CHESS | Stabelvollen media

WHAT IS CHESS ?
by Charles Crawford

Chess has the feature of what looks like infinite variety for human purposes, yet it is in principle finite.

The number of possible positions of chess pieces on a chess board can be calculated in different ways, but that number is always large beyond imagination.

In 1950 Claude Shannon argued that it was at least 10120. Back then a chess computer programmed to play a perfect game of chess would be kept busy:

A machine operating at the rate of one variation per micro-second would require over 1090 years to calculate the first move!

That number of possible positions (hereinafter the Shannon Number or SN) is finite. It’s possible to reach the end of a list of them, even allowing for myriad positions that look identical but in chess terms are not identical.

The SN list of possible positions of chess pieces can be organised in different categories that are not mutually exclusive:

Positions that include or can be reached from the original ‘legal’ starting position of the pieces

Positions involving illegal starting positions of the pieces

Positions not permitted by the laws of the game (eg where the two Kings are on adjacent squares, or both Kings are in check)

Positions that in principle cannot be reached from the legal starting position of the pieces, such as this one:

This position is not ‘illegal’ under the laws of chess but it is impossible to reach under those laws: it requires each side to have made 15 pawn captures, and each side has too many pawns on the board for that to have happened.

But even after trillions and trillions of such positions are ignored as not a legal or possible part of ‘chess proper’, far more distinct legal positions remain available.

It is obvious that by simply making the board 9 x 9 squares and introducing a new piece (say a Duke) that combines the range of Rook and Knight as a Queen combines the range of Rook and Bishop, another staggeringly larger yet still finite number of positions would be created.

Thus another reason for finding chess a source of philosophical contemplation: what are its rules and their limits? Where does chess ‘stop’ and something that is not-chess (eg another game) begin? How to tell when one is crossing that border?

Wittgenstein poses a question:

But isn’t chess defined by its rules? And how are these rules present in the mind of the person who is intending to play chess?

It is not straightforward to be completely certain what the ‘rules of chess’ are, and what they cover. The official FIDE Laws of Chess for tournament chess themselves include procedures for an arbiter to decide what happens if a novel situation arises that is not covered by the laws and the agreed tournament code.

Few if any chess-players know every single rule in the latest version of the FIDE Laws of Chess. And to add even more complications, under those Laws even illegal moves may not stay illegal if they are not immediately noticed by the players or arbiter.

John Searle has developed a distinction between ‘regulative’ and constitutive rules:

Examples of the distinction are easy to come by. So, for example, the so-called “rule of the road”, according to which people in the United States drive on the right hand side of the road is a regulative rule. Why? Because the activity of driving exists independently of this rule; the rule regulates an antecedently existing activity.

The rules of chess, on the other hand, do not just regulate, but they constitute the activity they regulate. So, the rule that says the King moves to any adjacent square, one square at a time, looks like a regulative rule, but in fact taken as part of the whole system it is one of the rules that in their totality constitute the game of chess. If you do not follow these rules, or at least a sufficiently large subset of the rules, you are not playing chess.

So, question. How might one identify a ‘sufficiently large subset’ of chess rules to be sure that one is indeed playing chess?

That last idea of ‘constitutive’ rules is important and interesting. The rule creating the chess move called ‘castling’ involving King and Rook moving together in one move in a certain way (the only chess move of its sort) in itself creates ‘castling’. Without the rule there is no such thing. You can’t castle anywhere other than in a chess game, and by that very rule.

So, question. What rules or features of chess might be taken away without the chessness of chess being diminished? Are some rules necessary and sufficient for chess to be played, whereas other rules are (so to speak) marginal or inessential?

One example is the coloured chess-board. The official Laws of Chess, Article 2.1:

The chessboard is composed of an 8 x 8 grid of 64 equal squares alternately light (the ‘white’ squares) and dark (the ‘black’ squares).

The chessboard is placed between the players in such a way that the near corner square to the right of the player is white.

Nothing in the way chess is played turns on these colours. A game would be no different if it were played on a board of 64 squares that were all pale-coloured (although it might be rather harder in practice for players to spot diagonal Bishop moves).

But the number of squares is important. What if the game were played on a board of 10 x 10 but with the same pieces and merely added space for them to use? Or imagine an infinite board! How might that work? Welcome to Infinite Chess.

But … is that still chess? It’s definitely not draughts or tennis or CandyCrush. But is it still chess, or a version of it?

What does the idea of a version of chess mean? Is there a point at which one would have to say that the rules have been changed to such a point that it is no longer any version of chess – its chessness has vanished? Ah. Philosophy. Just like Diplomacy. You always come back to borders.

CHESS IS A DRAW

- If both players play correctly, the game will end in a draw and the universe will be in harmony.

- If at some point the game goes off course - if a mistake is made - then it is up to the player with the advantage to win the game.

