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Magnus Carlsen (1990-) - 'The Mozart of Chess.' Norwegian chess grandmaster and former chess prodigy who is the reigning World Chess Champion and No. 1 ranked player in the world. His peak rating is 2872, the highest in history.

Top 150 (Online) Chess Events, Resources and Boards

Chess Events & Tournaments (6) Chess Media (3) Chess News, Reviews & Resources
Chess Sets (12) Online Chess (4)

CHESS is a two-player strategy board game played on a chessboard, a checkered gameboard with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide in homes, parks, clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.

Each player begins the game with 16 pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns. Each of the six piece types moves differently. Pieces are used to attack and capture the opponent's pieces, with the objective to 'checkmate' the opponent's king by placing it under an inescapable threat of capture. In addition to checkmate, the game can be won by the voluntary resignation of the opponent, which typically occurs when too much material is lost, or if checkmate appears unavoidable. A game may also result in a draw in several ways, where neither player wins. The course of the game is divided into three phases: opening, middlegame, and endgame.

The first official World Chess Champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, claimed his title in 1886; the current World Champion is Norwegian chess Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen. In addition to the World Championship, there are the Women's World Championship, the Junior World Championship, the World Senior Championship, the Correspondence Chess World Championship, the World Computer Chess Championship, and Blitz and Rapid World Championships. The Chess Olympiad is a popular competition among teams from different nations. Online chess has opened amateur and professional competition to a wide and varied group of players. Chess is a recognized sport of the International Olympic Committee and international chess competition is sanctioned by the World Chess Federation (FIDE), which adopted the now-standard Staunton chess set in 1924 for use in all official games. There are also many chess variants, with different rules, different pieces, and different boards.

Since the second half of the 20th century, computers have been programmed to play chess with increasing success, to the point where the strongest home computers play chess at a higher level than the best human players. In the past two decades computer analysis has contributed significantly to chess theory, particularly in the endgame. The computer Deep Blue was the first machine to overcome a reigning World Chess Champion in a match when it defeated Garry Kasparov in 1997.

