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Chess
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the Western board game. For other chess games or other uses, see Chess (disambiguation).
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Chess A selection of black and white chess pieces on a chequered surface.
From left to right: a white king, a black rook, a black queen, a white pawn, a black knight, and a white bishop
Players 2
Setup time About 1 minute
Playing time Casual games usually last 10 to 60 minutes; tournament games last anywhere from about ten minutes (blitz chess) to six hours or longer.
Random chance None
Skills required Tactics, strategy

Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.

Each player begins the game with sixteen pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns, each of these types of pieces moving differently. Pieces are used to attack and capture the opponent's pieces. The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent's king by placing it under threat of capture ("check") which cannot be avoided. In addition to checkmate, the game can be won by the voluntary resignation of one's opponent, which may occur when too much material is lost, or if checkmate appears unavoidable. A game may result in a draw in several ways, and neither player wins. The course of the game is divided in three phases. The beginning of the game is called the opening (with the development of pieces). The opening yields to the phase called the middlegame. The last phase is the endgame, generally characterised by the disappearance of queens.

The first official World Chess Champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, claimed his title in 1886; the current World Champion is Viswanathan Anand from India. In addition to the World Championship, there are the Women's World Championship, the Junior World Championship, the World Senior Championship, the Correspondence Chess World Championship, the World Computer Chess Championship, and Blitz and Rapid World Championships. The Chess Olympiad is a popular competition among teams from different nations. Online chess has opened amateur and professional competition to a wide and varied group of players. Chess is a recognized sport of the International Olympic Committee, and international chess competition is sanctioned by the FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Échecs or World Chess Federation). There are also many chess variants that have different rules, different pieces, and different boards.

Commencing in the second half of the 20th century computers have been programmed to play chess with increasing success to the point where home computers can play chess at a very high level. In the past two decades computer analysis has contributed significantly to chess theory as understood by human players, particularly in the endgame. The computer program Deep Blue was the first machine player to overcome a reigning World Chess Champion when it defeated Garry Kasparov in 1997.
Contents
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1 Rules
1.1 Setup
1.2 Movement
1.3 Castling
1.4 En passant
1.5 Promotion
1.6 Check
1.7 End of the game
1.8 Time control
2 Notation for recording moves
3 Strategy and tactics
3.1 Fundamentals of tactics
3.2 Fundamentals of strategy
3.3 Opening
3.4 Middlegame
3.5 Endgame
4 History
4.1 Predecessors
4.2 Origins of the modern game (1000–1850)
4.3 Birth of a sport (1850–1945)
4.4 Post-war era (1945 and later)
5 Place in culture
5.1 Pre-modern
5.2 Modern
6 Chess composition
6.1 Example
7 Competitive play
7.1 Organization of competitions
7.2 Titles and rankings
8 Publications
9 Mathematics and computers
10 Psychology
10.1 Chess and intelligence
11 Variants
12 See also
13 Notes
13.1 Footnotes
13.2 Citations
14 References
15 Further reading
16 External links

Rules
Main article: Rules of chess

The official rules of chess are maintained by the World Chess Federation. Along with information on official chess tournaments, the rules are described in the FIDE Handbook, Laws of Chess section.[1]
Setup
Pieces at the start of a game
Solid white.svg a b c d e f g h Solid white.svg
8 black rook black knight black bishop black queen black king black bishop black knight black rook 8
7 black pawn black pawn black pawn black pawn black pawn black pawn black pawn black pawn 7
6 black king black king black king black king black king black king black king black king 6
5 black king black king black king black king black king black king black king black king 5
4 black king black king black king black king black king black king black king black king 4
3 black king black king black king black king black king black king black king black king 3
2 white pawn white pawn white pawn white pawn white pawn white pawn white pawn white pawn 2
1 white rook white knight white bishop white queen white king white bishop white knight white rook 1
Solid white.svg a b c d e f g h Solid white.svg
Initial position: first row: rook, knight, bishop, queen, king, bishop, knight, and rook; second row: pawns

Chess is played on a square board of eight rows (called ranks and denoted with numbers 1 to and eight columns (called files and denoted with letters a to h) of squares. The colors of the sixty-four squares alternate and are referred to as "light squares" and "dark squares". The chessboard is placed with a light square at the right-hand end of the rank nearest to each player, and the pieces are set out as shown in the diagram, with each queen on its own color.

The pieces are divided, by convention, into white and black sets. The players are referred to as "White" and "Black", and each begins the game with sixteen pieces of the specified color. These consist of one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns.
Movement

White always moves first. After the initial move, the players alternately move one piece at a time (with the exception of castling, when two pieces are moved). Pieces are moved to either an unoccupied square or one occupied by an opponent's piece, which is captured and removed from play. With the sole exception of en passant, all pieces capture opponent's pieces by moving to the square that the opponent's piece occupies. A player may not make any move that would put or leave his king under attack. If the player to move has no legal moves, the game is over; it is either a checkmate—if the king is under attack—or a stalemate—if the king is not.

Each chess piece has its own style of moving. In the diagrams, the dots mark the squares where the piece can move if no other pieces (including one's own piece) are on the squares between the piece's initial position and its destination.

The king moves one square in any direction. The king has also a special move which is called castling and involves also moving a rook.
The rook can move any number of squares along any rank or file, but may not leap over other pieces. Along with the king, the rook is involved during the king's castling move.
The bishop can move any number of squares diagonally, but may not leap over other pieces.
The queen combines the power of the rook and bishop and can move any number of squares along rank, file, or diagonal, but it may not leap over other pieces.
The knight moves to any of the closest squares that are not on the same rank, file, or diagonal, thus the move forms an "L"-shape, two squares vertically and one square horizontally or two squares horizontally and one square vertically. The knight is the only piece that can leap over other pieces.
The pawn may move forward to the unoccupied square immediately in front of it on the same file; or on its first move it may advance two squares along the same file provided both squares are unoccupied; or it may move to a square occupied by an opponent's piece which is diagonally in front of it on an adjacent file, capturing that piece. The pawn has two special moves: the en passant capture and pawn promotion.

Moves of a king
Solid white.svg a b c d e f g h Solid white.svg
8 a8 __ b8 __ c8 __ d8 __ e8 __ f8 __ g8 __ h8 __ 8
7 a7 __ b7 __ c7 __ d7 __ e7 __ f7 __ g7 __ h7 __ 7
6 a6 __ b6 __ c6 __ d6 __ e6 black circle f6 black circle g6 black circle h6 __ 6
5 a5 __ b5 __ c5 __ d5 __ e5 black circle f5 white king g5 black circle h5 __ 5
4 a4 __ b4 __ c4 __ d4 __ e4 black circle f4 black circle g4 black circle h4 __ 4
3 a3 __ b3 __ c3 __ d3 __ e3 __ f3 __ g3 __ h3 __ 3
2 a2 __ b2 __ c2 __ d2 __ e2 __ f2 __ g2 __ h2 __ 2
1 a1 __ b1 __ c1 __ d1 __ e1 __ f1 __ g1 __ h1 __ 1
Solid white.svg a b c d e f g h Solid white.svg
Moves of a rook
Solid white.svg a b c d e f g h Solid white.svg
8 a8 __ b8 __ c8 __ d8 black circle e8 __ f8 __ g8 __ h8 __ 8
7 a7 __ b7 __ c7 __ d7 black circle e7 __ f7 __ g7 __ h7 __ 7
6 a6 __ b6 __ c6 __ d6 black circle e6 __ f6 __ g6 __ h6 __ 6
5 a5 black circle b5 black circle c5 black circle d5 black rook e5 black circle f5 black circle g5 black circle h5 black circle 5
4 a4 __ b4 __ c4 __ d4 black circle e4 __ f4 __ g4 __ h4 __ 4
3 a3 __ b3 __ c3 __ d3 black circle e3 __ f3 __ g3 __ h3 __ 3
2 a2 __ b2 __ c2 __ d2 black circle e2 __ f2 __ g2 __ h2 __ 2
1 a1 __ b1 __ c1 __ d1 black circle e1 __ f1 __ g1 __ h1 __ 1
Solid white.svg a b c d e f g h Solid white.svg
Moves of a bishop
Solid white.svg a b c d e f g h Solid white.svg
8 a8 black circle b8 __ c8 __ d8 __ e8 __ f8 __ g8 black circle h8 __ 8
7 a7 __ b7 black circle c7 __ d7 __ e7 __ f7 black circle g7 __ h7 __ 7
6 a6 __ b6 __ c6 black circle d6 __ e6 black circle f6 __ g6 __ h6 __ 6
5 a5 __ b5 __ c5 __ d5 white bishop e5 __ f5 __ g5 __ h5 __ 5
4 a4 __ b4 __ c4 black circle d4 __ e4 black circle f4 __ g4 __ h4 __ 4
3 a3 __ b3 black circle c3 __ d3 __ e3 __ f3 black circle g3 __ h3 __ 3
2 a2 black circle b2 __ c2 __ d2 __ e2 __ f2 __ g2 black circle h2 __ 2
1 a1 __ b1 __ c1 __ d1 __ e1 __ f1 __ g1 __ h1 black circle 1
Solid white.svg a b c d e f g h Solid white.svg
Moves of a queen
Solid white.svg a b c d e f g h Solid white.svg
8 a8 __ b8 __ c8 __ d8 black circle e8 __ f8 __ g8 __ h8 black circle 8
7 a7 black circle b7 __ c7 __ d7 black circle e7 __ f7 __ g7 black circle h7 __ 7
6 a6 __ b6 black circle c6 __ d6 black circle e6 __ f6 black circle g6 __ h6 __ 6
5 a5 __ b5 __ c5 black circle d5 black circle e5 black circle f5 __ g5 __ h5 __ 5
4 a4 black circle b4 black circle c4 black circle d4 black queen e4 black circle f4 black circle g4 black circle h4 black circle 4
3 a3 __ b3 __ c3 black circle d3 black circle e3 black circle f3 __ g3 __ h3 __ 3
2 a2 __ b2 black circle c2 __ d2 black circle e2 __ f2 black circle g2 __ h2 __ 2
1 a1 black circle b1 __ c1 __ d1 black circle e1 __ f1 __ g1 black circle h1 __ 1
Solid white.svg a b c d e f g h Solid white.svg
Moves of a knight
Solid white.svg a b c d e f g h Solid white.svg
8 a8 __ b8 __ c8 __ d8 __ e8 __ f8 __ g8 __ h8 __ 8
7 a7 __ b7 __ c7 __ d7 __ e7 __ f7 __ g7 __ h7 __ 7
6 a6 __ b6 __ c6 black circle d6 __ e6 black circle f6 __ g6 __ h6 __ 6
5 a5 __ b5 black circle c5 __ d5 __ e5 __ f5 black circle g5 __ h5 __ 5
4 a4 __ b4 __ c4 __ d4 black knight e4 __ f4 __ g4 __ h4 __ 4
3 a3 __ b3 black circle c3 __ d3 __ e3 __ f3 black circle g3 __ h3 __ 3
2 a2 __ b2 __ c2 black circle d2 __ e2 black circle f2 __ g2 __ h2 __ 2
1 a1 __ b1 __ c1 __ d1 __ e1 __ f1 __ g1 __ h1 __ 1
Solid white.svg a b c d e f g h Solid white.svg
Moves of a pawn
Solid white.svg a b c d e f g h Solid white.svg
8 a8 __ b8 __ c8 __ d8 cross e8 black circle f8 cross g8 __ h8 __ 8
7 a7 __ b7 __ c7 __ d7 __ e7 white pawn f7 __ g7 __ h7 __ 7
6 a6 __ b6 __ c6 __ d6 __ e6 __ f6 __ g6 __ h6 __ 6
5 a5 cross b5 black circle c5 cross d5 __ e5 __ f5 __ g5 __ h5 __ 5
4 a4 __ b4 white pawn c4 __ d4 __ e4 __ f4 black circle g4 __ h4 __ 4
3 a3 __ b3 __ c3 __ d3 __ e3 cross f3 black circle g3 cross h3 __ 3
2 a2 __ b2 __ c2 __ d2 __ e2 __ f2 white pawn g2 __ h2 __ 2
1 a1 __ b1 __ c1 __ d1 __ e1 __ f1 __ g1 __ h1 __ 1
Solid white.svg a b c d e f g h Solid white.svg


