113-419: Castling is a move in chess . It consists of moving the king two squares toward a rook on the same rank and then moving the rook to the square that the king passed over. Castling is permitted only if neither the king nor the rook has previously moved; the squares between the king and the rook are vacant; and the king does not leave, cross over, or finish on a square attacked by an enemy piece. Castling
226-408: A book draw . (See queen versus pawn endgame .) Players sometimes make draw offers in consideration of outside factors. In 1977 Viktor Korchnoi and former World Champion Tigran Petrosian played a twelve-game quarter-final Candidates Match to ultimately determine the challenger for the 1978 World Championship . After eleven games, Korchnoi was leading by one point, so he only needed a draw in
339-434: A draw by agreement . A player may offer a draw at any stage of a game; if the opponent accepts, the game is a draw. In some competitions, draws by agreement are restricted; for example draw offers may be subject to the discretion of the arbiter, or may be forbidden before move 30 or 40, or even forbidden altogether. The majority of draws in chess are by agreement. Under FIDE rules , a draw should be offered after making
452-514: A tempo may be required to move the rook to a more effective square. Players may forgo castling for various reasons. In positions where the opponent cannot organize an attack against a centralized king, castling may be unnecessary or even detrimental. In addition, in certain situations, a rook can be more active near the edges of the board than in the center; for example, if it is able to fight for control of an open or semi-open file. Kingside castling occurs more frequently than queenside castling. It
565-406: A column for the website Chess Cafe , suggested that agreed draws should not be allowed at all, pointing out that such an agreement cannot be reached in other sports such as boxing . Although some have claimed that outlawing agreed draws entirely requires players to carry on playing in "dead" positions (where no side can reasonably play for a win), Dvoretsky says that this is a small problem and that
678-408: A dark square. This may be remembered by the phrases "light on the right" and "queen on her own color". In formal competition, the piece colors for every matchup are allocated to players by the organizers. In informal games, colors are decided either by mutual agreement, or randomly, for example by a coin toss, or by one player concealing a white pawn in one hand and a black pawn in the other and having
791-419: A draw anyway (even an incorrect claim of threefold repetition is also a draw offer). Both algebraic notation and descriptive notation indicate kingside castling as 0-0 and queenside castling as 0-0-0 (using the digit zero). Portable Game Notation and some publications use O-O for kingside castling and O-O-O for queenside castling (using the letter O) instead. ICCF numeric notation indicates castling based on
904-420: A draw by threefold repetition, thinking that the positions after his 22nd, 24th, and 26th moves were the same. It was pointed out to him, however, that the position after his 22nd move had different castling rights than the positions after his 24th and 26th moves, rendering his claim illegal. As a result, Karpov was penalized five minutes on his clock. After thinking for about ten minutes, Miles decided to agree to
1017-469: A draw in a lifeless position when it is not their turn to move. At one time, chess players considered it bad manners to play out a superior but theoretically drawn endgame . In such cases, the superior side was expected to offer a draw. There are certain behavioural norms relating to draw offers not codified in the FIDE Laws of Chess but widely observed. For example, many consider it bad manners for
1130-487: A draw in the tournament game and then play a speed chess game to decide things. The FIDE 128 player tournament has seen many matches where the two tournament time control games are drawn and advancement is decided by rapid (thirty minutes for a game) or blitz (five minutes) games. The 3-1-0 scoring system awards three points for a win, one point for a draw, and no points for a loss. This system discourages draws, since draws are worth only two-thirds of their previous value. It
1243-403: A draw to avoid risking a loss from running out of time, and the opponent may also be agreeable to a draw due to their disadvantageous position. A grandmaster draw or short draw is a draw reached after very few moves, usually between high-ranked players. British master P. H. Clarke wrote about the positive aspects of a short draw: Unless you are of the calibre of Botvinnik – and who
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#17327878673351356-431: A draw when their position is worse. However, such offers are sometimes used as psychological tricks. The position in the diagram arose in the game Samuel Reshevsky – Fotis Mastichiadis , Dubrovnik 1950. Reshevsky played 24.Nd2?, and saw at once that he would be put into a very bad situation with 24...Nxf2. Thinking quickly, he offered a draw to his opponent, who was busy writing down the move in his scoresheet. Mastichiadis,
1469-473: A draw?", or similar; the French word remis (literally "reset") is internationally understood as a draw offer and may be used if the players do not share a common language. Players may also offer draws and accept draw offers by merely nodding their heads. A draw may be rejected either verbally or by making a move. A draw by agreement after less than twenty moves where neither player makes a serious effort to win
1582-401: A minor master , was so happy to get half a point against his illustrious opponent that he did not pause to examine the position before accepting the offer. The rule about the procedure of offering a draw was violated in a 1981 game between Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov . Kasparov moved 17. Ra2 and offered a draw. Karpov instantly replied 17... Be7 and then said "Make a move!", which is