If the player with the advantage fails to seize his advantage, then it is possible for his opponent to draw or win.

- In the end, the player who made fewer mistakes wins. Or both players make equally bad mistakes, leading to a draw. Or both players play perfectly,
and it ends in a draw.

- However, perfect play has probably never been achieved, because chess is too complicated to master. In fact, it is so complicated that the best humans can
do is to move with an intuitive sense of purpose, guided but not fully dictated by logic and calculation.

Like in life, which is also very complicated, it is impossible to be perfect. You can only try to minimize your mistakes and find your own personal
sense of style and identity that best suits your play.

- It is about strategy: attacking, counterattacking, defending, and battling for the initiative.

Should I play an aggressive move or play something safe and prophylactic?
Should I respond to my opponent’s threat or counter it with another threat?
At the end of this series of aggressive exchanges, who stands better?
How can I confuse my opponent, throw him off guard, distract him, or overwhelm him?

Developing good strategy takes a lot of time and practice, as well as a good measure of natural ability. But ultimately, that’s what chess is all about: strategy.

- The philosophy of chess is to develop and execute a strategy superior to that of your opponent. In fact, chess is the very definition of strategy, which is why
chess is so often used as an analogy for anything in life that requires critical thinking and development of a calculated plan, whether it be world leaders or
football coaches.

In war, many different people are involved: nations of varying sizes with leaders and soldiers of varying strength. In chess, only two people are involved in
battle, and they both have equal material and equal chances from the start of battle. The only thing that can be blamed for a loss is your own personal tactical
inferiority, which is what makes chess so intensely satisfying or frustrating, depending on which side you fall.

- The philosophy of chess is the philosophy of strategy and war. War between two imperfect minds, each striving to make less mistakes than the other,
to be more perfect than the other. It is about foresight and insight and intuition, about logic and calculation and pursuing perfection, but most of all
about the creation and execution of a plan.

CHESS FUNDAMENTALS

1. The Chess board

The chess board ia a square consisting of 64 smaller squares equal in size and painted black and white.

(or dark and bright colors.)
(See fig.) The board is also in a way a reference system consisting of lines (ranks) and columns,
each of them numbered, the lines from 1 to 8 and the columns from a to h. Thus the squres are named
from a1 (down left corner) to h8 (upper right corner).
Thus the border lines of the chessboard are lines 1 and 8 and the border columns are a and h.
In this way each square on the chessboard has got a unique reference depending on what line (rank) and
column the sqaure is on. For instance the two sqaures in the left figure has the unique references c6 and e4.

2. The Chess board pieces

There are 32 chess board pieces on the board at the start of a Chess game. 16 black and 16 white pieces. Each
of these 16 pieces consists of 8 pawns, originally placed in lines 2 (white pawns) and 7 (black pawns),
and the following 8 pieces originally placed in lines 1 and 8:
White pieces: Two rooks placed on the corner squares a1 and h1. (Mark the color of these squares.)
Two knights placed on the squares b1 and g1. (Mark the color of these squares ...)
Two bishops placed on the squares c1 and f1.
One Qeen placed on the square d1 and one king placed on the square e1.

Black pieces: Two rooks placed on the corner squares a8 and h8. (Mark the color of these squares.)
Two knights placed on the squares b8 and g8. (Mark the color of these squares ...)
Two bishops placed on the squares c8 and f8.
One Qeen placed on the square d8 and one king placed on the square e8.

For many purposes we divide the Chess board into two parts:
The Queen side, consisting of all squares in clumns a - d, and the King side, consisting of all the sqaures in the columns e - h.

3. Legal pawn moves:
The pawns, which in original position are standing in rank 2 and 7, can move either 1 or 2 open squares
vertically se fig.), when in original position, and only one square in any other position.
Pawns cannot move vertically backwards or diagonally or horisontally.
In addition pawns can capture any other piece diagonally from one square to the next.
For instance if a pawns position was at the square e4, then it can capture any other piece on the squares
d5 or f5 (but not on e5).
There is one important exception to this pawn strike rule. It's called the en-passant capture rule.
(En passant is a French expression which means “in passing”):

- The capturing pawn must be on its fifth rank. (Line 5 for white pawns and line 4 for black pawns.)

- The threatened pawn must have moved two squares from its starting square, and be on an adjacent file.

- The capture can only be made on the move immediately after the opposing pawn makes the move,
otherwise, the right to capture en passant is lost.

- If all these conditions have been met, the threatened pawn can be captured, as if the pawn had moved
only one square. https://www.ichess.net/blog/chess-en-passant/

4. Legal rook moves:
The rooks can be moved from the current position to all squares in the open column of the rook position
and to all quares in the open line of the rook position. (See fig.)
For instance if the rook is at the square g4, then it can be moved to all squares in column g and all squares in
line 4 (that is the squares g1, g2, g3, g5, g6, g7, g8 and a4, b4, c4, d4, e4, f4 and h4.)
So the rook is a long distance piece.
The rook will capture any piece on the end square of the move.

