Alekhine's Defence is a chess opening that begins with the moves:
68-476: Black tempts White's pawns forward to form a broad pawn centre , with plans to undermine and attack the white structure later in the spirit of hypermodern defence. White's imposing mass of pawns in the centre often includes pawns on c4, d4, e5, and f4. Grandmaster (GM) Nick de Firmian observes of Alekhine's Defence in MCO-15 (2008), "The game immediately loses any sense of symmetry or balance, which makes
136-484: A blunder , a critically bad mistake. Typical moves that receive double question marks are those that overlook a tactic that wins substantial material or overlook a checkmate . A "??"-worthy move may result in an immediately lost position, turn a won position into a draw, lose an important piece or otherwise severely worsen the player's position. Though more common among weaker players, blunders occur at all levels of play. A single question mark "?" indicates that
204-635: A common Black plan is to push ...d5. If White replies with c5, Black can respond with the unusual-looking ...Nc8 with the idea to maneuver the knight ...Nc8–e7–f5 to strike at the weak d4-pawn. The Modern Variation is the most common variation of the Alekhine Defence. As in the Exchange Variation, White accepts a more modest spatial advantage, and hopes to be able to hang on to it. There are a number of possible Black responses: In most variations, Black can play ...Bg4 to transpose into
272-485: A fianchetto setup with ...g6 and ...Bg7, e.g. 6.Nc3 g6 7.Nf3 Bg7 8.Bg5. Although the 5...exd6 structure resembles the drawish Exchange French , Black can make several attempts to imbalance the position. First, Black should play 6...Nc6 against almost any White move to prevent White from establishing an ideal Nc3, Bd3, Nge2 setup. If White attempts this, Black can strike the d3-bishop with ...Nb4. Second, Black should castle and maneuver ...Be7–f6. After sufficient preparation,
340-485: A hypermodern revolution and was quoted as referring to the hypermodern school of thought as "this cheap bluff, this shameless self-publicity", preferring to view such moves as adjustments or exceptions to the standard chess theory of central placement and control. In addition to Alekhine, another early exponent of the defence was Ernst Grünfeld . Alekhine's Defence was more popular in the past. For instance, Bobby Fischer used it in two games against Boris Spassky in
408-404: A move that he considered inferior but that he did not wish to comment on further; Simon Webb used it to indicate a move that is objectively sound, but was in his opinion a poor psychological choice; and Robert Hübner (see below) used it to indicate a move that is inaccurate and makes the player's task more difficult. When put in parentheses, "(!)" usually indicates a subtlety which demonstrates
476-407: A move that is objectively bad but sets up an attractive trap. Similar to "?!" (see above), an exclamation mark followed by a question mark "!?" is one of the most controversial symbols. Different sources have slightly varying definitions, such as "interesting, but perhaps not the best move", "move deserving attention", "speculative move", "enterprising move" or "risky move". Usually it indicates that
544-470: A number of options. Black can play ...Qd7 with ...0-0-0 and ...f6 putting pressure on White's d-pawn. Black can play ...Nb4 with ...c5 hoping to exchange the d-pawn. Finally, Black can play ...Be7 with ...0-0 and ...f6 attacking the centre. Minor variations include O'Sullivan's Gambit, 3.d4 b5 (intending 4.Bxb5 c5 5.dxc5 ?? Qa5+), and 3.d4 d6 4.Bc4, the Balogh Variation. The Four Pawns Attack
612-625: A rather comfortable position", as in Ekebjaerg–Alcantara Soares, corr. 1989. More combative after 2...d5 is 3.e5, when Black can choose among 3...d4, 3...Nfd7 (transposing to the Steinitz variation of the French Defence after 4.d4 e6, but 4.e6!? is a sharp alternative), 3...Ne4!?, and even 3...Ng8. After 3...d4 can follow 4.Nce2 Ng4, or 4.exf6 dxc3 5.fxg7 cxd2+ leading to quick castling for White. While most grandmasters play
680-613: A recent book on Alekhine's Defence by British GM and Alekhine exponent Nigel Davies . Alternate moves for Black other than 5...dxe5, are 5...g6 - the Fianchetto Variation, and 5... Bf5 - the Trifunovic Variation. The Exchange Variation is less ambitious than the Four Pawns Attack. White trades pawns, accepting a more modest spatial advantage. Black's main decision is whether to recapture with