1695-399: A normal castled position via several moves. With the bishop pair and a central pawn majority, White has a slight advantage. Variants of Western chess often include castling in their rulesets, sometimes in a modified form. In variants played on a standard 8×8 board, castling is often the same as in standard chess. This includes variants that replace the king with a different royal piece, as
1808-424: A normal draw, with three-quarters of a point for a side delivering stalemate (one-quarter of a point going to the side who is stalemated). Kaufman and Arno Nickel have suggested that stalemate and bare king should both be scored as ¾ to the superior side, and that a player who brings about threefold repetition should only be awarded ¼ of a point, citing engine statistics to argue that this would be sufficient to solve
1921-443: A player who has offered a draw once to do so again before their opponent has offered a draw. Such repeated offers of a draw have also sometimes been considered distracting enough to warrant the arbiter taking action under article 11.5. It is considered bad etiquette to offer a draw in a clearly lost position or even when one has no winning chances but one's opponent does. Garry Kasparov regularly criticizes grandmasters who offer
2034-541: A really big board (16×16), preserve the castling movement of the rooks, meaning that the king moves a different distance along the back rank . In a few variants, most notably Wildebeest chess (11×10), the player may choose to move the king any distance and move the rook accordingly. Castling sometimes features in chess variants not played on a square grid, such as masonic chess , triangular chess , Shafran's and Brusky's hexagonal chess , and millennium 3D chess . In 5D Chess with Multiverse Time Travel , castling
2147-680: A role it assumed in 1948. The current World Champion is Ding Liren of China. The reigning Women's World Champion is Ju Wenjun from China. Other competitions for individuals include the World Junior Chess Championship , the European Individual Chess Championship , the tournaments for the World Championship qualification cycle , and the various national championships . Invitation-only tournaments regularly attract
2260-486: A rook of the same color on the same rank, and the rook is transferred to the square crossed by the king. There are two forms of castling: Castling is permitted provided all of the following conditions are met: Conditions 3 and 4 can be summarized by the mnemonic : A player may not castle out of, through, or into check. Castling rules often cause confusion, even occasionally among high-level players. Alexander Beliavsky and Viktor Korchnoi both had to consult
2373-592: A rule that draws could not be agreed to before move fifty (draws by other means, such as threefold repetition or stalemate, were permissible at any stage). In the World Chess Championship 2016 and 2018 , the players were not permitted to agree a draw before move 30. In the 2021 and 2023 championships, this was extended to move 40. In the very first international round-robin tournament in London in 1862, drawn games had to be replayed until there
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#17327878673352486-511: A series of games between two players, or a team competition in which each player of one team plays one game against a player of the other team. Chess's international governing body is usually known by its French acronym FIDE (pronounced FEE-day) ( French : Fédération internationale des échecs), or International Chess Federation. FIDE's membership consists of the national chess organizations of over 180 countries; there are also several associate members, including various supra-national organizations,
2599-510: A simple trap known as the Scholar's mate (see animated diagram) can be recorded: Variants of algebraic notation include long algebraic , in which both the departure and destination square are indicated; abbreviated algebraic , in which capture signs, check signs, and ranks of pawn captures may be omitted; and Figurine Algebraic Notation, used in chess publications for universal readability regardless of language. Portable Game Notation (PGN)
2712-427: A version of the rule against draws by agreement in fewer than thirty moves, with the director allowing them in exceptional circumstances. FIDE had the intention of enforcing the rule and the penalty was a loss of the game by both players. However, players ignored it or got around it by intentional threefold repetition . Directors were unable or unwilling to enforce the rule. In 1963 FIDE made another attempt to strengthen
2825-445: A violation of the rule. Kasparov moved 18. b5 and then Karpov accepted the draw. In the 1958 game between Tigran Petrosian and Bobby Fischer , Fischer offered a draw without making a move first, which was accepted by Petrosian. He explains in his book My 60 Memorable Games : I offered a draw, not realizing it was bad etiquette. It was Petrosian's place to extend the draw offer after 67...Rxg6+ [...] 68.Kxg6 Kb1 69.f8=Q c2 with
2938-476: A wide variety of styles. The Staunton pattern is the most common, and is usually required for competition. Chess pieces are divided into two sets, usually light and dark colored, referred to as white and black , regardless of the actual color or design. The players of the sets are referred to as White and Black , respectively. Each set consists of sixteen pieces: one king , one queen , two rooks , two bishops , two knights , and eight pawns . The game
3051-399: Is a text-based file format for recording chess games, based on short form English algebraic notation with a small amount of markup . PGN files (suffix .pgn) can be processed by most chess software, as well as being easily readable by humans. Until about 1980, the majority of English language chess publications used descriptive notation , in which files are identified by the initial letter of
3164-424: 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 generically 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; then moves alternate. The object of
3277-407: Is colloquially known as a "grandmaster draw". Many chess players and organizers disapprove of grandmaster draws, and efforts have been made to discourage them, such as forbidding draw offers before move 30. However, professional players have defended grandmaster draws, saying they are important to conserve energy during a tournament. Although a draw may be offered at any time, an illogical offer runs
