Questions tagged [history]
Use this tag for questions relating to the history of chess and chess organizations, whose origins trace to the ancient Indian game of Chaturanga.
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Where can I find past Titled Tuesday data
I'm hoping to create a dataset with Chess.com Titled Tuesday results.
I have found this link which has the tournaments https://www.chess.com/tournament/live/titled-tuesdays?&page=7 but for some ...
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Are Elo ratings comparable across history?
It is fun to speculate how the great players of today would fare against those of the past.
With the advance in knowledge of the openings, particularly aided by computers, a leading modern player ...
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Do top players get discouraged if they cannot beat the best player in the world?
Magnus Carlsen has been the best player in the world for a decade. The other top players try, but they haven't been able to beat Carlsen, who's consistently 50+ elo above them.
Do the other top ...
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Who is the Hübsch gambit named after?
According to Lichess, the Hübsch gambit starts with 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nc3 d5 3. e4:
[FEN "rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. Nc3 d5 3. e4
This article ...
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Did Kasparov and Karpov reconcile?
Did Kasparov and Karpov reconcile? In “On My Great Predecessors” Vol. V, Kasparov refers to Karpov very familiarly, as "Anatoly" or even "Tolya." He refers to Korchnoi (a much ...
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Relationship between chess and communist idealogy in USSR -- Central Planning?
I had a conversation with a guy who I think was studying history and was a decent chess player and he said that in the USSR chess and dialectical materialism were considered related.
The usual reason ...
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Why is "The Seventh Seal" called so?
I just found the following game
[Title "Carlos Torre vs Emmanuel Lasker, Moscow 1925"]
[FEN ""]
1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. Bg5 c5 4. e3 cxd4 5. exd4 Be7 6. Nbd2 d6 7. c3 Nbd7 8. Bd3 ...
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Was Julio Kaplan the first to play 8. f4 Qc7 9. g4 idea against 7. ... Be6 in classical Najdorf?
In old mainline of Be2 Najdorf black played 7. ... Be6 instead of, today practically automatic, 7. ... Be7. This is because 7. ... Be6 is today considered dubious due to this idea:
[fen ""]
[...
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Chess players in tv commercials?
There are a lot of tv commercials featuring football players, cricket players, etc. How about chess players? Two commercials come to mind.
Kasparov vs Machine Pepsi Commercial
Korchnoi Milk ...
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Why didn't Laurent Fressinet-Alexandra Kosteniuk (2007) end in a draw?
Game is available here. The last 116 moves of that game was R+B vs. R, which is a theoretical draw that is hard for a human to defend. Fressinet eventually faltered and resigned when he was about to ...
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Who was Bobby Fischer's father?
This interesting YouTube video asks the question: "Why Did the World’s Best Chess Player Go Insane?" without really answering its own question. It also makes the suggestion, again ...
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According to Wikipedia, only three women have EVER been top 100 in chess. How many men have ever been top 100?
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_chess
"Three women, Maia Chiburdanidze, Polgár, and Hou Yifan, have been ranked in the world's top 100 players."
That is, right now, there are not ...
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Detailed History of Touch Move Rule
What were the different versions of the touch-move rule over history?
There are various chess problems, particularly from 19th century, which depend upon it, and they seem to make different ...
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Has simultaneous partial queen pinning, besides mutual queen pins, happened in a master game?
In a 3+0 blitz game, this humorous position arose. Have such mutual partial pins, wherein both players pin the others queen to their king, occurred in master games?
[FEN "r3k2r/1ppb1ppp/p2bqn2/...
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Positions where pawn promotion to queen is worse than to other piece
I'm looking for games from famous grandmasters, in which pawn promotion to a rook, a bishop, or a knight is a better move than queen promotion. I tried to Google some, but I couldn't find anything.
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What is the origin of the Caro-Kann Two Knights Variation?
It starts with 1. e4 c6 2. Nc3 d5 3. Nf3. I checked the 1984 edition of The Oxford Companion to Chess, and all it said was that it was popular in the 1950s. Any information would be valuable to me.
