Championing chess

Chess history, its brilliant minds and what lies ahead: Part 1

In partnership with

International Chess Federation (FIDE)

Back to square one: did you know?

The age of AI

How machine learning has changed how champions play chess

By 1982, microcomputer chess programs could evaluate up to 1,500 moves a second...today it's over 100 million

Which year was the first automated chess game invented?
1912
Ancient picture of the First Chess Player

Coined in Persia, the term 'Shah Mat', translating to 'the King is dead' is the origin of the word checkmate

What's the shortest checkmate possible in a game of chess?
Two moves
Fattorini chess clock (FIDE archive)

Famous faces at the chessboard

Icons who love the game

The Chess Game by Lucas van Leyden

The game was seen as a metaphor for the game of love; the result is not so important, since the loser will be lucky in love. This is one of the first examples of Dutch genre painting and is housed at Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

The opponent

The young man playing in the game of chess.

Player one

The young woman playing in the game of chess.

The game

The chessboard has twelve by eight squares. This is the Courier version, a special form of the modern game of chess, in which each player had four additional pawns, and four new pieces, two “couriers”, an “adviser” and a “straggler”

The spectators

A few spectators are following their moves with lively interest.

Click the dots to get a closer look...

"I have come to the personal conclusion that while all artists are not chess players, all chess players are artists"Marcel Duchamp
Which surrealist artist created a chess set based on his own imagery?
Salvador Dalí
Jeu d'échecs / Fingers (Salvador Dalí)

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