Chess

Grandmaster Garry Kasparov, former World Chess Champion

The best players can be awarded specific lifetime titles by the world chess organization FIDE:^[53]

Grandmaster (shortened as GM, sometimes International Grandmaster or IGM is used) is awarded to world-class chess masters. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain. Before FIDE will confer the title on a player, the player must have an Elo chess rating (see below) of at least 2500 at one time and three favorable results (called norms) in tournaments involving other Grandmasters, including some from countries other than the applicant's. There are also other milestones a player can achieve to attain the title, such as winning the World Junior Championship.
International Master (shortened as IM). The conditions are similar to GM, but less demanding. The minimum rating for the IM title is 2400.
FIDE Master (shortened as FM). The usual way for a player to qualify for the FIDE Master title is by achieving a FIDE Rating of 2300 or more.
Candidate Master (shortened as CM). Similar to FM, but with a FIDE Rating of at least 2200.

All the titles are open to men and women. Separate women-only titles, such as Woman Grandmaster (WGM), are also available. Beginning with Nona Gaprindashvili in 1978, a number of women have earned the GM title, and most of the top ten women in 2006 hold the unrestricted GM title.^[54]

International titles are awarded to composers and solvers of chess problems, and to correspondence chess players (by the International Correspondence Chess Federation). Moreover, national chess organizations may also award titles, usually to the advanced players still under the level needed for international titles; an example is the Chess expert title used in the United States.

In order to rank players, FIDE, ICCF and national chess organizations use the Elo rating system developed by Arpad Elo. Elo is a statistical system based on assumption that the chess performance of each player in their games is a random variable. Arpad Elo thought of a player's true skill as the average of that player's performance random variable, and showed how to estimate the average from results of player's games. The US Chess Federation implemented Elo's suggestions in 1960, and the system quickly gained recognition as being both fairer and more accurate than older systems; it was adopted by FIDE in 1970.^[55]

The highest ever FIDE rating was 2851, which Garry Kasparov had on the July 1999 and January 2000 lists.^[56] In the most recent list (January 2008), the highest rated players are the current world champion Viswanathan Anand of India and the former one Vladimir Kramnik of Russia with a rating of 2799.^[57]

Mathematics and computers

Main articles: Computer chess and List of mathematicians who studied chess

Mathematicians Euler, de Moivre and Vandermonde studied the knight's tour.

Chess is interesting from the mathematical point of view. Many combinatorical and topological problems connected to chess were known of for hundreds of years. In 1913, Ernst Zermelo used it as a basis for his theory of game strategies, which is considered as one of the predecessors of game theory.^[58]

The number of legal positions in chess is estimated to be between 10⁴³ and 10⁵⁰, with a game-tree complexity of approximately 10¹²³. The game-tree complexity of chess was first calculated by Claude Shannon as 10¹²⁰, a number known as the Shannon number.^[59] Typically an average position has thirty to forty possible moves, but there may be as few as zero (in the case of checkmate or stalemate) or as many as 218.

The most important mathematical challenge of chess is the development of algorithms which can play chess. The idea of creating a chess playing machine dates to the eighteenth century; around 1769, the chess playing automaton called The Turk became famous before being exposed as a hoax.^[60] Serious trials based on automatons, such as El Ajedrecista, were too complex and limited to be useful.

Since the advent of the digital computer in the 1950s, chess enthusiasts and computer engineers have built, with increasing degrees of seriousness and success, chess-playing machines and computer programs. The groundbreaking paper on computer chess, "Programming a Computer for Playing Chess", was published in 1950 by Shannon. He wrote:

The chess machine is an ideal one to start with, since: (1) the problem is sharply defined both in allowed operations (the moves) and in the ultimate goal (checkmate); (2) it is neither so simple as to be trivial nor too difficult for satisfactory solution; (3) chess is generally considered to require "thinking" for skillful play; a solution of this problem will force us either to admit the possibility of a mechanized thinking or to further restrict our concept of "thinking"; (4) the discrete structure of chess fits well into the digital nature of modern computers.^[61]

1990s chess-playing computer

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) held the first major chess tournament for computers, the North American Computer Chess Championship, in September 1970. CHESS 3.0, a chess program from Northwestern University, won the championship. At first considered only a curiosity, the best chess playing programs, for example Rybka or Hydra, have become extremely strong. Garry Kasparov, then ranked number one in the world, lost a match against IBM's Deep Blue in 1997.^[62] Nevertheless, from the point of view of artificial intelligence, chess-playing programs are relatively simple: they essentially explore huge numbers of potential future moves by both players and apply an evaluation function to the resulting positions, an approach described as "brute force" because it relies on the sheer speed of the computer.

