Portal:Chess

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Welcome to the Chess Portal

Introduction

Left to right: white king, black rook, black queen, white pawn, black knight, white bishop

Chess is a board game for two players. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to distinguish it from related games such as xiangqi (Chinese chess) and shogi (Japanese chess).

Chess is an abstract strategy game that involves no hidden information and no elements of chance. It is played on a chessboard with 64 squares arranged in an 8×8 grid. The players, referred to as "White" and "Black", each control sixteen pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns. White moves first, followed by Black. The game is won by checkmating the opponent's king, i.e. threatening it with inescapable capture. There are several ways a game can end in a draw.

The recorded history of chess goes back at least to the emergence of a similar game, chaturanga, in seventh-century India. The rules of chess as they are known today emerged in Europe at the end of the 15th century, with standardization and universal acceptance by the end of the 19th century. Today, chess is one of the world's most popular games and is played by millions of people worldwide. (Full article...)

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Photo shows the six types of chess pieces in the Staunton style. — Staunton style chess pieces. *Left to right:* king, rook, queen, pawn, knight, bishop

The rules of chess (also known as the laws of chess) govern the play of the game of chess. Chess is a two-player abstract strategy board game. Each player controls sixteen pieces of six types on a chessboard. Each type of piece moves in a distinct way. The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent's king; checkmate occurs when a king is threatened with capture and has no escape. A game can end in various ways besides checkmate: a player can resign, and there are several ways a game can end in a draw.

While the exact origins of chess are unclear, modern rules first took form during the Middle Ages. The rules continued to be slightly modified until the early 19th century, when they reached essentially their current form. The rules also varied somewhat from region to region. Today, the standard rules are set by FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Échecs), the international governing body for chess. Slight modifications are made by some national organizations for their own purposes. There are variations of the rules for fast chess, correspondence chess, online chess, and Chess960. (Full article...)

