Stalemate is a situation in chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check and has no legal move. Stalemate results in a draw . During the endgame , stalemate is a resource that can enable the player with the inferior position to draw the game rather than lose. In more complex positions, stalemate is much rarer, usually taking the form of a swindle that succeeds only if the superior side is inattentive. Stalemate is also a common theme in endgame studies and other chess problems .
131-430: The outcome of a stalemate was standardized as a draw in the 19th century ( see § History of the stalemate rule , below ). Before this standardization, its treatment varied widely, including being deemed a win for the stalemating player, a half-win for that player, or a loss for that player; not being permitted; and resulting in the stalemated player missing a turn. Stalemate rules vary in variants and other games of
262-465: A short tied match against Carl Schlechter , although the exact conditions of this match are a mystery. He then defeated Dawid Janowski in the most one-sided title match in history later in 1910 . Lasker's negotiations for title matches from 1911 onwards were extremely controversial. In 1911, he received a challenge for a world title match against José Raúl Capablanca and, in addition to making severe financial demands, proposed some novel conditions:
393-424: A 1925 game between Savielly Tartakower and Richard Réti . The same position, except shifted to the e- file , occurred in a 2009 game between Gata Kamsky and Vladimir Kramnik . The position in diagram 3 is an example of a pawn drawing against a queen . Stalemates of this sort can often save a player from losing an apparently hopeless position (see Queen versus pawn endgame ). The position in diagram 5
524-601: A championship match between Karpov and Timman. For the first time in history, there were two World Chess Champions: Kasparov defeated Short and Karpov beat Timman . FIDE and the PCA each held a championship cycle in 1993–1996, with many of the same challengers playing in both. Kasparov and Karpov both won their respective cycles. In the PCA cycle, Kasparov defeated Viswanathan Anand in the PCA World Chess Championship 1995 . Karpov defeated Gata Kamsky in
655-425: A claim while Morphy was alive (Morphy died in 1884). There are a number of references to Steinitz as world champion in the 1870s, the earliest being after the first Zukertort match in 1872. Later, in 1879, it was argued that Zukertort was world champion, since Morphy and Steinitz were not active. However, later in his career, at least from 1887, Steinitz dated his reign from this 1866 match, and early sources such as
786-430: A decisive material advantage, but Black could find no way to make progress because of various stalemate resources available to White. The game continued: Avoiding the threatened 73...Nc2+. 76...Nc2+ 77.Rxc2+! Kxc2 is stalemate. 77...Kxc3 is stalemate. 79...Rd3 80.Rxd3+! leaves Black with either insufficient material to win after 80...Nxd3 81.Kxa2 or a standard fortress in a corner draw after 80...Kxd3. Now
917-455: A double stalemate position was discovered by Enzo Minerva and published in the Italian newspaper l'Unità on 14 August 2007: 1.c4 d5 2.Qb3 Bh3 3.gxh3 f5 4.Qxb7 Kf7 5.Qxa7 Kg6 6.f3 c5 7.Qxe7 Rxa2 8.Kf2 Rxb2 9.Qxg7+ Kh5 10.Qxg8 Rxb1 11.Rxb1 Kh4 12.Qxh8 h5 13.Qh6 Bxh6 14.Rxb8 Be3+ 15.dxe3 Qxb8 16.Kg2 Qf4 17.exf4 d4 18.Be3 dxe3. The stalemate rule has had a convoluted history. Although stalemate
1048-542: A draw is totally illogical, since it represents the ultimate zugzwang , where any move would get your king taken". The British master T. H. Tylor argued in a 1940 article in the British Chess Magazine that the present rule, treating stalemate as a draw, "is without historical foundation and irrational, and primarily responsible for a vast percentage of draws, and hence should be abolished". Years later, Fred Reinfeld wrote, "When Tylor wrote his attack on
1179-459: A drawn endgame. Not 5.Rxb2+? Bxb2 6.Nc4+ Kb5 7.Nxb2 Bh5! trapping White's knight. 4. Rxd6+! Kxd6 5. Nxc4+! Nxc4 6. Rxb6+ Nxb6+ Moving the king is actually a better try, but the resulting endgame of two knights and a bishop against a rook is a well-established theoretical draw. 7. Kd8! (rightmost diagram) Black is three pieces ahead, but if White is allowed to take the bishop, the two knights are insufficient to force checkmate . The only way to save
1310-654: A match (8–6, 0 draws). However, he was not immediately able to conclusively demonstrate his superiority. Steinitz placed third at the Paris 1867 chess tournament , behind Kolisch and Szymon Winawer ; he placed second at the Dundee 1867 tournament, behind Gustav Neumann ; and he again placed second at the Baden-Baden 1870 chess tournament , which was the strongest that had been held to date (Anderssen came first, and won twice against Steinitz). Steinitz confirmed his standing as
1441-442: A number of variants which use the empress (rook + knight) and princess (bishop + knight) compound pieces. The empress is also called marshall or chancellor. The princess is also called cardinal, archbishop, janus, paladin, or minister. Another compound piece is the amazon (queen + knight). To adapt to the new pieces, the board is usually extended to 10×8 or 10×10 with additional pawns added. These variants introduce changes in
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#17327801267221572-489: A proposal put forward by the Soviet Union (authored by Mikhail Botvinnik ). The 1938 AVRO tournament was used as the basis for the 1948 Championship Tournament . The AVRO tournament had brought together the eight players who were, by general acclamation, the best players in the world at the time. Two of the participants at AVRO – Alekhine and former world champion José Raúl Capablanca – had died; but FIDE decided that
1703-520: A rival claimant to the title of World Champion for the next thirteen years until 2006. The titles were unified at the World Chess Championship 2006 , and all the subsequent tournaments and matches have once again been administered by FIDE. Since 2014 , the championship has settled on a two-year cycle, with championship matches conducted every even year. The 2020 and 2022 matches were postponed to 2021 and 2023 respectively because of
1834-436: A set of tournaments and matches to choose a new challenger for the world championship match, which was held every three years. Before the 1993 match , then reigning champion Garry Kasparov and his championship rival Nigel Short broke away from FIDE, and conducted the match under the umbrella of the newly formed Professional Chess Association . FIDE conducted its own tournament, which was won by Anatoly Karpov , and led to
1965-429: A similar clause that if Lasker should resign the title after a date had been set for the match, Capablanca should become world champion. On 27 June 1920 Lasker abdicated in favor of Capablanca because of public criticism of the terms of the match, naming Capablanca as his successor. Some commentators questioned Lasker's right to name his successor; Amos Burn raised the same objection but welcomed Lasker's resignation of