748-507: A successful strike at it. Black must also play vigorously because passive play will be crushed by the white centre. In addition, while White has built a crushing centre, it also becomes undesirable to advance further - c5 can give the Black knight the d5-outpost, while d5 is usually undesirable due to it critically weakening e5. While the main target of Black is d4, the pawn on c4 also can be pressurized considerably via ...Na5. The Four Pawns Attack
SECTION 10
#1732797446156816-664: A tempo, though it is still an option for Black, as it adds pressure against d4, though after an exchange with ...Bxf3 gxf3 White would get the bishop-pair and an even stronger centre with the f-pawn. The mainline is 9...Be7, preparing ...f6 to break apart White's centre. White used to automatically play 10.d5 in response to counter this, which can lead to complex & sharp play. However, a recent development has been 10.Be2 O-O 11.O-O f6 12.exf6 Bxf6 13.Qd2 (preparing Rad1 and also connecting rooks) Qe7 (Black in turn connecting rooks and also preparing ...Rad8) 14.Rad1 Rad8 15.Kh1! which in 1-0 Ray Robson–Daniel Naroditsky, US Championship 2021, led to
884-456: A win for White in 48 moves. The point of this move is that it prevents the ...e5 push, with the extra point of moving the king out of the a7-g1 diagonal. Black also has a weakness in the form of the isolated e6-pawn, while White still has a space advantage. An alternative move is 9...Qd7, which has become popular recently aiming to castle queenside and attack White's kingside, while 9...Bb4 is another line that tries to be more active than ...Be7, but
952-411: Is GM Vassily Ivanchuk , although Lev Alburt played it at grandmaster-level almost exclusively during his career and was responsible for many contributions in both theory and practice. Currently, grandmasters Alexander Shabalov and Artashes Minasian use the opening with regularity, while Levon Aronian , Michael Adams , and Hikaru Nakamura will use it on occasion. Magnus Carlsen does not employ
1020-505: Is White's most ambitious line against the Alekhine's, and the variation which perhaps best illustrates the basic idea behind the defence: Black allows White to make several tempo -gaining attacks on the knight and to erect an apparently imposing pawn centre in the belief that it can later be destroyed. The game can become very sharp since White must either secure an advantage in space or make use of it before Black succeeds in making
1088-493: Is considered roughly equal, while 4...e6 is solid but blocks in the light-squared bishop. 4.g3 has been played by the Danish correspondence player Ove Ekebjaerg, when Harald Keilhack recommends 4...Nxc3 5.bxc3 Qd5! 6.Qf3! (6.Nf3 Qe4+ is awkward in light of 7.Be2 Bh3 or 7.Qe2 Qxc2) Qe6+! 7.Qe2 ("on 7.Be2 or 7.Ne2, 7...Bd7 is unpleasant") Qxe2+ 8.Nxe2 Bd7! 9.Bg2 Bc6 10.0-0 Bxg2 11.Kxg2 Nc6 12.d3 g6 13.Rb1 0-0-0 14.c4 Bg7, when "Black has
1156-694: Is good or bad. An exclamation point "!" indicates a good move, especially one that is surprising or requires particular skill. The symbol may also be interpreted as "best move". Annotators are usually somewhat conservative with the use of this symbol; it is not usually awarded to obvious moves that capture material or deliver checkmate. Reasons for awarding the symbol vary greatly between annotators; among them are strong opening novelties , good psychological opening choices, well-timed breakthroughs, sound sacrifices , moves that set traps in lost positions, moves that avoid such traps, moves that punish mistakes well, sequential moves during brilliancies, and being
1224-453: Is more indicative of the iconoclastic conceptions of the 'hypermodern school' than the bizarre defence introduced by Alekhine ... . Although opposing to all tenets of the classical school, Black allows his King's Knight to be driven about the board in the early stages of the game, in the expectation of provoking a weakness in White's centre pawns. Alekhine did not however consider himself part of
1292-428: Is not particularly popular because many White players are wary of entering a sharp tactical line which Black may have prepared. The main line continues 5...dxe5 6.fxe5 Nc6 (attacking d4) 7.Be3 (7.Nf3 allows 7...Bg4! when the pressure on d4 is very tough) Bf5 (first developing before ...e6) 8.Nc3 e6 9.Nf3. White now usually plays 9.Nf3 to protect e5, thus preparing a potential d5 advance, and since 9...Bg4!? would cost Black