* Pawns can optionally move two squares forward instead of one on their first move only. They capture diagonally (black x's); they cannot capture with their normal move (black circles). Pawns are also involved in the special move called en passant.
Castling
Examples of castling
Main article: Castling

Once in every game, each king is allowed to make a special move, known as castling. Castling consists of moving the king two squares along the first rank toward a rook (which is on the player's first rank[note 1]) and then placing the rook on the last square the king has just crossed. Castling is permissible only if all of the following conditions hold:[2]

Neither of the pieces involved in castling may have been previously moved during the game.
There must be no pieces between the king and the rook.
The king may not currently be in check, nor may the king pass through squares that are under attack by enemy pieces, nor move to a square where it is in check.

En passant
Examples of pawn moves: promotion (left) and en passant (right)
Main article: En passant

When a pawn advances two squares and there is an opponent's pawn on an adjacent file next to its destination square, then the opponent's pawn can capture it en passant (in passing), and move to the square the pawn passed over. However, this can only be done on the very next move, or the right to do so is lost. For example, if the black pawn has just advanced two squares from g7 to g5, then the white pawn on f5 can take it via en passant on g6 (but only on white's next move).
Promotion
Main article: Promotion (chess)

When a pawn advances to the eighth rank, as a part of the move it is promoted and must be exchanged for the player's choice of queen, rook, bishop, or knight of the same color. Usually, the pawn is chosen to be promoted to a queen, but in some cases another piece is chosen; this is called underpromotion. In the diagram on the right, the pawn on c7 can be advanced to the eighth rank and be promoted to an allowed piece. There is no restriction placed on the piece that is chosen on promotion, so it is possible to have more pieces of the same type than at the start of the game (for example, two queens).
Check
Main article: Check (chess)
Solid white.svg a b c d e f g h Solid white.svg
8 black king black king black king black king black king black king black king black king 8
7 black king black king black king black king black king black king black king black king 7
6 black king black king black king black king black king black king black king black king 6
5 black king black king black king black king black king black king black king black king 5
4 black king black king black king black king black king black king black king black king 4
3 black king black king black king black king black king black king black king black king 3
2 black king black king white rook black king black king black king black king black king 2
1 black king black king black king black king white king black king black king black king 1
Solid white.svg a b c d e f g h Solid white.svg
The black king is being checked by the white rook.

When a king is under immediate attack by one or two of the opponent's pieces, it is said to be in check. A response to a check is a legal move if it results in a position where the king is no longer under direct attack (that is, not in check). This can involve capturing the checking piece; interposing a piece between the checking piece and the king (which is possible only if the attacking piece is a queen, rook, or bishop and there is a square between it and the king); or moving the king to a square where it is not under attack. Castling is not a permissible response to a check. The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent; this occurs when the opponent's king is in check, and there is no legal way to remove it from attack. It is illegal for a player to make a move that would put or leave his own king in check.
End of the game

Although the objective of the game is to checkmate the opponent, chess games do not have to end in checkmate — either player may resign which is a win for the other player. It is considered bad etiquette to continue playing when in a truly hopeless position.[3] If it is a game with time control, a player may run out of time and lose, even with a much superior position. Games also may end in a draw (tie). A draw can occur in several situations, including draw by agreement, stalemate, threefold repetition of a position, the fifty-move rule, or a draw by impossibility of checkmate (usually because of insufficient material to checkmate). As checkmate from some positions cannot be forced in fewer than 50 moves (such as in the pawnless chess endgame and two knights endgame), the fifty-move rule is not applied everywhere,[note 2] particularly in correspondence chess.
White is in checkmate
Solid white.svg a b c d e f g h Solid white.svg
8 a8 black king b8 black king c8 black king d8 black king e8 black king f8 black king g8 black king h8 black king 8
7 a7 black king b7 black king c7 black king d7 black king e7 black king f7 black king g7 black king h7 black king 7
6 a6 black king b6 black king c6 black king d6 black king e6 black king f6 black king g6 black king h6 black king 6
5 a5 black king b5 black king c5 black king d5 black king e5 black king f5 black king g5 black king h5 black king 5
4 a4 black king b4 black king c4 black king d4 black king e4 black king f4 black king g4 black king h4 black king 4
3 a3 black king b3 black king c3 black king d3 black king e3 black bishop f3 black bishop g3 black king h3 black king 3
2 a2 black king b2 black king c2 black king d2 black king e2 black king f2 black king g2 black king h2 black king 2
1 a1 black king b1 black king c1 black king d1 black king e1 black king f1 black king g1 black king h1 white king 1
Solid white.svg a b c d e f g h Solid white.svg
White is in checkmate. He cannot escape from being attacked by the Black king and bishops.
Stalemate
Solid white.svg a b c d e f g h Solid white.svg
8 a8 black king b8 black king c8 black king d8 black king e8 black king f8 black king g8 black king h8 black king 8
7 a7 black king b7 black king c7 black king d7 black king e7 black king f7 black king g7 black king h7 black king 7
6 a6 black king b6 black king c6 white queen d6 black king e6 black king f6 black king g6 black king h6 black king 6
5 a5 black king b5 black king c5 black king d5 black king e5 black king f5 black king g5 black king h5 black king 5
4 a4 black king b4 black king c4 white king d4 black king e4 black king f4 black king g4 black king h4 black king 4
3 a3 black king b3 black king c3 black king d3 black king e3 black king f3 black king g3 black king h3 black king 3
2 a2 black king b2 black king c2 black king d2 black king e2 black king f2 black king g2 black king h2 black king 2
1 a1 black king b1 black king c1 black king d1 black king e1 black king f1 black king g1 black king h1 black king 1
Solid white.svg a b c d e f g h Solid white.svg
Stalemate if Black is to move. The position is not checkmate, and since Black cannot move, the game is a draw.
Time control
A modern digital chess clock

Besides casual games without any time restriction, chess is also played with a time control, mostly by club and professional players. If a player's time runs out before the game is completed, the game is automatically lost (provided his opponent has enough pieces left to deliver checkmate). The duration of a game ranges from long games played up to seven hours to shorter rapid chess games, usually lasting 30 minutes or one hour per game. Even shorter is blitz chess, with a time control of three to fifteen minutes for each player, and bullet chess (under three minutes). In tournament play, time is controlled using a game clock that has two displays, one for each player's remaining time.
Notation for recording moves
Naming the squares in algebraic chess notation
Main article: Chess notation

Chess games and positions are recorded using a special notation, most often algebraic chess notation.[5] Abbreviated (or short) algebraic notation generally records moves in the format "abbreviation of the piece moved – file where it moved – rank where it moved." For example, Qg5 means "queen moves to the g-file and 5th rank (that is, to the square g5). If there are two pieces of the same type that can move to the same square, one more letter or number is added to indicate the file or rank from which the piece moved, e.g. Ngf3 means "knight from the g-file moves to the square f3". The letter P indicating a pawn is not used, so that e4 means "pawn moves to the square e4".

If the piece makes a capture, "x" is inserted before the destination square. Thus Bxf3 means "bishop captures on f3". When a pawn makes a capture, the file from which the pawn departed is used in place of a piece initial, and ranks may be omitted if unambiguous. For example, exd5 (pawn on the e-file captures the piece on d5) or exd (pawn on e-file captures something on the d-file).
"Scholar's mate"

If a pawn moves to its last rank, achieving promotion, the piece chosen is indicated after the move, for example e1Q or e1=Q. Castling is indicated by the special notations 0–0 for kingside castling and 0–0–0 for queenside castling. A move that places the opponent's king in check usually has the notation "+" added. Checkmate can be indicated by "#" (occasionally "++", although this is sometimes used for a double check instead). At the end of the game, "1–0" means "White won," "0–1" means "Black won," and "½–½" indicates a draw.[6]

Chess moves can be annotated with punctuation marks and other symbols. For example "!" indicates a good move, "!!" an excellent move, "?" a mistake, "??" a blunder, "!?" an interesting move that may not be best, or "?!" a dubious move, but not easily refuted.[7]

For example, one variant of a simple trap known as the Scholar's mate, animated in the picture to the right, can be recorded:

e4 e5
Qh5?! Nc6
Bc4 Nf6??
Qxf7# 1–0

Strategy and tactics

Chess strategy consists of setting and achieving long-term goals during the game – for example, where to place different pieces – while tactics concentrate on immediate maneuver. These two parts of the chess-playing process cannot be completely separated, because strategic goals are mostly achieved by the means of tactics, while the tactical opportunities are based on the previous strategy of play. A game of chess is normally divided into three phases: opening, typically the first 10 moves, when players move their pieces to useful positions for the coming battle; then middlegame; and last the endgame, when most of the pieces are gone, kings typically take a more active part in the struggle, and pawn promotion is often decisive.
Fundamentals of tactics
Main article: Chess tactics
Mikhail Botvinnik vs. Mikhail Yudovich[8]
Solid white.svg a b c d e f g h Solid white.svg
8 black rook black king black bishop black king black king black rook black king black king 8
7 black king black pawn __ black knight black queen black king black bishop black king 7
6 black king black knight black pawn __ black pawn black king black king black pawn 6
5 black pawn black king black king black king black king black king __ __ 5
4 __ __ __ white pawn white knight __ __ __ 4
3 __ white pawn __ __ white bishop __ __ black king 3
2 black king black king white queen black king white bishop white pawn white pawn white pawn 2
1 black king black king white rook white rook black king black king white king black king 1
Solid white.svg a b c d e f g h Solid white.svg
After sacrificing a piece to expose Black's king, Botvinnik played 1. Bh5+ and Yudovich resigned, as mate is inevitable: 1...Kxh5 2.Ng3+ Kh4 3.Qe4+ Rf4 4.Qxf4#, 1...Kf5 2.g4#, or 1...Kh7 2.Nf6+ double check Kh8 3.Qh7#.