2096-401: A stalemate was a drawn game. Throughout history, a stalemate has at various times been: Periodically, writers have argued that stalemate should again be made a win for the side causing the stalemate, on the grounds that the goal of chess is conceptually to capture the king and checkmate merely ends it when this is inevitable. Grandmaster Larry Kaufman writes, "In my view, calling stalemate
2227-505: A standard board, but players begin with non-standard numbers of pieces. For example, starting with multiple queens or fewer pawns. Many such games use unbalanced starting positions, with one player having more or fewer of particular pieces than the other player. Most of the pieces in these variants are borrowed from chess. The game goal and rules are also very similar to those in chess; however, these variants include one or more fairy pieces which move differently from chess pieces. There are
2358-629: A strong-looking move that threatens 68.Qxf6, winning a third pawn, or 68.Rc7, further constricting Black. Black responded 67... Qc1 ! If White takes Black's undefended rook with 68.Qxd8, Black's desperado queen forces the draw with 68...Qh1+ 69.Kg3 Qh2+!, compelling 70.Kxh2 stalemate (second diagram). If White avoids the stalemate with 68.Rxg7+ Kxg7 69.Qxd8, Black draws by perpetual check with 69...Qh1+ 70.Kg3 Qg1+ 71.Kf4 Qc1+! 72.Ke4 Qc6+! 73.Kd3 !? (73.d5 Qc4+; 73.Qd5 Qc2+) Qxf3+! 74.Kd2 Qg2+! 75.Kc3 Qc6+ 76.Kb4 Qb5+ 77.Ka3 Qd3+. Gelfand played 68. d5 instead but still only drew. In Troitsky – Vogt , 1896,
2489-432: A super-tournament (AVRO) of ex-champions and rising stars should be held to select the next challenger. FIDE rejected this proposal and at their second attempt nominated Salo Flohr as the official challenger. Euwe then declared that: if he retained his title against Alekhine he was prepared to meet Flohr in 1940 but he reserved the right to arrange a title match either in 1938 or 1939 with José Raúl Capablanca , who had lost
2620-496: A theoretical draw for many moves. White's bishop is useless; it cannot defend the queening square at a8 nor attack the black pawn on the light a4-square. If the white king heads towards the black pawn, the black king can move towards a8 and set up a fortress . The players were not on speaking terms, however, so neither would offer a draw by agreement . On his 124th move, White played 124.Bg7, delivering stalemate. Korchnoi said that it gave him pleasure to stalemate Karpov and that it
2751-577: A tie-breaking rule, with Reuben Fine placed second and Capablanca and Flohr in the bottom places; and the outbreak of World War II in 1939 cut short the controversy. Alexander Alekhine died in 1946 before anyone else could win against him in match for the World Champion title. This resulted in an interregnum that made the normal procedure impossible. The situation was very confused, with many respected players and commentators offering different solutions. FIDE found it very difficult to organize
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#17327801267222882-475: A tradition continued of the world championship being decided by a match between the reigning champion, and a challenger: if a player thought he was strong enough, he (or his friends) would find financial backing for a match purse and challenge the reigning world champion. If he won, he would become the new champion. Steinitz successfully defended his world title against Mikhail Chigorin in 1889 , Isidor Gunsberg in 1891 , and Chigorin again in 1892 . In 1887,
3013-481: A widely used metaphor for other situations where there is a conflict or contest between two parties, such as war or political negotiations, and neither side is able to achieve victory, resulting in what is also called an impasse , a deadlock , or a Mexican standoff . Chess writers note that this usage is a misnomer because, unlike in chess, the situation is often a temporary one that is ultimately resolved, even if it seems currently intractable. The term "stalemate"
3144-444: A win (since any move would get the king taken), checklock should be a draw. (In a checklock position, no forward play is possible even if exposing the king to check is valid, so the king cannot get captured. The same logic would apply to deadlock.) If stalemate were a loss for the player unable to move, the outcome of some endgames would be affected. In some situations the superior side can force stalemate but not checkmate. In others,
3275-439: Is a list of chess variants . Many thousands of variants exist. The 2007 catalogue The Encyclopedia of Chess Variants estimates that there are well over 2,000, and many more were considered too trivial for inclusion in the catalogue. The chess variants listed below are derived from chess by changing one or more of the many rules of the game. The rules can be grouped into categories, from the most innocuous (starting position) to
3406-401: Is a special kind of stalemate, in which no move is possible even if one ignores the need to avoid self-check. George P. Jelliss has called this type of stalemate a deadlock . Adding a White knight on f2 would produce a checklock : a checkmate position where no moves are possible, even if one ignores the need to avoid self-check. In general, positions with no moves at all available (even ignoring
3537-588: Is considered to have established Staunton as the world's strongest player, at least in England and France. By the 1830s, players from Germany and more generally Central Europe were beginning to appear on the scene: the strongest of the Berlin players around 1840 was probably Ludwig Bledow , co-founder of the Berlin Pleiades . The earliest recorded use of the term "World Champion" was in 1845, when Staunton
3668-410: Is given below: White played 1. Ngxf6+ Qxf6+ (if 1...exf6 then 2.Ne7#) 2. Nxf6+ exf6 3. c4 c5 4. a4 a5 , leaving a double stalemate position. 1.Ndxf6+ would not have worked, for then 1...exf6 is possible. (Under the present rules, the game would have ended after 1...Qxf6+, as the position is then dead: no sequence of legal moves leads to either side being checkmated.) The fastest known game ending in
3799-467: Is some debate over whether to date Steinitz's reign as world champion from his win over Anderssen in 1866, or from his win over Zukertort in 1886. The 1886 match was clearly agreed to be for the world championship, but there is no indication that Steinitz was regarded as the defending champion. There is also no known evidence of Steinitz being called the world champion after defeating Anderssen in 1866. It has been suggested that Steinitz could not make such
3930-486: Is sometimes used incorrectly as a generic term for a draw in chess. While draws are common, they are rarely the direct result of stalemate. With Black to move, Black is stalemated in diagrams 1 to 5. Stalemate is an important factor in the endgame – the endgame setup in diagram 1, for example, quite frequently is relevant in play (see King and pawn versus king endgame ). The position in diagram 1 occurred in an 1898 game between Amos Burn and Harry Pillsbury and also in
4061-479: Is that king and lone minor piece against king cannot force stalemate in general. Emanuel Lasker and Richard Réti proposed that both stalemate and king and minor versus king (with the minor piece side to move) should give ¾ points to the superior side: this would effectively restore not only the old stalemate rule but also the old bare king rule. Kaufman and correspondence grandmaster Arno Nickel have proposed going even further, and giving only ¼ point as well to
