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Chess Annotation Symbols
When annotating chess games, commentators frequently use widely recognized annotation symbols. Question marks and exclamation points that denote a move as bad or good are ubiquitous in chess literature. Some publications intended for an international audience, such as the ''Chess Informant'', have a wide range of additional symbols that transcend language barriers. The common symbols for evaluating the merits of a move are "??", "?", "?!", "!?", "!", and "!!". The chosen symbol is appended to the text describing the move (e.g. Re7? or Kh1!?); see Algebraic chess notation. Use of these annotation symbols is subjective, as different annotators use the same symbols differently. Moreover, an annotator's use of symbols is often influenced by the player's strength: for example, a positional misjudgment that an annotator might give a "??" if played by a strong grandmaster might pass unremarked if played by a novice. Annotators' use of punctuation may also be influenced by the result ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chess
Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to distinguish it from related games, such as xiangqi (Chinese chess) and shogi (Japanese chess). The recorded history of chess goes back at least to the emergence of a similar game, chaturanga, in seventh-century India. The rules of chess as we know them today emerged in Europe at 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, played by millions of people worldwide. Chess is an abstract strategy game that involves no hidden information and no use of dice or cards. It is played on a chessboard with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. At the start, each player controls sixteen pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bobby Fischer
Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Championships at the age of 14. In 1964, he won with an 11–0 score, the only perfect score in the history of the tournament. Qualifying for the 1972 World Championship, Fischer swept matches with Mark Taimanov and Bent Larsen by 6–0 scores. After another qualifying match against Tigran Petrosian, Fischer won the title match against Boris Spassky of the USSR, in Reykjavík, Iceland. Publicized as a Cold War confrontation between the US and USSR, the match attracted more worldwide interest than any chess championship before or since. In 1975, Fischer refused to defend his title when an agreement could not be reached with FIDE, chess's international governing body, over the match conditions. Consequently, the Soviet challenger Anatoly Karpov was named World Champion by default. Fischer subseq ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Compensation (chess)
In chess, compensation is the typically short-term positional advantages a player gains in exchange for typically disadvantage. Short-term advantages involve initiative and . Forms Compensation can include: *Better pawn structure. *The "two bishops", which refers to having bishops of both colors while your opponent does not. Almost all modern players consider having both bishops as an advantage, although historically there has been great debate as to how much of an advantage they constitute. The two bishops are most likely to show their power in the endgame. *Better piece and/or better (common in gambits). *Having the enemy king exposed to future attack, either due to a loss of pawn cover or being trapped in the center of the board, is often excellent compensation. * Passed pawns are often decisive in the endgame. Connected and/or protected passed pawns are even more deadly. *Control over key squares, , , or . Examples Polugaevsky versus Evans A rook on the seventh ra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pawn Structure
In a game of chess, the pawn structure (sometimes known as the pawn skeleton) is the configuration of pawns on the chessboard. Because pawns are the least mobile of the chess pieces, the pawn structure is relatively static and thus plays a large role in determining the strategic character of the position. General observations Weaknesses in the pawn structure, such as isolated, doubled, or backward pawns and , once created, are usually permanent. Care must therefore be taken to avoid them (but there are exceptions—for instance see ''Boleslavsky hole'' below). In the absence of these structural weaknesses, it is not possible to assess a pawn formation as good or bad—much depends on the position of the pieces. The pawn formation does determine the overall strategies of the players to a large extent, however, even if arising from unrelated openings. Pawn formations symmetrical about a vertical line (such as the ''e5 Chain'' and the ''d5 Chain'') may appear similar, but they te ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chess Problem
A chess problem, also called a chess composition, is a puzzle set by the composer using chess pieces on a chess board, which presents the solver with a particular task. For instance, a position may be given with the instruction that White is to move first, and checkmate Black in two moves against any possible defence. A chess problem fundamentally differs from over-the-board play in that the latter involves a struggle between black and white, whereas the former involves a competition between the composer and the solver. Most positions which occur in a chess problem are 'unrealistic' in the sense that they are very unlikely to occur in over-the-board play. There is a good deal of specialized jargon used in connection with chess problems; see glossary of chess problems for a list. Definition The term "chess problem" is not sharply defined: there is no clear demarcation between chess compositions on the one hand and puzzles or tactical exercises on the other. In practice, however ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between the Baltic and North seas to the north, and the Alps to the south; it covers an area of , with a population of almost 84 million within its 16 constituent states. Germany borders Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, and France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands to the west. The nation's capital and most populous city is Berlin and its financial centre is Frankfurt; the largest urban area is the Ruhr. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity. A region named Germania was documented before AD 100. In 962, the Kingdom of Germany formed the bulk of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Lamprecht
