The Everything Chess Basics Book (3 page)

Modern Chess

The game of chess as it exists today emerged in southern Europe toward the end of the fifteenth century. Some of the old Shatranj rules were modified, and new rules were added.

Rule Changes

Toward the end of the fifteenth century, modern chess became more strategic and comprehensive—when pawn promotion upon reaching the eighth and last rank and castling, in which a player could more quickly defend his or her king, was added. The implementation of the “en passant” (in passing) rule permitted pawns to move two squares forward on the first move.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, chess took another huge leap. As the game increased in popularity, chess started to become more refined and more strategic and was modified to reflect that refinement. The purpose was to increase the complexity of the game and also to create a greater opportunity for maneuverability for opponents to explore a wider range of strategic options.

The most notable changes turned the
fers
(counselor), a weak piece in Shatranj, into the queen, which became the most powerful piece. Also, the
alfil
, which moved in two-square steps, was changed to the bishop and enabled to move in a more far-ranging manner.

This “new” game gained popularity all over Europe and by the sixteenth century the best players were recording their games and theories in widely circulated books of chess instruction and notation.

Leading Players

In the eighteenth century, François André Danican Philidor, a Frenchman, was the leading player of his time. In 1749 he published
L’analyse du jeu des Échecs,
or “Analysis of the Game of Chess,” which was one of the most influential theoretical works of its time. Philidor was the first to analyze many of the main strategic elements of chess and to recognize the importance of proper pawn play.

French players continued their dominance of the game long into the nineteenth century. In 1834, Louis Charles de la Bourdonnais played a series of six matches in London against the then-best English player, Alexander McDonnell. Bourdonnais soundly defeated McDonnell—he won forty-five games and lost thirty-two with thirteen draws by all accounts. The games played in these matches were published and analyzed worldwide.

In 1843, English player Howard Staunton decisively defeated the leading French player, Pierre Charles de Saint-Amant. This victory placed Staunton as the nineteenth century’s foremost chess player with a score of eleven wins, six losses, and four draws. Staunton also wrote several theoretical works on chess and commissioned the design for chess pieces. Though there are many variations on chess piece design, the Staunton chess pieces are today’s standard and are widely used by beginners and experienced players alike. The pieces are known as
Staunton Chessmen
. Staunton also organized the first international chess tournament, held in London in 1851. German player Adolf Anderssen won the tournament.

The Fédération Internationale des Échecs

As global presence of chess increased, it became evident that an international chess organization was needed. The Fédération Internationale des Échecs, or FIDE (pronounced FEE-day), was established and since 1924 has been a force for unification and world standards. FIDE maintains a numerical rating system for master players, awards titles, organizes the world championships, and runs a chess Olympiad every other year that brings together teams from dozens of countries.

The first international chess tournament was the London Tourney of 1851, won by Adolf Anderssen of Germany. Anderssen then became known unofficially as the world’s best chess player even though he did not receive an award or title. International tournaments caught on, and they have been mushrooming ever since. Today there is some international tournament—sometimes more than one—taking place every day of the year.

American Chess

The first great American chess player was Paul Morphy. Morphy consistently demonstrated his superiority over his American rivals, and in 1858 traveled to Europe to prove himself against the world’s finest players. Within six months of his arrival, he had won matches by overwhelming scores against several prominent players, including Anderssen. Because of his youth and the extraordinary quality of his games, Morphy was hailed as a genius and was recognized as the best chess player in the world. Sadly, Morphy’s chess career ended upon his return to the United States. He became mentally ill and never again played competitive chess.

The first national open events were played in Kentucky when Paul Morphy, the first great American-born chess player, was still a child. Morphy, of Irish ancestry, lived in the Civil War era. He traveled to Europe in the 1850s, beating all challengers, including Adolf Anderssen. However, the English champion of the time (Howard Staunton) refused to play a match, so Morphy became despondent. It is generally conceded today, and at the time as well, that Morphy would have won such a match convincingly.

Influential Americans

In the early twentieth century, several Americans were influential in the chess world. Harry Nelson Pillsbury, born in Somerville, Massachusetts, in 1872, was one of the best players in the world during his brief career. Frank Marshall of New York City was one of the strongest players in the world and was U.S. champion for decades. Marshall founded the famous Marshall Chess Club in New York City and encouraged many young players.

Kenneth Harkness, who was born in Scotland, invented a numerical rating system for chess players that is essentially still in use today. George Koltanowski, born in Belgium, was a kind of latter-day Johnny Appleseed of the chess world. He traveled the country during the Depression and afterward, running Swiss-system tournaments, teaching chess, and giving blindfold exhibitions. He was a key figure in popularizing chess in the United States.

Oversees Again

In the mid-nineteenth century, the center of chess activity returned to Europe after Morphy’s heyday and produced several outstanding players. Wilhelm Steinitz, Siegbert Tarrasch, Emanuel Lasker, and many others advanced the theory and practice of chess through their games and writing.

Additionally, chess had been very popular in Russia, and after the Russian Revolution in 1917, the Communist government began a program of chess education for children. The government also sponsored many chess events and provided financial support for its best players. Because of the emphasis put on chess by the Communist government and the fact that the habit of extensive chess education and strong chess play is in their blood, players from the former Soviet Union have been able to focus their efforts on winning chess, and thereby have long dominated international chess.

Today, the highest levels of world chess are still dominated by players trained under the Soviet system. However, the dominance of these players is being threatened by a new influence on the game: computers.

Computer Chess

The first computer programs that could play chess emerged in the 1960s. Although the programs played according to the rules, they were easily defeated. However, as computers became more sophisticated, so too did the games they could be programmed to play. This rapid improvement allows today’s computer chess programs to beat today’s top players.

Human Versus Computer

In the 1970s, English international master David Levy made a bet with some computer programmers that no computer could defeat him in a chess match within ten years. He won the bet by defeating the best program they could throw at him and renewed the bet for another ten years. He won again. But then computers started to gain some real playing strength, and Levy wisely quit while he was ahead.

In the 1990s, IBM computer scientists developed a chess computer they named Deep Blue. Deep Blue was able to analyze millions of chess positions every second. In 1996, in a highly publicized match, world chess champion Garry Kasparov defeated the computer four games to two. Kasparov faced an improved version of Deep Blue called “Deeper Blue” the following year in a rematch.

In the event marked as the first-ever serious defeat of a world chess champion by a computer, Kasparov won the first game of the rematch, but drew Deeper Blue in games three, four, and five, and lost to Deeper Blue in games two and six. Kasparov, who it is said is capable of analyzing an amazing three positions per second, couldn’t overcome Deeper Blue’s ability to process 200 million positions per second.

Three positions per second works out to an amazing 180 positions per hour. That’s the amount of positions Kasparov supposedly can process. But it isn’t his speed so much as his ability to accurately assess each position that makes Kasparov, or any human champion, such a formidable foe of a computer that can look at millions of positions per second but cannot assess them very well.

Other Uses for Chess Computers

Playing chess is not the only thing chess computers can do. A computer is a very sophisticated instrument, and there are programs out there that can teach you how to play chess and coach you to play better chess. There are large databases that store millions of chess games and positions. There are CDs that do all of the above.