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74-547: Joel Lawrence Benjamin (born March 11, 1964) is an American chess player who holds the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM). In 1998, he was voted "Grandmaster of the Year" by the U.S. Chess Federation . Benjamin is a native of Brooklyn , New York City , and grew up in the Marine Park neighborhood, where he attended PS 222. He was in the class for "intellectually gifted children". He is now

148-431: A promoted pawn (と金 tokin ; alternate forms: と, 个) all move the same way as a gold general. The promoted pawn is often called by its Japanese name tokin , even by non-Japanese players. Captured pieces are retained in hand and can be brought back into play under the capturing player's control. The Japanese term for piece(s) in hand is either 持ち駒 mochigoma or 手駒 tegoma. On any turn, instead of moving

222-466: A New Jersey resident, married to Deborah, and they have two children, Aidan and Amy. He graduated from Yale University with a major in history in 1985. He became the youngest-ever U.S. chess master at age 13, a record previously held by Bobby Fischer . This record was broken by Stuart Rachels and is now held by Samuel Sevian . As a junior, he won the National Elementary championship (1976),

296-481: A board composed of rectangles in a grid of 9 ranks (rows, 段 ) by 9 files (columns, 筋 ) yielding an 81-square board. In Japanese they are called Sente 先手 (first player) and Gote 後手 (second player), but in English are conventionally referred to as Black and White, with Black the first player. The board is nearly always rectangular, and the rectangles are undifferentiated by marking or color. Pairs of dots mark

370-408: A dark square. This may be remembered by the phrases "light on the right" and "queen on her own color". In formal competition, the piece colors for every matchup are allocated to players by the organizers. In informal games, colors are decided either by mutual agreement, or randomly, for example by a coin toss, or by one player concealing a white pawn in one hand and a black pawn in the other and having

444-405: A piece is moved, if part of the piece's path lies within the promotion zone (that is, if the piece moves into, out of, or wholly within the zone; but not if it is dropped into the zone – see Drops ), then the player has the option to promote the piece at the end of the turn. Promotion is indicated by turning the piece over after it moves, revealing the character of the promoted piece. Promoting

518-436: A piece is usually not compulsory; however, if a pawn or lance is moved to the furthest rank, or a knight is moved to either of the two furthest ranks, that piece must promote (otherwise, it would have no legal move on subsequent turns). A silver general is never required to promote, and it is often advantageous to keep a silver general unpromoted (it is easier, for example, to extract an unpromoted silver from behind enemy lines:

592-516: A piece on the board, a player may select a piece in hand and place it – unpromoted side up and facing the opposing side – on any empty square. The piece is then one of that player's active pieces on the board and can be moved accordingly. This is called dropping the piece, or simply, a drop . A drop counts as a complete move. A drop cannot capture a piece, nor does dropping within the promotion zone result in immediate promotion. Capture and/or promotion may occur normally, however, on subsequent moves of

666-399: A promoted one, it is common to leave a silver unpromoted at the far side of the board. (See Promotion ). A knight (桂) jumps at an angle intermediate to orthogonal and diagonal, amounting to one square straight forward plus one square diagonally forward, in a single move. Thus the knight has two possible forward destinations. Unlike international chess knights , shogi knights cannot move to

740-494: A promoted silver, with only one line of retreat, can be easily blocked.) Rooks, bishops and pawns are almost always promoted, as these pieces do not lose any of their powers upon promotion. Promoting a piece changes the way it moves. The various pieces promote as follows: When captured, a piece loses its promoted status. Otherwise promotion is permanent. A promoted rook (literally dragon king ( 龍王 ( ryūō ) ); shortended forms: 龍 ( ryū ) and 竜 ( ryū ) ) moves as

814-644: A role it assumed in 1948. The current World Champion is Ding Liren of China. The reigning Women's World Champion is Ju Wenjun from China. Other competitions for individuals include the World Junior Chess Championship , the European Individual Chess Championship , the tournaments for the World Championship qualification cycle , and the various national championships . Invitation-only tournaments regularly attract

