The Game of Chess

Brass/Leather Chess Set With Persian Style Brass Chess Pieces (3

Sale Price: $314.95*
Retail: $340 (7% off!)
(The Chess Zone)

We proudly present this top quality brass and leather chess set, comprising ourPersian style brass chess pieces with 3.5" king15.5" black and gold leather chess boardThis is a perfect combination of our largest Persian brass pieces and leather chess board.

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Fame 5448 cops and robbers chess set, king 3.25 Inch With 301B B

Sale Price: $62.10*
Retail: $80.73 (23% off!)
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re-live every boys' childhood dreams with this entertaining cops and robbers theme chess set! take the side of the law's chess set pieces, and send out the proverbial 'long arm of the law' to catch and bring to justice the offending robber king!

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Oriental 8 Fairy Chess Set

Price: $81.20*
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Oriental 8 Fairy Chess Set. Description:19 inches 8-Fairy Soapstone chess set in folding wood box.

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Chess Pieces & True Onix Chess Board

Price: $3,065*
(Made in Firenze - Art, Craft, & Food)

ROYAL DELUX CHESS SETS AND BOARDMEDIEVAL ONIX CHESS SETS AND BOARDONIX CHESS SET size: "King": h= 4' and inch base 1'1/2 X 1' 1/5 ONIX CHESS BOARD DIMENSION: 19" x 19" Deep: 4" Chess Pieces & True Onix Chess Board

Merchant: Made in Firenze - Art, Craft, & Food

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Excalibur Electronic E951 Einstein Master 2 in 1 Chess and Check

Price: $49.99*
(J&R Music & Computer World)

56 Levels of Chess and Rating of 1750 / 16 Levels of Checkers / Chess and Checker Pieces Included

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Grand Master Electronic Chess Set

Price: $229.99*
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Grand Master Electronic Chess Set

Merchant: ToysRUs

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Chess is an abstract strategy board game for two players. It is played on a square board of eight rows (called ranks) and eight columns (called files), giving 64 squares of alternating color, light and dark, with each player having a light square at the near-right corner when facing the board. Each player begins the game with 16 pieces which can move in defined directions (and in some instances, limited range) and can remove other pieces from the board: each player's pieces comprise eight pawns, two knights, two bishops, two rooks, one queen and one king. All pieces can remove opponent's pieces by landing on the space they occupy.

One player controls the white pieces and the other player controls the black pieces; the player that controls white is always the first player to move. In chess, when a player's king is directly threatened with capture by one or more of the opponent's pieces, the player is said to be in check. When in check, only moves that can evade check, block check, or take the offending piece are permitted. The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent; this occurs when the opponent's king is in check, and no move can be made that would prevent it.

Introduction

Chess is one of the world's most popular games; it has been described not only as a game but also as an art and a science. Chess is sometimes seen as an abstract wargame; as a "mental martial art", and teaching chess has been advocated as a way of enhancing mental prowess. Chess is played both recreationally and competitively in clubs, tournaments, online, and by mail (correspondence chess). Many variants and relatives of chess are played throughout the world. The most popular, in descending order by number of players, are xiangqi in China, shogi in Japan, janggi in Korea, and makruk in Thailand.

Gameplay

Rules of chess

: Main article: Rules of chess

When a game of chess begins, one player controls the sixteen white pieces while the other uses the sixteen black pieces. The colors are chosen either by a friendly agreement, by a game of chance, or by a tournament director. White always moves first and therefore has a slight advantage over black. The chess pieces should be set up on a standard chessboard with a white square in the near right hand corner.

Each kind of chess piece moves a different way. The rook moves any number of vacant spaces vertically or horizontally, while the bishop moves any number of vacant spaces in any direction diagonally (meaning a bishop will always remain on the same color; note that each side has a bishop for each colored square, and between them they cover the whole board. Losing one bishop often creates weaknesses on the same colored square as the lost bishop). The queen is a combination of the rook and bishop (it can move any number of spaces diagonally, horizontally, or vertically). The king can move only one square horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. The knight can jump over occupied squares and moves two spaces horizontally and one space vertically (or vice versa), making an L shape; a knight in the middle of the board has eight squares it can move to. Note that every time a knight moves, it changes square color.

