The Dubrovnik chess set is a style of chess pieces influenced by the Staunton chess set. [1] These chessmen are considered to have significant historical importance and are regarded as a timeless design classic. [1] Over the decades several variants of the Dubrovnik chessmen were designed. [1]
The 9th Chess Olympiad was organized by the FIDE and the government of Yugoslavia, supported by Josip Broz Tito. [2] [3] The Olympiad was held in Dubrovnik, SR Croatia, Yugoslavia (now in Croatia) between August 20 and September 11, 1950. [1] Chess is a significant part of the culture in Dubrovnik being first documented in 1422. [2] The Olympiad had 84 chess players representing 16 nations who played a total of 480 games. [1] The Yugoslav team won the gold medal, Argentina silver and West Germany bronze. [1]
In 1949 the Olympiad management requisitioned a new style of chessmen. Painter and sculptor P. Poček was contracted to design the Olympiad chessmen. [4] The pieces were made in Subozan in Subotica, Yugoslavia.
The 1950 Dubrovnik chess set was designed without religious symbols. The pieces were designed for play with wide bases requiring a minimum of 55 millimetres (2.2 in) chessboard squares. They had green felted sliders and were not weighted. [4] The chess box was felted with a metallic badge on the inside of the box with the inscription "IX. šah olimpijada Dubrovnik, Jugoslavija." [4] The box was unusually large, featuring 60 millimetres (2.4 in) squares. Approximately 50 chess sets were made with original sets being very rare if not impossible to locate or buy. [4]
In a radio interview Bobby Fischer stated: "This [1950 Dubrovnik chess set] is the best set I have ever played on. [5] It is marvellous. I don't have it." [6] A chess collector provided a chess set after Fischer requested it for the 1992 Fischer–Spassky rematch held at Sveti Stefan. [4] [7] [8]
The Dubrovnik design has influenced the creation of several chess set variants with a variety of names, including but not limited to, Zagreb and Yugoslavia. [4] These variant chess sets often have opposite coloured finials on the kings and queens, while the original Dubrovnik had opposite coloured finials for the bishops. In addition, the chess sets use different specifications from the Dubrovnik.
In the 1960s a redesigned version by Andrija Maurović, a famous Croat cartoonist, writer and chess player was created and produced in the workshop of master craftsman Jakopović in Zagreb. Bobby Fischer was often filmed and photographed with his own 1970 Dubrovnik chess set that was later stolen. The most obvious changes in design can be observed in the knights with simplified carving, and the queens had only five cuts in the crown as opposed to the original eleven.
The initial 1950 Dubrovnik chess pieces lacked certain details like a cross finial atop the King and a miter in the Bishops; they were purposefully crafted for tournament endurance, featuring broader and sturdier bases. The Dubrovnik chess set underwent a redesign for the 19th Chess Olympiad held at Siegen, West Germany, in 1970. This tournament gained fame for the showdown between Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer, laying the groundwork for Fischer's 1972 World Championship match against Spassky. The 1970 rendition of the Dubrovnik chessmen refined the Knight's design and streamlined the overall appearance, resulting in a sleeker aesthetic. Fischer has been widely photographed and recorded playing with his 1970s-era Dubrovnik set, notably captured in the HBO documentary Bobby Fischer Against the World.
Due to the continuing popularity of the 1950 Dubrovnik chess sets, the replica plastic versions of the chess sets are the most popular in Eastern Europe, even though they are of low quality. [9]
Gregor Novak of Noj. Ltd makes by hand and offers for sale an exact replica from wood of both the 1950 Dubrovnik chess set [10] and the 1970 Dubrovnik chess set. [11]
Chess Bazaar of India also offers two different variants of 1970 Dubrovnik reproduction in a variety of woods.
Since 2014, the House of Staunton has offered a replica in wood of one of the 1970 Dubrovnik chess sets that were available at that time. [12]
From time to time, The Chess Schach [Alan Power] also offers artistically restored Dubrovnik variations as can be seen in their Archive Gallery. [13]
The bishop is a piece in the game of chess. It moves and captures along diagonals without jumping over intervening pieces. Each player begins the game with two bishops. The starting squares are c1 and f1 for White's bishops, and c8 and f8 for Black's bishops.
A chess piece, or chessman, is a game piece that is placed on a chessboard to play the game of chess. It can be either white or black, and it can be one of six types: king, queen, rook, bishop, knight, or pawn.
Fischer random chess, also known as Chess960 and freestyle chess, is a variation of the game of chess invented by the former world chess champion Bobby Fischer. Fischer announced this variation on June 19, 1996, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Fischer random chess employs the same board and pieces as classical chess, but the starting position of the pieces on the players' home ranks is randomized, following certain rules. The random setup makes gaining an advantage through the memorization of openings impracticable; players instead must rely more on their skill and creativity over the board.
