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Philidor Defence
The Philidor Defence (or Philidor's Defence) is a chess opening characterised by the moves: :1. e4 e5 :2. Nf3 d6 The opening is named after the famous 18th-century player François-André Danican Philidor, who advocated it as an alternative to the common 2...Nc6. His original idea was to challenge White's by the pawn thrust ...f7–f5. Today, the Philidor is known as a but passive choice for Black, and is seldom seen in top-level play except as an alternative to the heavily analysed openings that can ensue after the normal 2...Nc6. It is considered a good opening for amateur players who seek a defensive strategy that is simpler and easier to understand than the complex positions that result from an opening such as the French Defence. The ''Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings'' code for Philidor Defence is C41. History In his 1561 book, Ruy Lopez, seeking to debunk Pedro Damiano, advocated 2...d6 as superior to 2...Nc6, on the grounds that 2...Nc6 allows the strong move 3 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
François-André Danican Philidor
François-André Danican Philidor (7 September 1726 – 31 August 1795), often referred to as André Danican Philidor during his lifetime, was a French composer and chess player. He contributed to the early development of the ''opéra comique''. He is widely regarded as the best chess player of his age; his book ''Analyse du jeu des Échecs'' was considered a standard chess manual for at least a century. Philidor Defence, A chess opening, Philidor position, an endgame position, and Philidor's Mate, a checkmate method are all named after him. Musical family François-André Danican Philidor came from the well-known musical Philidor family. The original name of his family was Danican, but François-André's grandfather, Jean Danican Philidor, was given the nickname of Philidor by Louis XIII because his oboe playing reminded the king of an Italian virtuoso oboist named Filidori. Music career Philidor joined the royal choir of Louis XV of France, Louis XV in 1732 at the age of 6, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blitz Chess
Fast chess, also known as speed chess, is a type of chess in which each player is given less time than classical chess time controls allow. Fast chess is subdivided, by decreasing time controls, into rapid chess, blitz chess, and bullet chess. Armageddon chess is a variant of fast chess with draw odds for black and unequal time controls, used as a tiebreaker of last resort. As of January 2025, the top-ranked rapid chess player and the top-ranked blitz chess player in the open section is Magnus Carlsen from Norway, who is also the top-ranked classical chess player. The reigning World Rapid Chess Champion is Volodar Murzin of Russia. The reigning World Blitz Chess Champions are Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia (who shared victory in 2024). As of January 2025, Ju Wenjun of China is the women's top-ranked rapid player, who is also the reigning Women's World Chess Champion in classical chess and the reigning Women's World Blitz Chess Champion. The women's top-ra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grandmaster (chess)
Grandmaster (GM) is a Chess title, title awarded to chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Chess Championship, World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain. Once achieved, the title is held for life, though exceptionally the title can be revoked for Cheating in chess, cheating. The title of Grandmaster, along with the lesser FIDE titles of FIDE titles#International Master (IM), International Master (IM), FIDE titles#FIDE Master (FM), FIDE Master (FM), and FIDE titles#Candidate Master (CM), Candidate Master (CM), is open to all players regardless of gender. The great majority of grandmasters are men, but 42 women have been awarded the GM title as of 2024, out of a total of about 2000 grandmasters. There is also a FIDE titles#Woman Grandmaster (WGM), Woman Grandmaster title with lower requirements awarded only to women. There are also Grandmaster titles for composers and solvers of chess problems, awarded by the World Federa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Initiative (chess)
Initiative in a chess position belongs to the player who can make threats that cannot be ignored, thus putting the opponent in the position of having to spend turns responding to threats rather than creating new threats. A player with the initiative will often seek to maneuver their pieces into more and more advantageous positions as they launch successive attacks. The player who lacks the initiative may seek to regain it through . Discussion Due to moving first, White starts the game with the initiative, but it can be lost in the opening by accepting a gambit. Players can also lose initiative by making unnecessary moves that allow the opponent to gain tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given musical composition, composition, and is often also an indication of the composition ..., such as superfluous "preventive" ( prophylactic) moves intended to guar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aron Nimzowitsch
Aron Nimzowitsch (; , ''Aron Isayevich Nimtsovich''; 7 November 1886 – 16 March 1935) was a Latvian-born Danish chess player and writer. In the late 1920s, Nimzowitsch was one of the best chess players in the world. He was the foremost figure amongst the hypermoderns and wrote a very influential book on chess theory: '' My System'' (1925–1927). Nimzowitsch's seminal work ''Chess Praxis'', originally published in German in 1929, was purchased by a pre-teen and future World Champion Tigran Petrosian and was to have a great influence on his development as a chess player. Life Born in Riga, then part of the Russian Empire, the Jewish Yiddish-speaking Nimzowitsch came from a wealthy family, where he learned chess from his father Shaya Abramovich Nimzowitsch (1860, Pinsk – 1918), who was a timber merchant. By 1897, the family lived in Dvinsk. Mother's name: Esphir Nohumovna Nimzowitsch (born Rabinovich, 1865, Polotsk – 1937), sister – Tsilya-Kreyna Pevzner, broth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Moore Hanham