Frank Lamprecht (born 21 June 1968) is a German chess International Master and chess trainer. He is a co-author of ''Fundamental Chess Endings'' (2001) and ''Secrets of Pawn Endings'' (2000), both with Karsten Müller Karsten Müller (born November 23, 1970 in Hamburg, West Germany) is a German chess Grandmaster and author. He earned the Grandmaster title in 1998 and a PhD in mathematics in 2002 at the University of Hamburg. He had placed third in the 1996 Ger .... He has been a chess trainer since 1983. He gained the title of International Master in 1999. He has played in the Oberliga Nord for the Hamburg club King Knight SC since the 1984-85 season. Lamprecht is known for his books on chess endgames, which he wrote together with Hamburg's Bundesliga player and Grandmaster Karsten Müller. Their book Fundamental Chess Endings won the Book of the Year award of the British Chess Federation. Work *Karsten Müller and Frank Lamprecht: ''Secrets of Pawn Endings''. Everyman Chess ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karsten Müller
Karsten Müller (born November 23, 1970 in Hamburg, West Germany) is a German chess Grandmaster and author. He earned the Grandmaster title in 1998 and a PhD in mathematics in 2002 at the University of Hamburg. He had placed third in the 1996 German championship and second in the 1997 German championship.''Fundamental Chess Endings'', back cover. He has written about endgames, including in ''Fundamental Chess Endings'' ( Gambit Publications, 2001) and ''Secrets of Pawn Endings'' ( Everyman Chess, 2000), both with Frank Lamprecht. He also wrote ''How to Play Chess Endgames'', with Wolfgang Pajeken (Gambit, 2008) and ''Magic of Chess Tactics'' (Russell Enterprises 2003) with FIDE Master Claus Dieter Meyer. His column "Endgame Corner" has appeared at ChessCafe.com since January 2001 and he has been a regular contributor to ChessBase Magazine since 1997. He also contributed material to some of the early issues of the online daily chess newspaper Chess Today. The seventh chapter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Draw (chess)
In chess, there are a number of ways that a game can end in a draw, neither player winning. Draws are codified by various rules of chess including stalemate (when the player to move is not in check but has no legal move), threefold repetition (when the same position occurs three times with the same player to move), and the fifty-move rule (when the last fifty successive moves made by both players contain no or pawn move). Under the standard FIDE rules, a draw also occurs in a dead position (when no sequence of legal moves can lead to checkmate), most commonly when neither player has sufficient to checkmate the opponent. Unless specific tournament rules forbid it, players may agree to a draw at any time. Ethical considerations may make a draw uncustomary in situations where at least one player has a reasonable chance of winning. For example, a draw could be called after a move or two, but this would likely be thought unsporting. In the 19th century, some tournaments, notab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Nunn
John Denis Martin Nunn (born 25 April 1955) is an English chess grandmaster, a three-time world champion in chess problem solving, a chess writer and publisher, and a mathematician. He is one of England's strongest chess players and was formerly in the world's top ten. Education and early life Nunn was born in London. As a junior, he showed a prodigious talent for the game and in 1967, at twelve years of age, he won the British under-14 Championship. At fourteen, he was London Under-18 Champion for the 1969–70 season and less than a year later, at just fifteen years of age, he proceeded to Oriel College, Oxford, to study mathematics. At the time, Nunn was Oxford's youngest undergraduate since Cardinal Wolsey in 1520. Graduating in 1973, he went on to gain his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1978 with a thesis on finite H-spaces supervised by John Hubbuck. Nunn remained in Oxford as a mathematics lecturer until 1981, when he became a professional chess player. Career In 1975 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Hübner
Robert Hübner (born November 6, 1948) is a German chess grandmaster, chess writer, and papyrologist. He was one of the world's leading players in the 1970s and early 1980s. Chess career At eighteen, he was joint winner of the West German Chess Championship. In 1965 he won, together with Hans Ree, the Niemeyer tournament for European players under 20. His International Master (IM) title was awarded in 1969 and his Grandmaster (GM) title in 1971. He reached third place in the FIDE world ranking list in 1980. Between 1971 and 1991 (loss to Jan Timman), Hübner played in four Candidates Tournaments for the World Championship. Three ended in controversial circumstances: * In 1971, he forfeited a closely contested quarter final to Tigran Petrosian, after blundering a piece in the 7th game in a drawn position. * In 1980–81, his best result, after winning the quarter and semi final (against the Hungarian players Adorjan and Portisch), he reached the final before losing to Vik ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Simon Webb (chess Player)
Simon Webb (10 June 1949 – 14 March 2005) was a British chess player and writer who held the chess titles of International Master and Correspondence Chess Grandmaster. Born in London, he was joint British under-18 champion in 1966, and fourth in the European Junior Championship in 1969. Webb was briefly a professional player in the late 1970s, participated in a number of strong tournaments, and met some strong players, including a 17-year-old Garry Kasparov at the 1980 European Team Championship (Webb lost). At one event, he was assigned a lady translator. Webb married her and took her to England. He was joint second in the 1975 British Championship behind William Hartston. Perhaps his best tournament result was joint first with Liuben Spassov at Hamburg 1977, ahead of István Csom and Milan Matulović. He was famous for his ability to save or even win from hopelessly lost positions, which earned him the nickname "Houdini". He became an International Master in 1977. Hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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