User:Samboy/Chess zapped

These are items removed from the Chess page in my cleanup of said page:

It is unlikely that a real chess match would unfold into such a perfectly symmetrical configuration.

The number of legal positions in chess is estimated to be between 1043 and 1050, with a game-tree complexity of approximately 10123. The game-tree complexity of chess was first calculated by Claude Shannon (father of information theory) as 10120, a number now known as the "Shannon number". Typically an average position has thirty to forty possible moves, but there may be as few as zero (in the case of checkmate or stalemate) or as many as 218.

Unfortunately, no physical evidence discovered to date substantiates this claim (see origins of chess) and in fact in the past 3 1/2 decades Chaturanga-looking pieces (the elephant piece) dating to the first/second centuries A.D. have been excavated in Uzbekistan. See http://www.mynetcologne.de/~nc-jostenge/josten.pdf, page 12!

Further complicating matters is a piece discovered in the ancient city of Butrint, Albania (see http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20020729/chess.html ) dating to the 5th century A.D. The piece very much resembles an upside down Rook which may have been refashioned into a mock King or Queen. No other Chess pieces were discovered nearby, suggesting it may have been discarded after no satisfactory use could be found for it.

However, some Islamic scholars consider chess to be haraam (prohibited), whether or not it is played with the intention of gambling.

was written under the sponsorship of Alfonso X of Castile during the 13th century. Chess reached England in the 11th century, and evolved through various versions such as Courier.

There is a story that a king in India wanted to reward the poor mathematician who invented the game. The mathematician requested the king to give him one grain of rice for the first square, two for the second, four for the third and so on, doubling the grains for each successive square. The king, considering this a trivial prize, agreed, and lost his entire granary even before the 40th square was reached. This story is often quoted as an example of a geometric progression.

and the en passant capture therewith (see pawn for explanation)

bishops could move arbitrarily far along an open diagonal (previously being limited to a move of exactly two squares diagonally) while losing the ability to jump over the intervening square

[The queen was] allowed to move arbitrarily far in any direction (Previously, she could only move one square diagonally.) There were still variations in rules for castling and the outcome in the case of stalemate.

These changes collectively helped make chess more open to analysis and thereby develop a more devoted following.

An alternative history of chess, The Tangles of Time by Paul JJ Payack can be found at the Global Language Monitor's WORDS ABOUT GAMES page Alternative History of Chess.

[...Descriptive notation] This is still used by a dwindling number of mainly older players who emphasise its practical advantages such as being more mistake-proof. However, it has been largely [...]

At the other extreme, a notation which sacrifices playthroughability for concision is Steno-Chess which minimises the number of characters required to store a game.

Kasparov's defeat to Deeper Blue has inspired the creation of a new game called Arimaa which is still played with a standard chess set, but is much more difficult for computers.


 * handicap variants, where one player starts with more pieces than the other, also called chess games "at odds".

Chess may be played individually or in teams, either with team players participating in the thinking over one game (consultation games) or playing on other boards where consultation is prohibited (team chess). Simultaneous exhibition games are also popular where one (generally stronger) player plays against many players over as many boards. Blindfold chess is another variant where neither opponent can actually see the board but both players call out the moves.

Chess variants
A chess variant is any game derived from or related to chess.

Chess variants can be roughly categorized as follows:

The categories may also be combined.
 * shuffle chess, where non-standard starting positions are used (the best known version is Fischer Random Chess).
 * fantasy variants (aka "Fairy chess" or "Heterodox Chess"), where new pieces are used (e.g. Grand Chess) or other rule changes are made such as the ability to reinstated captured pieces (e.g. Bughouse Chess)
 * national games, like Shogi (Japan), Xiangqi (China), Janggi (Korea) and Makruk (Thailand).


 * Red Hot Pawn - Free online correspondence chess.