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4192-545: Is the "White to Play and Draw" study at right, composed by the American master Frederick Rhine and published in 2006. White saves a draw with 1. Ne5+! Black wins after 1.Nb4+? Kb5! or 1.Qe8+? Bxe8 2.Ne5+ Kb5! 3.Rxb2+ Nb3. 1... Bxe5 After 1...Kb5? 2.Rxb2+ Nb3 3.Rxc4! Qxe3 (best; 3...Qb8+ 4.Kd7 Qxh8 5.Rxb3+ forces checkmate ) 4.Rxb3+! Qxb3 5.Qh1! Bf5+ 6.Kd8!, White is winning. 2. Qe8+! 2.Qxe5? Qb7+ 3.Kd8 Qd7#. 2... Bxe8 3. Rh6+ Bd6 3...Kb5 4.Rxb6+ Kxb6 5.Nxc4+ also leads to
4323-425: Is the case for xiangqi). The games have their own institutions and traditions. Bibliography Shogi Xiangqi Others World Chess Championship Pre-FIDE FIDE: Split titles (Classical): Split titles (FIDE): Reunified (FIDE): The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess . The current world champion is Ding Liren , who defeated Ian Nepomniachtchi in
4454-442: Is today. However, Kaufman tested the idea of scoring stalemates higher than draws with the chess engine Komodo , and found that the impact is quite small because it is rare to be able to force stalemate but not checkmate: while all king and pawn versus king endgames become wins when the pawn is protected (except when the attacking king is trapped in front of its own rook pawn), this does not turn out to be common enough. The problem
4585-433: Is universally recognized as a draw today, that was not the case for much of the game's history. In the forerunners to modern chess, such as chaturanga , delivering stalemate resulted in a loss. This was changed in shatranj , however, where stalemating was a win. This practice persisted in chess as played in early 15th-century Spain. Lucena (c. 1497), however, treated stalemate as an inferior form of victory; it won only half
4716-544: The 1984 World Chess Championship , Karpov fought against Garry Kasparov . Karpov retained the title after the tournament went for more than five months and was terminated with Karpov leading with five wins to Kasparov's three and 40 draws after 48 matches. Karpov eventually lost his title in 1985 to Kasparov, who won the title by a scoreline of 13–11. The two played three more subsequent championships in World Chess Championship 1986 (won by Kasparov, 12½–11½), World Chess Championship 1987 (drawn 12–12, Kasparov retained
4847-440: The 2023 World Chess Championship after the previous champion Magnus Carlsen had declined to defend his title. Ding is presently defending his title against Gukesh Dommaraju in the 2024 World Chess Championship tournament. The first event recognized as a world championship was the 1886 match between Wilhelm Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort , which was won by Steinitz, who became the first world champion. From 1886 to 1946,
4978-568: The American Chess Congress started work on drawing up regulations for the future conduct of world championship contests. Steinitz supported this endeavor, as he thought he was becoming too old to remain world champion. The proposal evolved through many forms (as Steinitz pointed out, such a project had never been undertaken before), and resulted in the 1889 tournament in New York to select a challenger for Steinitz , rather like
5109-485: The Anderssen vs Steinitz match (London, 1866); Steinitz and Zukertort played their 1886 match for £400 a side. Lasker introduced the practice of demanding that the challenger should provide the whole of the purse, and his successors followed his example up to World War II. This requirement made arranging world championship matches more difficult, for example: Marshall challenged Lasker in 1904 but could not raise
5240-744: The COVID-19 pandemic . The next match returned to the normal schedule and was held in 2024. Emanuel Lasker was the longest serving World Champion, having held the title for 27 years, and holds the record for the most Championship wins with six along with Kasparov and Karpov. Though the world championship is open to all players, there are separate championships for women , under-20s and lower age groups , and seniors . There are also chess world championships in rapid , blitz , correspondence , problem solving , Fischer random chess , and computer chess . The game of chess in its modern form emerged in Spain in
5371-564: The fifty-move rule . After 48...Qg6! 49.Rf8 Qe6! 50.Rh8+ Kg6, Black remains a piece ahead after 51.Qxe6 Nxe6, or forces mate after 51.gxf4 Re1+ and 52...Qa2+. The position at right occurred in Boris Gelfand – Vladimir Kramnik , 1994 FIDE Candidates match, game 6, in Sanghi Nagar , India. Kramnik, down two pawns and on the defensive, would be very happy with a draw. Gelfand has just played 67. Re4–e7 ? (first diagram),
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5502-558: The interregnum . The proposals which led to the 1948 Championship Tournament also specified the procedure by which challengers for the World Championship would be selected in a three-year cycle: countries affiliated to FIDE would send players to Zonal Tournaments (the number varied depending on how many good enough players each country had); the players who gained the top places in these would compete in an Interzonal Tournament (later split into two and then three tournaments as
5633-402: The 15th century, though rule variations persisted until the late 19th century. Before Wilhelm Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort in the late 19th century, no chess player seriously claimed to be champion of the world. The phrase was used by some chess writers to describe other players of their day, and the status of being the best at the time has sometimes been awarded in retrospect, going back to
5764-475: The 1962 Candidates and then defeated Botvinnik in 1963 to become world champion. After the 1962 Candidates, Bobby Fischer publicly alleged that the Soviets had colluded to prevent any non-Soviet – specifically him – from winning. He claimed that Petrosian, Efim Geller and Paul Keres had prearranged to draw all their games, and that Viktor Korchnoi had been instructed to lose to them. Yuri Averbakh , who
5895-495: The Berlin Pleiades], the best player of Germany": von der Lasa was unable to attend the 1851 tournament, though he was invited. In 1851, Anderssen lost a match to von der Lasa; in 1856, George Walker wrote that "[von der Lasa] and Anderssen are decidedly the two best in the known world". Von der Lasa did not compete in tournaments or formal matches because of the demands of his diplomatic career, but his games show that he
6026-454: The Century". Evans sacrificed his queen on move 49 and offered his rook on move 50. White's rook has been called the eternal rook . Capturing it results in stalemate, but otherwise it stays on the seventh rank and checks Black's king ad infinitum (i.e. perpetual check ). The game would inevitably end in a draw by agreement , by threefold repetition , or by an eventual claim under
6157-569: The Classical World Chess Champion. Meanwhile, FIDE had decided to scrap the Interzonal and Candidates system, instead having a large knockout event in which a large number of players contested short matches against each other over just a few weeks (see FIDE World Chess Championship 1998 ). Rapid and blitz games were used to resolve ties at the end of each round, a format which some felt did not necessarily recognize
