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Evans Gambit
The Evans Gambit is a chess opening characterised by the moves: :1. e4 e5 :2. Nf3 Nc6 :3. Bc4 Bc5 :4. b4 The Evans Gambit is an attacking line of the Giuoco Piano. White offers a pawn to divert the black bishop on c5. If Black accepts, White can follow up with c3 and d4, ripping open the , while also opening diagonals to play Ba3 or Qb3 at some point, preventing Black from castling and threatening the f7-pawn, respectively. If Black declines, the b4-pawn stakes out on the queenside, and White can follow up with a4 later in the game, potentially gaining a tempo by threatening to trap Black's . According to Reuben Fine, the Evans Gambit poses a challenge for Black since the usual defences (playing ...d6 and/or returning the gambit pawn) are more difficult to achieve than with other gambits. (Fine was once beaten by this gambit in a against Bobby Fischer, in just 17 moves.) The ''Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings'' has two codes for the Evans Gambit, C51 and C52. Hist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Davies Evans
Captain William Davies Evans (27 January 1790 – 3 August 1872) was a seafarer and inventor best known today for the Evans Gambit, a chess opening. Biography Early life Evans was born at St Dogwells, Pembrokeshire, Wales. He almost certainly went to Haverfordwest Grammar School, the only school in Pembrokeshire at that time. About the beginning of the century the family moved to Castle Pill, an inlet on the north side of Milford Haven, just east of Milford town. Early career Evans served at sea in the navy from 1804, when he was 14, until the Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815. He was then transferred to the postal department. By 1819, he had reached the title of Captain of the sailing packet. Inventions Evans invented tri-coloured lighting on naval vessels to prevent collisions at night. For this invention, the British government awarded him £1500 and a gold chronometer, while the Tsar of Russia gave him £200. Chess player By 1818, he had learned the moves of ches ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mikhail Chigorin
Mikhail Ivanovich Chigorin (also ''Tchigorin''; ; – ) was a Russian chess player. He played two World Championship matches against Wilhelm Steinitz, losing both times. The last great player of the Romantic chess style, he also served as a major source of inspiration for the " Soviet chess school", which dominated the chess world in the middle and latter parts of the 20th century. Chess career Chigorin was born in Gatchina but moved to nearby Saint Petersburg some time later. His father worked in the Okhtensk gunpowder works. Chigorin's parents died young and Chigorin entered the Gatchinsk Orphans' Institute at the age of 10. He became serious about chess uncommonly late in life; his schoolteacher taught him the moves at the age of 16, but he did not take to the game until around 1874, having first finished his studies before commencing a career as a government officer. Once smitten with the game, he terminated his employment and started life as a chess professional. In 1876 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tempo (chess)
In chess and other chess-like games, a tempo (from ) is a "turn" or single move (a half-move or ply made either by White or Black). When a player achieves a desired result in one fewer move, the player is said to "gain a tempo"; conversely, when a player takes one more move than necessary, the player is said to "lose a tempo". Similarly, when a player forces their opponent to make moves not according to their initial plan, one is said to "gain tempo" because the opponent is wasting moves. A move that gains a tempo is often called "a move with tempo". A simple example of losing a tempo may be moving a rook from the h1-square to h5 and from there to h8 in the first diagram; simply moving from h1 to h8 would have achieved the same result with a tempo to spare. However, such maneuvers do not always lose a tempo—the rook on h5 may make some threat which needs to be responded to. In this case, since both players have "lost" a tempo, the net result in terms of time is nil, but the cha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sacrifice (chess)
In chess, a sacrifice is a move that gives up a piece with the objective of gaining tactical or positional compensation in other forms. A sacrifice could also be a deliberate exchange of a chess piece of higher value for an opponent's piece of lower value. Any chess piece except the king may be sacrificed. Because players usually try to hold on to their own pieces, offering a sacrifice can come as an unpleasant surprise to one's opponent, putting them off balance and causing them to waste precious time trying to calculate whether the sacrifice is sound or not, and whether to accept it. Sacrificing one's queen (the most valuable piece), or a string of pieces, adds to the surprise, and such games can be awarded . Types of sacrifice Real versus sham Rudolf Spielmann proposed a division between sham and real sacrifices: * In a ''real sacrifice'', the sacrificing player will often have to play on with less than their opponent for quite some time. * In a ''sham sacrifice'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Initiative (chess)
Initiative in a chess position belongs to the player who can make threats that cannot be ignored, thus putting the opponent in the position of having to spend turns responding to threats rather than creating new threats. A player with the initiative will often seek to maneuver their pieces into more and more advantageous positions as they launch successive attacks. The player who lacks the initiative may seek to regain it through . Discussion Due to moving first, White starts the game with the initiative, but it can be lost in the opening by accepting a gambit. Players can also lose initiative by making unnecessary moves that allow the opponent to gain tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given musical composition, composition, and is often also an indication of the composition ..., such as superfluous "preventive" ( prophylactic) moves intended to guar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nigel Short
