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Many women play and benefit from chess, charmingly elevating it as an art form in popular streaming commentaries on such as twitch.tv/chess.<ref>https://www.twitch.tv/chess</ref> While virtually all the top tournament chess players are male, and only about 1% of the 1500 grandmasters are female, many of the top chess streaming shows are hosted by women.

Chess emphasizes individualistic pieces, in contrast to the more collectivist strategy game called "go". Chess is more hierarchical, more militaristic, and more clear-cut when someone wins. "Go", which is ancient Chinese incrementalist-type of board game, has far fewer decisive moves than in chess. "Go" tournaments feature almost entirely Asian players, while the top chess players are typically from the West or from [[India]].

Today, chess is one of the most popular board games in the world. International competitions, including world [[champion]]ship events, are organized run by an organization called FIDE and while American competition organized competitions are run by the USCF (United States Chess Federation). The only American world champion was [[Bobby Fischer]], although [[Paul Morphy]] of [[Louisiana]] was likely the strongest player in the world in the 1850s, before a formal world champion was determined. The current World Chess Champion is [[Norway|Norwegian]] [[Magnus Carlsen]]. Prior to that, the world champion was [[India]]n Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand.

Modern chess is based on the [[Holy Roman Empire]], originating in the A.D. 1300s with bishops and knights as pieces and advanced moves like castling and pawn conversion available today. Perhaps to deny its [[Christian]]-affiliated roots, chess is attributed by some to [[India]], where a game called Shaturanga was played. The earliest extant description of the game is contained in the [[Bhavishya Purana]], which dates from A.D. 300 to A.D. 600. Shaturanga used [[dice]], but [[Hinduism]] bans gambling. As a result, a game of chess developed free from any dice or chance. The exact rules of Shaturanga are not known, but the game developed further in Persia into something similar to its modern form. The Persian game Shatranj - which remains popular in the middle east Middle East today - is nearly identical to modern chess. By A.D. 1200 the game reached southern Europe, and in the late fifteenth century the Europeans adopted a number of changes: the queen, which had formerly been a very weak piece, became the strongest piece on the board, and allowing ; pawns were allowed to move two squares on the first move became standard. These changes had the effect of speeding up play, and they brought the game into the form we know today.

The chess board is a square, divided into 64 smaller squares arranged in eight rows of eight. The squares are alternating light and dark, with a light square in the bottom right -hand corner.

The most popular style of pieces are known as Staunton style pieces, the tournament standard for chess pieces, although other types exist. Often, popular themed chess sets will appear with characters from [[popular culture]] or [[fiction]] taking the places of the more common Staunton -style pieces. These novelty pieces are not tournament -sanctioned sanctioned however, and can sometimes cause confusion during game play gameplay as to which piece is which.

[[Image:Kasparov,1.jpg|right|thumb|250px|[[Garry Kasparov]] is a Russian chess grandmaster and former World Chess Champion (1985–2000)]]*'''en passant'''- French for "In passing." In chess, if a player pushes his pawn far down to the end of the board, and his opponent pushes a starting pawn 2 spaces ahead, to put the pawn on the same row to avoid confrontation, the player may choose to invoke the "en passant" move, which treats the enemy pawn as though it had only moved one space. The player may capture diagonally on the square '''behind''' the enemy pawn, and remove the enemy pawn. The principle is that the two space rule for a pawn's first move cannot be used to avoid confrontation between two pawns. However, the player may only invoke "en passant" on the first turn after the opponent pushes his pawn. He cannot make it after that turn. ==== Chess accuracy ==== Chess accuracy is a measure of how close a player's moves are to the best possible moves against their opponent. ==== Depth of chess play ==== Depth of chess play is how many chess moves a player is able to look ahead. ==== Adaptability of chess play ==== ''See also:'' [[Cognitive flexibility]] Adaptability of chess play refers to a chess player's ability to change their plans and chess strategies based on their opponent's moves and the evolving board position, rather than rigidly sticking to an initial plan or plans. === Chess openings === The first few moves of a chess game are termed the "opening" or "opening moves". These chess moves lay the foundation for chess games. Common chess openings: *[https://www.chess.com/openings Chess openings] [[File:Wesley So in 2023.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Chess champion [[Wesley So]] is a devout [[Christian]] who reads the [[Bible]] daily and he attends church weekly.<ref>[https://www.google.com/search?q=wesley+so+Bible+reading&sca_esv=93d9039c66c2f80c&sxsrf=AE3TifMe4R0rzAbWBmGtaXQBhN8DatKzkQ%3A1752539381612&ei=9aB1aP6SJeXdwN4PhJTX0Aw&ved=0ahUKEwi-4a76zb2OAxXlLtAFHQTKFcoQ4dUDCBA&uact=5&oq=wesley+so+Bible+reading&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiF3dlc2xleSBzbyBCaWJsZSByZWFkaW5nMgUQIRigATIFECEYoAEyBRAhGKABMgUQIRigATIFECEYoAFIuCxQggZY8SlwAXgBkAEAmAGdAaAB4w6qAQQwLjE0uAEDyAEA-AEBmAIPoAKdD8ICChAAGLADGNYEGEfCAg0QLhiABBiwAxhDGIoFwgIOEAAYsAMY5AIY1gTYAQHCAhMQLhiABBiwAxhDGMgDGIoF2AEBwgIKEAAYgAQYQxiKBcICBRAuGIAEwgIFEAAYgATCAgsQABiABBiRAhiKBcICBhAAGBYYHsICCBAAGBYYChgewgILEAAYgAQYhgMYigXCAggQABiABBiiBMICBRAAGO8FwgIFECEYqwKYAwCIBgGQBhG6BgYIARABGAmSBwQxLjE0oAf5PbIHBDAuMTS4B5MPwgcIMC4xMC40LjHIBy0&sclient=gws-wiz-serp Wesley So Bible reading]</ref> ]]=== Chess middlegame === Chess.com indicates: "The middlegame is, as its name implies, the middle part of a chess game, after the opening and before the endgame. The middlegame is often the most complex and important phase of the game, and most games are decided here. Even if an endgame is reached, "winning endings" and "drawn endings" are usually created in the middlegame."<ref>[https://www.chess.com/terms/chess-middlegame Chess middlegame]</ref> Material on chess middlegame:  *[https://www.chess.com/terms/chess-middlegame Chess middlegame] === Chess endgame === Chess.com states: {{Cquote|The endgame in chess is the phase of the game that occurs after most of the pieces have been exchanged—the stage of the game that happens at the end. Not every game of chess reaches the endgame, as some games are decided in the middlegame (or even by early checkmates in the opening). However, most games do reach the endgame stage.  In general, endgames have different strategic goals than other phases. One main goal in the opening is to develop your pieces, while in the middlegame your goal could be to attack an enemy king or to protect your own king—but in the endgame, one of the main goals is to try and promote a pawn.<ref>[https://www.chess.com/terms/chess-endgame Chess endgame]</ref>}} Material on chess endgame:  *[https://www.chess.com/terms/chess-endgame Chess endgame] ==== The very end of chess games ====

''See also:'' [[Chess mastery and memory improvement]] and [[Chess and increasing mental performance]] and [[Mnemonic]]