This short chapter, in dealing with peripherals, ignores the title and the intention of the book.
A background of general information is desirable in any game however, and this is sufficient excuse for its inclusion.
The first and paramount rule to remember in match play is that a chess piece once touched must be moved; and that once a piece is played (the move is completed on letting go of the piece), the move stands.
It is a very good idea to keep to this rule in friendly games; there is little more annoying than the player who dithers when making a move. Decide on your move, execute it incisively, withdraw your hand.
If an opposing chess piece is touched, the rule is that it must be captured if this is legitimately possible. If it is desired to centralize a man that has become misplaced, this can be done by saying j’adoube (French: “I dub”) before touching the piece in question, and then only when it is your turn to move.
Matches and tournaments are decided on points – usually one point for a win, half a point for a draw.
In match play a time limit is normally imposed on the number of moves each player shall make in a prescribed period. Twenty to twenty-four moves an hour is usual, and if this time, which is allowed to each player (who is also permitted to think in the opponent’s time) is exceeded, the player overstepping the time limit is ruled to have lost the game.
A chess clock is used to record the time taken by each player. In most competitions you will encounter analogue clocks but digital clocks are increasingly used in some events.
An analogue clock consists of two ordinary clocks side by side connected by a lever which, when depressed, stops the clock on the one side and restarts it on the other; hence the two clocks never run simultaneously.
When you have made your move, you press the lever thereby stopping your clock and setting your opponent’s in motion. Should you omit to do this, your opponent will be thinking “free of charge”.
Analogue clocks have two small strips of metal, known as flags, fixed to the dials. They are so positioned that when the minute hand approaches the hour, it will push the flag up, releasing it exactly as the hour is passed, thereby eliminating any dispute as to whether or not the time limit had been exceeded.
Digital clocks work on the same principle: they consist of two connected digital displays which show the amount of time left to each player. These devices offer alternative settings such as the increasingly popular Fischer timings, in which players receive a time increment every move.
Increasingly, time limits are set so that games are completed in one session, but many evening chess leagues still have time limits which allow the games not to be completed within the allocated time. In this case, one of two courses is normally adopted:
1. If the result cannot be agreed on the spot by the players or their captains, the game position is sent to an expert for a decision. Adjudications of this nature are still sometimes used in team matches.
2. The game may be adjourned, the players resuming when convenient. The procedure at adjournment is for the player whose move it is to write it down without making it on the board and without disclosing it. The clocks are then stopped and the game position, together with the clock times and the sealed move (often all on the one piece of paper) are put in an envelope. The envelope is sealed and the player who made the sealed move signs across the flap. The envelope is then given to the second player to retain until the game is restarted. An illegal sealed move forfeits the game.
Players are permitted to analyse adjourned games, which they frequently do using computer software. For this reason, adjournments are gradually becoming obsolete.
It is not permitted in any way to disturb or distract a player during a game. In practice, this rule may prove difficult to interpret but it can be said that the player who is distracted is the best judge of what constitutes a distraction.
A player who resigns a game should obviously do so gracefully. Poor sportsmanship is unfortunately to be found in chess as it is in other games; one famous player wryly remarked that he had never won a game off a fit opponent!
Spectators should never pass audible comment on any match game in progress and nor should they interfere in any such game even if a breach of the rules has been committed.
Chess clubs usually meet one or two evenings a week and, apart from affording the opportunity for friendly games, offer various activities such as tournaments, matches against other clubs, etc. Most chess clubs are affiliated to their respective County Associations which in turn are affiliated to one or other of the regional Unions. These Unions, together with a few other independent bodies, send delegates to the English Chess Federation which is responsible for organized chess on a national basis.
A pleasing feature of chess life is that the traveller or holidaymaker is likely to find a welcome at the local club whether at home or abroad.
A feature of chess since the 1970s has been the rise in popularity of the congress. A chess congress is an open tournament (usually a number of tournaments) covering anything from a day to a fortnight. Longer congresses are sometimes arranged at resorts so that the competitor combines chess with a holiday. In congresses of this nature one game is played each day, but in one-day and weekend events a fast time limit, or a time limit per game, is usual.
In recent years, the chess computer has become a popular opponent. Technical development in this field has been dramatic, and software programs are now readily available that can defeat even the strongest grandmasters. A chess computer is an always-ready opponent, capable of playing at a number of different speeds and levels, and usually offering a range of other facilities including advice on the best move, retracting moves, repeating games and solving problems. All computers have built-in opening repertoires. If no human guidance is at hand, a chess computer or software program, preferably the most advanced you can afford, is a recommended purchase.
Thousands of books have been written about chess, covering the game in all its aspects. Most public libraries offer a fair selection, but average players will wish to have for their own use at least one book on the openings and one on the end game. These two books will be used mainly for reference and are essential for anyone who aspires to match or tournament play.
Two leading periodicals published in the UK are CHESS and the British Chess Magazine. There are a number of other publications as well as scores of newspaper columns devoted to the game.
It is invidious to attempt this subject in a few paragraphs, but some players are so widely known, if only by name, even among non-players, that these at least deserve a mention.
Capablanca and Alekhine were two former world champions (and great rivals), but it was Steinitz, an earlier champion, who probably contributed most to chess theory.