With the exception of the knight, pieces cannot jump over each other. One's own pieces ("friendly pieces") cannot be passed if they are in the line of movement, and a friendly piece can never replace another friendly piece. Enemy pieces cannot be passed, but they can be "captured". When a piece is captured (or taken), the attacking piece replaces the enemy piece on its square (en passant being the only exception). The king cannot be captured in regular chess, only put in check. If a player is unable to get their king out of check it is called checkmate and they have lost the game.

Pawns capture differently than they move; they can capture an enemy piece on either of the two spaces adjacent to the space in front of them (i.e., the two squares diagonally in front of them), but cannot move to these spaces if they are vacant; conversely, a pawn can move forward one square, but only if that square is unoccupied. Alternatively, a pawn can move two squares forward if it has not moved yet and both squares are empty. If a pawn advances all the way to the eighth rank, it can be promoted to any other piece, except a King or another pawn -- in practice, the pawn is most often promoted to a Queen.

Chess games do not have to end in checkmate. Either player may resign if the situation looks hopeless; also, games may end in a draw (tie). A draw can occur in many situations, including mutual agreement to draw, draw by insufficient material, stalemate, threefold repetition or the fifty move rule.

Until the 1970s, at least in English-speaking countries, chess games were recorded and published using descriptive chess notation. This has been supplanted by the more compact algebraic chess notation. Several notations have emerged, based upon algebraic chess notation, for recording chess games in a format suitable for computer processing. Of these, Portable Game Notation (PGN) is the most common. Apart from recording games, there is also a notation Forsyth-Edwards Notation for recording specific positions. This is useful for adjourning a game to resume later or for conveying chess problem positions without a diagram.

To better understand rules of chess, please see a sample chess game, which explains chess through a simple demonstration, move after move.

Strategy and tactics

: Main article: Chess strategy and tactics

Chess openings are a sequence of moves, often memorized, which will help a player build up their position and prepare for the middlegame. Openings are often designed to take hold of the center of the board (e4, e5, d4 and d5), develop pieces, protect the king, and create a strong pawn structure. The Classical School of chess expounds the virtues of occupying the center early using pawns and/or pieces, while Hypermodernism advocates the control of the center not by using pawns but with distant pieces. It is often important for a player to castle (a special move that moves the king from the center of the board two squares towards one of the corners) to protect the king. See the list of chess openings for more information. While studying openings can greatly improve one's results, it is important to understand the underlying reasons for each sequence of moves in an opening. This can greatly reduce the need to rely on rote memorization of the opening phase of the game. Of the utmost importance in the opening is maintaining balance, or equality.

When taking and trading pieces, the chess piece point values becomes important. Valuations differ slightly from book to book, but generally, queens are worth 9 points, rooks are worth 5, bishops and knights are worth 3, and pawns are worth 1. Since the king's loss ends the game it is invaluable. The actual value and importance of a piece will vary based upon its position and the stage of the game. If a player performs a sacrifice (e.g. exchange sacrifice), they are choosing to ignore the standard valuation of their pieces for positional or tactical gains. The beginning player should be aware that points are not an inherent part of the game; there is no scoring and chess was played long before the idea of assigning points to pieces. Instead, points are used by a player to consider whether he will come out materially better than his opponent in an exchange of pieces. For instance, to lose two pawns (2 points) in taking the opponent's knight (3 points) puts one ahead in material by one point. Such an advantageous exchange of pieces may, however, be a poor tactic if it leaves the opponent with an exploitable advantage in the way the pieces are positioned on the board.

Chess combinations and traps do not appear out of thin air. Usually they are present because the opponent has certain weaknesses in their position. These types of "weaknesses" include: pinned pieces, overloaded pieces, weaknesses around the opponents king, weak squares, unprotected pieces, weak colour complexes, pieces not able to come back to defend the king, etc. These "weaknesses" can then be exploitable with a chess combination that is often built out of a number of tactical "methods". Such weaknesses are often created in the opponent's position in the first place by threats, provocative moves, and generally strong "positional play", etc.