5. Legal knight moves:
The knights can be moved to all squares which are either two squares vertically and one square horisontally
or on squares vertically and two squares horisontally from the current position.
For instance if the knight i positioned on the square c6, then it can be moved to the squares a7, b8, d8, e7, e5,
d4, b4 and a5.
As a qonsequence both the white and the black Knight can land on both white squares and on black squares
and all knights can "jump" over other pieces on it's move.
The knight will capture any piece on the end square of the move.

6. Legal bishop moves:
The bishops can be moved to all squares which are on the (possible open) diagonals from the current square.
(See fig.)

Depening on the current square, the bishop can move in 4 different directions, and it's a long distance piece.

The bishop will capture any piece on the end square of the move.

7. Legal queen moves:
The queens is by far the most effective long distance piece on the chess board. It can move on all 4 diagonals
belonging to it's current square and on the vertical column and the horisontal line that contains it's current
square. The queen will capture any piece on the end square of the move.

8. Legal king moves:
The kings can only move to any adjacent square to it's current position. It's a short-distance piece.
The king will capture any piece on the end square of the move.
In addition there are two type of special moves for the king, called short castling and long castling.
Castling is a move involving a player's king and either of the player's original rooks. It is the only move in
chess in which a player moves two pieces in the same move, and it is the only move aside from the knight's
move where a piece can be said to "jump over" another.

Castling consists of moving the king two squares towards a rook on the player's first rank, and then moving
the rook to the square over which the king crossed.
Castling may only be done
- if the king has never moved
- the rook involved has never moved
- the squares between the king and the rook involved are unoccupied

- the king is not in check, and

- the king does not cross over or end on a square attacked by an enemy piece.
Castling is technically a king move.
Castling on the kingside is sometimes called castling short (the rook moves a short distance, i.e. two
squares), while castling on the queenside is called castling long (the rook moves a long distance, i.e. three
squares)

Castling was added to European chess in the 14th or 15th century and did not develop into its present form
until the 17th century.

9. The value of each chess piece.

Obviously, the King is the most important piece on the board, since you lose if it's mated.

However, the rest of the pieces are not easily dispensed cannon fodder.

Based on the math and geometry of a chess board, certain pieces are more valuable than others.

We have to remember these rankings when capturing pieces.

Normally one does not, for example, want to put a high-value Rook at risk just to capture

an opponent's Knight.
The piece values:
Piece Vaue (points)

Pawn 1

Knight 3

Bishop 3

Rook 5

Queen 9

Chess pieces are sometimes referred to as "material."

Having a material advantage going into the endgame can give you much better chances of beating
your opponent.

10. Algebraic chess notation
Naming the pieces

Each piece type (other than pawns) is identified by an uppercase letter.
English-speaking players use the following letters
- K for king,

- Q for queen,
- R for rook,

- B for bishop, and

- N for knight (since K is already used).

In chess literature, especially that intended for an international audience, the language-specific letters are often replaced by universal icons for the pieces,
for example, Nf3 is represented as ♘f3. This style is known as figurine algebraic notation.

Pawns are not identified by uppercase letters, but rather by the absence of one. Distinguishing between pawns is not necessary for recording moves, since
only one pawn can move to a given square. (Pawn captures are an exception and indicated differently as explained below.)

Notation for moves

Each move of a piece is indicated by the piece's uppercase letter, plus the coordinate of the destination square. For example:
- Be5 (move a bishop to e5).

- Nf3 (move a knight to f3).

- For pawn moves, a letter indicating pawn is not used, only the destination square is given.
For example, c5 (move a pawn to c5).

Notation for captures

When a piece makes a capture, an "x" is inserted immediately before the destination square. For example:

- Bxe5 (bishop captures the piece on e5).

- Rxg6 (rook captures the piece on g6)

When a pawn makes a capture, the file from which the pawn departed is used to identify the pawn. For example:
- exd5 (pawn on the e-file captures the piece on d5).

- En passant captures are indicated by specifying the capturing pawn's file of departure, the "x", the destination square (not the square of the
captured pawn), and (optionally) the suffix "e.p." indicating the capture was en passant.For example:
- exd6e.p.