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    Chess Events & Tournaments
    Viswanathan Anand. Magnus Carlsen - 'The Mozart of Chess'.
  • Linares chess tournament - since 1978. Sometimes described as the Wimbledon of chess.
  • List of strong chess tournaments - this article depicts many of the strongest international chess tournaments in history.
  • Sinquefield Cup - since 2013. Annual, invitation-only chess tournament in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, honoring Rex Sinquefield and his wife Jeanne, the founders of the Saint Louis Chess Club. Since 2015, the Sinquefield Cup has been a part of the Grand Chess Tour.
  • The FISCHER Random Chess Championship 2019 - was the first world championship in Fischer Random Chess officially recognized by the international chess federation FIDE. The winner of the final was Wesley So, defeating Magnus Carlsen 13.5–2.5, to become the first FIDE world champion in Fischer Random Chess. Over the course of the competition, various time controls were applied, with longer games being weighted more heavily.
  • World Chess Championship 2023 - The match is scheduled to be between the current World Champion, Magnus Carlsen, and the winner of the 2022 Candidates Tournament. However a few days after the previous championship in 2021, Carlsen said he may not be motivated enough to play another world championship match, and might not compete in the 2023 edition unless the challenger is Alireza Firouzja, who rose to number two in the world rankings in 2021. In April 2022 he went further, saying he was unlikely to play, making no mention of Firouzja. If Carlsen decides not to play, and if the match has the same conditions as the 2021 match, then the top two finishers in the 2022 Candidates will play a match for the World Championship.
  • World Chess960 Championship aka Fischer Random championship - since 1996. A popular chess variant in which the positions of pieces on the players' home ranks are randomized with certain constraints.
    Chess Media
  • Chess Life - since 1946. The official magazines published by the United States Chess Federation (US Chess).
  • Chess Magazine - since 1935. Chess magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom by Chess and Bridge Limited.
  • Chess Today - was the first, and longest running, Internet-only daily chess newspaper,[1] having continued virtually uninterrupted from 7 November 2000 through to December 2020.
  • List of chess periodicals - Wikipedia.
  • Chess News, Reviews & Resources
    Chess Sets
  • Agresti Briar Chess Set: US$795.
  • Agresti Briar Chess Set - classic chess set in Elm and Mahogany.
  • Baccarat Crystal Chess Set: US$$32,000.
  • Baccarat Harcourt Chessgame - celebrates its 250th anniversary. Limited edition: 50 sets.
  • Byblos Chessboard by Au Départ Paris: €2,950.
  • Byblos Chessboard - since 1967. "The Chessboard by Au Départ is an elegant and modern hand-crafted design object, part-profiled in calf leather. It comprises a handmade coated wood chessboard, a complete set of silver and brass finished game pieces, with several soft black velvet storage compartments, a notebook and a pen. The glossy orange colour was created exclusively for our collection. Heritage monogram coated cotton canvas. Suede Lining. Leather detail. Width: 43.2cm. Depth: 43.2cm. Height: 8.5cm. Made in Italy."
  • Chess sets at Amazon.com - as of October 15, 2022: 2,000+ results.
  • Elizabeth Gann luxury chess sets.
  • ELIZABETH GANN COLLECTIONS - "The Source for Premium Collectible Chess Sets." Chess sets designed by: Oleg Raikis and Piero Benzoni; rare & limited editions, glass, damascene and antique sets.
  • Caio Locke Chess Set - Board measures: 55cm × 55cm .
  • Harrods - Chess Sets.
  • Josef Hartwig chess set (1924) - Manufacturer: Bauhaus, Weimar. MoMA.
  • Linley Classic Games Table - Walnut: £24,500.
  • LINLEY - Classic Games Table - Walnut: £24,500.
  • PIERO BENZONI - "Piero Benzoni Expensive Luxury Chess Sets." Designed by Piero Benzoni, the Historical and Artistic Chess Collection themed chess sets are limited production, expensive themed chess sets, in gold plated and silver plated solid bronze. Each of these luxurious expensive chess sets is completely handmade and signed by the sculptor. Using the finest materials, the artistry in these luxury chess sets reveal an unrivaled attention to detail and a mastery of lost wax casting. Buy these luxurious expensive chess sets in complete chess sets or separately in your choice of chess pieces, chessboards, and chess tables.
  • Ralph Lauren Hammond Chess Set: US$1,995.
  • RALPH LAUREN - chess sets.
  • Steve Vigar New York Architecture chess set: US$2,100.
  • STEVE VIGAR DESIGN - "Preserve a piece of your favorite city with this handcrafted chess set by woodworker Steve Vigar. Made of solid zebra wood and whangee (yeah, we’re not sure either), the back row pieces feature some of the most famous buildings of San Francisco, Chicago and New York, while individual pawns pay homage to each metropolis’s residential architectural styles. Pieces can be made in light and dark wood."
  • WILLIAM YEOWARD - chess table.
    Online Chess
  • Online chess.
  • CHESS24.COM - "Play, Learn & Watch Live Tournaments." Internet chess server in English and nine other languages, established in 2014 by German grandmaster Jan Gustafsson and Enrique Guzman. Among people collaborating with chess24 are World Champions, Grandmasters and International Masters including Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, Peter Svidler, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Francisco Vallejo Pons, David Anton Guijarro, Dorsa Derakhshani, Lawrence Trent, Sopiko Guramishvili, and Hou Yifan.
  • CHESS.COM - since 2005. "Play Chess for Free on the #1 Site!" Internet chess server, news website and social networking website.[3] The site has a freemium model in which some features are available for free, and others for accounts with subscriptions. Live online chess can be played against other users at daily, rapid, blitz or bullet time controls, with a number of chess variants available. Chess versus a chess engine, computer analysis, chess puzzles and teaching resources are also offered. 57 languages. Users (2022): 77 million+.
  • CHESS.NET - "A creative chess online community."
  • INTERNET CHESS CLUB | ICC - since 1995. "The longest running, most popular & hands down best place to play chess on the Internet." Play with people from around the world. Improve with a brand new Learning Center. Watch thousands of top-quality video lessons. Learn from the world’s best masters. Impromptu tournaments and live event coverage. Best Support anywhere!
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