microprocessor constructed to respond only to an instruction set of (simple) chessboard positions. The embedded rules determining which moves to make were not complicated, consisting of six conditions concerning relative positions of Kings and Rook, on which six actions could be taken. It could guarantee a checkmate within 63 moves against any opponent.
Alan Mathieson TuringWe had to wait another fifty years before a step comparable to that of Torres was made. Alan Turing was both mathematician and philosopher who founded both computer science and artificial intelligence research. In 1951 Turing wrote what was probably the first chess program TURBOCHAMP. Unfortunately there did not exist a computer at that time capable of running TURBOCHAMP. The first game played between a chess program and a human was overseen by Turing himself who performed the program's calculations without the aid of a calculator. The human opponent was Allick Glenms who managed to checkmate TURBOCHAMP after 29 moves in a game that lasted three hours.TURBOCHAMP was a rudimentary program by today's standards in that it could only look one move ahead, it had no concept of the difference between the opening, middle and end games, and had an elementary evaluation of position. It did however, understand the rules of the game and used basic algorithms distinguishable from the modern variety only by the need to produce an answer within many fewer calculations. It is interesting to note that Alan Turing himself was a poor chess player. TURBOCHAMP was probably an example of a program being able to out think its creator. Claude Elwood ShannonClaude Elwood Shannon was working on his theories of chess programming almost simultaneously with lan Turing. He formalised the methods that can be used to consider a chess position into two strategies, generally known as strategy A and strategy B. These two methods form the basis of practically all modern chess programs or chess computers. Both strategies were developed on the basis of work done several years earlier by the mathematician Jon Van Neumann. He developed the methods of 'minimax' to evaluate the optimum path through a decision tree, as part of his general theories on game playing STRATEGY A.This is sometimes known as the 'Brute Force Method'. In its initial conception it simply involved the calculation of every possible move and every possible reply for a fixed number of 'half moves' ahead. This has been refined in later years to include alpha-beta cutoff in the minimax search, and to perform heuristic ordering of evaluation of moves to improve efficiency. To work effectively this method requires computers of high processing power due to the alarming way in which the number of computations required rises as the 'look ahead' increases. STRATEGY B.As Shannon realised that the computers of his day were incapable of utilising strategy A with much effect, he devised strategy B as a more subtle alternative. The essential difference is that a heuristic 'plausible move generator' is used to cut down the number of moves considered at each stage and so increases the number of 'half moves' ahead that can be analysed. This method has the disadvantage of the possibility of missing a vital move if the 'plausible move generator' is not of the highest standard. It does however provide the more modest compute? - the chance of finding a good move for several moves ahead. Shannon never actually wrote a full program to perform either strategy, but set down algorithms used from then on by many chess programs. He demonstrated a deep understanding of the limiting factors which were to pose the problems for chess programmers for years to come.Los Alamos - MANIAC 1One of the earliest chess programs running on a computer was developed in the early 1950's by a group at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in New mexico, presumably a form of relaxation after their efforts in producing the first hydrogen bomb. The scientists; Wells, Walden, Kister, Stein and Ulam, developed the program on the IBM MANIAC 1 that weighed about 30 tons. To reduce the number of computations they cheated a little by programming for a 6 by 6 chess board without bishops.This program was firstly beaten by a fairly strong player despite the program being given an initial queen advantage. It then went on to face a very specially prepared challenger. A young member of the laboratory who had been taught to play chess only a week earlier was thrown into the fray and was unsurprisingly beaten after 23 moves. The challenger was the first to be outwitted at chess by a computer.Modem Chess ProgramsAs true computers, recognisable as the ancestors of our current machines, were developed in the early 1950's, the race to produce the ultimate chess program was on, and still continues today. In 1974 the first world computer chess championship took place in Stockholm. The top computers available played each other under tournament rules, with a few amendments to cope with system failures. A Russian program KAISSA won the first of what was to become a regular event. Since then, competition has also extended to a microcomputer event which tends to be more of a test of programming than processing power.The race has always been a three way challenge, between the computers themselves and between computers and chess players. The progress of chess computers and their programming can be traced through the increasing standard of players required to defeat them. From novices in the 1950's through to masters in the 80's, never mind the 90's and 00's; it seems that we are fighting a losing battle - and the chess player 'v' chess computer battle will probably last for ever.

The History of Computer Chess

Dr. Dietrich Prinz wrote the original chess playing program for a general purpose computer (the Manchester Ferranti). The program first ran in November 1951. Prinz was a researcher at Manchester University in England where the groundbreaking Mark I, Mark II, the Ferranti Mk computers were designed and built. Previously, special purpose machines designed only for playing chess had been invented. Dietrich Prinz was familiar with the chess-playing machine built by Torres y Quevedo. Prinz decided to work on the programming necessary to make a regular computer play chess. The early computers of 1950s have little of the computing power or memory compared to modern computers. The limitations of a Mark series computer did not allow for a whole game of chess to be programmed. Prinz could only program mate-in-two problems. The program would examine every possible move until a solution was found and took an average of fifteen minutes to do so, today's computers can solve the same problem in a fraction of a second. However, for its time Prinz's program was a marvel. The first checker-playing program was written by Christopher Strachey. It ran on the Ferranti Mark I in the Manchester Computing Machine Laboratory and was completed in 1952. Strachey was able to program an entire game of checkers, checkers being a much simpler game compared to chess. Dr. Dietrich G. Prinz was born on 29 March, 1903. He was educated at Berlin University, where his teachers included Planck and Einstein, and graduated with a Ph.D. in Philosophy. He left Germany in 1935 and settled in England. Prinz started working at Ferranti Ltd in 1947, and became involved in the firm's work with the Manchester Mark series of computers. Prinz was a programmer of the Manchester Mark I and the early Ferranti-Mark computers. In 1957, a full-fledged chess program was written by Bernstein for an IBM 704 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1983, a chess program called Belle, designed at AT&T's Bell Laboratories, became the first to reach the U.S. master level of playing ability. In 1988, an IBM-designed program called Deep Thought, defeated one grand master and tied another.

Computer History Museum
The Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA, www.computerhistory.org.) The home of the largest collection of computer artifacts in the world, which includes more than 4,000 hardware components and 10,000 images made up of films, videos and historical photos. Originally part of the Boston-based Computer Museum, the spin-off History Museum established itself in Silicon Valley in 1996. With plans for several phases of development, the museum is dedicated to computing history and its social impact. One of its most popular exhibits is "Visible Storage," where rare objects such as the Cray-1 supercomputer, the Apple I and the 1969 Honeywell "Kitchen Computer" are displayed. In 2005, a new exhibit opened featuring the history of computer chess and the five decades it took to build the machines that could challenge the worthiest of human players.