Major James Moore Hanham (January 4, 1840 Woodville, Mississippi – December 30, 1923 New York, New York) was an American chess master, who played in many American and international chess tournaments between 1884 and 1889. He fought on the side of the North during the American Civil War, reaching the rank of Major. He is remembered today for several innovations in the opening, particularly the Hanham Variation of Philidor's Defense (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 Nd7). Military service, appearance Although a Mississippian, Hanham fought for the Union Army during the Civil War. He saw action at Fort Pickens and Baton Rouge, and was promoted to the rank of Major. After the war, he moved to Manhattan. A writer in the ''New York Times'', describing the players in the Sixth American Chess Congress (1889), portrayed him as follows: Major Hanham is a little, nervous man, who hates to sit still. He won his title during the war of the rebellion. He was one of the dudes of the tournament, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Of America
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous states border Canada to the north and Mexico to the south, with the semi-exclave of Alaska in the northwest and the archipelago of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. The United States asserts sovereignty over five major island territories and various uninhabited islands in Oceania and the Caribbean. It is a megadiverse country, with the world's third-largest land area and third-largest population, exceeding 340 million. Its three largest metropolitan areas are New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, and its three most populous states are California, Texas, and Florida. Paleo-Indians migrated from North Asia to North America over 12,000 years ago, and formed various civilizations. Spanish colonization led to the establishment in 15 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mikhail Tal
Mikhail Tal (9 November 1936 – 28 June 1992) was a Soviet and Latvian chess player and the eighth World Chess Champion. He is considered a creative genius and is widely regarded as Comparison of top chess players throughout history, one of the most influential players in chess history. Tal played in an attacking and daring combinatorial style. His play was known above all for improvisation and unpredictability. Vladislav Zubok said of him, "Every game for him was as inimitable and invaluable as a poem". His nickname was "Misha (name), Misha", a diminutive for Michael (given name), Mikhail, and he earned the nickname "The Magician from Riga". Both ''The Mammoth Book of the World's Greatest Chess Games'' and ''Modern Chess Brilliancies'' include more games by Tal than any other player. He also held the record for the longest unbeaten streak in competitive chess history with 95 games (46 wins, 49 draws) between 23 October 1973 and 16 October 1974, until Ding Liren's streak o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Draw (chess)
In chess, there are a number of ways that a game can end in a draw, in which neither player wins. Draws are codified by various rules of chess including stalemate (when the player to move is not in check (chess), check but has no legal move), threefold repetition (when the same position occurs three times with the same player to move), and the fifty-move rule (when the last fifty successive moves made by both players contain no or pawn (chess), pawn move). Under the standard FIDE rules, a draw also occurs in a ''dead position'' (when no sequence of legal moves can lead to checkmate), most commonly when neither player has sufficient to checkmate the opponent. Unless specific tournament rules forbid it, players may draw by agreement, agree to a draw at any time. Ethical considerations may make a draw uncustomary in situations where at least one player has a reasonable chance of winning. For example, a draw could be called after a move or two, but this would likely be thought unsp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bent Larsen
Jørgen Bent Larsen (4 March 1935 – 9 September 2010) was a Danish chess Grandmaster (chess), grandmaster and author. Known for his imaginative and unorthodox style of play, he was the second-strongest non-Soviet Union, Soviet player, behind only Bobby Fischer, for much of the 1960s and 1970s. He is considered to be the strongest player born in Denmark and the strongest from Scandinavia until the emergence of Magnus Carlsen. Larsen was a six-time Danish Chess Championship, Danish Champion and a Candidates Tournament, Candidate for the World Chess Championship on four occasions, reaching the semifinal three times. He had multiple wins over all seven World Champions who held the title from 1948 to 1985: Mikhail Botvinnik, Vasily Smyslov, Mikhail Tal, Tigran Petrosian, Boris Spassky, Bobby Fischer, and Anatoly Karpov, but lifetime negative scores against them. From the early 1970s onward, he divided his years between Las Palmas and Buenos Aires with his Argentine people, Argenti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fianchetto
In chess, the fianchetto ( or spelling pronunciation ; "little flank") is a pattern of wherein a bishop is developed to the second of the adjacent b- or g-, the having been moved one or two squares forward. The fianchetto is a staple of many " hypermodern" openings, whose philosophy is to delay direct occupation of the with the plan of undermining and destroying the opponent's occupied centre. It also regularly occurs in Indian defences. The fianchetto is less common in Open Games (1.e4 e5), but the is sometimes fianchettoed by Black in the Ruy Lopez or by White in an uncommon variation of the Vienna Game. One of the major benefits of the fianchetto is that it often allows the fianchettoed bishop to become more active. A fianchettoed position, however, also presents some opportunities for the opponent: if the fianchettoed bishop can be exchanged, the squares the bishop was formerly protecting will become weak (see ') and can form the basis of an attack (particularly i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vladimir Antoshin
Vladimir Sergeyevich Antoshin (; 14 May 1929 in Moscow – 13 May 1994) was a Soviet chess Grandmaster, a theoretician and a national champion of correspondence chess. Student Olympiad performances As a young man, he was a high achiever, principally as part of the USSR's highly successful Student Olympiad team of 1954–1956. The team won the silver medal at the first-ever Student Olympiad in Oslo 1954 and then took gold medals at Lyons 1955 and at Uppsala 1956. His best performance probably occurred at Lyons, as the strength of the competition was far greater than at Oslo. Playing below world-class grandmasters Mark Taimanov and Boris Spassky, but above Alexey Suetin, his endeavors also earned him an individual gold medal for best score on board three. In all, he accumulated three gold and one silver medal, for a total score of 16/19. During this period of his career, FIDE awarded him the International Master title (1963) and the Grandmaster title (1964). Later career Making ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