The Lewis chessmen or Uig chessmen, named after the island or the bay where they were found, are a group of distinctive 12th century chess pieces, along with other game pieces, most of which are carved from walrus ivory. Discovered in 1831 on Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, they may constitute some of the few complete, surviving medieval chess sets, although it is not clear if a single complete period-accurate set can be assembled from the pieces. When found, the hoard contained 94 objects: 78 chess pieces, 14 tablemen and one belt buckle. Today, 82 pieces are owned and usually exhibited by the British Museum in London, and the remaining 11 are at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh; one chesspiece is owned privately.
This glossary of chess explains commonly used terms in chess, in alphabetical order. Some of these terms 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 named opening lines, see List of chess openings; for a list of chess-related games, see List of chess variants; for a list of terms general to board games, see Glossary of board games.
In the game of chess, perpetual check is a situation in which one player can force a draw by an unending series of checks. This typically arises when the player who is checking cannot deliver checkmate, and failing to continue the series of checks gives the opponent at least a chance to win. A draw by perpetual check is no longer one of the rules of chess; however, such a situation will eventually allow a draw claim by either threefold repetition or the fifty-move rule. Players usually agree to a draw long before that, however.
In chess, a relative value is a standard value conventionally assigned to each piece. Piece valuations have no role in the rules of chess but are useful as an aid to assessing a position.
Handicaps in chess are handicapping variants which enable a weaker player to have a chance of winning against a stronger one. There are a variety of such handicaps, such as material odds, extra moves, extra time on the chess clock, and special conditions. Various permutations of these, such as "pawn and two moves", are also possible.
In chess, promotion is the replacement of a pawn with a new piece when the pawn is moved to its last rank. The player replaces the pawn immediately with a queen, rook, bishop, or knight of the same color. The new piece does not have to be a previously captured piece. Promotion is mandatory when moving to the last rank; the pawn cannot remain as a pawn.
A chess set consists of a chessboard and white and black chess pieces for playing chess. There are sixteen pieces of each color: one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns. Extra pieces may be provided for use in promotion, most commonly one extra queen per color. Chess boxes, chess clocks, and chess tables are common pieces of chess equipment used alongside chess sets. Chess sets are made in a wide variety of styles, sometimes for ornamental rather than practical purposes. For tournament play, the Staunton chess set is preferred and, in some cases, required.
In chess, the exchange is the material difference of a rook for a minor piece. Having a rook for a minor piece is generally advantageous, since the rook is usually more valuable. A player who has a rook for a minor piece is said to be up the exchange, and the other player is down the exchange. A player who wins a rook for a minor piece is said to have won the exchange, while the other player has lost the exchange. The opposing captures often happen on consecutive moves, but this is not strictly necessary. Although it is generally detrimental to lose the exchange, one may occasionally find reason to purposely do so; the result is an exchange sacrifice.
The touch-move rule in chess specifies that a player, having the move, who deliberately touches a piece on the board must move or capture that piece if it is legal to do so. If it is the player's piece that was touched, it must be moved if the piece has a legal move. If the opponent's piece was touched, it must be captured if it can be captured with a legal move. If the touched piece cannot be legally moved or captured, there is no penalty. This is a rule of chess that is enforced in all formal over-the-board competitions.
Chess with different armies is a chess variant invented by Ralph Betza in 1979. Two sides use different sets of fairy pieces. There are several armies of equal strength to choose from, including the standard FIDE army. In all armies, kings and pawns are the same as in FIDE chess, but the four other pieces are different.
The opposite-colored bishops endgame is a chess endgame in which each side has a single bishop and those bishops operate on opposite-colored squares. Without other pieces besides pawns and the kings, these endings are widely known for their tendency to result in a draw. These are the most difficult endings in which to convert a small material advantage to a win. With additional pieces, the stronger side has more chances to win, but still not as many as when bishops are on the same color.
A pawnless chess endgame is a chess endgame in which only a few pieces remain, and no pawns. The basic checkmates are types of pawnless endgames. Endgames without pawns do not occur very often in practice except for the basic checkmates of king and queen versus king, king and rook versus king, and queen versus rook. Other cases that occur occasionally are (1) a rook and minor piece versus a rook and (2) a rook versus a minor piece, especially if the minor piece is a bishop.
The Staunton chess set is the standard style of chess pieces, recommended for use in competition by FIDE, the international chess governing body.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to chess:
The Selenus chess set is a style of chess set, in use before the standardization of chess pieces that happened after the Staunton chess set was launched in 1849 by games manufacturer John Jaques of London. The Selenus sets were typical of Germany and Northern Europe and are named after Gustavus Selenus, the pen name of Augustus the Younger, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, author of the Chess or the King's Game, an important chess manual published in the 17th century. The standard included delicate lathe turned bases and shafts and tiers with circlets resembling crowns. Pieces were distinguished by heights, the number of tiers and sometimes by symbols.
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