In chess, tactics in general concentrate on short-term actions – so short-term that they can be calculated in advance by a human player or by a computer. The possible depth of calculation depends on the player's ability. In quiet positions with many possibilities on both sides, a deep calculation is more difficult and may not be practical, while in "tactical" positions with a limited number of forced variations where much less than the best move would lose quickly, strong players can calculate long sequences of moves.

Simple one-move or two-move tactical actions – threats, exchanges of material, and double attacks – can be combined into more complicated combinations, sequences of tactical maneuvers that are often forced from the point of view of one or both players.[9] Theoreticians described many elementary tactical methods and typical maneuvers; for example, pins, forks, skewers, batteries, discovered attacks (especially discovered checks), zwischenzugs, deflections, decoys, sacrifices, underminings, overloadings, and interferences.[10]

A forced variation that involves a sacrifice and usually results in a tangible gain is called a combination.[9] Brilliant combinations – such as those in the Immortal Game – are considered beautiful and are admired by chess lovers. A common type of chess exercise, aimed at developing players' skills, is showing players a position where a decisive combination is available and challenging them to find it.[11]
Fundamentals of strategy
Main article: Chess strategy

Chess strategy is concerned with evaluation of chess positions and with setting up goals and long-term plans for the future play. During the evaluation, players must take into account numerous factors such as the value of the pieces on the board, control of the center and centralization, the pawn structure, king safety, and the control of key squares or groups of squares (for example, diagonals, open files, and dark or light squares).
An example of visualizing pawn structures
Solid white.svg a b c d e f g h Solid white.svg
8 a8 black rook b8 __ c8 black bishop d8 __ e8 black rook f8 __ g8 black king h8 __ 8
7 a7 black pawn b7 black pawn c7 __ d7 black knight e7 __ f7 black pawn g7 black bishop h7 black pawn 7
6 a6 __ b6 __ c6 black pawn d6 white rook e6 __ f6 black knight g6 black pawn h6 __ 6
5 a5 __ b5 __ c5 __ d5 __ e5 black pawn f5 __ g5 __ h5 __ 5
4 a4 __ b4 __ c4 white pawn d4 __ e4 white pawn f4 __ g4 __ h4 __ 4
3 a3 __ b3 __ c3 white knight d3 __ e3 white bishop f3 white knight g3 __ h3 white pawn 3
2 a2 white pawn b2 white pawn c2 __ d2 __ e2 __ f2 white pawn g2 white pawn h2 __ 2
1 a1 __ b1 __ c1 white king d1 __ e1 __ f1 white bishop g1 __ h1 white rook 1
Solid white.svg a b c d e f g h Solid white.svg

After 12...Re8 in Tarrasch–Euwe[12]...

Solid white.svg a b c d e f g h Solid white.svg
8 a8 __ b8 __ c8 __ d8 __ e8 __ f8 __ g8 __ h8 __ 8
7 a7 black pawn b7 black pawn c7 __ d7 __ e7 __ f7 black pawn g7 __ h7 black pawn 7
6 a6 __ b6 __ c6 black pawn d6 __ e6 __ f6 __ g6 black pawn h6 __ 6
5 a5 __ b5 __ c5 __ d5 __ e5 black pawn f5 __ g5 __ h5 __ 5
4 a4 __ b4 __ c4 white pawn d4 __ e4 white pawn f4 __ g4 __ h4 __ 4
3 a3 __ b3 __ c3 __ d3 __ e3 __ f3 __ g3 __ h3 white pawn 3
2 a2 white pawn b2 white pawn c2 __ d2 __ e2 __ f2 white pawn g2 white pawn h2 __ 2
1 a1 __ b1 __ c1 __ d1 __ e1 __ f1 __ g1 __ h1 __ 1
Solid white.svg a b c d e f g h Solid white.svg
...and its pawn skeleton (the "Rauzer formation")

The most basic step in evaluating a position is to count the total value of pieces of both sides.[13] The point values used for this purpose are based on experience; usually pawns are considered worth one point, knights and bishops about three points each, rooks about five points (the value difference between a rook and a bishop or knight being known as the exchange), and queens about nine points. The king is more valuable than all of the other pieces combined, since its checkmate loses the game. But in practical terms, in the endgame the king as a fighting piece is generally more powerful than a bishop or knight but less powerful than a rook.[14] These basic values are then modified by other factors like position of the piece (for example, advanced pawns are usually more valuable than those on their initial squares), coordination between pieces (for example, a pair of bishops usually coordinate better than a bishop and a knight), or the type of position (knights are generally better in closed positions with many pawns while bishops are more powerful in open positions).[15]

Another important factor in the evaluation of chess positions is the pawn structure (sometimes known as the pawn skeleton), or the configuration of pawns on the chessboard.[16] Since pawns are the least mobile of the chess pieces, the pawn structure is relatively static and largely determines the strategic nature of the position. Weaknesses in the pawn structure, such as isolated, doubled, or backward pawns and holes, once created, are often permanent. Care must therefore be taken to avoid these weaknesses unless they are compensated by another valuable asset (for example, by the possibility of developing an attack).[17]
Opening
Main article: Chess opening

A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a game (the "opening moves"). Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings and have been given names such as the Ruy Lopez or Sicilian Defence. They are catalogued in reference works such as the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings. There are dozens of different openings, varying widely in character from quiet positional play (for example, the Réti Opening) to very aggressive (the Latvian Gambit). In some opening lines, the exact sequence considered best for both sides has been worked out to more than 30 moves.[18] Professional players spend years studying openings and continue doing so throughout their careers, as opening theory continues to evolve.

The fundamental strategic aims of most openings are similar:[19]

Development: This is the technique of placing the pieces (particularly bishops and knights) on useful squares where they will have an optimal impact on the game.
Control of the center: Control of the central squares allows pieces to be moved to any part of the board relatively easily, and can also have a cramping effect on the opponent.
King safety: It is critical to keep the king safe from dangerous possibilities. A correctly timed castling can often enhance this.
Pawn structure: Players strive to avoid the creation of pawn weaknesses such as isolated, doubled, or backward pawns, and pawn islands – and to force such weaknesses in the opponent's position.

Most players and theoreticians consider that White, by virtue of the first move, begins the game with a small advantage. This initially gives White the initiative.[20] Black usually strives to neutralize White's advantage and achieve equality, or to develop dynamic counterplay in an unbalanced position.
Middlegame
Main article: Chess middlegame

The middlegame is the part of the game which starts after the opening. There is no clear line between the opening and the middlegame, but typically the middlegame will start when most pieces have been developed. (Similarly, there is no clear transition from the middlegame to the endgame; see start of the endgame.) Because the opening theory has ended, players have to form plans based on the features of the position, and at the same time take into account the tactical possibilities of the position.[21] The middlegame is the phase in which most combinations occur. Combinations are a series of tactical moves executed to achieve some gain. Middlegame combinations are often connected with an attack against the opponent's king; some typical patterns have their own names; for example, the Boden's Mate or the Lasker–Bauer combination.[22]

Specific plans or strategic themes will often arise from particular groups of openings which result in a specific type of pawn structure. An example is the minority attack, which is the attack of queenside pawns against an opponent who has more pawns on the queenside. The study of openings is therefore connected to the preparation of plans that are typical of the resulting middlegames.[23]

Another important strategic question in the middlegame is whether and how to reduce material and transition into an endgame (i.e. simplify). Minor material advantages can generally be transformed into victory only in an endgame, and therefore the stronger side must choose an appropriate way to achieve an ending. Not every reduction of material is good for this purpose; for example, if one side keeps a light-squared bishop and the opponent has a dark-squared one, the transformation into a bishops and pawns ending is usually advantageous for the weaker side only, because an endgame with bishops on opposite colors is likely to be a draw, even with an advantage of a pawn, or sometimes even with a two-pawn advantage.[24]
Endgame
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8 a8 __ b8 __ c8 black king d8 __ e8 __ f8 __ g8 __ h8 __ 8
7 a7 __ b7 __ c7 white pawn d7 __ e7 __ f7 __ g7 __ h7 __ 7
6 a6 __ b6 __ c6 __ d6 white king e6 __ f6 __ g6 __ h6 __ 6
5 a5 __ b5 __ c5 __ d5 __ e5 __ f5 __ g5 __ h5 __ 5
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3 a3 __ b3 __ c3 __ d3 __ e3 __ f3 __ g3 __ h3 __ 3
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1 a1 __ b1 __ c1 __ d1 __ e1 __ f1 __ g1 __ h1 __ 1
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An example of zugzwang: the side which is to make a move is at a disadvantage.
Main article: Chess endgame

The endgame (or end game or ending) is the stage of the game when there are few pieces left on the board. There are three main strategic differences between earlier stages of the game and endgame:[25]

During the endgame, pawns become more important; endgames often revolve around attempting to promote a pawn by advancing it to the eighth rank.
The king, which has to be protected in the middlegame owing to the threat of checkmate, becomes a strong piece in the endgame. It is often brought to the center of the board where it can protect its own pawns, attack the pawns of opposite color, and hinder movement of the opponent's king.
Zugzwang, a disadvantage because the player has to make a move, is often a factor in endgames but rarely in other stages of the game. For example, the diagram on the right is zugzwang for both sides, as with Black to move he must play 1...Kb7 and let White promote a pawn after 2.Kd7; and with White to move he must allow a draw by 1.Kc6 stalemate or lose his last pawn by any other legal move.