Disambiguating moves

When two (or more) identical pieces can move to the same square, the moving piece is uniquely identified
by specifying the piece's letter, followed by (in descending order of preference):
1. the file of departure (if they differ); or
2. the rank of departure (if the files are the same but the ranks differ); or
3. both the file and rank (if neither alone is sufficient to identify the piece—which occurs only in rare cases where one or more pawns have promoted, resulting in a player having three or more identical pieces able to reach the same square)

For example

- In the diagram, Nd7 would be ambiguous, as either of the knights on b8 and f6 could legally move to d7.
The move of the b8 knight is therefore specified as Nbd7, indicating that it was the knight on the b file which oved. Although they could also be differentiated by their ranks, the file letter takes precedence.
- For the blamk rooks both on the 8th rank, both could potentially move to f8, so the move of the d8 roo
to f8 is disambiguated as Rdf8.
For the white rooks both on the a file which could both move to a3, it is necessary to provide the rank
of the moving piece, i.e., R1a3.

- In the case of the white queen on h4 moving to e1, neither the rank nor file alone are sufficient to disambiguate from the other white queens. As such, this move is written Qh4e1.

As above, an "x" can be inserted to indicate a capture; for example, if the final case were a capture, it would be
written as Qh4xe1. (The piece on e1 was captured by the queen.)

Pawn promotion

When a pawn moves to the last rank and promotes, the piece promoted to is indicated at the end of the move notation, for example:
- e8Q (promoting to queen on e8).

- f8K (promoting to knight on f8)

Castling

Castling is indicated by the special notations 0-0 (for kingside castling / short castling) and 0-0-0 (queenside castling / long castling).

Check

A move that places the opponent's king in check usually has the symbol "+" appended. Alternatively, sometimes a dagger (†) or the abbreviation "ch" is
used.

Double check is commonly indicated the same as check, but is sometimes represented specially as "dbl ch", or in older books as "++".

Checkmate

Checkmate at the completion of moves can be represented by the symbol "# ". (Some use "++" instead.)
The word mate is commonly used instead. Occasionally the double dagger (‡) is seen.

End of game notation

- 1–0 at the completion of moves indicates that White won.
- 0–1 indicates that Black won, and

- ½–½ indicates a draw (remis ... in French).

Often there is no indication regarding how a player won or lost (other than checkmate, see above), so simply 1–0 or 0–1 may be written to show that
one player resigned or lost due to time control. (Similarly, there is more than one way for a game to end in a draw.)
Sometimes direct information is given by the words "White resigns" or "Black resigns", though this is not considered part of the notation but rather a return
to the surrounding narrative text.

Notation for a series of moves

A game or series of moves is generally written in one of two ways.

Position after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6

In two columns, as White/Black pairs, preceded by the move number and a period:

1. e4 e5

2. Nf3 Nc6

3. Bb5 a6

Horizontally:

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6

Moves may be interspersed with commentary (annotations).
When the game score resumes with a Black move, an ellipsis (...) fills the position of the White move,
for example:
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3

White attacks the black e-pawn.

2... Nc6

Black defends and develops simultaneously.

3. Bb5

White plays the Ruy Lopez.

3... a6

Black elects Morphy's Defence.

WINNING A CHESS GAME

1. Checkmate (mate)

Checkmate (often shortened to mate) is a game position in chess in which a player's king is in check (threatened with capture) and there is no way to remove the threat. Checkmating the opponent wins the game.

Hence the overall aim of chess game is to position your pieces so that your opponent's king is checkmate in the next move, or is threatened to be checkmate in a number of moves and your opponent has no way of preventing this from happening.

In chess, the king is never captured - a player loses as soon as his/her king is checkmated.

In formal games, most players resign an inevitably lost game before being checkmated. It is usually considered bad etiquette to continue playing in a completely hopeless position.

Stalemate

If a player is not in check but has no legal move, then it is stalemate, and the game immediately ends in a draw.

A checkmating move is recorded in algebraic notation using the hash symbol "#", for example: 34.Qg7#.

Let's finish this chess fundamentals by looking at a few examples of checkmating in a game.

2. Examples of checkmates

A checkmate may occur in as few as two moves on one side with all of the pieces still on the board (as in Fool's mate, in the opening phase of the game), in a middlegame position (as in the 1956 game called the Game of the Century between Donald Byrne and Bobby Fischer), or after many moves with as few as three pieces in an endgame position.

Ex.1: In the first example, the moves were 1. f3 e5 2. g4 Qh4#. This illustrates that one must be careful in the opening moves. The consequtive
moves f3 and then g4 opens up a short diagonal e1 - h4 which can be reached with black's queen, and the king is trapped between white's own
pieces and is checkmated.

Ex.2: When the current position arrives on the board, the white king is trapped, because the black rook on c2 covers all squares on rank 2 and
the black knight on c3 covers the two squares b1 and d1. So the king has nowwhere to move and is checkmated.

Ex.3: This is a checkmate in the end game. When this position occurs, the white king covers the squares g4, g5 and g6 and the white rook covers all the
squares in the h-column. So, the black king has no sqaures to move to and is checkmated.

There are of course many ways in which a king can be checkmated, and the purpose of the game is to find moves leading to any of the many
checkmate positions

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