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General images

The following are images from various chess-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Chess game between Tha'ālibī and Bākhazarī, 1896 painting by Ludwig Deutsch (from History of chess)
Image 2Chess Set by Man Ray (from Chess in the arts)
Image 3Sofonisba Anguissola, The Chess Game, 1555, National Museum, Poznań, Poland (from Chess in the arts)
Image 4Hans Muelich, 1552, Duke Albrecht V. of Bavaria and his wife Anna of Austria playing chess (from Chess in the arts)
Image 5Liberale da Verona, The Chess Players, c. 1475 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) (from Chess in the arts)
Image 6Bauhaus chess set by Josef Hartwig (from Chess in the arts)
Image 7Niccolò di Pietro, 1413–15, The Conversion of Saint Augustin, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon (from Chess in the arts)
Image 8Honoré Daumier, 1863, The Chess Players (from Chess in the arts)
Image 9Krishna and Radha playing chaturanga on an 8×8 Ashtāpada (from History of chess)
Image 10Shams-i Tabrīzī as portrayed in a 1500 painting in a page of a copy of Rumi's poem dedicated to Shams (from History of chess)
Image 11In 1975, former President of Pakistan Zulfi Bhutto gifted a carved ivory set of chess to the former United States President Gerald Ford. (from Chess in the arts)
Image 12Paris Bordone, c. 1545, Chess players, oil on canvas, Mailand, Wohnhaus (from Chess in the arts)
Image 13Lucas van Leyden, c. 1508, The Game of Chess, oil on oak, 27 x 35 cm, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin (from Chess in the arts)
Image 14John Lavery, 1929, The Chess Players (from Chess in the arts)
Image 15Thomas Eakins, 1876, The Chess Players (from Chess in the arts)
Image 16Book of the customs of men and the duties of nobles or the Book of Chess (1473) (from Chess in the arts)
Image 17Gustaf Lundberg, 1775, Portrait of Gustav Badin, pastel, 74 x 57 cm, Nationalmuseum, Sweden (from Chess in the arts)
Image 18The Chess Players by Henry Fox Talbot, 1847 (from History of chess)
Image 19Stamp of the USSR devoted to the accomplished Estonian player and analyst Paul Keres, 1991 (from History of chess)
Image 20Edward Harrison May, 1867, Lady Howe mating Benjamin Franklin (from Chess in the arts)
Image 21Wilhelm Steinitz, the first official World Chess Champion (from History of chess)
Image 22Moors from Andalusia playing chess, Book of Games by King Alfonso X, 1283 (from History of chess)
Image 23Iranian courtiers of the Qajar dynasty playing chess in Mazandaran. (from History of chess)
Image 24World Champions José Raúl Capablanca (left) and Emanuel Lasker in 1925 (from History of chess)
Image 25Richard Creifelds, c. 1886, The Veterans, Brooklyn Museum (from Chess in the arts)
Image 26Bobby Fischer vs. Mikhail Tal (from History of chess)
Image 27Some of the earliest examples of chess-related art are medieval illustrations accompanying books or manuscripts, such as this chess problem from the 1283 Libro de los juegos. (from Chess in the arts)
Image 28Iranian shatranj set, glazed fritware, 12th century, New York Metropolitan Museum of Art (from History of chess)
Image 29Karel van Mander, 1600 (attributed to), Les joueurs d'échecs (from Chess in the arts)
Image 30Moors from Andalusia playing chess, Book of Games by King Alfonso X, 1283 (from Chess in the arts)
Image 31Current World Champion Ding Liren (from History of chess)
Image 32Georgian writers, Ilia Chavchavadze and Ivane Machabeli playing chess in Saint Petersburg, 1873 (from Chess in the arts)
Image 33RZA at a Hip Hop Chess Federation Tournament (from Chess in the arts)
Image 34Persian manuscript from the 14th century describing how an ambassador from India brought chess to the Persian court (from History of chess)
Image 35A Chess Dispute (1903) (from Chess in the arts)
Image 36Final match of the 1575 tournament in El Escorial. Painting by Luigi Mussini. (from History of chess)
Image 37Animation of the Immortal Game, in which Adolf Anderssen, playing white, beat Lionel Kieseritzky in June 1851 (from History of chess)
Image 38Antonis Mor, 1549, Von Sachsen vs. a Spaniard (from Chess in the arts)
Image 39The 12th-century Lewis chessmen in the collection of the National Museum of Scotland (from History of chess)

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FIDE world ranking

Rank	Player	Rating
1	Magnus Carlsen	2832
2	Hikaru Nakamura	2802
3	Fabiano Caruana	2796
4	Erigaisi Arjun	2778
5	Ian Nepomniachtchi	2770
6	Nodirbek Abdusattorov	2769
7	Gukesh D	2763
8	Praggnanandhaa R	2757
9	Wesley So	2757
10	Wei Yi	2755
11	Viswanathan Anand	2751
12	Leinier Dominguez	2748
13	Ding Liren	2745
14	Anish Giri	2745
15	Alireza Firouzja	2744
16	Jan-Krzysztof Duda	2733
17	Quang Liem Le	2731
18	Levon Aronian	2729
19	Shakhriyar Mamedyarov	2726
20	Parham Maghsoodloo	2725

Top 10 WikiProject Chess Popular articles of the month

This following chess-related articles is a most visited articles of WikiProject Chess, See complete list at Wikipedia:WikiProject Chess/Popular pages.

Image 1

Portrait by Joseph Duplessis, 1778

Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 [O.S. January 6, 1705] – April 17, 1790) was an American polymath: a leading writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Among the most influential intellectuals of his time, Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States; a drafter and signer of the Declaration of Independence; and the first postmaster general. (Full article...)
Image 2
Algebraic notation

Algebraic notation is the standard method for recording and describing the moves in a game of chess. It is based on a system of coordinates to uniquely identify each square on the board. It is now almost universally used by books, magazines, newspapers and software, and is the only form of notation recognized by FIDE, the international chess governing body. (Full article...)
Image 3