1360-456: Is rapid piece development. Although the line after 4...d6, challenging the e-pawn often can lead to fairly dull positions, the position remains open and Black can quickly succumb with poor defence, for example after 5.Bc4 dxe5?? 6.Bxf7+!, White wins the queen on d8. After 4.bxc3 White's compensation for the doubled pawns is a big centre that can be used as a basis for a kingside attack. The resulting pawn structure leads to position similar to that of
1428-548: Is the Voronezh Variation ( named after the Russian city Voronezh , where the line was invented, by players such as Grigory Sanakoev ). The Voronezh is defined by the opening sequence 1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.c4 Nb6 5.exd6 cxd6 6.Nc3 g6 7.Be3 Bg7 8.Rc1 0-0 9.b3. White's setup delays kingside development so that Black has trouble developing pieces in a fashion that harasses White's pieces and assails
SECTION 20
#17327974461561496-529: Is the rule for the first player to have the white men". Emanuel Lasker , the second World Champion, stated in Lasker's Manual of Chess (first published in 1927) that "White makes the first move". There has been a debate among chess players since at least the 18th century about whether playing first gives White a significant advantage . Statistical analysis shows that White scores between 52 and 56 percent at most levels of play, with White's margin increasing as
1564-428: Is to deploy the queen rook for duties on the kingside with 5.Ra3, followed by Rg3 at some point when the attack on g7 is supposed to tie Black down from developing the bishop to e7. However, after 5...d6 6.exd6 exd6 7.Rg3 Bf5, Black can carry through with 8...Be7 anyway, since after 9.Rxg7 the rook would be trapped and lost to 9...Bg6 and 10...Bf6. The idea for this unusual early "rook lift" probably originated with
1632-494: The First American Chess Congress that he had received a letter from Johann Löwenthal , a leading English master , "suggesting the advisableness of always giving the first move in public games, to the player of the white pieces". Löwenthal also wrote that London's chess clubs had adopted a new rule that White always moves first. The club evidently did not follow Löwenthal's advice, since in its match
1700-683: The Vienna Game or the Four Knights Game , to which the game can easily transpose if Black plays 2...e5, citing one book which recommended 2.Nc3 while assuring readers that 2...e5 is uncommon. Another transposition Black may enter is 2...d6, which usually leads to the Pirc Defence . The independent Alekhine line is 2...d5, known as the Scandinavian Variation. After 2...d5, 3.exd5 Nxd5 4.Bc4, 4...Nb6 or 4...Nxc3
1768-501: The World Chess Championship 1972 , and Viktor Korchnoi also included the defence in his repertoire , leading to its respectable reputation. Nowadays, Alekhine's Defence is not so common at the top level. De Firmian observes, "The fashion could quickly change if some champion of the opening takes up the cause, as the results Black has obtained in practice are good." The opening's current highest-rated proponent
1836-967: The "!!" mark too. For example, in what is known as the Game of the Century , there are two moves by 13-year-old Bobby Fischer which annotators typically award a double exclamation point – 11...Na4!! and 17...Be6!!, knight and queen sacrifices respectively. The majority of chess writers and editors consider symbols more than two characters long unnecessary. However a few writers have used three or more exclamation points ("!!!") for an exceptionally brilliant move, three or more questions marks ("???") for an exceptionally bad blunder, or unusual combinations of exclamation points and question marks ("!?!", "?!?" etc) for particularly unusual, spectacular, controversial or unsound moves. For example, when annotating Rotlewi–Rubinstein 1907 , Hans Kmoch awarded Rubinstein's 22...Rxc3 three exclamation points. Annotators have also awarded
1904-506: The 4...Bg4 line. The first recorded use of this variation was Canal – Colle , Karlovy Vary 1929. White resigned after Black's 40th move. Unlike several other sidelines, 4.Bc4 is fairly popular. The line contains some traps that can snare the unwary. For example, 4...dxe5 5.dxe5 Nb6?? loses the queen to 6.Bxf7+ ! Instead, the main line is 4...Nb6 5.Bb3, when Black has usually played 5...dxe5 6.Qh5 e6 7.dxe5 (the "old main line" according to Cox) or 5...Bf5 when White can among other things try
