The opening is the initial stage of a chess game. It usually consists of established theory. The other phases are the middlegame and the endgame. Many opening sequences, known as openings, have standard names such as "Sicilian Defense". The Oxford Companion to Chess lists 1,327 named openings and variants, and there are many others with varying degrees of common usage.
John Denis Martin Nunn is an English chess grandmaster, a three-time world champion in chess problem solving, a chess writer and publisher, and a mathematician. He is one of England's strongest chess players and was formerly in the world's top ten.
The middlegame is the portion of a chess game between the opening and the endgame. It is generally considered to begin when each player has completed the development of all or most of their pieces and brought their king to relative safety, and it is generally considered to end when only a few pieces remain on the board. However, there is no clear line between the opening and middlegame or between the middlegame and endgame. At master level, the opening analysis may go well into the middlegame; likewise, the middlegame blends into the endgame.
Eric Schiller was an American chess player, trainer, arbiter and one of the most prolific authors of books on chess in the 20th century.
The Philidor position is a chess endgame involving a drawing technique for the defending side in the rook and pawn versus rook endgame. This technique is known as the third-rank defense due to the positioning of the defending rook. It was analyzed by François-André Danican Philidor in 1777. Many rook and pawn versus rook endgames reach either the drawn Philidor position or the winning Lucena position. The defending side should try to reach the Philidor position; the attacking side should try to reach the Lucena position. Said grandmaster Jesús de la Villa, "[The Lucena and Philidor positions] are the most important positions in this type of endgame [...] and in endgame theory."
Karsten Müller is a German chess Grandmaster and author. He earned the Grandmaster title in 1998 and a PhD in mathematics in 2002 at the University of Hamburg. He had placed third in the 1996 German championship and second in the 1997 German championship.
Frank Lamprecht is a German chess International Master and chess trainer. He is a co-author of Fundamental Chess Endings (2001) and Secrets of Pawn Endings (2000), both with Karsten Müller.
John Michael Emms is an English chess Grandmaster and chess author. He tied for first in the 1997 British Championship. He was the 2002 captain of the English Olympiad team. In October 2004, he also coached a woman's team in the 36th Chess Olympiad in Calvià, Majorca.
Alex Yermolinsky is an American chess player. Awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1992, he is a two-time U.S. champion.
Murray Graham Chandler is a New Zealand chess grandmaster. In the 1980s, he gained British citizenship and represented England at six Chess Olympiads. He has since returned to New Zealand. Chandler is also known as a chess writer, chess publishing executive and occasional organiser of chess tournaments.
Efstratios Grivas is a Greek chess player who holds the titles of Grandmaster, FIDE Senior Trainer, International Arbiter, and FIDE International Organizer.
Much literature about chess endgames has been produced in the form of books and magazines. A bibliography of endgame books is below.
Graham K. Burgess is an English FIDE Master of chess and a noted writer and trainer. He became a FIDE Master at the age of twenty. He attended Birkdale High School in Southport, Merseyside. In 1989 he graduated from the University of Cambridge with a degree in mathematics. In 1994 he set a world record by playing 510 games of blitz chess in three days, winning 431 games and drawing 25.
The game of chess is commonly divided into three phases: the opening, middlegame, and endgame. There is a large body of theory regarding how the game should be played in each of these phases, especially the opening and endgame. Those who write about chess theory, who are often also eminent players, are referred to as "theorists" or "theoreticians".
The Réti endgame study is a chess endgame study by Richard Réti. It was published in 1921 in Kagans Neueste Schachnachrichten. It demonstrates how a king can make multiple threats and how it can take more than one path to a given location, using the same number of moves. It is covered in many books on the endgame. The procedure is known as the "Réti Maneuver" or "Réti's Idea". Endgame composer Abram Gurvich called the theme "The Hunt of Two Hares" and it appears in many other studies and games. It is also called "chasing two birds at once".
Simon Kim Williams is an English chess grandmaster and author who is best known under the pseudonym and Chess Server Nickname "GingerGM".