3390-412: Is common for both players to castle kingside, somewhat uncommon for one player to castle kingside and the other queenside, and somewhat rare for both players to castle queenside. If one player castles kingside and the other queenside, it is called opposite castling or opposite-side castling . Castling on opposite sides usually results in a fierce fight, as each player's pawns are free to advance to attack
3503-415: Is compulsory; a player may not skip a turn, even when having to move is detrimental . Each piece has its own way of moving. In the diagrams, crosses mark the squares to which the piece can move if there are no intervening piece(s) of either color (except the knight, which leaps over any intervening pieces). All pieces except the pawn can capture an enemy piece if it is on a square to which they could move if
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3616-473: Is considered a king move, so the king must be touched first; if the rook is touched first, a rook move must be played instead. As usual, the player may choose another legal destination square for the king until releasing it. When the two-square king move is completed, however, the player is committed to castling if it is legal, and the rook must be moved accordingly. The entire move must be completed with one hand. A player who attempts to castle illegally must return
3729-423: Is controlled using a chess clock that has two displays, one for each player's remaining time. Analog chess clocks have been largely replaced by digital clocks, which allow for time controls with increments . Time controls are also enforced in correspondence chess competitions. A typical time control is 50 days for every 10 moves. Historically, many different notation systems have been used to record chess moves;
3842-418: Is illustrated in the diagrammed position from the correspondence game Gurvich–Pampin, 1976. After 1.Qxd8+ Kxd8 2.0-0-0+ Ke7 3.Nxb5, White has won a rook by castling with check and simultaneously unpinning the knight. Such a double attack can also be made by castling kingside, although this is much rarer. In this position from the blindfold game Karjakin – Carlsen , 2007, the move 19...0-0 threatens to win
3955-399: Is not a permissible response to a check. The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent; this occurs when the opponent's king is in check, and there is no legal way to get it out of check. It is never legal for a player to make a move that puts or leaves the player's own king in check. In casual games, it is common to announce "check" when putting the opponent's king in check, but this
4068-544: Is not an interesting spectacle for the onlookers. However, if chess enthusiasts could find themselves in the positions of the grandmasters they would not judge them so severely. Lajos Portisch wrote: Here Reshevsky offered me a draw, which was accepted. Is this a grandmaster draw? I do not think so. Reshevsky had consumed most of his time, and had only 30 minutes for the remaining moves. On my part it would have been pointless to rely on his time trouble as I saw that after 17. dxe5 Nd5 18. Bxe7 Qxe7 19. Nxd5 Bxd5 20. Be4,
4181-411: Is not required by the rules of chess and is usually not done in tournaments. Once per game, each king can make a move known as castling . Castling consists of moving the king two squares toward a rook of the same color on the same rank, and then placing the rook on the square that the king crossed. Castling is permissible if the following conditions are met: Castling is still permitted if
4294-422: Is played on a square board of eight rows (called ranks ) and eight columns (called files ). Although it does not affect game play, by convention the 64 squares alternate in color and are referred to as light and dark squares. Common colors for wooden chessboards are light and dark brown, while vinyl chessboards are commonly buff and green. To start the game, White's pieces are placed on
4407-517: Is possible within the spatial dimensions but not across time or between timelines. Some chess variants do not feature castling, such as losing chess , where the king is not royal , and Grand Chess , where the rooks have significantly more opening mobility. Chess 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
4520-491: Is recognized in FIDE-sanctioned events; game scores recorded in a different notation system may not be used as evidence in the event of a dispute. Chess is often played casually in public spaces such as parks and town squares. Contemporary chess is an organized sport with structured international and national leagues, tournaments, and congresses . Thousands of chess tournaments, matches, and festivals are held around
4633-692: Is the case with the knight in Knightmate. Some variants, however, have different rules; for example, in Chess960 , the king may move more or fewer than two squares (including none) when castling, depending on the starting position. Former world Fischer Random Chess Champion Wesley So was confused by the castling rules during the 2022 championships, and attempted to illegally castle out of check versus Ian Nepomniachtchi . Castling can also be adapted to variants with different board sizes and shapes. Some such variants, like Capablanca chess (10×8) or chess on
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4746-436: Is the current World Champion. A huge body of chess theory has developed since the game's inception. Aspects of art are found in chess composition , and chess in its turn influenced Western culture and the arts , and has connections with other fields such as mathematics , computer science , and psychology . One of the goals of early computer scientists was to create a chess-playing machine . In 1997, Deep Blue became
4859-429: Is the only move in chess in which two pieces are moved at once. Castling with the king's rook is called kingside castling , and castling with the queen's rook is called queenside castling . In both algebraic and descriptive notations, castling kingside is written as 0-0 and castling queenside as 0-0-0. Castling originates from the king's leap , a two-square king move added to European chess between
