The Chess Thread

wingpawn

Poland1342 Posts

December 14 2013 18:56 GMT

World Rapid & Blitz Championship, Dubai 2014

Featuring 28 super-grandmasters, among the others:
+ Show Spoiler +

1. Magnus Carlsen 2882
2. Levon Aronian 2815
3. Alexander Grischuk 2792
4. Viswanathan Anand 2785
5. Fabiano Caruana 2783
6. Hikaru Nakamura 2772
7. Sergey Karjakin 2770
8. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2760
9. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2758
10. Peter Svidler 2753
11. Boris Gelfand 2753
12. Nikita Vitiugov 2747
13. Ian Nepomniachtchi 2735
14. Wang Hao 2734
15. Pavel Elljanov 2732
16. Pendyala Harikrishna 2726
17. Etienne Bacrot 2721
18. Alexander Morozevich 2719
19. Radoslaw Wojtaszek 2716
20. Teimour Radjabov 2713
21. Laurent Fressinet 2711
22. Le Quang Liem 2710
23. Alexander Moiseenko 2707
24. Baadur Jobava 2706
25. Arkadij Naiditsch 2705
26. Yuriy Kryvoruchko 2704
27. Vladimir Malakhov 2701
28. Francisco Vallejo Pons 2700

Official Website
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Games Online

I couldn't find a general thread devoted to the most popular strategy game in the world, so I decided to make one myself.

Chess is a wonderful game, stimulating both creativity and organized thinking, requiring imagination as well as good memory and nerves of steel. Other than that, it's a very cheap and accessible sport with quite simple rules, that nonetheless create amazing number of tactical and strategical ideas. Though the computers changed it a little bit, there's still a lot of mystery behind chess, as the possible number of plans and reasonably well played games is astronomical. But above all, this game is fun! With the internet allowing one to find equally skilled opponents within seconds and humans still not really able to calculate like heartless silicons, the future of the game looks far from being as solved as checkers.

+ Show Spoiler [Notable Chess Programs] +

Chessmaster

A decent program to learn the fundamentals of the game and undestand the general strategic and tactical ideas. Features a lot of easy to intermediate excercises by IM Joshua Waitzkin as well as some more advanced lectures by GM Larry Christiansen and game annotations by GM Yasser Seirawan (recomended version: CM 10th - Grandmaster Edition).

Fritz

Made by German company ChessBase, Fritz is a multi-purpose chess engine, featuring both impressive database and strong tools for analysis. For training purposes, it has an option of playing against program that adapts to your playing strength, which usually leads to extremely close and interesting games. (recomended version: Fritz 12 or 13 Version).

Houdini

Written by Belgian computer programist Robert Houdart, Houdini is the strongest chess engine of our times. It was involved in some cheating scandals, when players used it as an illegal assistance tool. Capable of crushing the strongest GMs, it also allows it's owner to flexibly adjust it's strength for less humiliation.

Deep Blue

Not exactly a program, but the whole famous IBM computer developed in 90's. Deep Blue was designed purely for a match play against Garry Kasparov. On February 10, 1996, it became the first machine to win a chess game against a reigning world champion, and year later, it's improved version won the whole six-game match against Kasparov 3.5 - 2.5. After that win, IBM disassembled the computer and never revealed the data about it, raising many questions of program's credibility.

+ Show Spoiler [Recommended Chess Books] +

On August 12 2013 02:18 HystericaLaughter wrote:
Nice thread, but you should include a section on great chess books as well!

BEGINNER LEVEL:

Pandolfini's Ultimate Guide to Chess by Bruce Pandolfini
Understanding Chess Move by Move by John Nunn
Logical Chess Move by Move by Irving Chernev
Winning Chess Tactics by Yasser Seirawan
Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess by Bobby Fischer

INTERMEDIATE LEVEL:

Basic Chess Endings by Reuben Fine
Judgment and Planning in Chess by Dr. Max Euwe
Think Like A Grandmaster by Alexander Kotov
Zurich International Chess Tournament, 1953 by David Bronstein
How to Reassess Your Chess by Jeremy Silman

ADVANCED LEVEL:

Art of Attack in Chess by Vladimir Vukovic
My 60 Memorable Games by Bobby Fischer
My Great Predecessors by Garry Kasparov
Fundamental Chess Endings by Karsten Müller and Frank Lamprecht
Secrets of Chess Training by Mark Dvoretsky

CHESS FICTION:
+ Show Spoiler +

As suggested by 3FFA.

