The players of the sets are referred to as White and Black, respectively. the light set may be a yellowish or off-white color, the dark set may be brown or red), they are always referred to as 'white' and 'black'.

While the sets may not be literally white and black (e.g.

5.6 1990–Present: The rise of computers and online chessĬhess pieces are divided into two different colored sets.

Today's chess engines are significantly stronger than the best human players, and have deeply influenced the development of chess theory. In 1997, Deep Blue became the first computer to beat the reigning World Champion in a match when it defeated Garry Kasparov. One of the goals of early computer scientists was to create a chess-playing machine. Aspects of art are found in chess composition and chess in its turn influenced Western culture and art and has connections with other fields such as mathematics, computer science, and psychology. A huge body of chess theory has developed since the game's inception. The first universally recognized World Chess Champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, claimed his title in 1886 Magnus Carlsen is the current World Champion. Chess competition today is governed internationally by FIDE (International Chess Federation). Organized chess arose in the 19th century. There are also several ways a game can end in a draw. The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent's king, whereby the king is under immediate attack (in ' check') and there is no way for it to escape. At the start, each player (one controlling the white pieces, the other controlling the black pieces) controls sixteen pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns.

It is played on a square chessboard with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. Today, chess is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide.Ĭhess is an abstract strategy game and involves no hidden information. The current form of the game emerged in Southern Europe during the second half of the 15th century after evolving from a similar, much older game of Indian origin. It is sometimes called Western chess, or International chess to distinguish it from related games such as xiangqi. 15th century to present (predecessors circa 900 years earlier)Ĭasual games usually last 10 to 60 minutes tournament games last anywhere from about 10 minutes ( fast chess) to 6 hours or more.Ĭhess is a board game played between two players.

Left to right: white king, black rook, black queen, white pawn, black knight, white bishopĬ.

How to play chess