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888-464: A rook and as a king. It is commonly referred to as dragon . A promoted bishop (literally dragon horse ( 龍馬 ( ryūma ) ); shortened form 馬 ( uma ) ) moves as a bishop and as a king. It is commonly referred to as horse . A promoted silver (成銀 narigin ; alternate forms: 全, cursive 金), a promoted knight (成桂 narikei ; alternate forms: 圭, 今, cursive 金), a promoted lance (成香 narikyō ; alternate forms: 杏, 仝, cursive 金) and

962-511: A series of games between two players, or a team competition in which each player of one team plays one game against a player of the other team. Chess's international governing body is usually known by its French acronym FIDE (pronounced FEE-day) ( French : Fédération internationale des échecs), or International Chess Federation. FIDE's membership consists of the national chess organizations of over 180 countries; there are also several associate members, including various supra-national organizations,

1036-505: A simple trap known as the Scholar's mate (see animated diagram) can be recorded: Variants of algebraic notation include long algebraic , in which both the departure and destination square are indicated; abbreviated algebraic , in which capture signs, check signs, and ranks of pawn captures may be omitted; and Figurine Algebraic Notation, used in chess publications for universal readability regardless of language. Portable Game Notation (PGN)

1110-437: A sudden sound effect, bringing the piece to the attention of the opponent. This is also true for capturing and dropping pieces. On a traditional shogi-ban , the pitch of the snap is deeper, delivering a subtler effect. A player's promotion zone consists of the furthest one-third of the board – the three ranks occupied by the opponent's pieces at setup. The zone is typically delineated on shogi boards by two inscribed dots. When

1184-476: A wide variety of styles. The Staunton pattern is the most common, and is usually required for competition. Chess pieces are divided into two sets, usually light and dark colored, referred to as white and black , regardless of the actual color or design. The players of the sets are referred to as White and Black , respectively. Each set consists of sixteen pieces: one king , one queen , two rooks , two bishops , two knights , and eight pawns . The game

1258-507: A win. Benjamin tied for first place in the 1986 and 1987 U.S. Masters Chess Championships . He co-authored Unorthodox Openings along with Eric Schiller , for Batsford publishers in 1987, is a frequent contributor to Chess Life magazine and other chess periodicals, and is a regular commentator on the Internet Chess Club , usually presenting its Game of the Week webcast. He was also

1332-644: Is a board game for two players. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to distinguish it from related games such as xiangqi (Chinese chess) and shogi (Japanese chess). Chess is an abstract strategy game that involves no hidden information and no elements of chance . It is played on a chessboard with 64 squares arranged in an 8×8 grid. The players, referred to generically as "White" and "Black" , each control sixteen pieces : one king , one queen , two rooks , two bishops , two knights , and eight pawns . White moves first, followed by Black; then moves alternate. The object of

1406-399: Is a text-based file format for recording chess games, based on short form English algebraic notation with a small amount of markup . PGN files (suffix .pgn) can be processed by most chess software, as well as being easily readable by humans. Until about 1980, the majority of English language chess publications used descriptive notation , in which files are identified by the initial letter of

1480-415: Is compulsory; a player may not skip a turn, even when having to move is detrimental . Each piece has its own way of moving. In the diagrams, crosses mark the squares to which the piece can move if there are no intervening piece(s) of either color (except the knight, which leaps over any intervening pieces). All pieces except the pawn can capture an enemy piece if it is on a square to which they could move if

1554-423: Is controlled using a chess clock that has two displays, one for each player's remaining time. Analog chess clocks have been largely replaced by digital clocks, which allow for time controls with increments . Time controls are also enforced in correspondence chess competitions. A typical time control is 50 days for every 10 moves. Historically, many different notation systems have been used to record chess moves;

