the.com/chess
the only war where both armies start with identical odds and pure intentions
means A two-player strategy game on a 64-square board where each side maneuvers 16 pieces with the goal of trapping the opponent's king in checkmate.
from The word travels backward like a retreating army: English 'chess' came from Old French 'esches,' the plural of 'eschec' (a check, a setback), which traces to Persian 'shāh' — king. The game itself grew from the Sanskrit 'chaturanga' ("four divisions" of the army: infantry, cavalry, elephants, chariots) in India, then spread through Persia, where a cornered king brought the cry 'shāh māt' — the popular gloss is "the king is dead," though it more accurately means "the king is helpless" or "stumped." That phrase survives in English as 'checkmate.'
- more games
- Possible games exceed atoms in observable universe
- royal weakness
- The king moves slowest, mattering most
- oldest move
- Game rules largely settled by the 1400s
- computer reign
- No human has beaten top engines since 2005
- queen's rise
- She was once nearly as weak as the king
fischer vs spassky 1972 — cold war chess match in reykjavik between american bobby fischer and soviet boris spassky
carlsen vs kasparov — magnus carlsen (current world champion since 2013) compared to garry kasparov (dominant 1985-2000)
alphazero vs stockfish 2017 — deepmind's ai defeated the world's strongest chess engine in a 100-game match