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Chess Information
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Australian Chess Federation
The Australian Chess Federation (ACF) is the authorized body to promote the game of chess in Australia. It represents Australia internationally and is a member of FIDE, the World Chess Federation. Australia’s seven (7) state and territory chess associations constitute the members of the federation. Notable member associations include Chess Victoria and The Chess Association of Western Australia (CAWA). |
| Introduction
Chess is a two-player strategy board game played on a chessboard, a checkered gameboard with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world’s most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide in homes, parks, clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.
Each player begins the game with 16 pieces. Each of the six piece types moves differently. Pieces are used to attack and capture the opponent’s pieces, with the objective to ‘checkmate’ the opponent’s king by placing it under an inescapable threat of capture. In addition to checkmate, the game can be won by the voluntary resignation of the opponent, which typically occurs when too much material is lost, or if checkmate appears unavoidable. A game may also result in a draw in several ways, where neither player wins.
History of the Game
Chess has an elaborate history of evolving to the form of game we know it today. The origins of chess can be traced in earlier chess-like games played in India almost two thousand years ago. The earliest evidence of chess is found in the neighboring Persia around 600, where the game came to be known by the name chatrang. Chatrang was taken up by the Muslim world after the Arab conquest of Persia (633–44), where it was then named shatranj. The game of chess we know today has been around since the 15th century Europe where it became popular through Arab and North-African Moor traders. The rules of shatranj started to be modified in southern Europe, and around 1475, several major changes made the game essentially as it is known today.
In the 18th century, the center of European chess life moved from the Southern European countries to France. Centers of chess activity in this period were coffee houses in big European cities like Café de la Régence in Paris and Simpson’s Divan in London. As the 19th century progressed, chess organization developed quickly. Many chess clubs, chess books, and chess journals appeared. There were correspondence matches between cities. The first modern chess tournament was organized by Howard Staunton, a leading English chess player, and was held in London in 1851. It was won by German Adolf Anderssen, who was hailed as the leading chess master.
The World Chess Federation (FIDE) was founded in 1924 in Paris. They started awarding elite players the title Grandmaster. In 1927, the Women’s World Chess Championship was established. Notable Cuban player José Raúl Capablanca, ended the German-speaking dominance in chess. His successor was Russian-French Alexander Alekhine, a strong player who died as the World champion in 1946. After the death of Alekhine, FIDE ran a tournament of elite players in 1948. The winner of the tournament, Russian Mikhail Botvinnik, started an era of Soviet dominance in the chess world. Until the end of the Soviet Union, there was only one non-Soviet champion, American Bobby Fischer (champion 1972–75). In 1975, however, Fischer refused to defend his title against Soviet Anatoly Karpov and Karpov obtained the title by default. Karpov defended his title twice and dominated the 1970s and early 1980s with a string of tournament successes.
Karpov’s reign finally ended in 1985 at the hands of Garry Kasparov, another Soviet player. Kasparov and Karpov contested five world title matches between 1984 and 1990; Karpov never won his title back. In 1993, Garry Kasparov and another player Nigel Short broke with FIDE and formed a competing Professional Chess Association (PCA). The World Chess Championship 2006, in which PCA World Champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia beat the FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov, reunified the titles and made Kramnik the undisputed World Chess Champion. In September 2007, he lost the title to Viswanathan Anand of India. Magnus Carlsen of Norway beat Anand in the 2013 World Chess Championship and is reigning champion.
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Basics of Playing Chess
The Goal of Chess
Chess is a game played between two opponents on opposite sides of a board containing 64 squares of alternating colors. Each player has 16 pieces: 1 king, 1 queen, 2 rooks, 2 bishops, 2 knights, and 8 pawns. The goal of the game is to checkmate the other king. Checkmate happens when the king is in a position to be captured (in check) and cannot escape from capture.
Starting a Game
At the beginning of the game the chessboard is laid out so that each player has the white (or light) color square in the bottom right-hand side. The chess pieces are then arranged the same way each time. The second row (or rank) is filled with pawns. The rooks go in the corners, then the knights next to them, followed by the bishops, and finally the queen, who always goes on her own matching color (white queen on white, black queen on black), and the king on the remaining square. The player with the white pieces always moves first, followed by black.
How the Pieces Move
Each of the 6 different kinds of pieces moves differently. Pieces cannot move through other pieces, and can never move onto a square with one of their own pieces. However, they can be moved to take the place of an opponent’s piece which is then captured.
The King
The king is the most important piece, but is one of the weakest. The king can only move one square in any direction – up, down, to the sides, and diagonally.
The Queen
The queen is the most powerful piece. She can move in any one straight direction – forward, backward, sideways, or diagonally – as far as possible as long as she does not move through any of her own pieces. And, like with all pieces, if the queen captures an opponent’s piece her move is over.
The Rook
The rook may move as far as it wants, but only forward, backward, and to the sides. The rooks are particularly powerful pieces when they are protecting each other and working together.
The Bishop
The bishop may move as far as it wants, but only diagonally. Each bishop starts on one color (light or dark) and must always stay on that color. Bishops work well together because they cover up each other’s weaknesses.
The Knight
Knights move in a very different way from the other pieces – going two squares in one direction, and then one more move at a 90 degree angle, just like the shape of an “L”. Knights are also the only pieces that can move over other pieces.
The Pawn
Pawns are unusual because they move and capture in different ways: they move forward, but capture diagonally. Pawns can only move forward one square at a time, except for their very first move where they can move forward two squares. Pawns can only capture one square diagonally in front of them. They can never move or capture backwards. If there is another piece directly in front of a pawn he cannot move past or capture that piece.