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1628-400: Is no difference in the color of the pieces.) For each turn, a player may either move a piece that is currently on the board (and potentially promote it, capture an opposing piece, or both) or else drop a piece that has been previously captured onto a square of the board. These options are explained below. The usual goal of a game is for one player to checkmate the other player's king, winning

1702-399: Is not a permissible response to a check. The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent; this occurs when the opponent's king is in check, and there is no legal way to get it out of check. It is never legal for a player to make a move that puts or leaves the player's own king in check. In casual games, it is common to announce "check" when putting the opponent's king in check, but this

1776-411: Is not required by the rules of chess and is usually not done in tournaments. Once per game, each king can make a move known as castling . Castling consists of moving the king two squares toward a rook of the same color on the same rank, and then placing the rook on the square that the king crossed. Castling is permissible if the following conditions are met: Castling is still permitted if

1850-422: Is played on a square board of eight rows (called ranks ) and eight columns (called files ). Although it does not affect game play, by convention the 64 squares alternate in color and are referred to as light and dark squares. Common colors for wooden chessboards are light and dark brown, while vinyl chessboards are commonly buff and green. To start the game, White's pieces are placed on

1924-484: Is recognized in FIDE-sanctioned events; game scores recorded in a different notation system may not be used as evidence in the event of a dispute. Chess is often played casually in public spaces such as parks and town squares. Contemporary chess is an organized sport with structured international and national leagues, tournaments, and congresses . Thousands of chess tournaments, matches, and festivals are held around

1998-436: Is the current World Champion. A huge body of chess theory has developed since the game's inception. Aspects of art are found in chess composition , and chess in its turn influenced Western culture and the arts , and has connections with other fields such as mathematics , computer science , and psychology . One of the goals of early computer scientists was to create a chess-playing machine . In 1997, Deep Blue became

2072-402: Is traditionally placed so that its bottom-left corner aligns with the bottom-right corner of the board from the perspective of each player. It is not permissible to hide pieces from full view. It is common for players to swap bishops, which oppose each other across the board, early in the game. This leaves each player with a bishop in hand to be dropped later. The ability for drops in shogi gives

2146-492: Is used to decide who moves first. One of the players tosses five pawns. If the number of tokins (promoted pawns, と) facing up is higher than unpromoted pawns (歩), then the player who tossed the pawns plays gote 後手 'white' (that is, getting the second move). After the piece toss furigoma, the game proceeds. If multiple games are played, then players alternate turns for who goes first in subsequent games. (The terms "Black" and "White" are used to differentiate sides although there

2220-526: Is usually calculated as 1 point for each game won and one-half point for each game drawn. Variations such as "football scoring" (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw) may be used by tournament organizers, but ratings are always calculated on the basis of standard scoring. A player's score may be reported as total score out of games played (e.g. 5½/8), points for versus points against (e.g. 5½–2½), or by number of wins, losses and draws (e.g. +4−1=3). The term "match" refers not to an individual game, but to either

2294-797: The Deep Blue chess computer that defeated World Champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. Benjamin appeared in the movies Searching for Bobby Fischer and Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine . Benjamin beat grandmaster Eduard Gufeld in the U.S. Open, Hawaii 1998: Benjamin vs. Gufeld 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Qxd4 a6 5.c4 Nf6 6.Nc3 Nc6 7.Qd2 e6 8.Be2 Be7 9.0-0 0-0 10.b3 Qa5 11.Bb2 Rd8 12.Rfd1 b5 13.cxb5 axb5 14.a3 Bb7 15.b4 Qb6 16.Qe1 Ba6 17.Qf1 Rab8 18.Rac1 d5 19.exd5 exd5 20.Na4 bxa4 21.Bxa6 Ne4 22.Bd3 Bd6 23.Rc2 Bf4 24.g3 Bh6 25.Re2 f5 26.Qh3 Rf8 27.Bb1 Rbe8 28.Ba2 Ne7 29.Ne5 Qb5 30.Rxe4 fxe4 31.Qe6+ Kh8 32.Qxh6 Nf5 33.Ng6+ Kg8 34.Rxd5 1–0 Chess Chess