4972-475: Is the only widely played sport where the contestants can agree to a draw at any time for any reason. Because "grandmaster draws" are widely considered unsatisfactory both for spectators (who may only see half-an-hour of play with nothing very interesting happening) and sponsors (who suffer from decreased interest in the media), various measures have been adopted over the years to discourage players from agreeing to draws. Chess trainer Mark Dvoretsky , writing in
5085-445: Is then shared among the team. This is easier to do when a win earns more points.) The BAP System was designed to make it undesirable for one or both players to agree to a draw by changing the point value of win/loss/draw based on color played: three points for winning as Black , two points for winning as White , one point for drawing as Black, and no points for drawing as White or for losing as either White or Black . The BAP System
5198-526: Is usually calculated as 1 point for each game won and one-half point for each game drawn. Variations such as "football scoring" (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw) may be used by tournament organizers, but ratings are always calculated on the basis of standard scoring. A player's score may be reported as total score out of games played (e.g. 5½/8), points for versus points against (e.g. 5½–2½), or by number of wins, losses and draws (e.g. +4−1=3). The term "match" refers not to an individual game, but to either
5311-585: Is – you cannot hope to play at full power day after day. The technical draws are a necessary means of conserving energy. As such, they contribute to raising the standard of play rather than lowering it. All of the games of the second Piatigorsky Cup were annotated by players, including the short draws. Their comments on two short draws follow (Spassky vs. Petrosian and Reshevsky vs. Portisch), followed by comments on some other short draws. Boris Spassky wrote: The present game once again demonstrates how grandmasters play when they do not care to win. Of course, it
5424-809: The International Braille Chess Association (IBCA), International Committee of Chess for the Deaf (ICCD), and the International Physically Disabled Chess Association (IPCA). FIDE is recognized as a sports governing body by the International Olympic Committee , but chess has never been part of the Olympic Games . FIDE's most visible activity is organizing the World Chess Championship ,
5537-504: The 14th and 15th centuries, and took on its present form in the 17th century. Local variations in castling rules were common, however, persisting in Italy until the late 19th century. Castling does not exist in Asian games of the chess family, such as shogi , xiangqi , and janggi , but it commonly appears in variants of Western chess. During castling, the king is shifted two squares toward
5650-407: The 15th and 16th centuries which increased the power of the queen and bishop , allowing these pieces to attack from a distance and from both sides of the board, thus increasing the importance of king safety. The rule of castling has varied by location and time. In medieval England, Spain, and France, the white king was allowed to jump to c1, c2, d3, e3, f3, or g1 if no capture was made and the king
5763-500: The 1934 Belgian Championship , Otto Feuer caught Albéric O'Kelly in the Thornton castling trap. In the position in the diagram, the game continued 10...Rxb2 11.dxe5 dxe5?? 12.Qxd8+ Kxd8 13.0-0-0+, and O'Kelly resigned. Feuer's last move simultaneously gave check and attacked the rook on b2. The diagram illustrates the consequences of losing castling rights. Fischer , with the white pieces, played 16.Ng7+ Ke7 17.Nf5+ Ke8. Although all
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#17327878673355876-520: The 2008 Bilbao chess tournament. At the 1964 FIDE Congress, the Puerto Rican delegate proposed that a win be given four points, a draw be given two points, a game played and lost one point, and no points for a forfeit. This would be equivalent to a 3-1-0 system with a 1 point penalty for forfeit. This had been suggested previously by Isaac Kashdan but was not implemented. This system has received some criticism. GM Larry Kaufman points out that
5989-550: The 29th game after thirteen moves. Kasparov explains Draw agreed on Black's proposal: with the resulting complete symmetry, the fighting resources are practically exhausted. White had used 99 minutes; Black had used 51 minutes. In 1962 a Candidates Tournament was held in Curaçao to determine the challenger to Mikhail Botvinnik in the 1963 World Championship . There is good evidence that Soviet players Tigran Petrosian , Paul Keres , and Efim Geller arranged to draw all of
6102-600: The Chief Arbiter: In 1929, the first edition of the FIDE Laws of Chess required thirty moves to be played before a draw by agreement. This rule was discarded when the rules were revised in 1952. In 1954 FIDE rejected a request to reinstate the rule, but it did state that it is unethical and unsportsmanlike to agree to a draw before a serious contest had begun. FIDE stated that the director should discipline players who repeatedly disrespect this guideline, but it seemed to have no effect on players. In 1962 FIDE reinstated
6215-766: The affirmative, Korchnoi executed the move, and Karpov resigned shortly after. Castling occurred three times in the game Wolfgang Heidenfeld – Nick Kerins , Dublin 1973. The third instance of castling, the second one by White, was illegal, as the white king had already moved. The game is as follows: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Be3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.f4 c5 6.c3 Nc6 7.Nf3 Qb6 8.Qd2 c4 9.Be2 Na5 10. 0-0 f5 11.Ng5 Be7 12.g4 Bxg5 13.fxg5 Nf8 14.gxf5 exf5 15.Bf3 Be6 16.Qg2 0-0-0 17.Na3 Ng6 18.Qd2 f4 19.Bf2 Bh3 20.Rfb1 Bf5 21.Nc2 h6 22.gxh6 Rxh6 23.Nb4 Qe6 24.Qe2 Ne7 25.b3 Qg6+ 26.Kf1 Bxb1 27.bxc4 dxc4 28.Qb2 Bd3+ 29.Ke1 Be4 30.Qe2 Bxf3 31.Qxf3 Rxh2 32.d5 Qf5 33. 0-0-0 Rh3 34.Qe2 Rxc3+ 35.Kb2 Rh3 36.d6 Nec6 37.Nxc6 Nxc6 38.e6 Qe5+ 39.Qxe5 Nxe5 40.d7+ Nxd7 0–1 In