With huge databases of past games and high analytical ability, computers also help players to learn chess and prepare for matches. Additionally, Internet Chess Servers allow people to find and play opponents all over the world. The presence of computers and modern communication tools have also raised concerns regarding cheating during games, most notably the "bathroom controversy" during the 2006 World Championship.

Psychology

There is an extensive scientific literature on chess psychology.^[63]^[64]^[65] Alfred Binet and others showed that knowledge and verbal, rather than visuospatial, ability lies at the core of expertise.^[66]^[67] Adriaan de Groot, in his doctoral thesis, showed that chess masters can rapidly perceive the key features of a position.^[68] According to de Groot, this perception, made possible by years of practice and study, is more important than the sheer ability to anticipate moves. De Groot also showed that chess masters can memorize positions shown for a few seconds almost perfectly. Memorization ability alone does not account for this skill, since masters and novices, when faced with random arrangements of chess pieces, had equivalent recall (about half a dozen positions in each case). Rather, it is the ability to recognize patterns, which are then memorized, which distinguished the skilled players from the novices. When the positions of the pieces were taken from an actual game, the masters had almost total positional recall.^[69]

More recent research has focused on the respective roles of knowledge and look-ahead search; brain imaging studies of chess masters and novices; blindfold chess; the role of personality and intelligence in chess skill, gender differences, and computational models of chess expertise. In addition, the role of practice and talent in the development of chess and other domains of expertise has led to a lot of research recently. Ericsson and colleagues have argued that deliberate practice is sufficient for reaching high levels of expertise, like master in chess.^[70] However, more recent research indicates that factors other than practice are important. For example, Gobet and colleagues have shown that stronger players start playing chess earlier, that they are more likely to be left-handed, and that they are more likely to be born in late winter and early spring.^[71]

There are also some attempts to use the game of chess as mental training.

Variants

Main article: Chess variant

Glinski's hexagonal chess, a chess variant popular in 1930s

Chess variants are forms of chess where the game is played with a different board, special fairy pieces or different rules. There are more than two thousand published chess variants, the most popular being xiangqi in China and shogi in Japan.^[72]^[73]

Chess variants can be divided into:

Direct predecessors of chess, chaturanga and shatranj.
Traditional national or regional chess variants like xiangqi, shogi, janggi and makruk, which share common predecessors with Western chess.
Modern variants of chess, such as Chess960, where the initial position is selected randomly before each game. This random positioning makes it almost impossible to prepare the opening play in advance.^[74]