6288-512: The FIDE World Championship in 1999 , Anand in 2000 , Ruslan Ponomariov in 2002 , and Rustam Kasimdzhanov in 2004 . By 2002, not only were there two rival champions, but Kasparov's strong results – he had the top Elo rating in the world and had won a string of major tournaments after losing his title in 2000 – ensured even more confusion over who was World Champion. In May 2002, American grandmaster Yasser Seirawan led
6419-524: The New York Times in 1894, Emanuel Lasker in 1908, and Reuben Fine in 1952 all do the same. Many modern commentators divide Steinitz's reign into an "unofficial" one from 1866 to 1886, and an "official" one after 1886. By this reckoning, the first World Championship match was in 1886 , and Steinitz was the first official World Chess Champion. Following the Steinitz–Zukertort match,
6550-534: The World Championship. Fischer won the 1992 Fischer–Spassky rematch decisively with a score of 10–5. After becoming world champion by default, Karpov confirmed his worthiness for the title with a string of tournament successes from the mid 70s to the early 80s. He defended his title twice against ex-Soviet Viktor Korchnoi , first in Baguio in 1978 (6–5 with 21 draws) and in Merano in 1981 (6–2, with 10 draws). In
6681-604: The analysis Philidor gave in his book (e.g. the Modenese Masters ), and some more recent authors have echoed these doubts. In the early 19th century, it was generally considered that the French player Alexandre Deschapelles was the strongest player of the time, though three games between him and the English player William Lewis in 1821 suggests that they were on par. After Deschapelles and Lewis withdrew from play,
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#17327801267226812-449: The bishop is to move it, resulting in stalemate. A similar idea occasionally enables the inferior side to save a draw in the ending of bishop, knight, and king versus lone king . At right is a composition by A. J. Roycroft which was published in the British Chess Magazine in 1957. White draws with 1. c7! after which there are two main lines: Some chess problems require "White to move and stalemate Black in n moves" (rather than
6943-487: The breakdown of his first attempt to negotiate a title match against Lasker (1911), Capablanca drafted rules for the conduct of future challenges, which were agreed to by the other top players at the 1914 Saint Petersburg tournament, including Lasker, and approved at the Mannheim Congress later that year. The main points were: the champion must be prepared to defend his title once a year; the match should be won by
7074-402: The challenger or both players, with the assistance of financial backers, would contribute to a purse ; about half would be distributed to the winner's backers, and the winner would receive the larger share of the remainder (the loser's backers got nothing). The players had to meet their own travel, accommodation, food and other expenses out of their shares of the purse. This system evolved out of
7205-406: The champion must defend his title within one year of receiving a challenge from a recognized master; the champion would decide the date of the match; the champion was not obliged to accept a challenge for a purse of less than US$ 10,000 (about $ 170,000 in current terms); 20% of the purse was to be paid to the title holder, and the remainder being divided, 60% going to the winner of the match, and 40% to
7336-484: The champion set the terms, requiring any challenger to raise a sizable stake and defeat the champion in a match in order to become the new world champion. Following the death of reigning world champion Alexander Alekhine in 1946, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) took over administration of the World Championship, beginning with the 1948 tournament . From 1948 to 1993, FIDE organized
7467-732: The championship should be awarded to the winner of a round-robin tournament in which the other six participants at AVRO would play four games against each other. These players were: Max Euwe , from the Netherlands; Botvinnik, Paul Keres and Salo Flohr from the Soviet Union; and Reuben Fine and Samuel Reshevsky from the United States. However, FIDE soon accepted a Soviet request to substitute Vasily Smyslov for Flohr, and Fine dropped out in order to continue his degree studies in psychology , so only five players competed. Botvinnik won convincingly and thus became world champion, ending
7598-484: The chess family . The first recorded use of stalemate is from 1765. It is a compounding of Middle English stale and mate (meaning checkmate ). Stale is probably derived from Anglo-French estale meaning "standstill", a cognate of "stand" and "stall", both ultimately derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *sta- . The first recorded use in a figurative sense is in 1885. Stalemate has become
7729-491: The defending player can use stalemate as a defensive technique to avoid losing (under the current rule): The effect if stalemates were to be scored as ¾–¼ would be similar but less severe, as then the weaker side would still be rewarded somewhat for avoiding checkmate via stalemate, just not as much as before. Not all variants of chess consider the stalemate to be a draw. Many regional variants, as well some variants of Western chess, have adopted their own rules on how to treat
7860-503: The early 17th-century Italian player Gioachino Greco (the first player where complete games survive). Richard Lambe, in his 1764 book The History of Chess , wrote that the 18th-century French player François-André Danican Philidor was "supposed to be the best Chess-player in the world". Philidor wrote an extremely successful chess book ( Analyse du jeu des Échecs ) and gave public demonstrations of his blindfold chess skills. However, some of Philidor's contemporaries were not convinced by
7991-503: The early 1920s but only Alekhine could raise the US$ 10,000 Capablanca demanded and only in 1927. Capablanca was shockingly upset by the new challenger. Before the match, almost nobody gave Alekhine a chance against the dominant Cuban , but Alekhine overcame Capablanca's natural skill with his unmatched drive and extensive preparation (especially deep opening analysis, which became a hallmark of most future grandmasters). The aggressive Alekhine
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#17327801267228122-489: The early discussions on how to resolve the interregnum because problems with money and travel so soon after the end of World War II prevented many countries from sending representatives. The shortage of clear information resulted in otherwise responsible magazines publishing rumors and speculation, which only made the situation more confusing. It did not help that the Soviet Union had long refused to join FIDE, and by this time it
8253-441: The famous endgame study composer Alexey Troitsky pulled off an elegant swindle in actual play. After Troitsky's 1. Rd1! , Black fell into the trap with the seemingly crushing 1... Bh3? , threatening 2...Qg2#. The game concluded 2. Rxd8+ Kxd8 3. Qd1+! Qxd1 stalemate . White's bishop, knight, and f-pawn are all pinned and unable to move. Stalemate is a frequent theme in endgame studies and other chess compositions . An example