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2368-817: The International Braille Chess Association (IBCA), International Committee of Chess for the Deaf (ICCD), and the International Physically Disabled Chess Association (IPCA). FIDE is recognized as a sports governing body by the International Olympic Committee , but chess has never been part of the Olympic Games . FIDE's most visible activity is organizing the World Chess Championship ,

2442-474: The 6th century, and the game was likely transmitted to Japan via China or Korea sometime after the Nara period . Shogi in its present form was played as early as the 16th century, while a direct ancestor without the drop rule was recorded from 1210 in a historical document Nichūreki , which is an edited copy of Shōchūreki and Kaichūreki from the late Heian period (c. 1120). Two players face each other across

2516-544: The Japanese names. Each piece has its name written on its surface in the form of two kanji ( Chinese characters used as syllabograms or as logograms to record texts in Old Japanese ), usually in black ink. On the reverse side of each piece, other than the king and gold general, are one or two other characters, in amateur sets often in a different color (usually red); this side is turned face up during play to indicate that

2590-662: The National Junior High championship (1978), and the National High School championship (1980–81). Other successes included the U.S. Junior Championship in 1980. In the same year he earned the International Master title. He won the U.S. Junior Championship again in 1982, and the U.S. Open Chess Championship in 1985. He earned the Grandmaster title in 1986. Benjamin was the U.S. Chess Champion in 1987 (sharing

2664-402: The backs of the pieces that promote to gold generals are cursive variants of 金 'gold', becoming more cursive (more abbreviated) as the value of the original piece decreases. These cursive forms have these equivalents in print: 全 for promoted silver, 今 for promoted knight, 仝 for promoted lance, and 个 for promoted pawn (tokin). Another typographic convention has abbreviated versions of

2738-425: The characters, however, partially because the traditional pieces are already iconic by size, with more powerful pieces being larger. As a result, Westernized pieces have never become popular. Bilingual pieces with both Japanese characters and English captions have been developed as have pieces with animal cartoons. Each player sets up friendly pieces facing forward (toward the opponent). A furigoma 振り駒 'piece toss'

2812-497: The editor-in-chief and founder of the now defunct magazine Chess Chow from 1991 to 1994. His book American Grandmaster: Four Decades of Chess Adventures was a biographical work about his chess career. His latest book is Chessboard Combat: The Give and Take of Chess Tactics. He is also a frequent contributor to Chess Life Online articles on the USCF website. Benjamin was hired as the official grandmaster consultant by IBM to help with

2886-572: The end of the 15th century, with standardization and universal acceptance by the end of the 19th century. Today, chess is one of the world's most popular games, with millions of players worldwide. Organized chess arose in the 19th century. Chess competition today is governed internationally by FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs ; the International Chess Federation). The first universally recognized World Chess Champion , Wilhelm Steinitz , claimed his title in 1886; Ding Liren

2960-404: The end of the game, " 1–0 " means White won, " 0–1 " means Black won, and " ½–½ " indicates a draw. Chess moves can be annotated with punctuation marks and other symbols . For example: " ! " indicates a good move; " !! " an excellent move; " ? " a mistake; " ?? " a blunder; " !? " an interesting move that may not be best; or " ?! " a dubious move not easily refuted. For example, one variation of

3034-448: The enemy pawn's two-square advance; otherwise, the right to do so is forfeited. For example, in the animated diagram, the black pawn advances two squares from g7 to g5, and the white pawn on f5 can take it en passant on g6 (but only immediately after the black pawn's advance). When a pawn advances to its eighth rank , as part of the move, it is promoted and must be exchanged for the player's choice of queen, rook, bishop, or knight of