Notes

^ The rules of chess. Retrieved on 2008-01-07.
^ World Chess Federation. FIDE Laws of Chess. Retrieved 30 November 2006.
^ Tarrasch vs Euwe on chessgames.com. (Java needed)
^ Harding (2003), p. 1–7
^ Harding (2003), p. 138ff
^ Harding (2003), p. 8ff
^ Harding (2003), p. 70ff
^ Collins, Sam (2005). Understanding the Chess Openings. Gambit Publications. ISBN 1-904600-28-X.
^ Tarrasch, Siegbert (1987). The Game of Chess. Courier Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-25447-X.
^ Harding (2003), p. 32–151
^ Harding (2003), p. 187ff
^ Murray, H.J.R. (1913). A History of Chess. Benjamin Press (originally published by Oxford University Press). ISBN 0-936317-01-9.
^ ^a ^b Hooper and Whyld, 144-45 (first edition)
^ Li, David H. (1998). The Genealogy of Chess. Premier Pub. Co. ISBN 0-9637852-2-2.
^ Davidson (1981), p. 13–17
^ ^a ^b Calvo, Ricardo. Valencia Spain: The Cradle of European Chess. Retrieved 10 December 2006
^ An analysis from the feminist perspective: Weissberger, Barbara F. (2004). Isabel Rules: constructing queenship, wielding power. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 0-8166-4164-1. P. 152ff
^ See History of the stalemate rule.
^ Louis Charles Mahe De La Bourdonnai. Chessgames.com. Retrieved 30 November 2006.
^ Metzner, Paul (1998). Crescendo of the Virtuoso: Spectacle, Skill, and Self-Promotion in Paris during the Age of Revolution. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-20684-3. Online version
^ Bird, Henry Edward. Chess History and Reminiscences. Retrieved 10 December 2006
^ London Chess Club. Chessgames.com. Retrieved 30 November 2006.
^ World Title Matches and Tournaments - Chess history. worldchessnetwork.com
^ Burgess, Graham, Nunn, John and Emms, John (1998). The Mammoth Book of the World's Greatest Chess Games. Carroll & Graf Publishers. ISBN 0-7867-0587-6. , p. 14.
^ Shibut, Macon (2004). Paul Morphy and the Evolution of Chess Theory. Courier Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-43574-1.
^ Steinitz, William and Landsberger, Kurt (2002). The Steinitz Papers: Letters and Documents of the First World Chess Champion. McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-7864-1193-7.
^ Kasparov (1983a)
^ Kasparov 1983b
^ Fine (1952)
^ This is stated for example in The Encyclopaedia of Chess (1970, p.223) by Anne Sunnucks, but this is also disputed by Edward Winter (chess historian) in his Chess Notes 5144 and 5152.
^ Menchik at ChessGames.com. Retrieved 11 December 2006
^ Kasparov 2003b, 2004a, 2004b, 2006
^ ^a ^b Chess History. Retrieved on 2008-01-07.
^ Kasparov 2003a, 2006
^ Keene, Raymond (1993). Gary Kasparov's Best Games. B. T. Batsford Ltd.. ISBN 0-7134-7296-0. , p. 16.
^ Kramnik at ChessGames.com. Retrieved 13 December 2006
^ "Viswanathan Anand regains world chess title", Reuters, 2007-09-30. Retrieved on 2007-12-13.
^ Vale, Malcolm (2001). The Princely Court: Medieval Courts and Culture in North-West Europe, 1270–1380. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-926993-9. Pp. 170–199
^ The Second Book of the Courtier. Translated by Sir Thomas Hoby (1561) as edited by Walter Raleigh for David Nutt, Publisher, London, 1900. Online at University of Oregon. Retrieved 21 Feb 2008
^ The Introduction of Printing into England and the Early Work of the Press: The First Book printed in English, from The Cambridge History of English and American Literature, Vol II. (1907) Online at bartleby.com. Retrieved 12 December 2006
^ Adams, Jenny (2006). Power Play: The Literature and Politics of Chess in the Late Middle Ages. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-8122-3944-X.
^ Caxton, William. The Game and Playe of the Chesse. Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 9 December 2006
^ Camina Burana. Bibliotheca Augustana. Retrieved 2 November 2006
^ Franklin, Benjamin. The Morals of Chess. metajedrez.com.ar. Retrieved 2 December 2006
^ National Scholastic Chess Foundation. Retrieved 10 December 2006
^ Ranjan Das: Shatranj Ke Khiladi (1977), analysis at upperstall.com. Retrieved 21 Feb 2008
^ Eamonn O'Neill: Josh WaitzkinsPDF Retrieved 20 December 2007
^ FIDE Laws of Chess, App. E. Retrieved 11 December 2006
^ Learn Chess Notation. Retrieved on 2008-01-07.
