Portal:Chess

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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 an abstract strategy game which involves no hidden information and no elements of chance. It is played on a square board containing 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; each type of piece has a different pattern of movement. An enemy piece may be captured (removed from the board) by moving one's own piece onto the square it occupies; the object of the game is to "checkmate" (threaten with inescapable capture) the enemy king. There are also several ways a game can end in a draw.

The recorded history of chess goes back at least to the emergence of chaturanga—also thought to be an ancestor to similar games like xiangqi and shogi—in seventh-century India. After its introduction in Persia, it spread to the Arab world and then to Europe. The modern rules of chess 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, with millions of players worldwide.

Organized chess arose in the 19th century. Chess competition today is governed internationally by FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Échecs; the International Chess Federation). The first universally recognized World Chess Champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, claimed his title in 1886; Gukesh Dommaraju is the current World Champion, having won the title in 2024. (Full article...)

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Howard Staunton (April 1810 – 22 June 1874) was an English chess master who is generally regarded as the world's strongest player from 1843 to 1851, largely as a result of his 1843 victory over Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant. He promoted a chess set of clearly distinguishable pieces of standardised shape – the Staunton pattern promulgated by Nathaniel Cooke – that is still the style required for competitions. He was the principal organiser of the first international chess tournament in 1851, which made England the world's leading chess centre and caused Adolf Anderssen to be recognised as the world's strongest player.

From 1840 onwards he became a leading chess commentator, and won matches against top players of the 1840s. In 1847 he entered a parallel career as a Shakespearean scholar. Ill health and his two writing careers led him to give up competitive chess after 1851. In 1858 attempts were made to organise a match between Staunton and Paul Morphy, but it never came about. It was alleged by British Chess Association president Lord Lyttelton that Staunton misled Morphy while trying to avoid the match; it is also possible Staunton overestimated his chances of getting physically fit and of making time available for a match. (Full article...)

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General images

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

Image 1Karel van Mander, 1600 (attributed to), Les joueurs d'échecs (from Chess in the arts)
Image 2Moors from Andalusia playing chess, Book of Games by King Alfonso X, 1283 (from History of chess)
Image 3Honoré Daumier, 1863, The Chess Players (from Chess in the arts)
Image 4Paris Bordone, c. 1545, Chess players, oil on canvas, Mailand, Wohnhaus (from Chess in the arts)
Image 5Chess game between Tha'ālibī and Bākhazarī, 1896 painting by Ludwig Deutsch (from History of chess)
Image 6Iranian courtiers of the Qajar dynasty playing chess in Mazandaran (from History of chess)
Image 7Two Georgian writers, Ilia Chavchavadze and Ivane Machabeli, playing chess in Saint Petersburg, 1873 (from Chess in the arts)
Image 8Antonis Mor, 1549, Von Sachsen vs. a Spaniard (from Chess in the arts)
Image 9Liberale da Verona, The Chess Players, c. 1475 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) (from Chess in the arts)
Image 10These seven ivory chess pieces are the oldest known, dating to about 700 CE. The ivory came from India. They were excavated in 1977 by archaeologist Yuriy Buryakov, at Afrasiyab in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. They are housed today at the Samarkand State Museum. Photographed during a loan of the pieces to the Silk Roads Exhibition at the British Museum. (from History of chess)
Image 11Sofonisba Anguissola, The Chess Game, 1555, National Museum, Poznań, Poland (from Chess in the arts)
Image 12The Chess Players by Henry Fox Talbot, 1847 (from History of chess)
Image 13Richard Creifelds, c. 1886, The Veterans, Brooklyn Museum (from Chess in the arts)
Image 14Some 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 15In 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 16Niccolò di Pietro, 1413–15, The Conversion of Saint Augustin, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon (from Chess in the arts)
Image 17Animation of the Immortal Game, in which Adolf Anderssen, playing White, beat Lionel Kieseritzky in June 1851 (from History of chess)
Image 18Shams-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 19Hans Muelich, 1552, Duke Albrecht V. of Bavaria and his wife Anna of Austria playing chess (from Chess in the arts)
Image 20An illustration from a Persian manuscript "A treatise on chess". The Ambassadors from India present the Chatrang to Khosrow I Anushirwan, "Immortal Soul", King of Persia. (from History of chess)
Image 21Edward Harrison May, 1867, Lady Howe mating Benjamin Franklin (from Chess in the arts)
Image 22Iranian shatranj set, glazed fritware, 12th century, New York Metropolitan Museum of Art (from History of chess)
Image 23Persian manuscript from the 14th century describing how an ambassador from India brought chess to the Persian court (from History of chess)
Image 24Chess Set by Man Ray (from Chess in the arts)
Image 25RZA at a Hip Hop Chess Federation Tournament (from Chess in the arts)
Image 26Wilhelm Steinitz, the first official World Chess Champion (from History of chess)
Image 27World Champions José Raúl Capablanca (left) and Emanuel Lasker in 1925 (from History of chess)
Image 28Book of the customs of men and the duties of nobles or the Book of Chess (1473) (from Chess in the arts)
Image 29John Lavery, 1929, The Chess Players (from Chess in the arts)
Image 30Bauhaus chess set by Josef Hartwig (from Chess in the arts)
Image 31Gustaf Lundberg, 1775, Portrait of Gustav Badin, pastel, 74 x 57 cm, Nationalmuseum, Sweden (from Chess in the arts)
Image 32Moors from Andalusia playing chess, Book of Games by King Alfonso X, 1283 (from Chess in the arts)
Image 33The 12th-century Lewis chessmen in the collection of the National Museum of Scotland (from History of chess)
Image 34Bobby Fischer vs. Mikhail Tal (from History of chess)
Image 35Thomas Eakins, 1876, The Chess Players (from Chess in the arts)
Image 36Krishna and Radha playing chaturanga on an 8×8 ashtāpada (from History of chess)
Image 37Final match of the 1575 tournament in El Escorial. Painting by Luigi Mussini. (from History of chess)
Image 38A Chess Dispute (1903) (from Chess in the arts)
Image 39Lucas van Leyden, c. 1508, The Game of Chess, oil on oak, 27 x 35 cm, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin (from Chess in the arts)
Image 40Stamp of the USSR devoted to the accomplished Estonian player and analyst Paul Keres, 1991 (from History of chess)
Image 41Current world champion Gukesh Dommaraju (from History of chess)
Image 42Cocowood chess set (Philippines craft) (from Chess in the arts)

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FIDE world ranking

Rank	Player	Rating
1	Magnus Carlsen	2837
2	Hikaru Nakamura	2804
3	Gukesh Dommaraju	2787
4	Arjun Erigaisi	2782
5	Fabiano Caruana	2776
6	Nodirbek Abdusattorov	2773
7	R Praggnanandhaa	2758
8	Wei Yi	2758
9	Ian Nepomniachtchi	2757
10	Alireza Firouzja	2757
11	Aravindh Chithambaram	2749
12	Wesley So	2748
13	Shakhriyar Mamedyarov	2748
14	Levon Aronian	2747
15	Viswanathan Anand	2743
16	Jan-Krzysztof Duda	2739
17	Vladimir Fedoseev	2739
18	Anish Giri	2738
19	Leinier Domínguez Pérez	2738
20	Hans Niemann	2736

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