Endgames can be classified according to the type of pieces that remain on board. Basic checkmates are positions in which one side has only a king and the other side has one or two pieces and can checkmate the opposing king, with the pieces working together with their king. For example, king and pawn endgames involve only kings and pawns on one or both sides and the task of the stronger side is to promote one of the pawns. Other more complicated endings are classified according to the pieces on board other than kings, such as the "rook and pawn versus rook endgame".
History
Main article: History of chess
Predecessors
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8 a8 b8 c8 d8 e8 f8 g8 h8 8
7 a7 b7 c7 d7 e7 f7 g7 h7 7
6 a6 b6 c6 d6 e6 f6 g6 h6 6
5 a5 b5 c5 d5 e5 f5 g5 h5 5
4 a4 b4 c4 d4 e4 f4 g4 h4 4
3 a3 b3 c3 d3 e3 f3 g3 h3 3
2 a2 b2 c2 d2 e2 f2 g2 h2 2
1 a1 b1 c1 d1 e1 f1 g1 h1 1
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Ashtāpada, the uncheckered 8x8 board, sometimes with special marks, on which Chaturanga was played.
Iranian chess set, glazed fritware, 12th century, New York Metropolitan Museum of Art

Chess is commonly believed to have originated in northwest India during the Gupta empire,[26][27][28][29] where its early form in the 6th century was known as caturaṅga (Sanskrit: four divisions [of the military] – infantry, cavalry, elephants, and chariotry, represented by the pieces that would evolve into the modern pawn, knight, bishop, and rook, respectively). The earliest evidence of chess is found in the neighboring Sassanid Persia around 600, where the game came to be known under the name chatrang. Chatrang is evoked inside three epic romances written in Pahlavi (Middle Persian). Chatrang was taken up by the Muslim world after the Islamic conquest of Persia (633–644), where it was then named shatranj, with the pieces largely retaining their Persian names. In Spanish "shatranj" was rendered as ajedrez ("al-shatranj"), in Portuguese as xadrez, and in Greek as zatrikion (which comes directly from the Persian chatrang), but in the rest of Europe it was replaced by versions of the Persian shāh ("king"), which was familiar as an exclamation and became the English words "check" and "chess".[note 3] Murray theorized that Muslim traders came to European seaports with ornamental chess kings as curios before they brought the game of chess.[28]

The game reached Western Europe and Russia by at least three routes, the earliest being in the 9th century. By the year 1000 it had spread throughout Europe.[30] Introduced into the Iberian Peninsula by the Moors in the 10th century, it was described in a famous 13th-century manuscript covering shatranj, backgammon, and dice named the Libro de los juegos. Another theory contends that chess arose from the game xiangqi (Chinese Chess) or one of its predecessors,[31] although this has been contested.[32]
Origins of the modern game (1000–1850)
Knights Templar playing chess, Libro de los juegos, 1283
A tactical puzzle from Lucena's 1497 book

Around 1200, the rules of shatranj started to be modified in southern Europe, and around 1475, several major changes made the game essentially as it is known today.[30] These modern rules for the basic moves had been adopted in Italy and Spain.[33][34] Pawns gained the option of advancing two squares on their first move, while bishops and queens acquired their modern abilities. The queen replaced the earlier vizier chess piece towards the end of the 10th century and by the 15th century had become the most powerful piece;[35] consequently modern chess was referred to as "Queen's Chess" or "Mad Queen Chess".[36] These new rules quickly spread throughout western Europe. The rules about stalemate were finalized in the early 19th century. To distinguish it from its predecessors, this version of the rules is sometimes referred to as western chess[37] or international chess.[38]

Writings about the theory of how to play chess began to appear in the 15th century. The Repetición de Amores y Arte de Ajedrez (Repetition of Love and the Art of Playing Chess) by Spanish churchman Luis Ramirez de Lucena was published in Salamanca in 1497.[34] Lucena and later masters like Portuguese Pedro Damiano, Italians Giovanni Leonardo Di Bona, Giulio Cesare Polerio and Gioachino Greco, and Spanish bishop Ruy López de Segura developed elements of openings and started to analyze simple endgames.
François-André Danican Philidor, 18th-century French chess master

In the 18th century, the center of European chess life moved from the Southern European countries to France. The two most important French masters were François-André Danican Philidor, a musician by profession, who discovered the importance of pawns for chess strategy, and later Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais, who won a famous series of matches with the Irish master Alexander McDonnell in 1834.[39] Centers of chess activity in this period were coffee houses in big European cities like Café de la Régence in Paris and Simpson's Divan in London.[40][41]

As the 19th century progressed, chess organization developed quickly. Many chess clubs, chess books, and chess journals appeared. There were correspondence matches between cities; for example, the London Chess Club played against the Edinburgh Chess Club in 1824.[42] Chess problems became a regular part of 19th-century newspapers; Bernhard Horwitz, Josef Kling, and Samuel Loyd composed some of the most influential problems. In 1843, von der Lasa published his and Bilguer's Handbuch des Schachspiels (Handbook of Chess), the first comprehensive manual of chess theory.
Birth of a sport (1850–1945)
The "Immortal Game", Anderssen-Kieseritzky, 1851

The first modern chess tournament was held in London in 1851 and was won by German Adolf Anderssen, relatively unknown at the time. Anderssen was hailed as the leading chess master and his brilliant, energetic attacking style became typical for the time, although it was later regarded as strategically shallow.[43][44] Sparkling games like Anderssen's Immortal game and Evergreen game or Morphy's Opera game were regarded as the highest possible summit of the chess art.[45]

Deeper insight into the nature of chess came with two younger players. American Paul Morphy, an extraordinary chess prodigy, won against all important competitors (except Howard Staunton, who refused to play), including Anderssen, during his short chess career between 1857 and 1863. Morphy's success stemmed from a combination of brilliant attacks and sound strategy; he intuitively knew how to prepare attacks.[46] Prague-born Wilhelm Steinitz later described how to avoid weaknesses in one's own position and how to create and exploit such weaknesses in the opponent's position.[47] The scientific approach and positional understanding of Steinitz revolutionized the game. Steinitz was the first to break a position down into its components.[48] Before Steinitz, players brought their queen out early, did not completely develop their other pieces, and mounted a quick attack on the opposing king, which either succeeded or failed. The level of defense was poor and players did not form any deep plan.[49] In addition to his theoretical achievements, Steinitz founded an important tradition: his triumph over the leading German master Johannes Zukertort in 1886 is regarded as the first official World Chess Championship. Steinitz lost his crown in 1894 to a much younger player, the German mathematician Emanuel Lasker, who maintained this title for 27 years, the longest tenure of all World Champions.[50]
Chess Players in late 19th Century Istanbul, by Stanisław Chlebowski.

It took a prodigy from Cuba, José Raúl Capablanca (World Champion 1921–27), who loved simple positions and endgames, to end the German-speaking dominance in chess; he was undefeated in tournament play for eight years, until 1924. His successor was Russian-French Alexander Alekhine, a strong attacking player who died as the World champion in 1946. He briefly lost the title to Dutch player Max Euwe in 1935 and regained it two years later.[51]

Between the world wars, chess was revolutionized by the new theoretical school of so-called hypermodernists like Aron Nimzowitsch and Richard Réti. They advocated controlling the center of the board with distant pieces rather than with pawns, which invited opponents to occupy the center with pawns, which become objects of attack.[52]

After the end of the 19th century, the number of master tournaments and matches held annually quickly grew. Some sources state that in 1914 the title of chess grandmaster was first formally conferred by Tsar Nicholas II of Russia to Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Tarrasch, and Marshall, but this is a disputed claim.[note 4] The tradition of awarding such titles was continued by the World Chess Federation (FIDE), founded in 1924 in Paris. In 1927, the Women's World Chess Championship was established; the first to hold the title was Czech-English master Vera Menchik.[53]
Post-war era (1945 and later)
Wehrmacht soldiers playing chess, France, 1943

After the death of Alekhine, a new World Champion was sought. FIDE, who have controlled the title since then (except for one interruption), ran a tournament of elite players. The winner of the 1948 tournament, Russian Mikhail Botvinnik, started an era of Soviet dominance in the chess world. Until the end of the Soviet Union, there was only one non-Soviet champion, American Bobby Fischer (champion 1972–1975).[54] Botvinnik revolutionized opening theory. Previously Black strove for equality, to neutralize White's first-move advantage. As Black, Botvinnik strove for the initiative from the beginning.[55] In the previous informal system of World Championships, the current champion decided which challenger he would play for the title and the challenger was forced to seek sponsors for the match. FIDE set up a new system of qualifying tournaments and matches. The world's strongest players were seeded into Interzonal tournaments, where they were joined by players who had qualified from Zonal tournaments. The leading finishers in these Interzonals would go on the "Candidates" stage, which was initially a tournament, and later a series of knock-out matches. The winner of the Candidates would then play the reigning champion for the title. A champion defeated in a match had a right to play a rematch a year later. This system operated on a three-year cycle. Botvinnik participated in championship matches over a period of fifteen years. He won the world championship tournament in 1948 and retained the title in tied matches in 1951 and 1954. In 1957, he lost to Vasily Smyslov, but regained the title in a rematch in 1958. In 1960, he lost the title to the 23-year-old Latvian prodigy Mikhail Tal, an accomplished tactician and attacking player. Botvinnik again regained the title in a rematch in 1961.

Following the 1961 event, FIDE abolished the automatic right of a deposed champion to a rematch, and the next champion, Armenian Tigran Petrosian, a genius of defense and a strong positional player, held the title for two cycles, 1963–1969. His successor, Boris Spassky from Russia (champion 1969–1972), was able to win in both positional and sharp tactical style.[56] The next championship, the so-called Match of the Century, saw the first non-Soviet challenger since World War II, American Bobby Fischer, who defeated his Candidates opponents by unheard-of margins and clearly won the world championship match. In 1975, however, Fischer refused to defend his title against Soviet Anatoly Karpov when FIDE did not meet his demands, and Karpov obtained the title by default.[57] Fischer modernized many aspects of chess, especially by extensively preparing openings.[58]

Karpov defended his title twice against Viktor Korchnoi and dominated the 1970s and early 1980s with a string of tournament successes.[59] Karpov's reign finally ended in 1985 at the hands of Garry Kasparov, another Soviet player from Baku, Azerbaijan. Kasparov and Karpov contested five world title matches between 1984 and 1990; Karpov never won his title back.[60] In 1993, Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short broke with FIDE to organize their own match for the title and formed a competing Professional Chess Association (PCA). From then until 2006, there were two simultaneous World Champions and World Championships: the PCA or Classical champion extending the Steinitzian tradition in which the current champion plays a challenger in a series of many games, and the other following FIDE's new format of many players competing in a tournament to determine the champion. Kasparov lost his Classical title in 2000 to Vladimir Kramnik of Russia.[61] The World Chess Championship 2006 reunified the titles. Kramnik beat the FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov and became the undisputed World Chess Champion.[62] In September 2007, he lost the title to Viswanathan Anand of India, who won the championship tournament in Mexico City. Anand defended his title in the revenge match of 2008.[63]
Place in culture
Noble chess players, Germany, c. 1320
Main article: Chess in the arts and literature
Pre-modern

In the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance, chess was a part of noble culture; it was used to teach war strategy and was dubbed the "King's Game".[64] Gentlemen are "to be meanly seene in the play at Chestes", says the overview at the beginning of Baldassare Castiglione's The Book of the Courtier (1528, English 1561 by Sir Thomas Hoby), but chess should not be a gentleman's main passion. Castiglione explains it further:

And what say you to the game at chestes? It is truely an honest kynde of enterteynmente and wittie, quoth Syr Friderick. But me think it hath a fault, whiche is, that a man may be to couning at it, for who ever will be excellent in the playe of chestes, I beleave he must beestowe much tyme about it, and applie it with so much study, that a man may assoone learne some noble scyence, or compase any other matter of importaunce, and yet in the ende in beestowing all that laboure, he knoweth no more but a game. Therfore in this I beleave there happeneth a very rare thing, namely, that the meane is more commendable, then the excellency.[65]

Two kings and two queens from the Lewis chessmen at the British Museum

Many of the elaborate chess sets used by the aristocracy have been lost, but others partially survive, such as the Lewis chessmen.