[...
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How rare are double forks in high-level games?
I was playing a blitz game, when I saw my chance to produce an amusing position, to which my opponent unknowingly obliged; I was able to fork their rooks with my queen and rook simultaneously.
[Title &...
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Has checkmate ever been achieved by castling queenside in a high-level game?
This is to complement the kingside variant of that question
Has checkmate ever been achieved by a castling queen side in a high-level game?
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What happened actually in the game Kreschmer - Laue, Aisenach 1951?
7k/3R2pq/pb3N2/1p4Qp/5p2/1PP2P1P/1P4PK/4r3 w - - 0 1
In a german book, Spass am Kombinieren (Joy of Combination) by Albin Pötzsch, it is claimed that White played h4 and lost to Rh1 with soon mate. ...
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Has checkmate ever been achieved by castling kingside in a high-level game?
Has checkmate ever been achieved by castling kingside in a high-level game?
I asked an AI large language model, but it listed games which certainly didn't achieve checkmate with castling kingside. I ...
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Largest round robin ever?
First, I myself played several large (20+) blitz round robins, this is nothing unusual. Thus: only "long" games.
Second, oversize round robins were quite common in the good old days (maybe ...
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Where does the term 'fianchetto' come from?
I know what a fianchetto is, developing a bishop on the 2nd/7th ranks on the long diagonals. But how did the word 'fianchetto' come into play as a chess term?
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Who was Wright, purportedly the best player in the Australian prison system?
I read a true crime book by Mark "Chopper". It states the best player in the Australian prison system was named Wright. Does anyone have any more information on this person, such as their ...
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Example of 60 minute tournament that FIDE considers classical
For the sake of having an example re Why was the 2019 WFRCC called 'slow rapid' when it's actually classical (45+15=60)? where 60 minutes is exactly the border between rapid and classical:
...
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Classical world championship where someone lost 3 games in a row, COUNTING draws?
Obviously NOT counting draws there are a lot eg Nepo lost 4-0 total to Magnus in the 2021 WCC so removing the draws, there's that.
In the 2019 WFRCC, which was indeed classical, Magnus Carlsen lost to ...
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Armageddon: Has anyone actually bid for white in chess (or chess960)?
Apparently some armageddon events allows players to choose colours.
Why would I bid for white in armageddon (in regular chess)?
Why would I bid for white in armageddon in chess960?
I find it ...
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Why is Bobby Fischer's argument against adjournment an argument for increment?
Bobby Fischer, as quoted by Jim Ratliff in a question about increment says:
The result of adjournments is often a skewing of a particular player's chess-playing ability since the success or failure ...
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What has Bobby Fischer said about increment (similar to chess960)?
Bobby Fischer talked a lot about chess960 aka Fischer random and more generally how chess is dead, etc. Were there any similar interviews or discussions for increment?
I guess not much because the ...
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What did Bobby Fischer say about how chess960 should be implemented?
Edit re the 2 close votes for opinion-based: This is as factual as it gets. I'm asking what Bobby's opinion of how tournaments should go was. I never asked people's opinions of how tournaments should ...
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Who is the Zhuralev countergambit in the Vienna game named after?
It starts with 1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Bb4, I checked in the 1984 edition of The Oxford Companion to Chess, but couldn't find anything about it.
[Title "Vienna Game - Zhuralev Countergambit [C25]"]
[...
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Chess960 castling controversy in the 2019 WFRCC: Where can I see the original Nepo vs Wesley So game?
Apparently in the 5th game Ian Nepomniachtchi originally had to play 13. Rf1 instead of 13. 0-0 but then they allowed Nepo to replay the whole game.
The ff is the replay game:
https://lichess.org/...
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When was the last time Magnus Carlsen lost 2 classical games in a row to the same player besides to Wesley So?
Related questions:
When was the last time Magnus Carlsen lost 3 classical games in a row besides to Wesley So?
When was the last time Magnus Carlsen lost 2 classical games in a row to the same ...