^ Howard, Kenneth S (1961). How to Solve Chess Problems. Courier Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-20748-X.
^ Chess in the Olympics. Retrieved 19 December 2006
^ [http://www.usatoday.com/sports/2007-09-30-anand_N.htm India's Anand seizes chess title
^ World Chess Federation. FIDE Handbook: Chess Rules. 1.0. Requirements for the titles designated in 0.31. Retrieved 9 December 2006.
^ Current FIDE lists of top players with their titles are online at fide.com. Retrieved 11 December 2006
^ FIDE Handbook The working of the FIDE Rating System. Retrieved 13 December 2006
^ European Chess Union. Retrieved 11 December 2006
^ FIDE Top 100 Players.
^ Zermelo, Ernst (1913), Uber eine Anwendung der Mengenlehre auf die Theorie des Schachspiels, Proceedings of the Fifth International Congress of Mathematicians 2, 501-4. Cited from Eichhorn, Christoph: Der Beginn der Formalen Spieltheorie: Zermelo (1913), http://www.mathematik.uni-muenchen.de/~spielth/artikel/Zermelo.pdf Retrieved March 23, 2007.
^ Chess. Mathworld.Wolfram.com. Retrieved 5 December 2006.
^ Levitt, Gerald M. (2000). The Turk, chess automaton. McFarland & Company. ISBN 0-7864-0778-6.
^ Shannon, Claude E. XXII. Programming a Computer for Playing Chess. Philosophical Magazine, Ser.7, Vol. 41, No. 314 - March 1950. Available online at computerhistory.orgPDF (175 KiB) Retrieved 6 December 2006.
^ Feng-Hsiung Hsu (2002). Behind Deep Blue: Building the Computer that Defeated the World Chess Champion. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-09065-3. ; Deep Blue — Kasparov Match. research.ibm.com. Retrieved 30 November 2006.
^ Gobet, Fernand, de Voogt, Alex, & Retschitzki, Jean (2004). Moves in mind: The psychology of board games. Psychology Press. ISBN 1-84169-336-7.
^ Holding, Dennis (1985). The psychology of chess skill. Erlbaum. ISBN 978-0-89859-575-8.
^ Saariluoma, Pertti (1995). Chess players' thinking: A cognitive psychological approach. Routledge. ISBN 0415120799-1-DBS.
^ Binet, A. (1894). Psychologie des grands calculateurs et joueurs d'échecs. Paris: Hachette.
^ Working memory in chess, <http://www.dur.ac.uk/c.p.fernyhough/Robbinsetal1996.pdf>
^ De Groot A.D. (1965). Thought and choice in chess (first Dutch edition in 1946). The Hague: Mouton Publishers.
^ Richards J. Heuer, Jr. Psychology of Intelligence Analysis Center for the Study of Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency 1999 (see [Chapter 3]).
^ Ericsson, K. A., Krampe, R. Th., & Tesch-Römer, C. (1993). The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. PDF (1.25 MiB) Psychological Review, 100, 363–406. Retrieved 15 July 2007.
^ Gobet, F. & Chassy, P. (in press). Season of birth and chess expertise. PDF (65.8 KB) Journal of Biosocial Science.
Gobet, F. & Campitelli, G. (2007). The role of domain-specific practice, handedness and starting age in chess.PDF (196 KB) Developmental Psychology, 43, 159–172. Both retrieved 15 July 2007.
^ Pritchard, D. (2000). Popular Chess Variants. Batsford Chess Books. ISBN 0-7134-8578-7.
^ Pritchard, D. (1994). The Encyclopedia of Chess Variants. Games & Puzzles Publications. ISBN 0-9524142-0-1.
^ van Reem, Eeric. The birth of Fischer Random Chess. chessvariants.com, 24 July 2001. Retrieved 30 November 2006.

References

Davidson, Henry A. (1949, 1981). A Short History of Chess. McKay. ISBN 0-679-14550-8.
Harding, Tim (2003). Better Chess for Average Players. Courier Dover Publications. ISBN 0-486-29029-8.
Hooper, David and Whyld, Kenneth (1992). The Oxford Companion to Chess, Second edition. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-866164-9. Reprint: (1996) ISBN 0-19-280049-3
Kasparov, Garry (2003a). My Great Predecessors, part I. Everyman Chess. ISBN 1-85744-330-6.
Kasparov, Garry (2003b). My Great Predecessors, part II. Everyman Chess. ISBN 1-85744-342-X.
Kasparov, Garry (2004a). My Great Predecessors, part III. Everyman Chess. ISBN 1-85744-371-3.
Kasparov, Garry (2004b). My Great Predecessors, part IV. Everyman Chess. ISBN 1-85744-395-0.
Kasparov, Garry (2006). My Great Predecessors, part V. Everyman Chess. ISBN 1-85744-404-3.
Wilkinson, Charles K. (May, 1943). "Chessmen and Chess". The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin New Series, Vol. 1, No. 9: 271–279. doi:10.2307/3257111.