8384-578: The final of the FIDE World Chess Championship 1996 . Negotiations were held for a reunification match between Kasparov and Karpov in 1996–97, but nothing came of them. Soon after the 1995 championship, the PCA folded, and Kasparov had no organisation to choose his next challenger. In 1998 he formed the World Chess Council, which organised a candidates match between Alexei Shirov and Vladimir Kramnik . Shirov won
8515-435: The final venue. Even then Fischer raised difficulties, mainly over money. It took a phone call from United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and a doubling of the prize money by financier Jim Slater to persuade him to play. After a few more traumatic moments Fischer won the match 12½–8½. An unbroken line of FIDE champions had thus been established from 1948 to 1972, with each champion gaining his title by beating
8646-441: The first player to win six or eight games (the champion had the right to choose); and the stake should be at least £1,000 (about £120,000 in current terms). Following the controversies surrounding his 1921 match against Lasker, in 1922 world champion Capablanca proposed the "London Rules": the first player to win six games would win the match; playing sessions would be limited to 5 hours; the time limit would be 40 moves in 2½ hours;
8777-437: The game Milan Matulović – Nikolay Minev (first diagram). Play continued: The only meaningful attempt to make progress. Now all moves by Black (like 3...Ra3+ ? ) lose, with one exception. Now 4.Rxa6 would be stalemate. White played 4.Rc5+ instead, and the game was drawn several moves later. In the game Elijah Williams – Daniel Harrwitz (first diagram), Black was up a knight and a pawn in an endgame. This would normally be
8908-667: The grasp, successively, of Philidor, Bernard, Carlier [two members of La Société des Amateurs ], and Deschapelles". In 1840, a columnist in Fraser's Magazine (who was probably Walker) wrote, "Will Gaul continue the dynasty by placing a fourth Frenchman on the throne of the world? the three last chess chiefs having been successively Philidor, Deschapelles, and De La Bourdonnais." After La Bourdonnais' death in December 1840, Englishman Howard Staunton 's match victory over another Frenchman, Pierre Charles Fournier de Saint-Amant , in 1843
9039-493: The highest-quality play: Kasparov refused to participate in these events, as did Kramnik after he won the Classical title in 2000. In the first of these events, in 1998, champion Karpov was seeded directly into the final, but he later had to qualify alongside the other players. Karpov defended his title in the first of these championships in 1998, but resigned his title in protest at the new rules in 1999. Alexander Khalifman won
9170-408: The initial setup of pieces. These variants are very different from chess and may be classified as abstract strategy board games instead of chess variants. Some of these games have developed independently while others are ancestors or relatives of modern chess. The popularity of these variants may be limited to their respective places of origin (as is largely the case for shogi), or worldwide (as
9301-527: The later world championship matches. Approximately 85 games (the true number is up for historical debate) were played, with La Bourdonnais winning a majority of the games. In 1839, George Walker wrote "The sceptre of chess, in Europe, has been for the last century, at least, wielded by a Gallic dynasty. It has passed from Legalle [Philidor's teacher, who Philidor regarded as being a player equal to himself, according to Deschapelles] to La Bourdonnais, through
9432-408: The latter is the variant introduced by the 2020 computer game 5D Chess with Multiverse Time Travel , which uses a varying number of boards all being played in parallel. In contrast to standard chess, which is a game of complete information , in these variants, the players do not have perfect information about the state of the board, or there is an element of chance in how the game is played after
9563-421: The loser; the highest purse bid must be accepted. Alekhine , Bogoljubow , Maróczy , Réti , Rubinstein , Tartakower and Vidmar promptly signed them. The only match played under those rules was Capablanca vs Alekhine in 1927 , although there has been speculation that the actual contract might have included a "two-game lead" clause. Alekhine, Rubinstein and Nimzowitsch had all challenged Capablanca in
9694-402: The match should be considered drawn if neither player finished with a two-game lead; and it should have a maximum of 30 games, but finish if either player won six games and had a two-game lead (previous matches had been won by the first to win a certain number of games, usually 10; in theory, such a match might go on for ever). Capablanca objected to the two-game lead clause; Lasker took offence at
9825-566: The match, but negotiations for a Kasparov–Shirov match broke down, and Shirov was subsequently omitted from negotiations, much to his disgust. Plans for a 1999 or 2000 Kasparov–Anand match also broke down, and Kasparov organised a match with Kramnik in late 2000. In a major upset, Kramnik won the match with two wins, thirteen draws, and no losses. At the time the championship was called the Braingames World Chess Championship, but Kramnik later referred to himself as
9956-406: The mechanics of the game, such as movement of pieces, rules for capturing, or winning conditions. In these variants one or both players can move more than once per turn. The board and the pieces in these variants are the same as in standard chess. In this category, the movement of pieces can be modified in concurrence with the geometry of the board. A number of variants have been developed where
10087-464: The money to challenge Steinitz. Lasker won the 1894 match and succeeded Steinitz as world champion. Lasker held the title from 1894 to 1921, the longest reign (27 years) of any champion. He won a return match against Steinitz in 1897 , and then did not defend his title for ten years, before playing four title defences in four years. He comfortably defeated Frank Marshall in 1907 and Siegbert Tarrasch in 1908 . In 1910, he almost lost his title in
10218-428: The money until 1907; in 1911 Lasker and Rubinstein agreed in principle to a world championship match, but this was never played as Rubinstein could not raise the money. In the early 1920s, Alekhine , Rubinstein and Nimzowitsch all challenged Capablanca , but only Alekhine was able to raise the US$ 10,000 that Capablanca demanded, and not until 1927. Attempts to form an international chess federation were made at
10349-531: The more common "White to move and checkmate Black in n moves"). Problemists have also tried to construct the shortest possible game ending in stalemate. Sam Loyd devised one just ten moves long: 1.e3 a5 2.Qh5 Ra6 3.Qxa5 h5 4.Qxc7 Rah6 5.h4 f6 6.Qxd7+ Kf7 7.Qxb7 Qd3 8.Qxb8 Qh7 9.Qxc8 Kg6 10.Qe6 (first diagram). A similar stalemate is reached after: 1.d4 c5 2.dxc5 f6 3.Qxd7+ Kf7 4.Qxd8 Bf5 5.Qxb8 h5 6.Qxa8 Rh6 7.Qxb7 a6 8.Qxa6 Bh7 9.h4 Kg6 10.Qe6 (Frederick Rhine). Loyd also demonstrated that stalemate can occur with all
10480-494: The more recent Candidates Tournaments . The tournament was duly played, but the outcome was not quite as planned: Chigorin and Max Weiss tied for first place; their play-off resulted in four draws; and neither wanted to play a match against Steinitz – Chigorin had just lost to him, and Weiss wanted to get back to his work for the Rothschild Bank . The third prizewinner, Isidor Gunsberg , was prepared to play Steinitz for