6328-579: The arbiter declares it is a drawn position. Also known as the "Sofia-Corsica Rules", the anti-draw measure was adopted in the Bilbao Final Masters and the FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2010 (part of the qualifying cycle for the World Chess Championship 2012 ) did not allow players to offer a draw. The draw had to be claimed with the arbiter , who was assisted by an experienced grandmaster. The following draws were only allowed through
6441-501: The arbiter during tournaments on whether castling was legal when the rook was on or passed over an attacked square, Yuri Averbakh once mistakenly thought that Black queenside castling was illegal when b8 was attacked, and Nigel Short once attempted to castle queenside as Black when d8 was under attack (this was not allowed). Illegal castling has also occasionally occurred in serious games between top players (including Gata Kamsky , Viktor Korchnoi, and Richard Réti ) when they forgot that
6554-423: The d-file if castling queenside). The choice regarding to which side one castles often hinges on an assessment of the trade-off between king safety and activity of the rook. Kingside castling is generally slightly safer because the king ends up closer to the edge of the board and can usually defend all of the pawns on the castled side. In queenside castling, the king is placed closer to the center and does not defend
6667-615: The draw as anything other than a very rare outcome. With my anti-draw point system, I am hoping to make 100% of games fighting games with risk and uncertainty, i.e. dramatic potential." The BAP System was first used in the 2006 Bainbridge Slugfest tournament. There have been proposals that certain kinds of draws should be worth more points than others. Ed Epp has suggested that draws should be scored as 0.4–0.6 to compensate for White's first-move advantage. Many players, including former world champions Emanuel Lasker and José Raúl Capablanca , have argued that stalemate should be worth more than
6780-402: The draw is evident. In such a strong tournament and against such outstanding players it would not be wise to try to win a game of this kind. One could only lose energy. Neither side had any advantage, so why try to force the issue? In the 1958 game between Yuri Averbakh and Bobby Fischer , the players agreed to a draw in an unclear position where White is a piece ahead. Asked about the draw,
6893-419: The effort required to play out these positions until a draw can be claimed by repetition or lack of material, for example, is minimal. The Sofia 2005 tournament employed a similar rule, which has become known as "Sofia rules". The players could not draw by agreement, but they could have draws by stalemate , threefold repetition , the fifty-move rule , and insufficient material. Other draws are only allowed if
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#17327878673357006-584: 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; Ding Liren
7119-404: The end of the game, " 1–0 " means White won, " 0–1 " means Black won, and " ½–½ " indicates a draw. Chess moves can be annotated with punctuation marks and other symbols . For example: " ! " indicates a good move; " !! " an excellent move; " ? " a mistake; " ?? " a blunder; " !? " an interesting move that may not be best; or " ?! " a dubious move not easily refuted. For example, one variation of
7232-448: The enemy pawn's two-square advance; otherwise, the right to do so is forfeited. For example, in the animated diagram, the black pawn advances two squares from g7 to g5, and the white pawn on f5 can take it en passant on g6 (but only immediately after the black pawn's advance). When a pawn advances to its eighth rank , as part of the move, it is promoted and must be exchanged for the player's choice of queen, rook, bishop, or knight of
7345-547: The final game to advance to the semi-finals. Korchnoi, as Black, was winning this game, but he offered a draw after 40 moves. According to Edmar Mednis , it was "gentlemanly and the practical thing to do". Korchnoi went on to unsuccessfully challenge Anatoly Karpov for the World Championship . Sometimes, time constraints for one or both of the players may be a factor in agreeing to a draw. A player with an advantageous position but limited time may be agreeable to
7458-664: The first computer to beat a reigning World Champion in a match when it defeated Garry Kasparov . Today's chess engines are significantly stronger than the best human players and have deeply influenced the development of chess theory; however, chess is not a solved game . The rules of chess are published by FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Échecs; "International Chess Federation"), chess's world governing body, in its Handbook . Rules published by national governing bodies , or by unaffiliated chess organizations, commercial publishers, etc., may differ in some details. FIDE's rules were most recently revised in 2023. Chess sets come in
7571-520: The first diagram (arising from the Ruy Lopez, Classical Defence ): Black sees that if he plays 1...Nxe5, White responds with 2.d4, winning back the minor piece with a fork and taking control of the center. Instead of allowing this, Black hopes to cause trouble for White by returning the piece while depriving White of the right to castle. White can easily castle artificially, however. For example: White begins castling artificially. White has achieved
7684-423: The first rank in the following order, from left to right: rook, knight, bishop, queen, king, bishop, knight, rook. Pawns are placed on each square of the second rank. Black's position mirrors White's, with equivalent pieces on every file. The board is oriented so that the right-hand corner nearest each player is a light square; as a result the white queen always starts on a light square, while the black queen starts on
7797-407: The first rank moves to e2"). For pawns, no letter initial is used; so e4 means "pawn moves to the square e4". If the piece makes a capture, "x" is usually inserted before the destination square. Thus Bxf3 means "bishop captures on f3". When a pawn makes a capture, the file from which the pawn departed is used to identify the pawn making the capture, for example, exd5 (pawn on the e-file captures
