Chess is an abstract strategy board game for two players. It is played on a square board of eight rows (known as ranks) and eight columns (known as files), giving sixty-four squares of alternating color. Each player begins the game with sixteen pieces, each of which moves in a prescribed manner; each player's pieces comprise eight pawns, two knights, two bishops, two rooks, one queen and one king. All pieces can remove opponent's pieces by landing on the space they occupy. Pieces are progressively eliminated as the game proceeds, and the ultimate object of the game is to deliver checkmate to the opponent, i.e., to prevent his or her king from moving to escape capture.
Chess is one of the world's most popular games; it has been described not only as a game but also as an art and a science. Chess is sometimes seen as an abstract wargame; as a mental martial art, such that teaching chess has been advocated as a way of enhancing mental prowess. Chess is played both recreationally and competitively in clubs, tournaments, online, and by mail (correspondence chess).
Many variants and relatives of chess are played throughout the world. Chess is thought to have evolved from the Indian chaturanga and later to have developed into Chinese xiangqi, Japanese shogi, Korean janggi, and Thai makruk; in view of its many relatives, chess in Asia is often referred to as Western or international chess.
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The Turk or Automaton Chess Player was a chess-playing machine of the late 18th century, exhibited from 1770 for over 84 years, by various owners, as an automaton but later explained in January 1857 as an elaborate hoax. Constructed and unveiled in 1770 by Wolfgang von Kempelen (1734–1804) to impress the Empress Maria Theresa, the mechanism appeared to be able to play a strong game of chess against a human opponent, as well as perform the knight's tour, a puzzle that requires the player to move a knight to occupy every square of a chessboard once and only once.
Publicly promoted as an automaton and given its common name based on its appearance, the Turk was in fact a mechanical illusion that allowed a human chess master hiding inside to operate the machine. With a skilled operator, the Turk won most of the games played during its demonstrations around Europe and the Americas for nearly 84 years until its destruction by fire in 1854, playing and defeating many challengers including statesmen such as Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin. Although many had suspected the hidden human operator, the hoax was formally revealed in a series of articles in The Chess Monthly in 1857.
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The articles listed in A-class are also recognised as Good articles.
- ...that pion coiffé is a form of chess handicap in which the stronger player is required to give checkmate with a particular pawn designated prior to the start of play, typically with the condition that the pawn not be promoted, thought by Sicilian author Pietro Carrera to disadvantage a player in a similar fashion to queen odds, in which the stronger player, given the white pieces, plays without his queen?
- ...that Georgians Nona Gaprindashvili, the first female player to earn the International Grandmaster title, and Maia Chiburdanidze, were, respectively, the sixth and seventh women's world champions, having collectively held the title from 1962 to 1991 and having combined to defend their titles against three countrymates—Nana Alexandria, Elena Akhmilovskaya, and Nana Ioseliani?
- ...that Belgian George Koltanowski (né Colton) played, in 1937 in Edinburgh, Scotland, 34 simultaneous games whilst blindfolded, setting a world record still recognized by Guinness World Records?
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