The Latvian Gambit is a chess opening characterised by the moves:
In the game of chess, perpetual check is a situation in which one player can play an unending series of checks, from which the defending player cannot escape. This typically arises when the player who is checking feels their position in the game is inferior, they cannot deliver checkmate, and wish to force a draw.
The Immortal Game was a chess game played in 1851 between Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky during the London 1851 chess tournament, an event in which both players participated. It was itself a casual game, however, not played as part of the tournament. Anderssen won the game by sacrificing all of his major pieces while developing a mating attack with his remaining minor pieces. Despite losing the game, Kieseritzky was impressed with Anderssen's performance. Kieseritzky published the game shortly thereafer in La Régence, a French chess journal which he helped to edit. Ernst Falkbeer published an analysis of the game in 1855, describing it for the first time with its sobriquet "immortal".
In chess, a smothered mate is a checkmate delivered by a knight in which the mated king is unable to move because it is completely surrounded by its own pieces, which a knight can jump over.
In chess, scholar's mate is the checkmate achieved by the following moves, or similar:
The Hastings 1895 chess tournament was a round-robin tournament of chess conducted at the Brassey Institute in Hastings, England from 5 August to 2 September 1895.
The Philidor Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves:
In chess and other related games, a double check is a check delivered by two pieces simultaneously. In chess notation, it is almost always represented the same way as a single check ("+"), but is sometimes symbolized by "++". This article uses "++" for double check and "#" for checkmate.
Anderssen's Opening is a chess opening defined by the opening move:
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, a queen sacrifice is a move that sacrifices a queen, the most powerful piece, in return for some compensation, such as a tactical or positional advantage.
In chess, a sacrifice is a move that gives up a piece with the objective of gaining tactical or positional compensation in other forms. A sacrifice could also be a deliberate exchange of a chess piece of higher value for an opponent's piece of lower value.
In chess, a desperado is a piece that is either en prise or trapped, but captures an enemy piece before it is itself captured in order to compensate the loss a little, or is used as a sacrifice that will result in stalemate if it is captured. The former case can arise in a situation where both sides have hanging pieces, in which case these pieces are used to win material prior to being captured. A desperado in the latter case is usually a rook or a queen; such a piece is sometimes also called crazy or mad.
Leopold Adamovich Mitrofanov was a Russian chess composer, an International Judge of Chess Composition and an International Master of Chess Composition. He was born in Leningrad and, by profession, was a chemical engineer.
The second World Chess Championship was held in Havana, Cuba in 1889. Defending champion Wilhelm Steinitz beat challenger Mikhail Chigorin with a score of 10½ -6½.
A World Chess Championship was played between challenger Max Euwe and title-holder Alexander Alekhine in various cities and towns in the Netherlands from 3 October to 16 December 1935. Euwe was the winner by overcoming a three-point deficit as late as the ninth game.
The 1981 World Chess Championship was played between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi in Merano, Italy from October 1 to November 19, 1981. Karpov won with six wins against two, with 10 draws. The two players had already played against each other in the World Chess Championship match 1978 in the Philippines, when Karpov also won.
In chess, several checkmate patterns occur frequently enough to have acquired specific names in chess commentary. By definition, a checkmate pattern is a recognizable/particular/studied arrangements of pieces that delivers checkmate. The diagrams that follow show these checkmates with White checkmating Black.
In chess, an economical mate is a checkmate position such that all of the attacker's remaining knights, bishops, rooks and queens contribute to the mating attack. The attacker's king and pawns may also contribute to the mate, but their assistance is not required, nor does it disqualify the position from being an economical mate. Economical mates are of interest to chess problem composers for their aesthetic value. In real gameplay, their occurrence is incidental. Nevertheless, some notable games have concluded with an economical mate such as the Opera game, won by Paul Morphy.
The queen versus rook endgame is a chess endgame where one player has just a king and queen, and the other player has just a king and rook. As no pawns are on the board, it is a pawnless chess endgame. The side with the queen wins with best play, except for a few rare positions where the queen is immediately lost, or because a draw by stalemate or perpetual check can be forced. However, the win is difficult to achieve in practice, especially against precise defense.