10611-465: The most dramatic (adding chance/randomness to the gameplay after the initial piece placement). If a variant changes rules from multiple categories, it belongs to the sub-section below corresponding to the later-listed category. Names that represent a set of variants are annotated with "[multivariant]" after their name. Many variants employ standard chess rules and mechanics, but vary the number of pieces, or their starting positions. In most such variants,
10742-416: The need to avoid self-check) are called locks . In this position from the game Viswanathan Anand – Vladimir Kramnik from the 2007 World Chess Championship , Black played 65...Kxf5, stalemating White. (Any other move by Black loses.) An intentional stalemate occurred on the 124th move of the fifth game of the 1978 World Championship match between Viktor Korchnoi and Anatoly Karpov . The game had been
10873-465: The next cycle, 1963–1966, the round-robin tournament was replaced by a series of elimination matches. Initially the quarter-finals and semi-finals were best of 10 games, and the final was best of 12. Fischer, however, refused to take part in the 1966 cycle, and dropped out of the 1969 cycle after a controversy at 1967 Interzonal in Sousse. Both these Candidates cycles were won by Boris Spassky , who lost
11004-432: The number of Soviet players he might have to meet in the title match. Botvinnik lost to Vasily Smyslov in 1957 but won the return match in 1958, and lost to Mikhail Tal in 1960 but won the return match in 1961. Thus Smyslov and Tal each held the world title for a year, but Botvinnik was world champion for rest of the time from 1948 to 1963. The return match clause was not in place for the 1963 cycle. Tigran Petrosian won
11135-619: The number of countries and eligible players increased ); the highest-placed players from the Interzonal would compete in the Candidates Tournament , along with whoever lost the previous title match and the second-placed competitor in the previous Candidates Tournament three years earlier; and the winner of the Candidates played a title match against the champion. Until 1962 inclusive the Candidates Tournament
11266-567: The organisation of the so-called "Prague Agreement" to reunite the world championship. Kramnik had organised a candidates tournament (won later in 2002 by Peter Leko ) to choose his challenger. It was agreed that Kasparov would play the FIDE champion (Ponomariov) for the FIDE title, and the winner of that match would face the winner of the Kramnik–Leko match for the unified title. However, the matches proved difficult to finance and organise. The Kramnik–Leko match did not take place until late 2004 (it
11397-402: The pawns are placed on their usual squares, but the position of other pieces is either randomly determined or selected by the players. The motivation for these variants is usually to nullify established opening knowledge. The downside of these variants is that the initial position usually has less harmony and balance than the standard chess position. These variants use standard chess pieces on
11528-413: The pieces on the board: 1.d4 d6 2.Qd2 e5 3.a4 e4 4.Qf4 f5 5.h3 Be7 6.Qh2 Be6 7.Ra3 c5 8.Rg3 Qa5+ 9.Nd2 Bh4 10.f3 Bb3 11.d5 e3 12.c4 f4 (second diagram). Games such as this are occasionally played in tournaments as a pre-arranged draw. There are chess compositions featuring double stalemate. To the right are two double stalemate positions, in which neither side has a legal move. An example from actual play
11659-416: The players agreed to a draw , since 84...Kxb3 or 84...Rxb3 is stalemate, as is 84...Ra8 85.Rxc3+! Kxc3. Black could still have won the game until his critical mistake on move 82. Instead of 82...Nc3, 82...Nb4 wins; for example, after 83.Rc8 Re3 84.Rb8+ Kc5 85.Rc8+ Kd5 86.Rd8+ Kc6 87.Ra8 Re1+ 88.Kb2 Kc5 89.Kc3 a1=Q+, Black wins. This 2007 game, Magnus Carlsen – Loek van Wely , ended in stalemate. White used
11790-435: The playing area is in three dimensions or more. In most cases an extra spatial dimension is represented by multiple boards being laid next to each other. Some extra-dimensional variants attempt to reflect the 3D nature of modern warfare (e.g. Raumschach , designed to reflect aerial and submarine warfare ), while others incorporate fantasy or science fiction ideas such as parallel worlds and time travel . An example of
11921-458: The previous incumbent. This came to an end when Anatoly Karpov won the right to challenge Fischer in 1975. Fischer objected to the "best of 24 games" championship match format that had been used from 1951 onwards, claiming that it would encourage whoever got an early lead to play for draws. Instead he demanded that the match should be won by whoever first won 10 games, except that if the score reached 9–9 he should remain champion. He argued that this
12052-524: The right to challenge Kasparov for the title. However, before the match took place, both Kasparov and Short complained of FIDE's mishandling of the prize pool in organizing the match, corruption in the leadership, and FIDE's failure to abide by their own rules, and split from FIDE to set up the Professional Chess Association (PCA), under whose auspices they held their match. In response, FIDE stripped Kasparov of his title and held
12183-466: The rule of stalemate. There are some variants, however, where the rule is specified to differ from that of standard chess: There is a world of difference between no choice ... and a poor choice. Editorial writers often talk about a political stalemate when the analogy they probably have in mind is a political " zugzwang ". In stalemate a player has no legal moves, period. In zugzwang he has nothing pleasant to do. List of chess variants This
12314-458: The rules very flexibly to enable Fischer to play, as he thought it important for the health and reputation of the game that Fischer should have the opportunity to challenge for the title as soon as possible. Fischer crushed all opposition and won the right to challenge reigning champion Boris Spassky . After agreeing to play in Yugoslavia, Fischer raised a series of objections and Iceland was
12445-441: The same bracket" as Deschapelles and La Bourdonnais, who he had played years before, and that "his superiority is as obvious as theirs". But when Morphy returned to America in 1859, he abruptly retired from chess, though many considered him the world champion until his death in 1884. His sudden withdrawal from chess at his peak led to his being known as "the pride and sorrow of chess". After Morphy's retirement from chess, Anderssen
12576-405: The same conditions that governed their match in 1927. Although FIDE wished to set up a match between Alekhine and Bogoljubow, it made little progress and the title "Champion of FIDE" quietly vanished after Alekhine won the 1929 world championship match that he and Bogoljubow themselves arranged. While negotiating his 1937 World Championship rematch with Alekhine, Euwe proposed that if he retained
12707-419: The second-rank defense in a rook and bishop versus rook endgame for 46 moves. The fifty-move rule was about to come into effect, under which White could claim a draw. The game ended: White was stalemated. Although stalemate usually occurs in the endgame, it can also occur with more pieces on the board. Outside of relatively simple endgame positions, such as those above, stalemate occurs rarely, usually when