Masters of Technique: Mongoose Press Anthology of Chess Fiction edited by Howard Goldowsky
The Defense by Vladimir Nabokov
Pawn To Infinity by Fred Saberhagen
The Chess Companion by Irving Chernev
The Dragon Variation by Anthony Glyn

+ Show Spoiler [FIDE's 30 Top Rated Players] +

Top 30 FIDE as for June 2014:

1 Carlsen, Magnus NOR 2881
2 Aronian, Levon ARM 2815
3 Grischuk, Alexander RUS 2792
4 Caruana, Fabiano ITA 2791
5 Anand, Viswanathan IND 2785
6 Kramnik, Vladimir RUS 2783
7 Nakamura, Hikaru USA 2775
8 Topalov, Veselin BUL 2772
9 Karjakin, Sergey RUS 2771
10 Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime FRA 2762
11 Dominguez Perez, Leinier CUB 2760
12 Gelfand, Boris ISR 2753
13 Svidler, Peter RUS 2753
14 Giri, Anish NED 2752
15 So, Wesley PHI 2744
16 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar AZE 2743
17 Adams, Michael ENG 2743
18 Vitiugov, Nikita RUS 2742
19 Ivanchuk, Vassily UKR 2738
20 Leko, Peter HUN 2737
21 Jakovenko, Dmitry RUS 2736
22 Morozevich, Alexander RUS 2731
23 Nepomniachtchi, Ian RUS 2730
24 Wang, Hao CHN 2729
25 Harikrishna, P. IND 2726
26 Navara, David CZE 2724
27 Radjabov, Teimour AZE 2724
28 Eljanov, Pavel UKR 2723
29 Ponomariov, Ruslan UKR 2723
30 Andreikin, Dmitry RUS 2722

The earliest predecessor of chess, a game called Chaturanga, probably originated in India, around 600 AD. It later spreaded to Persia, Arabia and eventually, to Southern Europe around 1000 AD.
The new pawn move, where pawns were allowed to advance two squares on its first move instead of one, was first introduced in Spain in 1280.
The current version of castling was established in France in 1620 and England in 1640.
The number of possible ways of playing the first four moves for both sides in a game of chess is 31 897 956 400.
The longest game of chess that is theoretically possible is 5949 moves.
The longest chess game ever was I.Nikolic - Arsovic, Belgrade 1989, which ended in 269 moves. The game was a draw.
Otto Blathy (1860-1939), is credited for creating the longest Chess Problem, mate in 290 moves.
Dr. Emanuel Lasker from Germany retained the World Chess Champion title for more time than any other player ever: 26 years and 337 days.
Sergey Karjakin from Ukraine holds the record of youngest age to become a chess grandmaster, earning the title at 12 years, 7 months and 0 days.
Ehsan Ghaem Maghami from Iran holds the record of biggest simultaneous display after playing on 604 boards for 25 hours from 8th to 9th February 2011 at the sports stadium of the Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran.
Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_world_records_in_chess

http://www.chessbase.com/ - reliable source of chess news from all around the world
http://www.chessgames.com/ - gigantic database of games with online commentaries
http://www.chess.com/ - chess server for casual players; lots of training resources
http://gameknot.com/ - yet another website for playing casual online chess
http://www.chessclub.com/ - The Internet Chess Club aka one more cool site to play chess
http://playchess.com/ - professional chess server for more experienced players
http://www.chessarbiter.com/ - resources for chess arbiters to organize tournament play
http://www.fide.com/ - the official website of World Chess Federation
http://www.uschess.org/ - the official website of United States Chess Federation
http://www.2700chess.com/ - real-time ranking list of top players in the world
http://www.dejascacchi.altervista.org/exercises.htm - tons of tactical puzzles in PDF
http://chesstempo.com/ - another website to practice tactics, endgames, studies etc.
http://www.chessdom.com/ - extensive live broadcasts during major tournaments
http://www.chessinformant.rs/ - al about Chess Informant, famous Serbian chess periodical
http://www.chessquotes.com/ - lots of funny and instructive quotes about chess
http://www.youtube.com/user/PowerPlayChess - GM Daniel King channel on YT with tons of tournament reports

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