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3108-664: The first computer to beat a reigning World Champion in a match when it defeated Garry Kasparov . Today's chess engines are significantly stronger than the best human players and have deeply influenced the development of chess theory; however, chess is not a solved game . The rules of chess are published by FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Échecs; "International Chess Federation"), chess's world governing body, in its Handbook . Rules published by national governing bodies , or by unaffiliated chess organizations, commercial publishers, etc., may differ in some details. FIDE's rules were most recently revised in 2023. Chess sets come in

3182-423: The first rank in the following order, from left to right: rook, knight, bishop, queen, king, bishop, knight, rook. Pawns are placed on each square of the second rank. Black's position mirrors White's, with equivalent pieces on every file. The board is oriented so that the right-hand corner nearest each player is a light square; as a result the white queen always starts on a light square, while the black queen starts on

3256-407: The first rank moves to e2"). For pawns, no letter initial is used; so e4 means "pawn moves to the square e4". If the piece makes a capture, "x" is usually inserted before the destination square. Thus Bxf3 means "bishop captures on f3". When a pawn makes a capture, the file from which the pawn departed is used to identify the pawn making the capture, for example, exd5 (pawn on the e-file captures

3330-418: The furthest rank. (See Promotion .) In practice, however, a pawn is usually promoted whenever possible. There are two restrictions on where a pawn may be dropped. (See Drops .) All pieces but the knight move either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. These directions cannot be combined in a single move; one direction must be chosen. Every piece blocks the movement of all other non-jumping pieces through

3404-436: The g-file, 5th rank" (that is, to the square g5). Different initials may be used for other languages. In chess literature, figurine algebraic notation (FAN) is frequently used to aid understanding independent of language. To resolve ambiguities, an additional letter or number is added to indicate the file or rank from which the piece moved (e.g. Ngf3 means "knight from the g-file moves to the square f3"; R1e2 means "rook on

3478-555: The game is to checkmate (threaten with inescapable capture) the enemy king. There are also several ways a game can end in a draw . The recorded history of chess goes back at least to the emergence of a similar game, chaturanga , in seventh-century India . After its introduction in Persia , it spread to the Arab world and then to Europe. The rules of chess as they are known today emerged in Europe at

3552-418: The game tactical richness and complexity. The fact that no piece ever goes entirely out of play accounts for the rarity of draws. When a player's move threatens to capture the opposing king on the next turn, the move is said to give check to the king and the king is said to be in check. If a player's king is in check, that player's responding move must remove the check. Ways to remove a check include moving

3626-414: The game. Most shogi pieces can move only to an adjacent square. A few may move across the board, and one jumps over intervening pieces. The lance, bishop, and rook are ranging pieces: They can move any number of squares along a straight line limited only by intervening pieces and the edge of the board. If an opposing piece intervenes, it may be captured by removing it from the board and replacing it with

3700-427: The king away from the threat, capturing the threatening piece, or placing another interposing piece between the king and the threatening piece. To announce check in Japanese, one can say ōte ( 王手 ), however, this is an influence of international chess and is not required, even as a courtesy. It may be common to announce ōte in beginner matches or for local rules to dictate that you have to announce it. Announcing

3774-455: The moving piece. If a friendly piece intervenes, the moving piece must stop short of that square; if the friendly piece is adjacent, the moving piece may not move in that direction at all. A king (玉/王) moves one square in any direction, orthogonal or diagonal. A rook (飛) moves any number of squares in an orthogonal direction. A bishop (角) moves any number of squares in a diagonal direction. Because they cannot move orthogonally,

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3848-414: The opponent choose. White moves first, after which players alternate turns, moving one piece per turn (except for castling , when two pieces are moved). A piece is moved to either an unoccupied square or one occupied by an opponent's piece, which is captured and removed from play. With the sole exception of en passant , all pieces capture by moving to the square that the opponent's piece occupies. Moving