Chess combinations often include a number of types of tactic "methods" which many middlegame books classify and provide examples of. Such common "methods" include Pins, Forks, Skewers, Discovered checks, Zwischenzugs, Deflections, Decoys, Sacrifices, Forcing moves, and even "Quiet moves" - which can be devastating moves that leave the oppponent in Zugzwang, or an otherwise lost position. In many combinations of Alexander Alekhine, there is often a very subtle "quiet move" which breaks the Camel's back. For clarification, it should be noted that a "pin" is a tactical "method"- the act of pinning the opponent's pieces. But a "pinned piece" is a specific type of weakness in the opponent's position, which when identified, could be exploited with a tactical combination.

A fork is a situation where a piece is moved such that it attacks (forks) two other pieces simultaneously. It usually is difficult for the other player to protect both of their pieces in one move. Pins are used to prevent the movement of an enemy piece by threatening any pieces behind it should it move. Skewers are a kind of reverse pin where the more valuable piece is placed in front of a less important one. A discovered attack is an attack where a piece moves and uncovers a line for another piece which does the attacking. Other tactical elements include: zwischenzug, undermining, overloading, and interference.

A few common positional elements which high level Chess players routinely must assess include Pawn structure, King safety, Space, the presence of pawn islands, isolated pawns, backward pawns, doubled pawns. In addition there are factors such as the two bishops which compensate each other's weaknesses. Most middlegame books recommend that once an assessment of the elements of the position has taken place, it is then recommended to try and form a "plan" to create an advantage. Once a plan is formulated, it is then recommended to try and ensure the plan is feasible through the process of checking concrete variations.

Great chess writer Aron Nimzowitsch outlined in the classic work "My system" a number of middlegame positional principles such as "Rook on the 7th rank", "Undermining the pawn chain", "Restrain, blockade and destroy". This work has influenced generations of modern chess players in how they think in the middlegame.

During the endgame, pawns and kings become relatively more powerful pieces as both sides often try to promote their pawns. If one player has a large material advantage, checkmate may happen quickly in the endgame. If the game is relatively even, tablebases and endgame study are essential. Controlling the tempo (time used by each move) becomes especially important when fewer pieces are left on the board. In some cases, a player will have a material advantage, but will not have enough material to force a checkmate. In this case, the game is considered a draw by insufficient material.

Alternative ways to play chess

Blitz chess is a version of chess where a chess clock is used to limit the time control for each player. Generally each side has three to fifteen minutes (five is common) for all of their moves. An even faster version of chess is known as bullet chess or lightning chess. Bullet chess's time controls are less than three minutes. Speed chess requires the player to spend less time thinking because if the player's time runs out, they lose. When playing at a faster time, computers become relatively more powerful than humans.

When two players are separated by great distances they can still play chess. Correspondence chess is chess played through the mail, e-mail or special correspondence chess servers. Today, chess is often played on the internet through the telnet-based hosts (such as ICC and FICS) and TCP/IP based servers (such as Playchess and WCN), listed below.

Chess can also be played blindfold. In this case the play is conducted without the players having sight of the positions of the pieces, or any physical contact with them. Moves are communicated via chess notation.

Chess pieces can be designed to hold alcohol, which the players must consume during play. Vodka chess simply uses vodka. Depending on prior agreement, one player or the other must drink the content of a captured piece. Chess-a-hol has more complicated rules, with each type of piece holding a different drink. With rules that require the owner of a captured piece to drink, an early queen sacrifice (typically involving a large amount of vodka) can lead to a win. Sometimes dark drinks (red wine for example) are used for black, and light drinks are used for white.

Chess variants

: Main article: Chess variant

Chess variants are forms of chess where the game is played with a different board, special fairy pieces or different rules. There are over 1500 unique variants of chess. Bobby Fischer noted the overemphasis on memorizing chess openings in normal chess and invented Fischer Random Chess. In this chess variant initial position selected randomly before each game, which makes impossible to prepare the opening play in advance.

There are many more chess variants, like Suicide chess, where the goal of the game is to lose all of one's pieces and if a piece can be taken, it must be taken by the opposing side. Very popular between chess players is also Bughouse chess, in which two teams of players play against each other and give captured pieces to their partner. In Progressive chess the number of pieces one can move increases each turn (i.e. white moves one piece, black moves two, white moves three, black moves four etc.)