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Games / Chess



from left to right: a white king, a black rook,
a black queen, a white pawn, a black knight and
a white bishop

Chess is a two player board game played on a
chessboard, a square checkered board with 64 squares
arranged in an eight by eight grid. It is one of the
world's most popular games, played by millions of
people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by
correspondence and in tournaments.

Each player begins the game with sixteen pieces: one
king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops
and eight pawns. Each of the six piece types moves
differently. Pieces are used to attack and capture the
opponent's pieces, with the object of the game being to
'checkmate' the opponent's king by placing it under an
inescapable threat of capture. In addition to checkmate,
the game can be won by the voluntary resignation of
one's opponent, which typically occurs when too much
material is lost or if checkmate appears unavoidable.
A game may also result in a draw in several ways where
neither player wins. The course of the game is divided
into three phases: opening, middlegame and endgame.

Since the second half of the 20th century, computers
have been programmed to play chess with increasing
success to the point where home computers can now
play chess at a very high level. In the past two
decades computer analysis has contributed
significantly to chess theory as understood by
human players, particularly in the endgame. The
computer Deep Blue was the first machine player to
overcome a reigning World Chess Champion when it
defeated Garry Kasparov in 1997.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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