7910-436: The g-file, 5th rank" (that is, to the square g5). Different initials may be used for other languages. In chess literature, figurine algebraic notation (FAN) is frequently used to aid understanding independent of language. To resolve ambiguities, an additional letter or number is added to indicate the file or rank from which the piece moved (e.g. Ngf3 means "knight from the g-file moves to the square f3"; R1e2 means "rook on
8023-494: The game Yuri Averbakh – Cecil Purdy , Adelaide 1960, when Purdy castled queenside, Averbakh queried the move, pointing out that the rook had passed over an attacked square. Purdy indicated e8 and c8 and said, "The king", in an attempt to explain that this was forbidden only for the king. Averbakh replied, "Only the king? Not the rook?" Averbakh's colleague Vladimir Bagirov then explained the castling rules to him in Russian, and
8136-431: The game continued. In the game Edward Lasker – Sir George Thomas (London 1912), White could have checkmated with 18.0-0-0 # , but he instead played 18.Kd2#. (See Edward Lasker's notable games .) The diagram shows the final position of the game Lodewijk Prins – Lawrence Day (1968), where White resigned. Had the game continued, Black could have checkmated by castling: (See Lawrence Day's notable chess games .) In
8249-567: 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 a similar game, chaturanga , in seventh-century India . After its introduction in Persia , it spread to the Arab world and then to Europe. The rules of chess as they are known today emerged in Europe at
8362-423: The game to get the king to safety or later in the game to escape a threat. This second form was played in Europe as early as the 13th century. In North Africa, the king was transferred to a safe square by a two-move procedure: the king moved to the player's second rank , and the rook and king moved to each other's original squares. Various forms of castling were developed due to the spread of rulesets during
8475-487: The game." Kasparov did not want to lose a fourth game in a row, and Karpov wanted to draw as Black. Kasparov had this to say about one of the games of his 1984 match against Vasily Smyslov : "It all ended in a 'planned' draw, and I was not exactly delighted with such a pre-programmed result." Although many games logically end in a draw after a hard-fought battle between the players, there have been attempts throughout history to discourage or completely disallow draws. Chess
8588-430: The games between themselves. The twelve games played between these three players were all short draws, averaging 19 moves. This diagram shows the final position from the shortest one – only fourteen moves were played. This was in the 25th of 28 rounds, and the final game between Keres and Petrosian. Bobby Fischer charged that Petrosian accepted a draw when he was winning and Jan Timman agrees. Petrosian went on to win
8701-411: The king and rook to their original squares and then make a legal king move if possible (which may include castling on the other side). If there is no legal king move, the touch-move rule does not apply to the rook. These tournament rules are not commonly enforced in informal play nor commonly known by casual players. An unmoved king has castling rights with an unmoved rook of the same color on
8814-471: The king or rook had previously moved and returned to its home square, and has not always been noticed by the opponent. Yasser Seirawan once even accidentally castled queenside as White with his queen's rook on b1 (which was not allowed), and Alexander Alekhine once "castled his queen" (moving his queen from d1 to b1 and his rook from a1 to c1, which was also not allowed). To clarify: Under FIDE rules and USCF rules, and enforced in most tournaments , castling
8927-561: The king). In the example shown, from the game Mattison –Millers, Königsberg 1926, Black played 13...Rxb2 ?? and resigned after 14.0-0-0+, which wins the rook. Chess historian Edward Winter has proposed the name "Thornton castling trap" for this pattern, in reference to the earliest known example, Thornton–Boultbee, published in the Brooklyn Chess Chronicle in 1884. Other chess writers such as Gary Lane have since adopted this term. Another example of tactical castling
9040-405: The match score. Kasparov had White in the 20th game, in which a draw was agreed after 21 moves. White had used 1 hour and 11 minutes; Black used 1 hour and 52 minutes. Kasparov writes "In the 20th game we decided in the end 'not to play' (i.e. to aim for a short draw) [...] A typical grandmaster draw, although one can understand the two players – each fulfilled the objective he had set himself before
9153-409: The move and before pressing the clock , then marked in the scoresheet as (=) . However, draw offers made at any time are valid. If a player offers a draw before making a move, the opponent has the option of requesting a move before deciding whether or not to accept the offer. Once made, a draw offer cannot be retracted and is valid until rejected. A player may offer a draw by asking, "Would you like
9266-406: The mutually bad result of a draw?". It has also been pointed out that the 3-1-0 system incentivises players to trade wins with each other instead of agreeing to draws, and gives players an easier time cheating as a team. (A team of players enters an open event; one of them is selected to obtain the maximum score and portion of the prize fund, and the others throw their games to that player; the prize
9379-409: The next-to-last round. They played each other that round. After Polugaevsky offered a draw. Tal explains I played 2...e6 and Lev offered me a draw. I accepted, although for decency's sake we made a further 12 moves or so, and the question of first place was put off until the last round.. Before the 20th game of the 1986 World Championship , Kasparov had just lost three games in a row, which evened
9492-414: The opponent choose. White moves first, after which players alternate turns, moving one piece per turn (except for castling , when two pieces are moved). A piece is moved to either an unoccupied square or one occupied by an opponent's piece, which is captured and removed from play. With the sole exception of en passant , all pieces capture by moving to the square that the opponent's piece occupies. Moving