1972-399: The 9...e5 line is adequate, but Black needs to know the line well. The Voronezh was recommended by John Emms and noted as a big problem by Nigel Davies , leading many players to opt for the more solid 5...exd6 line. However, the line offers Black less opportunity for counterplay. In this line Black usually develops the king bishop via ...Be7 and ...Bf6, because Bg5 can be bothersome against
2040-596: The Winawer variation of the French Defence . If Black does not want to defend against White's attacking opportunities against 3...Nxc3 4.dxc3, then 3...e6 is a reasonable alternative that was Alekhine's choice when meeting the Two Knights, and this defence has been advocated by Taylor. If White plays 4.d4, then 4...Nxc3 forces White into the bxc3 line reminiscent of the French. If 4.Nxd5 exd5, Black will quickly dissolve
2108-511: The analysis in any case; an exclamation mark can only serve to indicate the personal excitement of the commentator. When the solution to a certain chess problem is given, there are also some conventions that have become a common practice: These symbols indicate the strategic balance of the game position: There are other symbols used by various chess engines and publications, such as Chess Informant and Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings , when annotating moves or describing positions. Many of
Alekhine's Defence - Misplaced Pages Continue
2176-417: The annotator thinks that the move is a mistake and should not have been played. Mistakes often lead to loss of tempo , material, or otherwise a worsening of the player's position. The nature of a mistake may be more strategic than tactical; in some cases, the move receiving a question mark may be one for which it is difficult to find a refutation. A move that overlooks a forthcoming brilliant combination from
2244-572: The c3-knight has little role in the defense and thus the line is less popular than the others. An alternative is the sharp Planinc Variation (also known as the Cambridge Gambit), 5...g5 !? . Black hopes for 6.fxg5 ? dxe5, wrecking White's centre and pawn structure. The line is named after GM Albin Planinc , who championed it in the 1970s. It was then taken up in the 1990s by correspondence player Michael Schirmer, whose games were noted in
2312-462: The centre pawns; for instance there is no knight on f3 which can become a target after ...Bg4, and no bishop on d3 which may be a target after ...Nc6–e5. While 9...Nc6 ?! is Black's most common reply according to ChessBase's database, after 10.d5 Ne5 Black's knight lacks a target, and will soon be chased out with f2–f4, and this line has scored very poorly for Black. The main line in the Voronezh, and
2380-554: The choice of color; if the players played more games at the same sitting, the first move would alternate, but each player would continue to use the same colored pieces as he had in the first game. Staunton observed in 1871 that "many players still cultivate the foolish habit of playing exclusively with one colour." On October 19, 1857, Mr. Perrin, the Secretary of the New York Chess Club , informed those assembled at
2448-471: The convention is not being used unless there is a specific note otherwise. The Nunn convention cannot be used to annotate full games because the exact evaluation of a position is generally impractical to compute. In 1959, Euwe and Hooper made the same use of the question mark, "... a decisive error ...". German grandmaster Robert Hübner prefers an even more specific and restrained use of move evaluation symbols: I have attached question marks to
2516-439: The d5-square has been weakened. Unlike the Four Pawns Attack, the white centre is not as fluid and the game takes on a more strategic character. Aesthetically, 4.c5 looks positionally suspect, since White's pawn advances have severely weakened the d5-square. White's intention is to grab space and mobility so that those strategic deficiencies are of little consequence. Black must play 4...Nd5, whereupon White will usually challenge
2584-439: The doubled pawns with ...d6, and the resulting position will tend to be drawish. In Endre Steiner –Alexander Alekhine, Budapest 1921, the first high level game with the Alekhine Defence, White played 3.d4 d6 4.Bg5. Cox recommends 4...h6 5.Bh4 dxe5 6.dxe5 Bf5, followed by ...Nc6 and ...Ndb4, targeting c2. Another rare line, but one that scores well in practice is 3.d4 d6 4.Be2, preventing Black from playing 4...Bg4 while retaining
