Chessopedia - The Online Chess Encylopedia

#A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Search Chessopedia

Keyword:

Sort by:

« Previous | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ... 67 | Next »

Fool's Mate

Fool's mate, also known as the "two-move checkmate", is the quickest possible checkmate in the game of chess. The checkmate occurs extremely rarely in actual games, since it requires the player with the White pieces to be a willing accomplice in ... Read more »

2211 reads | 121 comments

Ruy Lopez

The Ruy Lopez is a chess opening beginning with the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5. While this opening was was first noted in the Gottingen Manuscript around 1490, it is named after Ruy López de Segura, a 16th century Spanish priest who publ... Read more »

1773 reads | 63 comments

Scandinavian Defense

The Scandinavian Defense (also known as the Center Counter) consists of the moves 1.e4 d5. Although played by quite a few grandmasters over the years, the Scandinavian is rarely played at the highest levels of chess. After Viswanathan ... Read more »

1561 reads | 58 comments

Mathematics and chess

The number of distinct chess positions after White’s first move is 20 (16 pawn moves and 4 knight moves). There are 400 distinct chess positions after two moves (first move for White, followed by first move for Black). There are ... Read more »

1109 reads | 95 comments

En passant

En passant (from French: "in [the pawn's] passing") is a maneuver in chess when a player moves a pawn two squares forward from its starting position, and an opposing pawn could have captured it if it had only moved one square forward... Read more »

823 reads | 40 comments

The English Opening

This Chess opening involves the first move c4, (called The English Opening because a group of English players in around the 1890's often played it, including Howard Staunton), it is played as one of the main opening choices for white- an alter... Read more »

647 reads | 22 comments

King's Gambit

The King's Gambit is a chess opening that begins: 1. e4 e5 2. f4 White offers a pawn to divert the Black e-pawn and build a stronger center with d2-d4. Theory has shown that in order for Black to maintain the one pawn advantage, moves must be ... Read more »

635 reads | 19 comments

Deep Thought

Once the strongest chess playing computer in the world. It searched approximately 2 million chess positions per second. Deep Thought became the first computer to defeat a grandmaster in tournament play by defeating Bent Larsen at the 1988 U.... Read more »

553 reads | 27 comments

Abbazia Defense

A King's Gambit Accepted variation (1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 d5) (ECO classification - C36). The name comes from a tournament, Abbazia 1912, in which all the games had to be a King's Gambit Accepted. The event was won by Rudolf ... Read more »

552 reads | 6 comments

Zugzwang

A German word meaning obligation to move. The term is used for a position in which whoever has the move would obtain a worse result than if it were the opponent’s turn to play. The term was first used in a German chess magaz... Read more »

462 reads | 18 comments