Carlsen in 2024

Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian chess grandmaster. Carlsen is a five-time World Chess Champion, the reigning five-time World Rapid Chess Champion, the reigning seven-time World Blitz Chess Champion, and the reigning Chess World Cup Champion. He has held the No. 1 position in the FIDE world chess rankings since 1 July 2011 and trails only Garry Kasparov in time spent as the highest-rated player in the world, while holding the record for longest consecutive reign. His peak rating of 2882 is the highest in history. He also holds the record for the longest unbeaten streak at an elite level in classical chess at 125 games. (Full article...)
Image 4

Part of a Staunton chess set
Left to right: white king, black rook, black queen, white pawn, black knight, white bishop

Chess is a board game for two players. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to distinguish it from related games such as xiangqi (Chinese chess) and shogi (Japanese chess). (Full article...)
Image 5

Praggnanandhaa at Candidates Tournament 2024

Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa (born 10 August 2005) is an Indian chess prodigy and chess grandmaster. Praggnanandhaa is ranked No. 8 in the world by the International Chess Federation. Praggnanandhaa and his sister Vaishali are the first brother-sister duo to both earn the GM title. They are also the first brother-sister duo to qualify for the Candidates. (Full article...)
Image 6

Kubrick c. 1973–74

Stanley Kubrick (/ˈkuːbrɪk/; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films were nearly all adaptations of novels or short stories, spanning a number of genres and gaining recognition for their intense attention to detail, innovative cinematography, extensive set design, and dark humor. (Full article...)
Image 7
Emory Andrew Tate Jr. (December 27, 1958 – October 17, 2015) was an American chess international master. He was the father of the Internet personality Andrew Tate. (Full article...)
Image 8

Bogart in 1940

Humphrey DeForest Bogart (/ˈboʊɡɑːrt/ BOH-gart; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), colloquially nicknamed Bogie, was an American actor. His performances in classic Hollywood cinema films made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film Institute selected Bogart as the greatest male star of classic American cinema. (Full article...)
Image 9

Fischer in 1972

Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943 – January 17, 2008) was an American chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Championships at the age of 14. In 1964, he won with an 11–0 score, the only perfect score in the history of the tournament. Qualifying for the 1972 World Championship, Fischer swept matches with Mark Taimanov and Bent Larsen by 6–0 scores. After winning another qualifying match against Tigran Petrosian, Fischer won the title match against Boris Spassky of the USSR, in Reykjavík, Iceland. Publicized as a Cold War confrontation between the US and USSR, the match attracted more worldwide interest than any chess championship before or since. (Full article...)
Image 10
The board game Monopoly is licensed in 103 countries and printed in 37 languages.

Board games are tabletop games that typically use pieces. These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked game board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. (Full article...)

Did you know...

... that Magnus Carlsen, the current World Chess Champion, resigned a recent tournament game after only one move?

Reviewed articles

Featured articles	Good articles
First-move advantage in chess	42nd Chess Olympiad	Goryachkina, Aleksandra
Gossip, George H. D.	43rd Chess Olympiad	Guramishvili, Sopiko
List of female chess grandmasters	Abdumalik, Zhansaya	Kazarian, Anna-Maja
Mechanical Turk	Alekhine, Alexander	Kristjánsson, Stefán
44th Chess Olympiad	Anderssen, Adolf	Lasker, Emanuel
	Belenkaya, Dina	Mammadzada, Gunay
	Bindrich, Falko	Milner-Barry, Stuart
	Blübaum, Matthias	Modern Benoni
	Budapest Gambit	Muzychuk, Anna
	Bughouse chess	Nadanian, Ashot
	Carlsen, Magnus	Rudolf, Anna
	Chess in Armenia	Rules of chess
	Cramling, Anna	Staunton, Howard
	Deep Blue (Chess computer)	Steinitz, Wilhelm
	En passant	Turochamp
	Endgame tablebase	World Chess Championship 1972
	Fischer, Bobby	Zhou, Qiyu