2652-422: The e4-pawn, either directly or through tactical means . 2.Nc3 is by far White's most common alternative to 2.e5; in fact Cox noted that he saw this move in over half his games with the Alekhine. It is often played by amateurs and those wishing to avoid a theoretical battle on territory more familiar to their opponents. Cox, however, wrote that many White players are bluffing, and in fact know nothing about either
2720-533: The final move of Levitsky–Marshall 1912 (the "Gold Coins Game"), 23...Qg3 the "!!!" symbol. An exceptionally bad blunder which has sometimes been awarded three or more question marks ("???") occurred in Deep Fritz–Kramnik 2006, when Kramnik played 34...Qe3, overlooking a mate in one with 35.Qh7#. Sometimes annotation symbols are put in parentheses, e.g. "(?)", "(!)". Different writers have used these in different ways. Ludek Pachman used "(?)" to indicate
2788-412: The first game it shall be determined by lot. The one having the move, in every case, is to play with the white pieces." McCrary observes: Prior to that, it had gradually become conventional, over a number of years, to have White move first in published analysis, and by about 1862 to have White move first in all published games. But it was evident that players could in many cases choose Black when they had
Alekhine's Defence - Misplaced Pages Continue
2856-600: The first move is much more recent than that. François-André Danican Philidor in the original (1749) edition of his famous treatise Analyse du jeu des Échecs cited one game in which Black moved first. Johann Horny, in a book published in Germany in 1824, wrote that Black moves first. Phillip Sergeant wrote in his book A History of British Chess of the great Alexander McDonnell (1798–1835), remembered today for his series of matches with Labourdonnais : He preferred to have Black, as first player as well as second ... this
2924-530: The first move, even if the published game-score indicated that White had moved first. Three years after the example cited by McCrary, the "Revised International Chess Code" issued at the London 1883 tournament (one of the strongest in history) provided that the player who won by lot the right to move first had the choice of color. In 1889, Wilhelm Steinitz , the first World Champion , wrote that "In all international and public Chess matches and tournaments ... it
2992-465: The following year against its Philadelphia counterpart, Philadelphia played White in both games, but moved first only in the second game. Chess historian Robert John McCrary writes that the earliest rule he has found requiring that White move first is Rule 9 given on page 126 of the New York, 1880 tournament book, which specified, "In each round the players shall have the first move alternately; in
3060-557: The knight with moves like Bc4 and Nc3. Black can defend the knight with ...c6 or ...e6, sometimes playing both. Typically, Black then challenges White's pawns on e5 and c5 with moves like ...d6 and ...b6. The statistics presented by Cox show this variation scoring poorly for White, with all of Black's main defences scoring at least 50%. In the Two Knights Variation, White immediately accepts doubled pawns after 3...Nxc3 for some compensation. After 4.dxc3 this compensation
3128-554: The main lines are the Exchange Variation and the Four Pawns Attack . The Exchange Variation continues 3.d4 d6 4.c4 Nb6 5.exd6. White has some space advantage. Black can capitalise on the half-open centre with ...g6, ...Bg7 with ...Bg4 eventually being played. The Four Pawns Attack continues 3.d4 d6 4.c4 Nb6 5.f4. White has a somewhat larger space advantage though the centre is not fixed. Black has
3196-414: The mainline 2.e5, Jonny Hector regularly plays 2.Nc3 against the Alekhine, and has scored well against the 2...d5 variation. His ideas have left White with a theoretical edge. Textbook authors of the Alekhine Defence, including Davies, Cox, and Taylor, have therefore encouraged 2...e5 over 2...d5. Bibliography White and Black in chess In chess , the player who moves first is called White and
3264-444: The merits of a move are "??", "?", "?!", "!?", "!", and "!!". The chosen symbol is appended to the text describing the move (e.g. Re7? or Kh1!?); see Algebraic chess notation . Use of these annotation symbols is subjective, as different annotators use the same symbols differently or for a different reason. Move evaluation symbols, by decreasing severity or increasing effectiveness of the move: The double question mark "??" indicates
