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As-Suli
Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn al-‘Abbās al-Ṣūlī (Arabic: ) (born c. 870 Gorgan – died between 941 and 948 Basra) was a Turkic scholar and a court companion of three Abbāsid caliphs: al-Muktafī, his successor al-Muqtadir, and later, al-Radi, whom he also tutored. He was a bibliophile, wrote letters, editor-poet, chronicler, and a shatranj (chess) player. His contemporary biographer Isḥāq al-Nadīm tells us he was "of manly bearing." He wrote many books, the most famous of which are '' Kitāb Al-Awrāq'' and '' Kitāb al-Shiṭranj''. Life Abū Bakr al-Ṣūlī was born into an illustrious family of Turkic origin, his great-grandfather was the Turkic prince Sul-takin and his uncle was the poet Ibrahim ibn al-'Abbas as-Suli. Al-Marzubānī, a principal pupil of al-Ṣūlī, who admired him and copied him in the art of compilation, borrowed much of al-Ṣūlī's material for his ''Kitāb al-Muwashshaḥ''. Abū al-Faraj al-Iṣbahānī made extensive use o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shatranj
Shatranj (, ; from Middle Persian ) is an old form of chess, as played in the Sasanian Empire. Its origins lie in the South Asian game of chaturanga. Modern chess gradually developed from this game, as it was introduced to Europe by contacts in Muslim Al-Andalus (modern Spain) and in Sicily in the 10th century. In modern Persian language, Persian, the term is also used as the translation of chess. Etymology and origins The name of the game in adjoining countries appears to be derived from chaturanga - chatrang in Persian, shatranj in Arabic, Chanderaki in Tibetan are examples. This suggests that the game, as well as its name, came from India. Also, as will appear, it was believed in Persia that the game arrived there from India."The name of the game in adjoining countries appears to be derived from chaturanga - chatrang in Persian, shatranj in Arabic, chanderaki in Tibetan are examples. This suggests that the game, as well as its name, came from India. Also, as will appear, it wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gorgan
Gorgan (; ) is a city in the Central District (Gorgan County), Central District of Gorgan County, Golestan province, Golestan province, Iran, serving as capital of the province, the county, and the district. It lies approximately to the northeast of the national capital Tehran, and some away from the Caspian Sea. History There are several archaeological sites near Gorgan, including Tureng Tepe and Shah Tepe, in which remains dating from the Neolithic and Chalcolithic eras. Some other important Neolithic sites in the area are Yarim Tepe (Iran), Yarim Tepe, and Sange Chaxmaq. The nearby Shahroud Plain has many such sites. More than 50 are on the Gorgan Plain. According to the Greek historian Arrian, Zadracarta was the largest city of Hyrcania and the site of the "royal palace". The term means "the yellow city", and it was given to it from the great number of oranges, lemons, and other fruit trees which grew in the outskirts of that city. Hyrcania became part of the Achaem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al-Adli Ar-Rumi
Al-Adli al-Rumi (), was an Arab player and theoretician of Shatranj, an ancient form of chess from Persia. Originally from Anatolia, he authored one of the first treatises on Shatranj in 842, called ''Kitab ash-shatranj'' ('Book of Chess'). He was recognized as the best Shatranj player in the 9th century during the reign of al-Wathiq until his loss to al-Razi, just before or early into the reign of al-Mutawakkil. In his treatise al-Adli compiled the ideas of his predecessors on Shatranj. The book was lost but the problems he discussed survived in the works of successors. Mansūbāt were end game scenarios, where victory was obtained either by checkmate or stalemate Stalemate is a situation in chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check and has no legal move. Stalemate results in a draw. During the endgame, stalemate is a resource that can enable the player with the inferior position ..., or by baring the opposing king. From his work came a variant of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blindfold Chess
Blindfold chess, also known as ''sans voir'', is a form of chess play wherein the players do not see the positions of the pieces and do not touch them. This forces players to maintain a mental model of the positions of the pieces. Moves are communicated via a recognized chess notation. Blindfold chess was considered miraculous for centuries but now there is greater recognition of people who can keep track of more than one simultaneous blindfolded game. In Simultaneous exhibition, simultaneous blindfold play, an intermediary usually relays the moves between the players. Early history Blindfold chess was first played quite early on in the history of chess. The earliest name to be associated with play without the use of a material board is that of Sa'id bin Jubair (665–714) in the Middle East. In Europe, playing chess blindfolded became popular as a means of handicapping a chess master when facing a weaker opponent, or of simply displaying one's superior abilities. H. J. R. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chess Endgame
The endgame (or ending) is the final stage of a chess game which occurs after the middlegame. It begins when few pieces are left on the board. The line between the middlegame and the endgame is often not clear, and may occur gradually or with a quick exchange of pieces. The endgame, however, tends to have different characteristics from the middlegame, and the players have correspondingly different strategic concerns. In particular, pawns become more important as endgames often revolve around attempts to promote a pawn by advancing it to the eighth . The king, which normally is kept safe during the game, becomes active in the endgame, as it can help escort pawns to promotion, attack enemy pawns, protect other pieces, and restrict the movement of the enemy king. Not all chess games reach an endgame; some of them end earlier. All chess positions with up to seven pieces on the board have been solved by endgame tablebases, so the outcome (win, loss, or draw) of best play by bot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ibn Khallikan