Chess was often used as a basis of sermons on morality. An example is Liber de moribus hominum et officiis nobilium sive super ludo scacchorum ('Book of the customs of men and the duties of nobles or the Book of Chess'), written by an Italian Dominican monk Jacobus de Cessolis c. 1300. This book was one of the most popular of the Middle Ages.[66] The work was translated into many other languages (the first printed edition was published at Utrecht in 1473) and was the basis for William Caxton's The Game and Playe of the Chesse (1474), one of the first books printed in English.[67] Different chess pieces were used as metaphors for different classes of people, and human duties were derived from the rules of the game or from visual properties of the chess pieces:[68]

The knyght ought to be made alle armed upon an hors in suche wyse that he haue an helme on his heed and a spere in his ryght hande/ and coueryd wyth his sheld/ a swerde and a mace on his lyft syde/ Cladd wyth an hawberk and plates to fore his breste/ legge harnoys on his legges/ Spores on his heelis on his handes his gauntelettes/ his hors well broken and taught and apte to bataylle and couerid with his armes/ whan the knyghtes ben maad they ben bayned or bathed/ that is the signe that they shold lede a newe lyf and newe maners/ also they wake alle the nyght in prayers and orysons vnto god that he wylle gyue hem grace that they may gete that thynge that they may not gete by nature/ The kynge or prynce gyrdeth a boute them a swerde in signe/ that they shold abyde and kepe hym of whom they take theyr dispenses and dignyte.[69]

Known in the circles of clerics, students, and merchants, chess entered into the popular culture of Middle Ages. An example is the 209th song of Carmina Burana from the 13th century, which starts with the names of chess pieces, Roch, pedites, regina...[70]
Modern

During the Age of Enlightenment, chess was viewed as a means of self-improvement. Benjamin Franklin, in his article "The Morals of Chess" (1750), wrote:

"The Game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement; several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired and strengthened by it, so as to become habits ready on all occasions; for life is a kind of Chess, in which we have often points to gain, and competitors or adversaries to contend with, and in which there is a vast variety of good and ill events, that are, in some degree, the effect of prudence, or the want of it. By playing at Chess then, we may learn: I. Foresight, which looks a little into futurity, and considers the consequences that may attend an action [...] II. Circumspection, which surveys the whole Chess-board, or scene of action: – the relation of the several Pieces, and their situations [...] III. Caution, not to make our moves too hastily [...]"[71]

Through the Looking-Glass: the Red King is snoring. Illustration by John Tenniel

With these or similar hopes, chess is taught to children in schools around the world today. Many schools host chess clubs, and there are many scholastic tournaments specifically for children. Tournaments are held regularly in many countries, hosted by organizations such as the United States Chess Federation and the National Scholastic Chess Foundation.[72]
A large-sized chess game is made available on a seasonal basis inside the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Maryland.

Chess is often depicted in the arts; significant works where chess plays a key role range from Thomas Middleton's A Game at Chess to Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll to The Royal Game by Stefan Zweig and Vladimir Nabokov's The Defense. The thriller film Knight Moves is about a chess grandmaster who is accused of being a serial killer. Chess is featured in films like Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal and Satyajit Ray's The Chess Players.

In the video game Killer 7, the protagonist and the antagonist frequently play chess together; in the survival horror game Deadly Premonition, chess is the theme of a puzzle.

Chess is also present in the contemporary popular culture. For example, J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter plays "Wizard's Chess", while the characters of Star Trek prefer "Tri-Dimensional Chess". The hero of Searching for Bobby Fischer struggles against adopting the aggressive and misanthropic views of a real chess grandmaster.[73] Chess has been used as the core theme of a musical, Chess, by Tim Rice, Björn Ulvaeus, and Benny Andersson.

Approximately 600 million people worldwide know how to play chess.[74]
Chess composition
Main article: Chess problem

Chess composition is the art of creating chess problems (the problems themselves are sometimes also called chess compositions). A person who creates such problems is known as a chess composer.[75] There are many types of chess problems. The two most important are:

Directmates: white to move first and checkmate black within a specified number of moves against any defense. These are often referred to as "mate in n" – for example "mate in three" (a three-mover).[76]
Studies: orthodox problems in which the stipulation is that white to play must win or draw. Almost all studies are endgame positions.[77]

Chess composition is a distinct branch of chess sport, and tournaments (or tourneys) exist for both the composition and solving of chess problems.[78]
Example
Richard Réti
Ostrauer Morgenzeitung 4 December 1921
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8 a8 __ b8 __ c8 __ d8 __ e8 __ f8 __ g8 __ h8 white king 8
7 a7 __ b7 __ c7 __ d7 __ e7 __ f7 __ g7 __ h7 __ 7
6 a6 black king b6 __ c6 white pawn d6 __ e6 __ f6 __ g6 __ h6 __ 6
5 a5 __ b5 __ c5 __ d5 __ e5 __ f5 __ g5 __ h5 black pawn 5
4 a4 __ b4 __ c4 __ d4 __ e4 __ f4 __ g4 __ h4 __ 4
3 a3 __ b3 __ c3 __ d3 __ e3 __ f3 __ g3 __ h3 __ 3
2 a2 __ b2 __ c2 __ d2 __ e2 __ f2 __ g2 __ h2 __ 2
1 a1 __ b1 __ c1 __ d1 __ e1 __ f1 __ g1 __ h1 __ 1
Solid white.svg a b c d e f g h Solid white.svg
White to play and draw
Main article: Réti endgame study

This is one of the most famous chess studies; it was published by Richard Réti in 1921. It seems impossible to catch the advanced black pawn, while the black king can easily stop the white pawn. The solution is a diagonal advance, which brings the king to both pawns at the same time: 1.Kg7! h4 2.Kf6! Kb6 (or 2...h3 3.Ke7 and the white king can support its pawn) 3. Ke5!! (now the white king comes just in time to support his pawn, or catch the black one) 3...h3 4. Kd6 draw.[79]
Competitive play
Organization of competitions

Contemporary chess is an organized sport with structured international and national leagues, tournaments, and congresses. Chess's international governing body is FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Échecs). Most countries have a national chess organization as well (such as the US Chess Federation and English Chess Federation) which in turn is a member of FIDE. FIDE is a member of the International Olympic Committee,[80] but the game of chess has never been part of the Olympic Games; chess does have its own Olympiad, held every two years as a team event.
The current World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand (left) playing chess against his predecessor Vladimir Kramnik

The current World Chess Champion is Viswanathan Anand of India.[81] The reigning Women's World Champion is Hou Yifan from China. The world's highest rated female player, Judit Polgár, has never participated in the Women's World Chess Championship, instead preferring to compete with the leading men and maintaining a ranking among the top male players.[82]

Other competitions for individuals include the World Junior Chess Championship, the European Individual Chess Championship, and the National Chess Championships. Invitation-only tournaments regularly attract the world's strongest players. Examples include Spain's Linares event, Monte Carlo's Melody Amber tournament, the Dortmund Sparkassen meeting, Sofia's M-tel Masters, and Wijk aan Zee's Tata Steel tournament.

Regular team chess events include the Chess Olympiad and the European Team Championship. The 38th Chess Olympiad was held 2008 in Dresden, Germany; Armenia won the gold in the unrestricted event for the second time in a row after Turin 2006, and Georgia took the top medal for the women. The World Chess Solving Championship and World Correspondence Chess Championships include both team and individual events.

interesting

[GV1]

I play Chess. Who wants a game?

[vishes]

War and Peace
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from War & Peace)
This article is about the Tolstoy novel. For other uses, see War and Peace (disambiguation).
War and Peace
Cover to the English first edition
Author(s) Leo Tolstoy
Original title Война и миръ, (Voyná i mir, "Война и мир" in contemporary orthography)
Language Russian, with considerable French
Genre(s) Historical, Romance, War novel, Philosophical
Publisher Russkii Vestnik (series)
Publication date 1869
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback) & Audio book
Pages 1,225 (first Published edition) ; 1,475 (2006 paperback issue)
ISBN NA

War and Peace (Russian: Война и мир, Pre-reform Russian: «Война и миръ») is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, published in 1869. The work is epic in scale and is regarded as one of the most important works of world literature.[1] It is regarded as Tolstoy's finest literary achievement, along with his other work Anna Karenina (1873–1877).

War and Peace delineates in graphic detail events leading up to the French invasion of Russia, and the impact of the Napoleonic era on Tsarist society, as seen through the eyes of five Russian aristocratic families. Portions of an earlier version of the novel, then known as The Year 1805,[2] were serialized in the magazine The Russian Messenger between 1865 and 1867. The novel was first published in its entirety in 1869.[3] Newsweek in 2009 ranked it top of its list of Top 100 Books.[4]

Tolstoy himself, somewhat enigmatically, said of War and Peace that it was "not a novel, even less is it a poem, and still less an historical chronicle."[5]
Contents
[hide]

1 Crafting the novel
1.1 Realism
2 Reception
3 Language
3.1 English translations
4 Background and historical context
5 Plot summary
5.1 Book/Volume One
5.2 Book/Volume Two
5.3 Book/Volume Three
5.4 Book/Volume Four
5.5 Epilogue in two parts
6 Principal characters in War and Peace
7 Adaptations
7.1 Film
7.2 Television
7.3 Opera
7.4 Theatre
7.5 Radio
7.6 Music
7.7 Full translations into English
8 See also
9 References
10 External links

[edit] Crafting the novel
Only known color photograph of the writer, taken at his Yasnaya Polyana estate in 1908 by Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky.
Tolstoy's notes from the ninth draft of War and Peace, 1864

War and Peace is famously long for a novel, though not the longest, and it is subdivided into four books or volumes, each with subparts containing many chapters.