3332-486: The move is weak or deserves criticism but not bad enough to warrant a "?". On certain Internet chess servers , such as Chess.com and Lichess , this kind of move is marked as an "inaccuracy", denoting a weak move, appearing more regularly than with most annotators. A sacrifice leading to a dangerous attack that the opponent should be able to defend against if they play well may receive a "?!". Alternatively, this may denote
3400-450: The move leads to exciting or wild play but that the objective evaluation of the move is unclear. It is also often used when a player sets a cunning trap in a lost position. Typical moves receiving a "!?" are those involving speculative sacrifices or dangerous attacks that might turn out to be unsound. Andrew Soltis jokingly called "!?" the symbol of the lazy annotator who finds a move interesting but cannot be bothered to work out whether it
3468-466: The moves which change a winning position into a drawn game, or a drawn position into a losing one, according to my judgment; a move which changes a winning game into a losing one deserves two question marks ... I have distributed question marks in brackets to moves which are obviously inaccurate and significantly increase the difficulty of the player's task ... There are no exclamation marks, as they serve no useful purpose. The best move should be mentioned in
SECTION 50
#17327974461563536-550: The obstructive pawn sacrifice 6.e6. In either case, White obtains attacking chances, and so Taylor recommends 5...d5 followed by 6...e6 to reach a position akin to the French Defence . The Two Pawns Attack (also known as the Lasker Attack or the Chase Variation) is also an ambitious try. White may gain attacking prospects, but it might cost a pawn to do so. White's pawns on c5 and e5 secure a spatial advantage, but
3604-510: The only good move that maintains the player's position. The double exclamation point "!!" is used for particularly strong moves, usually difficult-to-find moves which require a high level of skill and calculation. Annotators are generally more conservative and withhold this rating more than they do the "!". Typical moves that receive a double exclamation mark include sound sacrifices of large amounts of material and counter-intuitive moves that prove very powerful. Endgame swindles sometimes receive
3672-491: The opening a good choice for aggressive fighting players." The Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings has four codes for Alekhine's Defence, B02 through B05: The opening is named after Alexander Alekhine , who introduced it in the 1921 Budapest tournament in games against Endre Steiner and Fritz Sämisch . Four years later, the editors of the Fourth Edition of Modern Chess Openings ( MCO-4 ) wrote: Nothing
3740-532: The opening frequently but he has used it occasionally in competitive games, most notably to defeat the former World Chess Champion Veselin Topalov at Linares 2008 . A game by Napoléon Bonaparte from the 19th century shows one of the oldest known examples of Alekhine's Defence being employed in a game. Napoléon won the game. After the usual 2.e5 Nd5, three main variations of Alekhine's Defence use 3.d4, but there are other options for White at this point. Two of
3808-401: The opponent would rarely receive more than one question mark, for example. The symbol can also be used for a move that overlooks a far stronger move. A question mark followed by an exclamation mark "?!" usually indicates that the annotator believes the move to be dubious or questionable but to possibly have merits or be difficult to refute. The "?!" may also indicate that the annotator believes
3876-470: The option of making the pawn advance f2–f4. After 3.c4 Nb6 4.a4 (the Emory Tate line), White can aim at chasing the black knight away followed by a pawn sacrifice that impairs Black's development, for example by 4...d6 5.a5 N6d7 6.e6, but this leaves Black with a strong center and an almost-winning position, though the threat of a5 still looms. Black can prevent this with 4...a5. White's main continuation
3944-475: The player who moves second is called Black. Their pieces are the white pieces and the black pieces. The pieces are often not literally white and black, but usually contrasting light and dark colors. The 64 squares of the chessboard , which is colored in a checkered pattern, are likewise the "white squares" or "light squares", and "black squares" or "dark squares"; they are usually of contrasting light and dark color rather than literally white and black. For example,