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Hikaru on chess960: Have there been more Najdorf or Dragon games in the past decade?
From Wikipedia:
Hikaru in 2014 on chess960: (emphasis added)
I think chess960 is great as it is simply pure intuition and understanding without theory or computers. In my opinion, a lot depends on ...
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Swiss bye only half-point?
Scanning my old club zines, I tripped over a 1989 article where it says the (then :-) new FIDE rules gave a half point for a Swiss bye. Possibilities:
a) The dude misunderstood the complicated rules. ...
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Early recorded games (before 1600)
Do we have examples of recorded chess games from 1600 or before? A game where all the moves were written down. It would be interesting to see such a record.
This question was inspired by Was not ...
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Who is the Schmidt Variation of the scotch opening named after
in the scotch opening if black develops their knight on move 4, this is called the Schmidt variation, does anyone know who it's actually named after?
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What are the main changes in the latest (January 2023) version of the FIDE Laws of Chess?
FIDE has released its latest version of the Laws of Chess - FIDE Laws of Chess taking effect from 1 January 2023.
What are the main differences from the previous version(Laws of Chess: For ...
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Record total number of chess games by a player
I just read in a chess mag that Korchnoi holds the record with 5000+ documented games. I'm a bit sceptic about that - should I a) ever electronically document my games (currently they are just a ...
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Has O-O ever been played without moving the e or g pawns?
Normally the e or g pawn must be moved (to release the bishop) before castling kingside is possible. However, it’s theoretically possible for a knight to have taken the bishop without these pawns ever ...
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Moving a piece to a square protected by 5 opponent's pieces
At the 5th round of the 2022 FIDE World Team Championship, in the game between Ivanchuk and Van Foreest, White played the following winning move:
[FEN "1n1q2k1/2r1rp1p/pp1b1np1/3pN3/3P4/BP4PB/...
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What was so special about the incremental "Digital Chess clock" that a patent was granted to Bobby Fischer for the same?
Bobby Fischer had 'invented' a way of incrementing some time duration with every chess move(s) played. This was quite new in that era. But was that so unique that a patent was granted for it?
Here are ...
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History of this queen sacrifice in the 4 Knights
Arbiting an IM norm tournament last week I came across this position in one of the games. Both White's queen and bishop on a4 were en prise and it was Black's move!
My initial reaction was that I must ...
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Where does the term “cook” originate?
What is the origin of the term “cooked” for a chess problem with an additional, unintended solution?
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Bogoljubow – Aljechin, Hastings 1922 - Zugzwang?
The German wiki has a whole page devoted only to this game, so I won't paste it here. Even as a very small kid with a rating of 1500 or so, I always wondered: is it really Zugzwang after 40...Qe2? ...
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In which tournament did Karpov play his first move with white pieces and offer a draw?
It had to have happened in the 90s, but I can't remember either the tournament or Karpov's opponent (probably some Spanish tournament, like Linares or Dos Hermanas). Karpov was upset with the ...
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When was the first engine vs engine match?
I came across this game in Gerald Abrahams book The Chess Mind, 1968 edition:
[fen ""]
[Title "USSR Computer vs USA Computer, March 1967"]
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Bc5 4. Nxe5 ...
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What do modern chess players understand about the game that previous generations did not?
In an interview, Garry Kasparow stated that each generation of chess players knows more about the game than the previous one. He applies this thought concretely to the question of who is better - him ...
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What Elo rating does The Chessmaster 2000 have?
A recent agadmator video pitted The Chessmaster (NES) against Stockfish 14 NNUE. What is more impressive to me is that this chess engine, released originally in 1986 and written by David Kittinger in ...
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Best "average centipawn loss" of all times?
I've found "average centipawn loss" calculated for some recent World Championship games, for example Magnus Carlsen vs Ian Nepomniachtchi, 2021 World Chess Championship.
Is there some "...
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"Inventor" of Najdorf Ng4 (Anti-English)
[Variant "From Position"]
[FEN "rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNBQKBNR w - - 0 0"]
[Title ""]
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 Ng4!?
What ...
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