Tolstoy came up with the title, and some of his themes, from an 1861 work of Proudhon: La Guerre et la Paix ('War and Peace' in French). Tolstoy had served in the Crimean War and written a series of short stories and novellas featuring scenes of war.

He began writing War and Peace in the year that he finally married and settled down at his country estate. The first half of the book was written under the name "1805".

During the writing of the second half, he read widely and acknowledged Schopenhauer as one of his main inspirations. However, Tolstoy developed his own views of history and the role of the individual within it.[6]

The novel can be generally classified as historical fiction. It contains elements present in many types of popular 18th and 19th century literature, especially the romance novel. War and Peace attains its literary status by transcending genres.

Tolstoy was instrumental in bringing a new kind of consciousness to the novel. His narrative structure is noted for its "god-like" ability to hover over and within events, but also in the way it swiftly and seamlessly portrayed a particular character's point of view.[7] His use of visual detail is often cinematic in its scope, using the literary equivalents of panning, wide shots and close-ups, to give dramatic interest to battles and ballrooms alike. These devices, while not exclusive to Tolstoy, are part of the new style of the novel that arose in the mid-19th century and of which Tolstoy proved himself a master.[8]
[edit] Realism

Tolstoy incorporated extensive historical research. He was also influenced by many other novels.[9] A veteran of the Crimean War, Tolstoy was quite critical of standard history, especially the standards of military history, in War and Peace. Tolstoy read all the standard histories available in Russian and French about the Napoleonic Wars and combined more traditional historical writing with the novel form. He explains at the start of the novel's third volume his own views on how history ought to be written. His aim was to blur the line between fiction and history, in order to get closer to the truth, as he states in Volume II.

The novel is set 60 years earlier than the time at which Tolstoy wrote it, "in the days of our grandfathers", as he puts it. He had spoken with people who had lived through war during the French invasion of Russia in 1812, so the book is also, in part, accurate ethnography fictionalized. He read letters, journals, autobiographical and biographical materials pertaining to Napoleon and the dozens of other historical characters in the novel. There are approximately 160 real persons named or referred to in War and Peace.[10]
[edit] Reception
Front page of War and Peace, first edition, 1869 (Russian)

The first draft of War and Peace was completed in 1863. In 1865, the periodical Russkiy Vestnik published the first part of this early version under the title 1805. In the following year, it published more of the same early version. Tolstoy was dissatisfied with this version, although he allowed several parts of it to be published (with a different ending) in 1867, still under the same title "1805". He heavily rewrote the entire novel between 1866 and 1869.[11] Tolstoy's wife, Sophia Tolstoya, wrote as many as seven separate complete manuscripts by hand before Tolstoy considered it again ready for publication.[12] The version that was published in Russkiy Vestnik had a very different ending from the version eventually published under the title War and Peace in 1869.

The completed novel was then called Voyna i mir (new style orthography; in English War and Peace).

The 1805 manuscript (sometimes referred to as "the original War and Peace") was re-edited and annotated in Russia in 1983 and since has been translated separately from the "known" version, to English, German, French, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Finnish, Albanian, and Korean. The fact that so many extant versions of War and Peace survive make it one of the best insights into the mental processes of a great novelist.

Russians who had read the serialized version were anxious to acquire the complete first edition, which included epilogues, and it sold out almost immediately. The novel was translated almost immediately after publication into many other languages.

Isaac Babel said, after reading War and Peace, "If the world could write by itself, it would write like Tolstoy."[13] Tolstoy "gives us a unique combination of the 'naive objectivity' of the oral narrator with the interest in detail characteristic of realism. This is the reason for our trust in his presentation."[14]
[edit] Language
Cover of War and Peace, Italian translation, 1899

Although Tolstoy wrote most of the book, including all the narration, in Russian, significant portions of dialogue (including its opening paragraph) are written in French with characters often switching between the two languages. This reflected 19th century Russian aristocracy, where French, a foreign tongue, was widely spoken and considered a language of prestige and more refined than Russian.[15] This came about from the historical influence throughout Europe of the powerful court of the Sun King, Louis XIV of France, leading to members of the Russian aristocracy being less competent in speaking their mother tongue. In War and Peace, for example, Julie Karagina, Princess Marya's friend, has to take Russian lessons in order to master her native language.

It has been suggested[16] that it is a deliberate literary device employed by Tolstoy, to use French to portray artifice and insincerity as the language of the theater and deceit while Russian emerges as a language of sincerity, honesty and seriousness. It displays slight irony that as Pierre and others socialize and use French phrases, they will be attacked by legions of Bonapartists in a very short time. It is sometimes used in satire against Napoleon. In the novel, when Pierre proposes to Hélène, he speaks to her in French — Je vous aime ('I love you'). When the marriage later emerges to be a sham, Pierre blames those French words.

The use of French diminishes as the book progresses and the wars with the French intensify, culminating in the capture and eventual burning of Moscow. The progressive elimination of French from the text is a means of demonstrating that Russia has freed itself from foreign cultural domination.[17] It is also, at the level of plot development, a way of showing that a once-admired and friendly nation, France, has turned into an enemy. By midway through the book, several of the Russian aristocracy, whose command of French is far better than their command of Russian, are anxious to find Russian tutors for themselves.
[edit] English translations

War and Peace has been translated into English on several occasions, starting with Clara Bell working from a French translation. The translators Constance Garnett and Louise and Aylmer Maude knew Tolstoy personally. Translations have to deal with Tolstoy’s often peculiar syntax and his fondness of repetitions. About 2% of War and Peace is in French; Tolstoy removed the French in a revised 1873 edition, only to restore it later.[17] Most translators follow Garnett retaining some French, Briggs uses no French, while Pevear-Volokhonsky and Amy Mandelker's revision of the Maude translation both retain the French fully.[17] (For a list of translations see below)
[edit] Background and historical context
In 1812 by the Russian artist Illarion Pryanishnikov

The novel begins in the year 1805 during the reign of Tsar Alexander I and leads up to the 1812 French invasion of Russia by Napoleon. The era of Catherine the Great (from 1762–1796), when the royal court in Paris was the centre of western European civilization,[18] is still fresh in the minds of older people. Catherine, fluent in French and wishing to reshape Russia into a great European nation, made French the language of her royal court. For the next one hundred years, it became a social requirement for members of the Russian nobility to speak French and understand French culture.[18] This historical and cultural context in the aristocracy is reflected in War and Peace. Catherine's grandson, Alexander I, came to the throne in 1801 at the age of 24. In the novel, his mother, Marya Feodorovna, is the most powerful woman in the Russian court.

War and Peace tells the story of five aristocratic families — the Bezukhovs, the Bolkonskys, the Rostovs, the Kuragins and the Drubetskoys—and the entanglements of their personal lives with the history of 1805–1813, principally Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812. The Bezukhovs, while very rich, are a fragmented family as the old Count, Kirill Vladimirovich, has fathered dozens of illegitimate sons. The Bolkonskys are an old established and wealthy family based at Bald Hills. Old Prince Bolkonsky, Nikolai Andreevich, served as a general under Catherine the Great, in earlier wars. The Moscow Rostovs have many estates, but never enough cash. They are a closely knit, loving family who live for the moment regardless of their financial situation. The Kuragin family has three children, who are all of questionable character. The Drubetskoy family is of impoverished nobility, and consists of an elderly mother and her only son, Boris, whom she wishes to push up the career ladder.

Tolstoy spent years researching and rewriting the book. He worked from primary source materials (interviews and other documents), as well as from history books, philosophy texts and other historical novels.[19] Tolstoy also used a great deal of his own experience in the Crimean War to bring vivid detail and first-hand accounts of how the Russian army was structured.[20]

The standard Russian text of War and Peace is divided into four books (fifteen parts) and an epilogue in two parts – one mainly narrative, the other thematic. While roughly the first half of the novel is concerned strictly with the fictional characters, the later parts, as well as one of the work's two epilogues, increasingly consist of essays about the nature of war, power, history, and historiography. Tolstoy interspersed these essays into the story in a way that defies previous fictional convention. Certain abridged versions remove these essays entirely, while others, published even during Tolstoy's life, simply moved these essays into an appendix.
[edit] Plot summary

War and Peace has a large cast of characters, the majority of whom are introduced in the first book. Some are actual historical figures, such as Napoleon and Alexander I. While the scope of the novel is vast, it is centered around five aristocratic families. The plot and the interactions of the characters take place in the era surrounding the 1812 French invasion of Russia during the Napoleonic wars.[21]
[edit] Book/Volume One
Empress dowager, Maria Feodorovna, mother of reigning Tsar Alexander I, is the most powerful woman in the Russian royal court, in the historical setting of the novel.

The novel begins in July 1805 in Saint Petersburg, at a soirée given by Anna Pavlovna Scherer — the maid of honour and confidante to the queen mother Maria Feodorovna. Many of the main characters and aristocratic families in the novel are introduced as they enter Anna Pavlovna's salon. Pierre (Pyotr Kirilovich) Bezukhov is the illegitimate son of a wealthy count, an elderly man who is dying after a series of strokes. Pierre is about to become embroiled in a struggle for his inheritance. Educated abroad at his father's expense following his mother's death, Pierre is essentially kindhearted, but socially awkward, and owing in part to his open, benevolent nature, finds it difficult to integrate into Petersburg society. It is known to everyone at the soirée that Pierre is his father's favorite of all the old count’s illegitimate children.

Also attending the soireé is Pierre's friend, the intelligent and sardonic Prince Andrei Nikolayevich Bolkonsky, husband of Lise, the charming society favourite. Finding Petersburg society unctuous and disillusioned with married life after discovering his wife is empty and superficial, Prince Andrei makes the fateful choice to be an aide-de-camp to Prince Mikhail Ilarionovich Kutuzov in the coming war against Napoleon.

The plot moves to Moscow, Russia's ancient city and former capital, contrasting its provincial, more Russian ways to the highly mannered society of Petersburg. The Rostov family are introduced. Count Ilya Andreyevich Rostov has four adolescent children. Thirteen-year-old Natasha (Natalia Ilyinichna) believes herself in love with Boris Drubetskoy, a disciplined young man who is about to join the army as an officer. Twenty-year-old Nikolai Ilyich pledges his teenage love to Sonya (Sofia Alexandrovna), his fifteen-year-old cousin, an orphan who has been brought up by the Rostovs. The eldest child of the Rostov family, Vera Ilyinichna, is cold and somewhat haughty but has a good prospective marriage in a Russian-German officer, Adolf Karlovich Berg. Petya (Pyotr Ilyich) is nine and the youngest of the Rostov family; like his brother, he is impetuous and eager to join the army when of age. The heads of the family, Count Ilya Rostov and Countess Natalya Rostova, are an affectionate couple but forever worried about their disordered finances.