4012-619: The player's skill rather than a spectacular move. Some writers take a less subjective or more formalized approach to these symbols. In his 1992 book Secrets of Rook Endings and other books in the series ( Secrets of Minor-Piece Endings and Secrets of Pawnless Endings ), John Nunn uses these symbols in a more specific way in the context of endgames where the optimal line of play can be determined with certainty: This convention has been used in some later works, such as Fundamental Chess Endings and Secrets of Pawn Endings by Karsten Müller and Frank Lamprecht , but it can be safely assumed
4080-414: The second most common reply, is 9...e5 10.dxe5 dxe5 11.Qxd8 Rxd8 12.c5 N6d7 (This retreat is forced since 12...Nd5?? loses the knight due to the 13.Rd1 pin) when Black must play carefully to unentangle and challenge the white pawn on c5. Other lines against the Voronezh include 9...f5 leading to sharp play. Other solid moves such as 9...e6, ...Bd7, ...Bf5, and ...a5 are possible as well. According to John Cox,
4148-446: The sides are often called Red and Black, because those were the two colors of ink then commonly available when hand-drawing or printing chess position diagrams. As Howard Staunton observed, "In the earlier ages of chess, the board was simply divided into sixty-four squares, without any difference of colour". The checkering of the squares was a European innovation, introduced in the thirteenth century. The convention of White having
SECTION 60
#17327974461564216-426: The solid 5...exd6, which will lead to a fairly strategic position, or the more ambitious 5...cxd6 when Black has a preponderance of pawns in the centre. The third recapture 5...Qxd6 is also possible since the fork 6.c5 can be answered by 6...Qe6+, but the line is considered inferior since Black will sooner or later need to deal with this threat. In the sharper 5...cxd6 line, Black usually aims to attack and undermine
4284-527: The squares on vinyl boards may be off-white ("buff") and green, while those on wood boards are often light brown and dark brown. white: 1. There are 16 light-colored pieces and 32 squares called white. 2. When capitalized, the word refers to the player of the white pieces. An entry in the Glossary of terms in the Laws of Chess at the end of the current FIDE laws appears for black, too. In old chess writings,
4352-545: The standard of play improves. Chess annotation symbols#?? When annotating chess games, commentators frequently use widely recognized annotation symbols. Question marks and exclamation points that denote a move as bad or good are ubiquitous in chess literature. Some publications intended for an international audience, such as the Chess Informant , have a wide range of additional symbols that transcend language barriers. The common symbols for evaluating
4420-437: The well-known American International Master Emory Tate . Women's World Champion GM Mariya Muzychuk , World Junior Champion GM Lu Shanglei and GM Nazar Firman have experimented with this line and achieved some success with it. After 2.e5, 2...Nd5 is almost universally played. The two other knight moves that do not hang it to the queen on d1 are 2...Ng8 and 2...Ne4. Instead of chasing Black's knight, White may defend
4488-441: The white pawn on d4, and possibly c4 as well. To do this, a usual plan involves a fianchetto of the king bishop to g7, playing the other bishop to g4 to remove a knight on f3 which is a key defender of d4, while black knights on b6 and c6 bear down on the white pawns on c4 and d4. Cox gave the game Jainy Gomes–Guillermo Soppe, São Paulo 2001 to illustrate Black's intentions. A popular setup from White to prevent Black's plan
4556-658: Was a common fad in his day, which persisted with a great number of players, as a study of the Chess Players' Chronicle and other magazines shows. Some sources report that in the Immortal Game ( Anderssen – Kieseritzky , offhand game, London 1851), one of the most famous games in history, Anderssen had the Black pieces but moved first. He also took the Black pieces but moved first in the sixth, eighth, and tenth games of his famous 1858 match against Paul Morphy . Each of those games began 1.a3 e5 2.c4, when Anderssen
4624-597: Was effectively playing the Sicilian Defense with an extra tempo . As late as the mid-to-late 19th century, the practice of White moving first had not yet become standard. George Walker in his popular treatise The Art of Chess-Play: A New Treatise on the Game of Chess (4th edition 1846), set forth the rules of London 's St George's Chess Club in June, 1841. "Law III" provided that the player who moved first had
#155844