Aḥmad bin Muḥammad bin Ibrāhīm bin Abū Bakr ibn Khallikān (; 22 September 1211 – 30 October 1282), better known as Ibn Khallikān, was a renowned Islamic historian of Kurdish origin who compiled the celebrated biographical encyclopedia of Muslim scholars and important men in Muslim history, '' Deaths of Eminent Men and the Sons of the Epoch'' (). Due to this achievement, he is regarded as the most eminent writer of biographies in Islamic history. Life Ibn Khallikān was born in Erbil on 22 September 1211 (11 Rabī’ al-Thānī, 608), into a family that claimed descent from Barmakids, an Iranian dynasty from Balkh. His primary studies took him from Erbil, to Aleppo and to Damascus, before he took up jurisprudence in Mosul and then in Cairo, where he settled. He gained prominence as a jurist, theologian and grammarian. An early biographer described him as "a pious man, virtuous, and learned; amiable in temper, in conversation serious and instructive. His exterior ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caliph Of Baghdad
The Abbasid caliphs were the holders of the Islamic title of caliph who were members of the Abbasid dynasty, a branch of the Quraysh tribe descended from the uncle of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, Al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib. The family came to power in the Abbasid Revolution in 748–750, supplanting the Umayyad Caliphate. They were the rulers of the Abbasid Caliphate, as well as the generally recognized ecumenical heads of Islam, until the 10th century, when the Shi'a Fatimid Caliphate (established in 909) and the Caliphate of Córdoba (established in 929) challenged their primacy. The political decline of the Abbasids had begun earlier, during the Anarchy at Samarra (861–870), which accelerated the fragmentation of the Muslim world into autonomous dynasties. The caliphs lost their temporal power in 936–946, first to a series of military strongmen and then to the Shi'a Buyid Emirs that seized control of Baghdad; the Buyids were in turn replaced by the Sunni Seljuk Turk ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Knight's Tour
A knight's tour is a sequence of moves of a knight on a chessboard such that the knight visits every square exactly once. If the knight ends on a square that is one knight's move from the beginning square (so that it could tour the board again immediately, following the same path), the tour is "closed", or "re-entrant"; otherwise, it is "open". The knight's tour problem is the mathematical problem of finding a knight's tour. Creating a program to find a knight's tour is a common problem given to computer science students. Variations of the knight's tour problem involve chessboards of different sizes than the usual , as well as irregular (non-rectangular) boards. Theory The knight's tour problem is an instance of the more general Hamiltonian path problem in graph theory. The problem of finding a closed knight's tour is similarly an instance of the Hamiltonian cycle problem. Unlike the general Hamiltonian path problem, the knight's tour problem can be solved in linear time. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chess Opening
The opening is the initial stage of a chess game. It usually consists of established Chess_theory#Opening_theory, theory. The other phases are the chess middlegame, middlegame and the chess endgame, endgame. Many opening sequences, known as ''openings'', have standard names such as "Sicilian Defense". ''The Oxford Companion to Chess'' lists 1,327 named openings and variants, and there are many others with varying degrees of common usage. Opening moves that are considered standard are referred to as "book moves", or simply "book". When a game begins to deviate from known Chess theory#Opening theory, opening theory, the players are said to be "out of book". In some openings, book lines have been worked out for over 30 moves, such as some lines in the classical King's Indian Defense and in the Sicilian Defense, Najdorf Variation, Najdorf Variation of the Sicilian Defense. Professional chess players spend years studying openings, and they continue doing so throughout their careers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chess Strategy
Chess strategy is the aspect of chess play concerned with evaluation of chess positions and setting goals and long-term plans for future play. While evaluating a position strategically, a player must take into account such factors as the relative value of the pieces on the board, pawn structure, king safety, position of pieces, and control of key squares and groups of squares (e.g. diagonals and open files). Chess strategy is distinguished from chess tactics, which is the aspect of play concerned with move-by-move threats and defenses. Some authors distinguish static strategic imbalances (e.g. having more valuable pieces or better pawn structure), which tend to persist for many moves, from dynamic imbalances (such as one player having an advantage in piece ), which are temporary. This distinction affects the immediacy with which a sought-after plan should take effect. Until players reach Master-level chess skill, chess tactics tend to ultimately decide the outcomes of games more ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