12838-436: The side that brings about a threefold repetition (which likewise has precedents in xiangqi, shogi, and Go ). According to his tests with Komodo, chess at the level of a human World Championship match would have a draw rate of 65.6%; scoring stalemate as ¾–¼ reduces the draw rate to 63.4%; scoring stalemate and bare king as ¾–¼ brings it to 55.9%; and scoring stalemate, bare king, and threefold repetition as ¾–¼ brings it all
12969-423: The side with the superior position has overlooked the possibility of stalemate. This is typically realized by the inferior side's sacrifice of one or more pieces in order to force stalemate. A piece that is offered as a sacrifice to bring about stalemate is sometimes called a desperado . One of the best-known examples of the desperado is the game Larry Evans – Samuel Reshevsky that was dubbed "The Swindle of
13100-414: The stake in games played for money, and this continued to be the case in Spain as late as 1600. From about 1600 to 1800, the rule in England was that stalemate was a loss for the player administering it, a rule that the eminent chess historian H. J. R. Murray believes may have been adopted from Russian chess. That rule disappeared in England before 1820, being replaced by the French and Italian rule that
13231-411: The stalemate rule, he released about his unhappy head a swarm of peevish maledictions that are still buzzing." Larry Evans calls the proposal to make stalemate a win for the stalemating player a "crude proposal that ... would radically alter centuries of tradition and make chess boring". This rule change would cause a greater emphasis on material ; an extra pawn would be a greater advantage than it
13362-482: The stalemated player. In chaturanga , which is widely considered to be the common ancestor of all variants of chess, a stalemate was a win for the stalemated player. Around the 7th century, this game was adopted in the Middle East as shatranj with very similar rules to its predecessor; however, the stalemate rule was changed to its exact opposite: i.e. it was a win for the player delivering the stalemate. This game
13493-446: The strongest players from France and England respectively were recognised as Louis de la Bourdonnais and Alexander McDonnell . La Bourdonnais visited England in 1825, where he played many games against Lewis and won most of them, and defeated all the other English masters despite offering handicaps . He and McDonnell contested a long series of matches in 1834 . These were the first to be adequately reported, and they somewhat resemble
13624-426: The terms in which Capablanca criticized the two-game lead condition and broke off negotiations. Further controversy arose when, in 1912, Lasker's terms for a proposed match with Akiba Rubinstein included a clause that, if Lasker should resign the title after a date had been set for the match, Rubinstein should become world champion. When he resumed negotiations with Capablanca after World War I , Lasker insisted on
13755-459: The time of the 1914 St. Petersburg , 1914 Mannheim and 1920 Gothenburg Tournaments. On 20 July 1924 the participants at the Paris tournament founded FIDE as a kind of players' union. FIDE's congresses in 1925 and 1926 expressed a desire to become involved in managing the world championship. FIDE was largely happy with the "London Rules", but claimed that the requirement for a purse of $ 10,000
13886-403: The title in New York, so this match was played in 1890–1891 and was won by Steinitz. The experiment was not repeated, and Steinitz's later matches were private arrangements between the players. Two young strong players emerged in late 1880s and early 1890s: Siegbert Tarrasch and Emanuel Lasker . Tarrasch had the better tournament results at the time, but it was Lasker who was able to raise
14017-415: The title match to Petrosian in 1966, but won and became world champion in 1969. In the 1969–1972 cycle Fischer caused two more crises. He refused to play in the 1969 US Championship, which was a Zonal Tournament. This would have eliminated him from the 1969–1972 cycle, but Benko was persuaded to concede his place in the Interzonal to Fischer. FIDE President Max Euwe accepted this maneuver and interpreted
14148-530: The title to Alekhine in 1927; if Euwe lost his title to Capablanca then FIDE's decision should be followed and Capablanca would have to play Flohr in 1940. Most chess writers and players strongly supported the Dutch super-tournament proposal and opposed the committee processes favored by FIDE. While this confusion went unresolved: Euwe lost his title to Alekhine; the AVRO tournament in 1938 was won by Paul Keres under
14279-402: The title), and World Chess Championship 1990 (won by Kasparov, 12½–11½). In the five tournaments, Kasparov and Karpov played a total of 144 World Championship games with 104 draws, 21 wins by Kasparov and 19 wins by Karpov. In 1993, Nigel Short broke the domination of Kasparov and Karpov by defeating Karpov in the candidates semi-finals followed by Jan Timman in the finals, thereby earning
14410-506: The title, FIDE should manage the nomination of future challengers and the conduct of championship matches. FIDE had been trying since 1935 to introduce rules on how to select challengers, and its various proposals favored selection by some sort of committee. While they were debating procedures in 1937 and Alekhine and Euwe were preparing for their rematch later that year, the Royal Dutch Chess Federation proposed that
14541-407: The title. Capablanca argued that, if the champion abdicated, the title must go to the challenger, as any other arrangement would be unfair to the challenger. Lasker later agreed to play a match against Capablanca in 1921, announcing that, if he won, he would resign the title so that younger masters could compete for it. Capablanca won their 1921 match by four wins, ten draws and no losses. After
14672-422: The two Soviet representatives in FIDE, who were personal friends of reigning champion Mikhail Botvinnik . A defeated champion would have the right to a return match. FIDE also limited the number of players from the same country that could compete in the Candidates Tournament , on the grounds that it would reduce Soviet dominance of the tournament. Averbakh claimed that this was to Botvinnik's advantage as it reduced
14803-432: The wagering of small stakes on club games in the early 19th century. Up to and including the 1894 Steinitz–Lasker match, both players, with their backers, generally contributed equally to the purse, following the custom of important matches in the 19th century before there was a generally recognized world champion. For example: the stakes were £100 a side in both the second Staunton vs Saint-Amant match (Paris, 1843) and
14934-415: The way down to 22.6%. (The same reduction of draws would occur if stalemate, bare king, and threefold repetition were scored as 1–0 instead of ¾–¼, but the point of the ¾–¼ scoring is to allow the weaker side to still benefit from avoiding checkmate, while giving the stronger side something to play for even when checkmate cannot be attained.) Jelliss has suggested that under the logic that stalemate should be