3922-442: The opponent has enough pieces left to deliver checkmate). The duration of a game ranges from long (or "classical") games, which can take up to seven hours (even longer if adjournments are permitted), to bullet chess (under 3 minutes per player for the entire game). Intermediate between these are rapid chess games, lasting between one and two hours per game, a popular time control in amateur weekend tournaments. Time

3996-468: The original values, with a reduced number of strokes: 圭 for a promoted knight (桂) , 杏 for a promoted lance (香) , and the 全 as above for a promoted silver, but と (a hiragana symbol for the syllable "to") for tokin . The suggestion that the Japanese characters have deterred Western players from learning shogi has led to " Westernized " or "international" pieces which use iconic symbols instead of characters. Most players soon learn to recognize

4070-427: The piece chosen is indicated after the move (for example, e1=Q or e1Q ). Castling is indicated by the special notations 0-0 (or O-O ) for kingside castling and 0-0-0 (or O-O-O ) for queenside castling. A move that places the opponent's king in check usually has the notation " + " added. There are no specific notations for discovered check or double check . Checkmate can be indicated by " # ". At

4144-452: The piece has been promoted. In some cases, the backsides of the King pieces (the narrow side which faces back toward the player during normal play) will display kanji containing additional information about the piece manufacturers. Following is a table of the pieces with their Japanese representations and English equivalents. The abbreviations are used for game notation and often when referring to

4218-443: The piece on d5). Ranks may be omitted if unambiguous, for example, exd (pawn on the e-file captures a piece somewhere on the d-file). A minority of publications use " : " to indicate a capture, and some omit the capture symbol altogether. In its most abbreviated form, exd5 may be rendered simply as ed . An en passant capture may optionally be marked with the notation " e.p. " If a pawn moves to its last rank, achieving promotion,

4292-538: The piece that occupies the first rank at the beginning of the game. In descriptive notation, the common opening move 1.e4 is rendered as "1.P-K4" ("pawn to king four"). Another system is ICCF numeric notation , recognized by the International Correspondence Chess Federation though its use is in decline. In tournament games, players are normally required to keep a score (record of the game). For this purpose, only algebraic notation

4366-416: The piece. Restrictions. There are three restrictions on dropping pieces; the last two of these apply only to pawns. A corollary of the second restriction is that a player with an unpromoted pawn on every file is unable to drop a pawn anywhere. For this reason, it is common to sacrifice a pawn in order to gain flexibility for drops. Captured pieces are typically kept on a wooden stand (駒台 komadai) which

4440-477: The pieces in speech in Japanese. English speakers sometimes refer to promoted bishops as horses and promoted rooks as dragons , after their Japanese names, and generally use the Japanese term tokin for promoted pawns. Silver generals and gold generals are commonly referred to simply as silvers and golds , respectively. The characters inscribed on the reverse sides of the pieces to indicate promotion may be in red ink, and are usually cursive. The characters on

4514-566: The players' promotion zones. Each player has a set of 20 flat wedge-shaped pentagonal pieces of slightly different sizes. Except for the kings, opposing pieces are undifferentiated by marking or color. Pieces face forward by having the pointed side of each piece oriented toward the opponent's side – this shows who controls the piece during play. The pieces from largest (most important) to smallest (least important) are: Several of these names were chosen to correspond to their rough equivalents in international chess, and not as literal translations of

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4588-462: The players' unpromoted bishops can reach only half the squares of the board, unless one is captured and then dropped. A gold general (金) moves one square orthogonally, or one square diagonally forward, giving it six possible destinations. It cannot move diagonally backwards. A silver general (銀) moves one square diagonally, or one square straight forward, giving it five possible destinations. Because an unpromoted silver can retreat more easily than

4662-429: The required piece is not available (e.g. a second queen) an inverted rook is sometimes used as a substitute, but this is not recognized in FIDE-sanctioned games. A game can be won in the following ways: There are several ways a game can end in a draw : In competition, chess games are played with a time control . If a player's time runs out before the game is completed, the game is automatically lost (provided