Promotion
Pawns have another special ability and that is that if a pawn reaches the other side of the board it can become any other chess piece (called promotion). A pawn may be promoted to any piece. A pawn is usually promoted to a queen. Only pawns may be promoted.
En Passant
“En Passant,” is French for “in passing”. If a pawn moves out two squares on its first move, and by doing so lands to the side of an opponent’s pawn (effectively jumping past the other pawn’s ability to capture it), that other pawn has the option of capturing the first pawn as it passes by.
Castling
This move allows doing two important things all in one move: get the king to safety, and get the rook out of the corner and into the game. On a player’s turn he may move his king two squares over to one side and then move the rook from that side’s corner to right next to the king on the opposite side.
Check & Checkmate
The purpose of this game is to checkmate the opponent’s king. This happens when the king is put into check and cannot get out of check. There are only three ways a king can get out of check: move out of the way (though he cannot castle), block the check with another piece, or capture the piece threatening the king. If a king cannot escape checkmate then the game is over.
Draws
There are 5 reasons why a chess game may end in a draw:
– The position reaches a stalemate where it is one player’s turn to move, but his king is not in check and
yet he does not have another legal move
– The players may simply agree to a draw and stop playing
– There are not enough pieces on the board to force a checkmate
– A player declares a draw if the same exact position is repeated three times
– Fifty consecutive moves have been played where neither player has moved a pawn or captured a piece.
Player Rating in Chess
A chess rating system is a system used in chess to calculate an estimate of the strength of the player, based on his or her performance versus other players. They are used by organizations such as FIDE, the US Chess Federation, International Correspondence Chess Federation, and the English Chess Federation. Most of the systems are used to recalculate ratings after a tournament or match but some are used to recalculate ratings after individual games. In almost all systems a higher number indicates a stronger player. In general, players’ ratings go up if they perform better than expected and down if they perform worse than expected. The magnitude of the change depends on the rating of their opponents.
Titles and Rankings
Grandmaster:
It is awarded to world-class chess masters by FIDE. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster (GM) is the highest title a chess player can attain. Before FIDE will confer the title on a player, the player must have chess rating of at least 2500 at one time and three favorable results (called norms) in tournaments involving other grandmasters, including some from countries other than the applicant’s.
International Master:
The conditions are similar to GM, but less demanding. The minimum rating for the IM title is 2400.
FIDE Master:
The usual way for a player to qualify for the FIDE Master title is by achieving a FIDE rating of 2300 or more.
Candidate Master:
Similar to FM, but with a FIDE rating of at least 2200.
Tournament Formats and Rules
Round-robin:
In round-robin tournaments, each participant plays every other participant an equal number of times. Round-robin tournaments involving four participants are known as quads. Round-robin tournaments are often used for small groups because the element of luck is reduced when every player plays everyone else. Rating categories are sometimes used to separate players of different levels into different round-robin groups. The World Chess Federation, the Australian Chess Federation, and the United States Chess Federation all use different categorization scales to distinguish player ability.
Swiss system:
A tournament that has too many participants for a round-robin is commonly conducted as a Swiss system tournament. In the Swiss style, players are paired with opponents who have done equally well. For example, players with six points will play other players with six points (if possible), so that the player with the most points at the end of the tournament is the winner.
Elimination:
In elimination tournaments, the loser of a game is immediately eliminated from winning the first prize. In most elimination chess, players are normally given seeds based on their rating in order to prevent the highest ranked players from facing each other early in the competition.
Touch-move:
If a player touches one of their own pieces they must move that piece as long as it is a legal move. If a player touches an opponent’s piece, they must capture that piece. A player who wishes to touch a piece only to adjust it on the board must first announce the intention, usually by saying “adjust”.
Clocks and Timers:
Most tournaments use timers to regulate the time spent on each game, not on each move. Each player gets the same amount of time to use for their entire game and can decide how to spend that time. Once a player makes a move they then touch a button or hit a lever to start the opponent’s clock. If a player runs out of time and the opponent calls the time, then the player who ran out of time loses the game (unless the opponent does not have enough pieces to checkmate, in which case it is a draw).
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Major Competitions
World Chess Championship
Administered by FIDE, this championship is played to determine the World Champion in chess. All people are eligible to contest this title. Similarly, The Women’s World Chess Championship is played to determine the women’s world champion in chess. The World Junior Chess Championship is an under-20 chess tournament (players must have been under 20 years old on 1 January in the year of competition) also organized by FIDE.
Chess Olympiad
The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams from all over the world compete against each other. The event is organized by FIDE, which selects the host nation. FIDE organised the first Official Olympiad in 1927 which took place in London.
Tata Steel Chess Tournament
The Tata Steel Chess Tournament, formerly called the Corus chess tournament, takes place every year, usually in January, in a small town called Wijk aan Zee, North Holland in the Netherlands. Very strong chess players compete in the prestigious tournament, but regular club players are welcome to play as well.
Notable Other Tournaments
Other notable tournaments include The Tal Memorial chess tournament (played in Moscow, Russia), The Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting (held in Dortmund, Germany) and Linares International Chess Tournament (held in the city of Linares in the Jaén province of Andalusia, Spain).
Chess in Australia
The Australian Chess Federation (ACF) organizes different catergories of chess competitions based on age and gender categories throughout the year. The Australian Chess Championship is held every two years. The tournament is usually restricted to Australian chess players, although exceptions have been made on occasion. Since 1971, the Australian Open has been held in the intervening years. This event is open to all players, regardless of nationality, and the winner holds the title of Australian Open Champion.
The Australian Junior Championship and Australian Girls Championship are held annually. The Australian Women’s Championship was previously organised as a separate tournament but current regulations award the title of Australian Women’s Champion to the highest placed Australian female player in the Australian Open.
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