9605-442: The opponent has enough pieces left to deliver checkmate). The duration of a game ranges from long (or "classical") games, which can take up to seven hours (even longer if adjournments are permitted), to bullet chess (under 3 minutes per player for the entire game). Intermediate between these are rapid chess games, lasting between one and two hours per game, a popular time control in amateur weekend tournaments. Time
9718-467: The opponent's castled position without exposing the player's own castled king. Opposite castling is a common feature of many openings, such as the Yugoslav Attack . Tactical patterns involving castling are rare. One pattern involves castling queenside to deliver a double attack : the king attacks a rook (on b2 for White or b7 for Black), while the rook attacks a second enemy piece (usually
9831-458: The other side of the rook. This was called free castling . In the 1811 edition of his chess treatise, Johann Allgaier introduced the 0-0 notation. He differentiated between 0-0r (right) and 0-0l (left). The 0-0-0 notation for queenside castling was introduced in 1837 by Aaron Alexandre . The practice was adopted in the first edition (1843) of the influential Handbuch des Schachspiels and soon became standard. In English descriptive notation ,
9944-417: The pawn on the a- file ; for these reasons, the king is often subsequently moved to the b-file. In addition, queenside castling is initially obstructed by more pieces than kingside castling, thus taking longer to set up than kingside castling. On the other hand, queenside castling places the rook more efficiently on the central d-file, where it is often immediately active; meanwhile, with kingside castling,
10057-427: The piece chosen is indicated after the move (for example, e1=Q or e1Q ). Castling is indicated by the special notations 0-0 (or O-O ) for kingside castling and 0-0-0 (or O-O-O ) for queenside castling. A move that places the opponent's king in check usually has the notation " + " added. There are no specific notations for discovered check or double check . Checkmate can be indicated by " # ". At
10170-443: The piece on d5). Ranks may be omitted if unambiguous, for example, exd (pawn on the e-file captures a piece somewhere on the d-file). A minority of publications use " : " to indicate a capture, and some omit the capture symbol altogether. In its most abbreviated form, exd5 may be rendered simply as ed . An en passant capture may optionally be marked with the notation " e.p. " If a pawn moves to its last rank, achieving promotion,
10283-555: The piece that occupies the first rank at the beginning of the game. In descriptive notation, the common opening move 1.e4 is rendered as "1.P-K4" ("pawn to king four"). Another system is ICCF numeric notation , recognized by the International Correspondence Chess Federation though its use is in decline. In tournament games, players are normally required to keep a score (record of the game). For this purpose, only algebraic notation
10396-423: The pieces were now on the same squares, the two positions were not identical because Black, having moved his king, no longer had the right to castle. White now had time to build pressure on the black king without worrying that the king might escape by castling. Artificial castling , also known as castling by hand , is a maneuver whereby a player achieves a castled position without the use of castling. In
10509-430: The reason for the high draw rate is not one of incentives, but rather the nature of chess as a game: White has a first-move advantage , but it is not enough to win by force. He thus argues that Black should consider a draw to be a good result, and should not be penalised for it: under the 3-1-0 system, Kaufman argues that chess would become like "a game of ' chicken '; who will 'blink' first and play an unsound move to avoid
10622-429: The required piece is not available (e.g. a second queen) an inverted rook is sometimes used as a substitute, but this is not recognized in FIDE-sanctioned games. A game can be won in the following ways: There are several ways a game can end in a draw : In competition, chess games are played with a time control . If a player's time runs out before the game is completed, the game is automatically lost (provided
10735-432: The risk of violating article 11.5, which states: "It is forbidden to distract or annoy the opponent in any manner whatsoever. This includes [...] unreasonable offers of a draw[.]" This rule is applied with the arbiter's discretion; for example, a player loudly offering a draw while the opponent is thinking may well suffer a time penalty or even forfeit the game, but it is unlikely that a player would be penalized for offering
10848-528: The rook and then moving the king on separate moves. The current version of castling was established in France in 1620 and in England in 1640. It served to combine the rook's move and the king's jumping move into a single move. In Rome, from the early 17th century until the late 19th century, the rook might be placed on any square up to and including the king's square, and the king might be moved to any square on
10961-402: The rook is under attack, or if the rook crosses an attacked square. When a pawn makes a two-step advance from its starting position and there is an opponent's pawn on a square next to the destination square on an adjacent file, then the opponent's pawn can capture it en passant ("in passing"), moving to the square the pawn passed over. This can be done only on the turn immediately following
11074-421: The rook on h7, as well as 20...Bxg5, when White cannot recapture due to the threat of back rank mate . Black will thus win the g5-knight next move; 20.Rh6 Bxg5 21.Rxg6+ Kh7 22.Rxg5 would not work, as it would be met by 22...Rf1 # . Viktor Korchnoi , in his 1974 Candidates final match with Anatoly Karpov , asked the arbiter if castling was legal when the castling rook was under attack. The arbiter answered in
11187-736: The rule. Draws by agreement before thirty moves were forbidden, and the penalty was forfeit by both players. Directors were to investigate draws by repetition of position to see if they were to circumvent the rule. The rule was dropped in 1964 because it was decided that it had not encouraged aggressive play. In 2003, GM Maurice Ashley wrote an essay "The End of the Draw Offer?", which raised discussion about ways to avoid quick agreed draws in chess tournaments. Ashley proposed that draw offers not be allowed before move 50. The 2003 Generation Chess International Tournament in New York City had