4736-410: The rook except it cannot move backwards or to the sides. It is often useful to leave a lance unpromoted at the far side of the board. A lance must promote, however, if it reaches the furthest rank. (See Promotion .) A pawn (歩) moves one square straight forward. It cannot retreat. Unlike international chess pawns , shogi pawns capture the same way as they move. A pawn must promote if it arrives at

4810-402: The rook is under attack, or if the rook crosses an attacked square. When a pawn makes a two-step advance from its starting position and there is an opponent's pawn on a square next to the destination square on an adjacent file, then the opponent's pawn can capture it en passant ("in passing"), moving to the square the pawn passed over. This can be done only on the turn immediately following

4884-407: The same color. Usually, the pawn is chosen to be promoted to a queen, but in some cases, another piece is chosen; this is called underpromotion . In the animated diagram , the pawn on c7 can be advanced to the eighth rank and be promoted. There is no restriction on the piece promoted to, so it is possible to have more pieces of the same type than at the start of the game (e.g., two or more queens). If

4958-464: The sides or in a backwards direction. The knight is the only piece that ignores intervening pieces on the way to its destination. It is not blocked from moving if the square in front of it is occupied, but neither can it capture a piece on that square. It is often useful to leave a knight unpromoted at the far side of the board. A knight must promote, however, if it reaches either of the two furthest ranks. (See Promotion .) A lance (香) moves just like

5032-417: The square it occupies. If a piece occupies a legal destination for an opposing piece, it may be captured by removing it from the board and replacing it with the opposing piece. The capturing piece may not continue beyond that square on that turn. Shogi pieces capture the same as they move. Normally, when moving a piece, a player snaps it to the board with the ends of the fingers of the same hand. This makes

5106-415: The square were unoccupied. Pieces are generally not permitted to move through squares occupied by pieces of either color, except for the knight and during castling. When a king is under immediate attack, it is said to be in check . A move in response to a check is legal only if it results in a position where the king is no longer in check. There are three ways to counter a check: Castling

5180-452: The standard system today is short-form algebraic notation . In this system, each square is uniquely identified by a set of coordinates, a – h for the files followed by 1 – 8 for the ranks. The usual format is The pieces are identified by their initials. In English, these are K (king), Q (queen), R (rook), B (bishop), and N (knight; N is used to avoid confusion with king). For example, Qg5 means "queen moves to

5254-772: The title with Nick de Firmian ), in 1997, and in 2000. He won the Saint John Open I in 1988, and the 2000 Canadian Open Chess Championship . In 1999, he placed first at the QVB Chess Festival in Sydney. He was inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame in Miami on May 2, 2008. He is the youngest inductee. Benjamin is known for playing offbeat openings such as the Black Knights' Tango , and for converting very small advantages into

5328-459: The world every year catering to players of all levels. Tournaments with a small number of players may use the round-robin format, in which every player plays one game against every other player. For a large number of players, the Swiss system may be used, in which each player is paired against an opponent who has the same (or as similar as possible) score in each round. In either case, a player's score

5402-699: The world's strongest players. Examples include Spain's Linares event, Monte Carlo's Melody Amber tournament, the Dortmund Sparkassen meeting, Sofia's M-tel Masters , and Wijk aan Zee's Tata Steel tournament. Regular team chess events include the Chess Olympiad and the European Team Chess Championship . The World Chess Solving Championship and World Correspondence Chess Championships include both team and individual events; these are held independently of FIDE. Shogi Shogi

5476-452: Was the earliest historical chess-related game to allow captured pieces to be returned to the board by the capturing player. This drop rule is speculated to have been invented in the 15th century and possibly connected to the practice of 15th-century mercenaries switching loyalties when captured instead of being killed. The earliest predecessor of the game, chaturanga , originated in India in

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