Portal:Chess

Portal topics: Activities; Culture; Geography; Health; History; Mathematics; Nature; People; Philosophy; Religion; Society; Technology; Random portal

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, each controlling a set of chess pieces. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to distinguish it from related games such as xiangqi (Chinese chess) and shogi (Japanese chess). 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.

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. At the start, each player controls 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 also several ways a game can end in a draw.

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; Ding Liren is the current World Champion. (Full article...)

Selected article - show another

The Göttingen manuscript is the earliest known work devoted entirely to modern chess. It is a Latin text of 33 pages held at the University of Göttingen. A quarto parchment manuscript of 33 pages, ff. 1–15a are a discussion of twelve chess openings, f. 16 is blank, and ff. 17–31b are a selection of thirty chess problems, one on each page with a diagram and solution. Authorship and exact date of the manuscript are unknown. Similarities to Lucena's Repeticion de Amores e Arte de Axedres con CL iuegos de partido (c. 1497) have led some scholars to surmise that it was written by Lucena or that it was one of Lucena's sources. Although the manuscript is generally assumed to be older than Lucena's work, this is not established. The manuscript has been ascribed possible writing dates of 1500–1505 or 1471.

The manuscript is exclusively devoted to modern chess (using the modern rules of movement for the pawn, bishop, and queen, although castling had not yet taken its current form), and no mention is made of the earlier form. The rules are not explained, so the manuscript must have been written at a time and place when the new rules were well established, or it was addressed to a player familiar with the new rules. The addressee of the manuscript is not named, but was evidently a nobleman of high rank. Some particulars of the manuscript suggest that the author was from Spain or Portugal and that it was copied at some point in France, although this is not certain.

This article uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves.

(Full article...)

List of selected articles

General images

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

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

Selected image

Image 1Click to enlarge and view description
Image 2Click to enlarge and view description
Image 3Click to enlarge and view description

FIDE world ranking

Rank	Player	Rating
1	Magnus Carlsen	2830
2	Fabiano Caruana	2805
3	Hikaru Nakamura	2795
4	Ian Nepomniachtchi	2770
5	Nodirbek Abdusattorov	2765
6	Gukesh D	2763
7	Ding Liren	2762
8	Arjun Erigaisi	2761
9	Wesley So	2757
10	Wei Yi	2755
11	Viswanathan Anand	2751
12	Sergey Karjakin	2750
13	Leinier Dominguez	2748
14	Praggnanandhaa R	2747
15	Anish Giri	2745
16	Alireza Firouzja	2738
17	Jan-Krzysztof Duda	2734
18	Shakhriyar Mamedyarov	2734
19	Parham Maghsoodloo	2733
20	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	2732

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.

}
Source: ^{[citation needed]}

Tie-breakers for first place: (1) results in tie-break games for first place; (Full article...)

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...)

Gukesh at the 2024 Candidates Tournament

Dommaraju Gukesh (born 29 May 2006) is an Indian chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, he is the third-youngest Grandmaster in history, the third-youngest to reach a chess rating of 2700, the youngest to reach a rating of 2750 and the youngest winner of the FIDE Candidates tournament. Gukesh won the 2024 Candidates Tournament, making him the youngest contender to compete for the title of World Chess Champion. (Full article...)

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 used by most books, magazines, and newspapers. (Full article...)

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, each controlling a set of chess pieces. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to distinguish it from related games such as xiangqi (Chinese chess) and shogi (Japanese chess). 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...)

The World Chess Championship 2024 will be a chess match between the reigning world champion Ding Liren and the challenger Gukesh Dommaraju to determine the World Chess Champion. The match is provisionally scheduled between November 20 and December 15, 2024, at a location that is yet to be announced. It will be played to a best of 14 games. In case of a tie, players will proceed to tiebreaks to declare the winner. (Full article...)

Carlsen in 2024

Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian chess grandmaster. He is the world #1 ranked player (FIDE world chess rankings). He 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 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...)

Kubrick c. 1973–74

Stanley Kubrick (/ˈkuːbrɪk/; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American filmmaker 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...)

The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Ding Liren, who defeated his opponent Ian Nepomniachtchi in the 2023 World Chess Championship. Magnus Carlsen, the previous world champion, had declined to defend his title. (Full article...)

Praggnanandhaa at Candidates Tournament 2024

Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa (born 10 August 2005) is an Indian chess grandmaster. 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...)

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