Chess is a recreational and competitive game played between two players.

Sometimes called Western chess or international chess to distinguish it from its

predecessors and other chess variants, the current form of the game emerged in
Southern Europe during the second half of the 15th century after evolving from
similar, much older games of Indian and Persian origin. Today, chess is one of the
world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in
clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.

The game is played on a square chequered chessboard with 64 squares arranged in an

eight-by-eight square. 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. 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 to remove it from attack on the next move.

The tradition of organized competitive chess started in the 16th century and has
developed extensively. Chess today is a recognized sport of the International Olympic
Committee. The first official World Chess Champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, claimed his
title in 1886; Viswanathan Anand is the current World Champion. Theoreticians have
developed extensive chess strategies and tactics since the game's inception. Aspects of
art are found in chess composition.

One of the goals of early computer scientists was to create a chess-playing machine.
Today's chess is deeply influenced by the abilities of current chess programs and the
ability to play against others online. In 1997, Deep Blue became the first computer to
beat the reigning World Champion in a match when it defeated Garry Kasparov.

Rules
Main article: Rules of chess
For a simple demonstration of the gameplay, see sample chess game.

Setup

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Pieces at the start of a game

Initial position: first row: rook, knight, bishop, queen, king, bishop, knight, and rook;
second row: pawns

Chess is played on a square board of eight rows (called ranks and denoted with
numbers 1 to 8) and eight columns (called files and denoted with letters a to h) of
squares. The colors of the sixty-four squares alternate and are referred to as "light
squares" and "dark squares". The chessboard is placed with a light square at the right
hand end of the rank nearest to each player, and the pieces are set out as shown in the
diagram, with each queen on its own color.

The pieces are divided, by convention, into white and black sets. The players are
referred to as "White" and "Black", and each begins the game with sixteen pieces of
the specified color. These consist of one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two
knights and eight pawns. White moves first. The players alternate moving one piece at
a time (with the exception of castling, when two pieces are moved simultaneously).
Pieces are moved to either an unoccupied square, or one occupied by an opponent's
piece, capturing it and removing it from play. With one exception (en passant), all
pieces capture opponent's pieces by moving to the square that the opponent's piece
occupies.

When a king is under immediate attack by one or two of the opponent's pieces, it is
said to be in check. The only permissible responses to a check are to capture the
checking piece, interpose a piece between the checking piece and the king, or move
the king to a square where it is not under attack. Castling is not a permissible response
to a check. A move that would place the moving player's king in check is illegal. The
object of the game is to checkmate the opponent; this occurs when the opponent's king
is in check, and there is no way to remove it from attack.

Moves

Each chess piece has its own style of moving. The X's mark the squares where the
piece can move if no other pieces (including one's own piece) are on the X's between
the piece's initial position and destination. If there is an opponent's piece at the
destination square, then moving piece can capture the opponent's piece. The only

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exception is the pawn which can only capture pieces that are one square diagonally
forward.

Moves of a king

Moves of a rook

Moves of a bishop

Moves of a queen

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 Moves of a knight

Moves of a pawn*

* pawns can only move to the white circles to capture, and cannot capture with their normal move

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Special moves

Castling

Once in every game, each king is allowed to make a special move, known as castling.
Castling consists of moving the king two squares towards a rook, then placing the
rook immediately on the far side of the king. Castling is only permissible if all of the
following conditions hold:[1]

• Neither of the pieces involved in the castling may have been previously moved
during the game;
• There must be no pieces between the king and the rook;
• The king may not currently be in check, nor may the king pass through
squares that are under attack by enemy pieces. As with any move, castling is
illegal if it would place the king in check.
• The king and the rook must be on the same rank (to exclude castling with a
promoted pawn, described later).

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