Except for the brief reign of the American, Bobby Fischer, the modern era has been dominated by players from the former Soviet Union, notably Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov. In the twenty-first century top-level chess is becoming more international, with India and China the new chess powers. The World Champion at the time of writing, Vishy Anand, is Indian.
Simultaneous displays are a feature of many clubs’ activities. A master opposes a number of players (usually around twenty) at the same time.
Each player sits at a board. The master circulates and plays a move on every board. Players withhold their replies until the master returns to their table.
Time is heavily on the side of the challengers to begin with but this advantage is gradually reduced as the number of unfinished games diminishes.
Many strong players are able to conduct one or more games without sight of the board. Moves are announced, and the blindfold player may or may not be literally blindfolded. The world record is over forty games played simultaneously in this fashion – an incredible achievement.
Playing chess by post or email is popular among those who have time to spare or who are inhibited by domicile or infirmity from taking part in over-the-board activities. A correspondence game may last a few months or a few years and is a good way of improving one’s powers of analysis.
There are many correspondence chess organizations, both national and international, and a player may of course participate in several matches and tournaments at the same time.
Chess puzzles which the reader is invited to solve are often published in the press. There are three main types: the game position, the endgame study and the problem. The game position is from actual play and the reader has to find the correct continuation. The endgame study is contrived, but is a position, usually a plausible game position, in which the solver is invited to demonstrate either a win or a draw. The problem is another animal: it is artificial in appearance and in its most common form requires the reader to give checkmate with White in a specific number of moves. The chess problem is an art form, designed to puzzle and entertain, not to improve one’s play.
Fairy chess covers in a general sense everything which is related to but deviates from the normal game. In this sense, the games mentioned in the following section are Fairy chess. The term, however, is more commonly applied to problems. The artistic expression of the orthodox composer is severally constrained by the confines of the chessboard, the limitations of the regular chess pieces and the rules of play.
In Fairy chess, the composer makes his own conditions. These may include the use of a different board, different pieces and different rules – sometimes all three in the same problem. Some wonderful work has been done in this field.
There are many digressive games possible with the normal chess pieces.
Kriegspiel, Losing Game, Progressive Chess, Rifle Chess, Alice Chess – these are but a few. They are occasionally played in clubs and there is a specialist magazine, Variant Chess, published by the British Chess Variants Society.
For taking down a position, the Forsyth notation is unexcelled. Facing the board from White’s side, squares and pieces are enumerated, starting at the top left-hand corner (a8) and working from left to right, rank by rank. White pieces are given in capitals, black in small letters.
The position in Diagram 9 (page 29) would thus be recorded: r3k2r/ (black rook, three squares, black king, two squares, black rook) pp5p/ (black pawn, black pawn, five squares, black pawn) 1P1Bn1p1/ (one square, white pawn, one square, white bishop, black knight, one square, black pawn, one square) 2pP4/1R6/1n3P2/P2p1KPP/1R3B2.
The principal feature of the descriptive notation is that moves are recorded from the side of the player making them, so that each square has two descriptions, one for White, the other for Black.
The board is divided into files and ranks. Each file is named after the pieces (one on each side) that occupy it in the initial position. Thus the a-file is known as the queen’s rook’s (QR) file and the g-file as the king’s knight’s (KN) file. Ranks are numbered progressively 1–8 from the player. In the starting position, each player’s king stands on K1. Moves are recorded in the same way as in the short algebraic notation except that a dash is usually inserted between the initial of the piece to be moved and the square to which it moves; also a pawn is always designated by its initial. For example, the opening moves 1. e4 e5 would be recorded in descriptive as 1. P–K4, P–K4.
Symbols are generally the same in the two systems, and ambiguities are resolved in a similar way. When capturing however, it is the piece captured that is designated, not the square on which it stands. In diagram 100 the white move R4xb3 would be written by both White and Black as R(4)xN. The descriptive equivalent of white move axb3 would be RPxN or PxN(N3); PxN would not do, because it would not be clear which knight was captured. Where confusion cannot arise, the move can be abbreviated. The white move Bg3 is described simply as B–N3 – it is not necessary to say which bishop or which N3 square because only one is possible in each case.
The system is more cumbersome than the algebraic but has the merit of being linked to the starting position whereas the algebraic is abstract.
The Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) is the recognized world body responsible inter alia for the World Championship and Chess Olympiad arrangements. FIDE has ruled that the algebraic notation must be used in all official events. Nearly all countries where chess is organized are members of FIDE.
Grandmaster, International Master and FIDE Master titles for both men and women are conferred by FIDE from time to time on players whose performance in international events reached the required standard. Titles below this level (e.g. National Master, Candidate Master) are awarded by national chess authorities and vary from country to country. Only very strong players ever achieve recognition in this way.
Most countries grade players who compete regularly in approved tournaments and matches.
A player’s rating, or grading as it is called in England, is derived from the aggregate of results over a period, the strength of the opponents being taken into account.
Gradings are used to determine qualification for national titles and, more widely, to assist in selection of players for matches and tournaments. They are also an incentive to the individual.
There are international codes for use in correspondence, radio, cable and telephone matches. Two letters or figures denote each square on the board, and a move is transmitted as a four-symbol group, the first two symbols indicating the square on which the piece to be moved stands, the second two symbols the square to which it is to be moved. Checks and captures are not annotated.