At Bald Hills, the Bolkonskys' country estate, Prince Andrei departs for war and leaves his terrified, pregnant wife Lise with his eccentric father Prince Nikolai Andreyevich Bolkonsky and his devoutly religious sister Maria Nikolayevna Bolkonskaya.

The second part opens with descriptions of the impending Russian-French war preparations. At the Schöngrabern engagement, Nikolai Rostov, who is now conscripted as ensign in a squadron of hussars, has his first taste of battle. He meets Prince Andrei, whom he insults in a fit of impetuousness. Even more than most young soldiers, he is deeply attracted by Tsar Alexander's charisma. Nikolai gambles and socializes with his officer, Vasily Dmitrich Denisov, and befriends the ruthless and perhaps psychopathic Fyodor Ivanovich Dolokhov.
[edit] Book/Volume Two
Scene in Red Square, Moscow, 1801. Oil on canvas by Fedor Yakovlevich Alekseev.

Book Two begins in late 1805 with Nikolai Rostov briefly returning on home leave to Moscow. Nikolai finds the Rostov family facing financial ruin due to poor estate management. He spends an eventful winter at home, accompanied by his friend Denisov, his officer from the Pavlograd Regiment in which he serves. Natasha has blossomed into a beautiful young girl. Denisov falls in love with her, proposes marriage but is rejected. Although his mother pleads with Nikolai to find himself a good financial prospect in marriage, Nikolai refuses to accede to his mother's request. He promises to marry his childhood sweetheart, the dowry-less Sonya.

Pierre Bezukhov, upon finally receiving his massive inheritance, is suddenly transformed from a bumbling young man into the richest and most eligible bachelor in the Russian Empire. Despite rationally knowing that it is wrong, he proposes marriage with Prince Kuragin's beautiful and immoral daughter Hélène (Elena Vasilyevna Kuragina), to whom he is sexually attracted. Hélène, who is rumoured to be involved in an incestuous affair with her brother, the equally charming and immoral Anatol, tells Pierre that she will never have children with him. Hélène has an affair with Dolokhov, who mocks Pierre in public. Pierre loses his temper and challenges Dolokhov, a seasoned dueller and a ruthless killer, to a duel. Unexpectedly, Pierre wounds Dolokhov. Hélène denies her affair, but Pierre is convinced of her guilt and, after almost being violent to her, leaves her. In his moral and spiritual confusion, Pierre joins the Freemasons, and becomes embroiled in Masonic internal politics. Much of Book Two concerns his struggles with his passions and his spiritual conflicts to be a better man. Now a rich aristocrat, he abandons his former carefree behavior and enters upon a philosophical quest particular to Tolstoy: how should one live a moral life in an ethically imperfect world? The question continually baffles and confuses Pierre. He attempts to liberate his serfs, but ultimately achieves nothing of note.

Pierre is vividly contrasted with the intelligent and ambitious Prince Andrei Bolkonsky. At the Battle of Austerlitz, Andrei is inspired by a vision of glory to lead a charge of a straggling army. He suffers a near fatal artillery wound. In the face of death, Andrei realizes all his former ambitions are pointless and his former hero Napoleon (who rescues him in a horseback excursion to the battlefield) is apparently as vain as himself.

Prince Andrei recovers from his injuries in a military hospital and returns home, only to find his wife Lise dying in childbirth. He is stricken by his guilty conscience for not treating Lise better when she was alive and is haunted by the pitiful expression on his dead wife's face. His child, Nikolenka, survives.

Burdened with nihilistic disillusionment, Prince Andrei does not return to the army but chooses to remain on his estate, working on a project that would codify military behavior and help solve some of the problems of Russian disorganization that he believes were responsible for the loss of life in battle on the Russian side. Pierre comes to visit him and brings new questions: where is God in this amoral world? Pierre is interested in panentheism and the possibility of an afterlife.

Pierre's estranged wife, Hélène, begs him to take her back, and against his better judgment he does. Despite her vapid shallowness, Hélène establishes herself as an influential hostess in Petersburg society.

Prince Andrei feels impelled to take his newly written military notions to Petersburg, naively expecting to influence either the Emperor himself or those close to him. Young Natasha, also in Petersburg, is caught up in the excitement of dressing for her first grand ball, where she meets Prince Andrei and briefly reinvigorates him with her vivacious charm. Andrei believes he has found purpose in life again and, after paying the Rostovs several visits, proposes marriage to Natasha. However, old Prince Bolkonsky, Andrei's father, dislikes the Rostovs, opposes the marriage, and insists on a year's delay. Prince Andrei leaves to recuperate from his wounds abroad, leaving Natasha initially distraught. She soon recovers her spirits, however, and Count Rostov takes her and Sonya to spend some time with a friend in Moscow.

Natasha visits the Moscow opera, where she meets Hélène and her brother Anatol. Anatol has since married a Polish woman whom he has abandoned in Poland. He is very attracted to Natasha and is determined to seduce her. Hélène and Anatol conspire together to accomplish this plan. Anatol kisses Natasha and writes her passionate letters, eventually establishing plans to elope. Natasha is convinced that she loves Anatol and writes to Princess Maria, Andrei's sister, breaking off her engagement. At the last moment, Sonya discovers her plans to elope and foils them. Pierre is initially shocked and horrified at Natasha's behavior, but comes to realize he has fallen in love with her himself. During the time when the Great Comet of 1811–2 streaks the sky, life appears to begin anew for Pierre.

Prince Andrei accepts coldly Natasha's breaking of the engagement. He tells Pierre that his pride will not allow him to renew his proposal of marriage. Shamed by her near-seduction and at the realisation that Andrei will not forgive her, Natasha makes a suicide attempt and is left seriously ill.
[edit] Book/Volume Three
The Battle of Borodino, fought on September 7, 1812 and involving more than 250,000 troops and 70,000 casualties was a pivotal turning point in Napoleon's failed campaign to take Russia. It is vividly depicted in great detail through the plot and characters in War and Peace.
Painting by Louis-François, Baron Lejeune, 1822.

With the help of her family, especially Sonya, and the stirrings of religious faith, Natasha manages to persevere in Moscow through this dark period. Meanwhile, the whole of Russia is affected by the coming confrontation between Napoleon's troops and the Russian army. Pierre convinces himself through gematria that Napoleon is the Antichrist of the Book of Revelation. Old prince Bolkonsky dies of a stroke while trying to protect his estate from French marauders. No organized help from any Russian army seems available to the Bolkonskys, but Nikolai Rostov turns up at their estate in time to help put down an incipient peasant revolt. He finds himself attracted to Princess Maria, but remembers his promise to Sonya.

Back in Moscow, the war-obsessed Petya manages to snatch a loose piece of the Tsar's biscuit outside the Cathedral of the Assumption; he finally convinces his parents to allow him to enlist.

Napoleon himself is a main character in this section of the novel and is presented in vivid detail, as both a thinker and would-be strategist. His toilette and his customary attitudes and traits of mind are depicted in detail. Also described are the well-organized force of over 400,000 French Army (only 140,000 of them actually French-speaking) which marches quickly through the Russian countryside in the late summer and reaches the outskirts of the city of Smolensk. Pierre decides to leave Moscow and go to watch the Battle of Borodino from a vantage point next to a Russian artillery crew. After watching for a time, he begins to join in carrying ammunition. In the midst of the turmoil he experiences firsthand the death and destruction of war. The battle becomes a hideous slaughter for both armies and ends in a standoff. The Russians, however, have won a moral victory by standing up to Napoleon's reputedly invincible army. For strategic reasons and having suffered grievous losses, the Russian army withdraws the next day, allowing Napoleon to march on to Moscow. Among the casualties are Anatol Kuragin and Prince Andrei. Anatol loses a leg, and Andrei suffers a grenade wound in the abdomen. Both are reported dead, but their families are in such disarray that no one can be notified.
[edit] Book/Volume Four
Napoleon's retreat from Moscow. Painting by Adolf Northern (1828-1876)

The Rostovs have waited until the last minute to abandon Moscow, even after it is clear that Kutuzov has retreated past Moscow and Muscovites are being given contradictory, often propagandistic, instructions on how to either flee or fight. Count Rostopchin is publishing posters, rousing the citizens to put their faith in religious icons, while at the same time urging them to fight with pitchforks if necessary. Before fleeing himself, he gives orders to burn the city. The Rostovs have a difficult time deciding what to take with them, but in the end, Natasha convinces them to load their carts with the wounded and dying from the Battle of Borodino. Unknown to Natasha, Prince Andrei is amongst the wounded.

When Napoleon's Grand Army finally occupies an abandoned and burning Moscow, Pierre takes off on a quixotic mission to assassinate Napoleon. He becomes an anonymous man in all the chaos, shedding his responsibilities by wearing peasant clothes and shunning his duties and lifestyle. The only people he sees while in this garb are Natasha and some of her family, as they depart Moscow. Natasha recognizes and smiles at him, and he in turn realizes the full scope of his love for her.

Pierre saves the life of a French officer who fought at Borodino, yet is taken prisoner by the retreating French during his attempted assassination of Napoleon, after saving a woman from being raped by soldiers in the French Army. He becomes friends with a fellow prisoner, Platon Karataev, a peasant with a saintly demeanor, who is incapable of malice. In Karataev, Pierre finally finds what he has been seeking: an honest person of integrity (unlike the aristocrats of Petersburg society) who is utterly without pretense. Pierre discovers meaning in life simply by living and interacting with him. After witnessing French soldiers sacking Moscow and shooting Russian civilians arbitrarily, Pierre is forced to march with the Grand Army during its disastrous retreat from Moscow in the harsh Russian winter. After months of trial and tribulation—during which the fever-plagued Karataev is shot by the French—Pierre is finally freed by a Russian raiding party, after a small skirmish with the French that sees the young Petya Rostov killed in action.

Meanwhile, Andrei, wounded during Napoleon's invasion, has been taken in as a casualty and cared for by the Rostovs, fleeing from Moscow to Yaroslavl. He is reunited with Natasha and his sister Maria before the end of the war. Having lost all will to live, he forgives Natasha in a last act before dying.

As the novel draws to a close, Pierre's wife Hélène dies ambiguously (some have speculated it was under some ignominous circumstances, as in an abortion attempt; translator Anthony Briggs speculates it was a heart attack). Pierre is reunited with Natasha, while the victorious Russians rebuild Moscow. Natasha speaks of Prince Andrei's death and Pierre of Karataev's. Both are aware of a growing bond between them in their bereavement. With the help of Princess Maria, Pierre finds love at last and, revealing his love after being released by his former wife's death, marries Natasha.
[edit] Epilogue in two parts

The first part of the epilogue begins with the wedding of Pierre and Natasha in 1813. It is the last happy event for the Rostov family, which is undergoing a transition. Count Rostov dies soon after, leaving his eldest son Nikolai to take charge of the debt-ridden estate.