Nigel David Short (born 1 June 1965) is an English Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, columnist, coach and commentator who has been the FIDE Director for Chess Development since September 2022. Short earned the title of grandmaster at the age of 19 and was ranked FIDE world rankings, third in the world by FIDE from July 1988 to July 1989. In 1993, he became the first English player to play a World Chess Championship match, when he qualified to play Garry Kasparov in the World Chess Championship 1993, PCA world championship in London, where Kasparov won 12½ to 7½. He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1999 Birthday Honours for services to chess. Early life, family, and education Short was born 1 June 1965 in Leigh, Greater Manchester, Leigh, Lancashire. He is the second of three children (all boys) of David and Jean Short. His father was a journalist and his mother was a school secretary. He grew up in Atherton, Greater Manchester, Ath ... [...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", or "bishop pair", 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Riga
Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planning Region, Riga metropolitan area, which stretches beyond the city limits, is estimated at 847,162 (as of 2025). The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava (river), Daugava river where it meets the Baltic Sea. Riga's territory covers and lies above sea level on a flat and sandy plain. Riga was founded in 1201, and is a former Hanseatic League member. Riga's historical centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, noted for its Art Nouveau/Jugendstil architecture and 19th century wooden architecture. Riga was the European Capital of Culture in 2014, along with Umeå in Sweden. Riga hosted the 2006 Riga summit, 2006 NATO Summit, the Eurovision Song Contest 2003, the 2013 World Women's Curling Championship, and the 2006 IIHF Wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Viswanathan Anand
Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster. Anand is a five-time World Chess Champion, a two-time World Rapid Chess Champion, a two-time Chess World Cup Champion and a World Blitz Chess Cup Champion. He became the first grandmaster from India in 1988, and he has the eighth-highest peak FIDE rating of all time. In 2022, he was the elected Deputy President of FIDE. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential players in the history of the game and has had an important role in popularizing it in India. Anand defeated Alexei Shirov in a six-game match to win the 2000 FIDE World Chess Championship, a title he held until 2002. He became the undisputed world champion in 2007 and defended his title against Vladimir Kramnik in 2008, Veselin Topalov in 2010, and Boris Gelfand in 2012. In 2013, he lost the title to challenger Magnus Carlsen, and he lost a rematch to Carlsen in 2014 after winning the 2014 Candidates Tourn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born Garik Kimovich Weinstein on 13 April 1963) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion (1985–2000), political activist and writer. His peak FIDE chess Elo rating system, rating of 2851, achieved in 1999, was the highest recorded until being surpassed by Magnus Carlsen in 2013. From 1984 until his retirement from regular competitive chess in 2005, Kasparov was ranked the world's No. 1 player for a record 255 months overall. Kasparov also #Other records, holds records for the most consecutive professional tournament victories (15) and Chess Oscars (11). Kasparov became the youngest undisputed world champion in World Chess Championship 1985, 1985 at age 22 by defeating then-champion Anatoly Karpov, a record he held until 2024, when Gukesh Dommaraju won the title at age 18. He defended the title against Karpov three times, in World Chess Championship 1986, 1986, World Chess Championship 1987, 1987 and World Ches ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jan Timman
Jan Timman (born 14 December 1951) is a Dutch chess grandmaster who was one of the world's leading chess players from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. At the peak of his career, he was considered to be the best non-Soviet player and was known as "The Best of the West". He has won the Dutch Chess Championship nine times and has been a Candidate for the World Chess Championship several times. He lost the title match of the 1993 FIDE World Championship against Anatoly Karpov. Early career He is the son of mathematics professor Rein Timman and his wife Anneke, who as a schoolgirl was a mathematics student of former world champion Max Euwe. His older brother, Ton (1946–2014), held the chess title of FIDE Master. Jan Timman was already an outstanding prospect in his early teens, and at Jerusalem 1967 played in the World Junior Championship, aged fifteen, finishing third. Timman received the International Master title in 1971, and in 1974 attained Grandmaster status, making hi ... [...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 chess and in 1967, at 12 years of age, he won the British under-14 Championship. At 14, he was London Under-18 Champion for the 1969–70 season and less than a year later, at just 15 years of age, he proceeded to Oriel College, Oxford, to read Mathematics. At the time, Nunn was Oxford's youngest undergraduate since Cardinal Wolsey in 1520. Graduating in 1973, he went on to gain a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1978 with a thesis on finite H-spaces, supervised by John Hubbuck. In 1978, Nunn spent a year teaching Mathematics at Maidstone Grammar School, before returning to Oxford as a mathematics lecturer until 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