11300-407: The same color. Usually, the pawn is chosen to be promoted to a queen, but in some cases, another piece is chosen; this is called underpromotion . In the animated diagram , the pawn on c7 can be advanced to the eighth rank and be promoted. There is no restriction on the piece promoted to, so it is possible to have more pieces of the same type than at the start of the game (e.g., two or more queens). If
11413-399: The same rank, even if castling is not legal in that particular position. In the context of threefold and fivefold repetition , two otherwise identical positions with different castling rights are considered to be different positions. In a 1986 game between Anatoly Karpov and Tony Miles , play continued from the diagrammed position as follows: With his 26th move, Karpov attempted to claim
11526-415: The square were unoccupied. Pieces are generally not permitted to move through squares occupied by pieces of either color, except for the knight and during castling. When a king is under immediate attack, it is said to be in check . A move in response to a check is legal only if it results in a position where the king is no longer in check. There are three ways to counter a check: Castling
11639-452: The standard system today is short-form algebraic notation . In this system, each square is uniquely identified by a set of coordinates, a – h for the files followed by 1 – 8 for the ranks. The usual format is The pieces are identified by their initials. In English, these are K (king), Q (queen), R (rook), B (bishop), and N (knight; N is used to avoid confusion with king). For example, Qg5 means "queen moves to
11752-405: The starting and ending squares of the king; thus, castling kingside is written as 5171 for White and 5878 for Black, and castling queenside is written as 5131 for White and 5838 for Black. Castling has its roots in the king's leap . There were two forms of the leap: the king would move once like a knight , or the king would move two squares on its first move. The knight move might be used early in
11865-399: The teenage Fischer said, "I was afraid of losing to a Russian grandmaster and he was afraid of losing to a kid." Averbakh stated that Fischer offered the draw and that each player had only about ten minutes to make the 19 or 20 moves before time control . Several short draws occurred in the World Chess Championship 1984 between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov . This one occurred in
11978-430: The tournament and win the championship from Botvinnik. In the 21st of 24 games of the 1960 World Chess Championship between Mikhail Tal and Mikhail Botvinnik , Tal only needed a half point to win the title, so he got to a position where Black had no winning chances, and quickly agreed to a draw. In the 1967 USSR Championship , Lev Polugaevsky and Mikhail Tal were leading with the same number of points going into
12091-400: The word "Castles" was originally spelled out, adding "K's R" or "Q's R" if disambiguation was needed; eventually, the 0-0 and 0-0-0 notation was borrowed from the algebraic system. Castling is generally an important goal in the opening : it moves the king to safety away from the center files of the board, and it moves the rook to a more active position (the f-file if castling kingside;
12204-463: The world every year catering to players of all levels. Tournaments with a small number of players may use the round-robin format, in which every player plays one game against every other player. For a large number of players, the Swiss system may be used, in which each player is paired against an opponent who has the same (or as similar as possible) score in each round. In either case, a player's score
12317-763: The world's strongest players. Examples include Spain's Linares event, Monte Carlo's Melody Amber tournament, the Dortmund Sparkassen meeting, Sofia's M-tel Masters , and Wijk aan Zee's Tata Steel tournament. Regular team chess events include the Chess Olympiad and the European Team Chess Championship . The World Chess Solving Championship and World Correspondence Chess Championships include both team and individual events; these are held independently of FIDE. Draw by agreement A game of chess can end in
12430-503: Was a decisive result. A similar format, called gladiator chess , was introduced in the Danish Chess Championships 2006. Proposed cure for severe acute "drawitis" by FIDE officials Eliminates draws completely by forcing a fast time control game to be played after an accepted draw proposal to ensure there is always a winner and a loser. One potential issue for this proposal is that both players can quickly agree to
12543-414: Was adopted by FIFA for football matches in 1994, after many leagues around the world had used it successfully to reduce the number of stalling draws. FIFA formerly employed the 2-1-0 scoring system, which is equivalent to that used generally in chess today: one point for a win, half a point for a draw, and no points for a loss. A 3-1-0 system was first used in the 2003 Lippstadt chess tournament and again in
12656-596: Was developed by Clint Ballard, a chess aficionado and software-company president, who named it the Ballard Anti-draw Point system (BAP). Ballard explained the purpose of the BAP System: "The usual flurry of last round draws in almost all tournaments makes chess unmarketable on TV. No excitement, no drama, no TV money for chess. Chess will NEVER succeed in the American TV market until we eliminate
12769-549: Was not in check and did not move over check; the black king might move analogously. In Lombardy, the white king might also jump to a2, b1, or h1, with corresponding squares applying to the black king. Later, in Germany and Italy, the rule was changed such that the king move was accompanied by a pawn move. In the Göttingen manuscript (c. 1500) and a game published by Luis Ramírez de Lucena in 1498, castling consisted of moving
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