The first universally recognized World Chess Champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, claimed his title in 1886 Ding Liren is the current World Champion. Chess competition today is governed internationally by FIDE (the International Chess Federation). Organized chess arose in the 19th century. There are also several ways a game can end in a draw. The game is won by checkmating the opponent's king, i.e. At the start, each player controls sixteen pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns. It is played on a chessboard with 64 squares arranged in an 8×8 grid. Today, chess is one of the world's most popular games played by millions of people worldwide.Ĭhess is an abstract strategy game that involves no hidden information and no elements of chance.
The rules of chess as they are known today emerged in Europe at the end of the 15th century, with standardization and universal acceptance by the end of the 19th century. The recorded history of chess goes back at least to the emergence of a similar game, chaturanga, in seventh century India. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to distinguish it from related games such as xiangqi (Chinese chess) and shogi (Japanese chess). Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king.
