Chess libraries are library collections of books and periodicals on the game of chess. Chess has a very extensive literature, probably exceeding that of all other games combined. In 1913, preeminent chess historian H. J. R. Murray estimated the total number of books, magazines, and newspaper columns pertaining to chess to be about 5,000 at that time. B.H. Wood estimated that number, as of 1949, to be about 20,000. David Hooper and Kenneth Whyld write that, "Since then there has been a steady increase year by year of the number of new chess publications. No one knows how many have been printed..."
This page explains commonly used terms in chess in alphabetical order. Some of these have their own pages, like fork and pin. For a list of unorthodox chess pieces, see Fairy chess piece; for a list of terms specific to chess problems, see Glossary of chess problems; for a list of chess-related games, see List of chess variants.
Thomas Wilson Barnes (1825–1874) was an English chess master, one of the leading British masters of his time. He went on a diet and lost 130 pounds(9st 4lb) in 10 months, which resulted in his death.
A Swiss-system tournament is a non-eliminating tournament format that features a set number of rounds of competition, but considerably fewer than that of a round-robin tournament. In a Swiss tournament, each competitor does not necessarily play all other entrants. Competitors meet one-on-one in each round and are paired using a set of rules designed to ensure that each competitor plays opponents with a similar running score, but not the same opponent more than once. The winner is the competitor with the highest aggregate points earned in all rounds. All competitors play in each round unless there is an odd number of players.
Miksa (Max) Weisz was an Austrian chess player born in the Kingdom of Hungary.
The Sonneborn–Berger score is a scoring system often used to break ties in chess tournaments. It is computed by summing the conventional score of each defeated opponent, and half the conventional score of each drawn opponent.
In a group tournament, unlike a knockout tournament, there is no scheduled decisive final match. Instead, all the competitors are ranked by examining the results of all the matches played in the tournament. Typically, points are awarded for each match, with competitors ranked based either on total number of points or average points per match. Usually each competitor finishes with an equal number of matches, in which case rankings by total points and by average points are equivalent at the end of the tournament, though not necessarily while it is in progress. Examples with unequal numbers of matches include the 1895 County Championship in English cricket, and the U.S. National Football League prior to 1972, when tie games were excluded from the winning percentage used for regular-season standings.
David Vincent Hooper, born in Reigate, was a British chess player and writer. As an amateur, he tied for fifth place in the 1949 British Championship at Felixstowe. He was the British correspondence chess champion in 1944 and the London Chess Champion in 1948. He played in the Chess Olympiad at Helsinki in 1952.
Johann Nepomuk Berger was an Austrian chess master, theorist, endgame study composer, author and editor.
Daniël Noteboom was a Dutch chess player. He gained notice at the 1930 Chess Olympiad at Hamburg, scoring 11½/15, including a win against Salo Flohr.
In chess and chess variants, a bare king is a game position where one player has only the king remaining.
A chess tournament is a series of chess games played competitively to determine a winning individual or team. Since the first international chess tournament in London, 1851, chess tournaments have become the standard form of chess competition among serious players.
Jacob Henry Sarratt was one of the top English chess players of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Sarratt was renowned as a player and author and adopted the title "Professor of Chess". He was the first professional player to teach chess in England. He introduced into England the chess rule that a stalemate is a draw, which was commonly used on the continent of Europe. He coined with his works of 1813 and 1821 the term Muzio Gambit. He was a pupil of Verdoni and later the teacher of William Lewis and Peter Unger Williams.
A battery in chess is a formation that consists of two or more pieces on the same rank, file, or diagonal. It is a tactic involved in planning a series of captures to remove the protection of the opponent's king, or to simply gain in the exchanges.
Deflection in chess is a tactic that forces an opposing piece to leave the square, rank or file it occupies, thus exposing the king or a valuable piece. It is typically used in the context of a combination or attack, where the deflected piece is critical to the defence. Deflection may be used as a gambit to cause an opponent's piece to move to a less suitable square. Deflections are often used as part of a combination which may involve other types of chess tactics as well.
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. Popular online chess sites such as chess.com and Internet Chess Club also implement rating systems. 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. The Elo rating system is currently the most widely used.
Zürich 1934 was an international chess tournament held in Zürich from 14 to 29 July 1934 to commemorate the 125th anniversary of Schachgesellschaft Zürich. Alexander Alekhine won, followed by Max Euwe and Salo Flohr tied for second-third. The tournament also served as the 1934 Swiss Championship, won by Hans Johner as the highest-ranking Swiss player.
Moscow 1935 was the second international chess tournament held in Moscow, taking place from 15 February to 15 March 1935. Salo Flohr and future world champion Mikhail Botvinnik tied for first, followed by former world champions Emanuel Lasker and José Raúl Capablanca.