15065-491: The world's leading active player, winning the Paris 1878 chess tournament . Zukertort then won the London 1883 chess tournament by a convincing 3-point margin, ahead of nearly every leading player in the world, with Steinitz finishing second. This tournament established Steinitz and Zukertort as the best two players in the world, and led to a match between these two, the World Chess Championship 1886 , won by Steinitz. There
15196-645: The world's leading player by winning the London 1872 tournament, winning a match against Johannes Zukertort in 1872 (7–1, 4 draws), winning the Vienna 1873 chess tournament , and decisively winning a match over Joseph Henry Blackburne 7–0 (0 draws) in 1876. Apart from the Blackburne match, Steinitz played no competitive chess between the Vienna tournaments of 1873 and 1882 . During that time, Zukertort emerged as
15327-413: The world's leading player. In 1893, Henry Bird retrospectively awarded the title of first world chess champion to Anderssen for his victory, but there is no evidence that he was widely acclaimed as such at the time, and no mention of such a status afterwards in the tournament book by Staunton. Indeed, Staunton's tournament book calls Anderssen "after Heydebrand der Laza [Tassilo von der Lasa, another of
15458-531: Was a multi-cycle round-robin tournament – how and why it was changed are described below. The FIDE system followed its 1948 design through five cycles: 1948–1951, 1951–1954, 1954–1957, 1957–1960 and 1960–1963. The first two world championships under this system were drawn 12–12 – Botvinnik-Bronstein in 1951 and Botvinnik-Smyslov in 1954 – so Botvinnik retained the title both times. In 1956 FIDE introduced two apparently minor changes which Soviet grandmaster and chess official Yuri Averbakh alleged were instigated by
15589-402: Was again regarded as the world's strongest active player, a reputation he reinforced by winning the strong London 1862 chess tournament . Louis Paulsen and Ignatz Kolisch were also playing at a comparable standard to Anderssen in the 1860s: Anderssen narrowly won a match against Kolisch in 1861, and drew against Paulsen in 1862. In 1866, Wilhelm Steinitz narrowly defeated Anderssen in
15720-473: Was clear that about half the credible contenders were Soviet citizens. But, realizing that it could not afford to be excluded from discussions about the vacant world championship, the Soviet Union sent a telegram in 1947 apologizing for the absence of Soviet representatives and requesting that the USSR be represented on future FIDE Committees. The eventual solution was very similar to FIDE's initial proposal and to
15851-648: Was described as "the Chess Champion of England, or ... the Champion of the World". An important milestone was the London 1851 chess tournament , which was the first international chess tournament, organized by Staunton. It was played as a series of matches, and was won convincingly by the German Adolf Anderssen , including a 4–1 semi-final win over Staunton. This established Anderssen as
15982-407: Was drawn, so Kramnik retained his title). Meanwhile, FIDE never managed to organise a Kasparov match, either with 2002 FIDE champion Ponomariov, or 2004 FIDE champion Kasimdzhanov. Kasparov's frustration at the situation played a part in his decision to retire from chess in 2005, still ranked No. 1 in the world. Soon after, FIDE dropped the short knockout format for a World Championship and announced
16113-484: Was good to advance the b-pawn because he could win the white rook with a skewer if it captured the pawn. Play went: Now 60...Rh2+ 61.Kf3! Rxb2 would be stalemate (second diagram). Smyslov played 60...Kg4, and the game was drawn after 61.Kf1 (see Rook and pawn versus rook endgame ). Whereas the possibility of stalemate arose in the Bernstein–Smyslov game because of a blunder , it can also arise without one, as in
16244-458: Was head of the Soviet team, confirmed in 2002 that Petrosian, Geller and Keres arranged to draw all their games in order to save their energy for games against non-Soviet players. Korchnoi, who defected from the USSR in 1976, never confirmed that he was forced to throw games. FIDE responded by changing the format of future Candidates Tournaments to eliminate the possibility of collusion. Beginning in
16375-429: Was helped by his tactical skill, which complicated the game. Immediately after winning, Alekhine announced that he was willing to grant Capablanca a return match provided Capablanca met the requirements of the "London Rules". Negotiations dragged on for several years, often breaking down when agreement seemed in sight. Alekhine easily won two title matches against Efim Bogoljubov in 1929 and 1934 . In 1935 , Alekhine
16506-507: Was impracticable and called upon Capablanca to come to an agreement with the leading masters to revise the Rules. In 1926 FIDE decided in principle to create a title of "Champion of FIDE" and, in 1928, adopted the forthcoming 1928 Bogoljubow – Euwe match (won by Bogoljubow) as being for the "FIDE championship". Alekhine agreed to place future matches for the world title under the auspices of FIDE, except that he would only play Capablanca under
16637-502: Was in turn introduced to the Western world , where it would eventually evolve to modern-day Western chess , although the stalemate rule for Western chess was not standardized as a draw until the 19th century (see history of the rule ). Chaturanga also evolved into several other games in various regions of Asia , all of which have varying rules on stalemating: The majority of variants of Western chess do not specify any alterations to
16768-456: Was more advantageous to the challenger than the champion's advantage under the existing system, where the champion retained the title if the match was tied at 12–12 including draws. Eventually FIDE deposed Fischer and crowned Karpov as the new champion. Fischer privately maintained that he was still World Champion. He went into seclusion and did not play chess in public again until 1992, when Spassky agreed to participate in an unofficial rematch for
16899-521: Was one of the world's best then: he won series of games against Staunton in 1844 and 1853. Anderssen was himself decisively beaten in an 1858 match against the American Paul Morphy (7–2, 2 draws). In 1858–59 Morphy played matches against several leading players, beating them all. This prompted some commentators at the time to call him the world champion: Gabriel-Éloy Doazan, who knew Morphy, wrote that "one can and...must place [him] in
17030-414: Was slightly humiliating. Until 2021, this was the longest game played in a World Chess Championship final match, as well as the only World Championship game to end in stalemate before 2007. Sometimes, a surprise stalemate saves a game. In the game Ossip Bernstein – Vasily Smyslov (first diagram), Black can win by sacrificing the f-pawn and using the king to support the b-pawn. However, Smyslov thought it
17161-518: Was unexpectedly defeated by the Dutch Max Euwe , an amateur player who worked as a mathematics teacher. Alekhine convincingly won a rematch in 1937 . World War II temporarily prevented any further world title matches, and Alekhine remained world champion until his death in 1946. Before 1948 world championship matches were financed by arrangements similar to those Emanuel Lasker described for his 1894 match with Wilhelm Steinitz : either
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