Nikolai finds himself with the task of maintaining the family on the verge of bankruptcy. His abhorrence at the idea of marrying for wealth almost gets in his way, but finally in spite of rather than according to his mother's wishes, he marries the now-rich Maria Bolkonskaya and in so doing also saves his family from financial ruin.

Nikolai and Maria then move to Bald Hills with his mother and Sonya, whom he supports for the rest of their life. Buoyed by his wife's fortune, Nikolai pays off all his family's debts. They also raise Prince Andrei's orphaned son, Nikolai Andreyevich (Nikolenka) Bolkonsky.

As in all good marriages, there are misunderstandings, but the couples–Pierre and Natasha, Nikolai and Maria–remain devoted to their spouses. Pierre and Natasha visit Bald Hills in 1820, much to the jubilation of everyone concerned. There is a hint in the closing chapters that the idealistic, boyish Nikolenka and Pierre would both become part of the Decembrist Uprising. The first epilogue concludes with Nikolenka promising he would do something with which even his late father "would be satisfied..." (presumably as a revolutionary in the Decembrist revolt).

The second part of the epilogue contains Tolstoy's critique of all existing forms of mainstream history. He attempts to show that there is a great force behind history, which he first terms divine. He offers the entire book as evidence of this force, and critiques his own work. God, therefore, becomes the word Tolstoy uses to refer to all the forces that produce history, taken together and operating behind the scenes.
[edit] Principal characters in War and Peace
Main article: List of characters in War and Peace
War and Peace character tree

Count Pyotr Kirillovich (Pierre) Bezukhov — The large-bodied, ungainly, and socially awkward illegitimate son of an old Russian grandee. Pierre, educated abroad, returns to Russia as a misfit. His unexpected inheritance of a large fortune makes him socially desirable. Pierre is the central character and often a voice for Tolstoy's own beliefs or struggles.
Prince Andrei Nikolayevich Bolkonsky — A strong but cynical, thoughtful and philosophical aide-de-camp in the Napoleonic Wars.
Princess Maria Nikolayevna Bolkonskaya — A pious woman whose eccentric father attempted to give her a good education. The caring, nurturing nature of her large eyes in her otherwise thin and plain face are frequently mentioned.
Count Ilya Andreyevich Rostov — The pater-familias of the Rostov family; terrible with finances, generous to a fault.
Countess Natalya Rostova — Wife of Count Ilya Rostov, mother of the four Rostov children.
Countess Natalia Ilyinichna (Natasha) Rostova — A central character, introduced as "not pretty but full of life" and a romantic young girl, she evolves through trials and suffering and eventually finds happiness. She is an accomplished singer and dancer.
Count Nikolai Ilyich Rostov — A hussar, the beloved eldest son of the Rostov family.
Sofia Alexandrovna (Sonya) Rostova — Orphaned cousin of Vera, Nikolai, Natasha, and Petya Rostov.
Countess Vera Ilyinichna Rostova — Eldest of the Rostov children, she marries the German career soldier, Berg.
Pyotr Ilyich (Petya) Rostov — Youngest of the Rostov children.
Prince Vasily Sergeyevich Kuragin — A ruthless man who is determined to marry his children well, despite having doubts about the character of some of them.
Princess Elena Vasilyevna (Hélène) Kuragin — A beautiful and sexually alluring woman who has many affairs, including (it is rumoured) with her brother Anatole
Prince Anatol Vasilyevich Kuragin — Hélène's brother and a very handsome and amoral pleasure seeker who is secretly married yet tries to elope with Natasha Rostova.
Prince Ipolit Vasilyevich — The eldest and perhaps most dim-witted of the Kuragin children.
Prince Boris Drubetskoy — A poor but aristocratic young man driven by ambition, even at the expense of his friends and benefactors, who marries for money, rather than love, an heiress, Julie Karagina.
Princess Anna Mikhailovna Drubetskaya — The mother of Boris.
Fyodor Ivanovich Dolokhov — A cold, almost psychopathic officer, he ruins Nikolai Rostov by luring him into an outrageous gambling debt (by which he, Dolokhov, profits), he only shows love to his doting mother.
Adolf Karlovich Berg — A young Russian officer, who desires to be just like everyone else.
Anna Pavlovna Sherer — Also known as Annette, she is the hostess of the salon that is the site of much of the novel's action in Petersburg.
Maria Dmitryevna Akhrosimova — An older Moscow society lady, she is an elegant dancer and trend-setter, despite her age and size.
Amalia Evgenyevna Bourienne — A French woman who lives with the Bolkonskys, primarily as Princess Marya's companion.
Vasily Dmitrich Denisov — Nikolai Rostov's friend and brother officer, who proposes to Natasha.
Platon Krataev - The archetypal good Russian peasant, whom Pierre meets in the prisoner of war camp.
Napoleon I of France — the Great Man, whose fate is detailed in the book.
General Mikhail Ilarionovich Kutuzov — Russian commander-in-chief throughout the book. His diligence and modesty eventually save Russia from Napoleon.[citation needed]
Osip Bazdeyev — the Freemason who interests Pierre in his mysterious group, starting a lengthy subplot.[citation needed]
Tsar Alexander I of Russia — He signed a peace treaty with Napoleon in 1807 and then went to war with him.

Many of Tolstoy's characters in War and Peace were based on real-life people known to Tolstoy himself. His grandparents and their friends were the models for many of the main characters, his great-grandparents would have been of the generation of Prince Vasilly or Count Ilya Rostov. Some of the characters, obviously, are actual historic figures.
[edit] Adaptations
[edit] Film

The first Russian film adaptation of War and Peace was the 1915 film Война и мир (Voyna i mir), directed by Vladimir Gardin and starring Gardin and the Russian ballerina Vera Karalli. It was followed in 1965 by the critically acclaimed four-part film version War and Peace, by the Soviet director Sergei Bondarchuk, released individually in 1965-1967, and as a re-edited whole in 1968. This starred Lyudmila Savelyeva (as Natasha Rostova) and Vyacheslav Tikhonov (as Andrei Bolkonsky). Bondarchuk himself played the character of Pierre Bezukhov. The film was almost seven hours long; it involved thousands of actors, 120 000 extras, and it took seven years to finish the shooting, as a result of which the actors age changed dramatically from scene to scene. It won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film for its authenticity and massive scale.[22] The film is considered the best screen version of the novel.

The novel has been adapted twice for cinema outside of Russia. The first of these was produced by F. Kamei in Japan (1947). The second was the 208-minute long 1956 War and Peace, directed by the American King Vidor. This starred Audrey Hepburn (Natasha), Henry Fonda (Pierre) and Mel Ferrer (Andrei). Audrey Hepburn was nominated for a BAFTA Award for best British actress and for a Golden Globe Award for best actress in a drama production.
[edit] Television

War and Peace (1972): The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) made a television serial based on the novel, broadcast in 1972-73. Anthony Hopkins played the lead role of Pierre. Other lead characters were played by Rupert Davies, Faith Brook, Morag Hood, Alan Dobie, Angela Down and Sylvester Morand. This version faithfully included many of Tolstoy's minor characters, including Platon Karataev (Harry Locke).,[23][24]

La guerre et la paix (2000): French TV production of Prokofiev's opera War and Peace, directed by François Roussillon. Robert Brubaker played the lead role of Pierre.[25]

War and Peace (2007): produced by the Italian Lux Vide, a TV mini-series in Russian & English co-produced in Russia, France, Germany, Poland and Italy. Directed by Robert Dornhelm, with screenplay written by Lorenzo Favella, Enrico Medioli and Gavin Scott. It features an international cast with Alexander Beyer playing the lead role of Pierre assisted by Malcolm McDowell, Clémence Poésy, Alessio Boni, Pilar Abella, J. Kimo Arbas, Ken Duken, Juozapas Bagdonas and Toni Bertorelli.[26]
[edit] Opera

Initiated by a proposal of the German director Erwin Piscator in 1938, the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev composed his opera War and Peace (Op. 91, libretto by Mira Mendelson) based on this epic novel during the 1940s. The complete musical work premiered in Leningrad in 1955. It was the first opera to be given a public performance at the Sydney Opera House (1973).[27]
[edit] Theatre

The first successful stage adaptations of War and Peace were produced by Alfred Neumann and Erwin Piscator (1942, revised 1955, published by Macgibbon & Kee in London 1963, and staged in 16 countries since) and R. Lucas (1943).

A stage adaptation by Helen Edmundson, first produced in 1996 at the Royal National Theatre, was published that year by Nick Hern Books, London. Edmundson added to and amended the play[28] for a 2008 production as two 3-hour parts by Shared Experience, directed by Nancy Meckler and Polly Teale.[29] This was first put on at the Nottingham Playhouse, then toured in the UK to Liverpool, Darlington, Bath, Warwick, Oxford, Truro, London (the Hampstead Theatre) and Cheltenham.
[edit] Radio

The BBC Home Service broadcast an eight-part adaptation by Walter Peacock from January 17 to 7 February 1943 with two episodes on each Sunday. All but the last instalment, which ran for one and a half hours, were one hour long. Leslie Banks played Pierre while Celia Johnson was Natasha.

In December 1970, Pacifica Radio station WBAI broadcast a reading of the entire novel (the 1968 Dunnigan translation) read by over 140 celebrities and ordinary people.[30]

A dramatised full-cast adaptation in 20 parts, edited by Michael Bakewell, was broadcast by the BBC. Transmission Times: 30.12.1969 to 12.5.1970 Cast included: David Buck, Kate Binchy, Martin Jarvis

A dramatised full-cast adaptation in ten parts was written by Marcy Kahan and Mike Walker in 1997 for BBC Radio 4. The production won the 1998 Talkie award for Best Drama and was around 9.5 hours in length. It was directed by Janet Whitaker and featured Simon Russell Beale, Gerard Murphy, Richard Johnson, and others.[31]
[edit] Music

Composition by Nino Rota[32]

Referring to album notes, the first track "The Gates of Delirium", from the album Relayer, by the progressive rock group Yes, is said to be based loosely on the novel.[33]
[edit] Full translations into English

Clara Bell (from a French version) 1885–86
Nathan Haskell Dole 1898
Leo Wiener 1904
Constance Garnett (1904)
Aylmer and Louise Maude (1922–3)
Rosemary Edmonds (1957, revised 1978)
Ann Dunnigan (1968)
Anthony Briggs (2005)
Andrew Bromfield (2007), translation of the first completed draft, approx. 400 pages shorter than other English translations
Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (2007)
Maude translation revised by Amy Mandelker, Oxford University Press (2010) ISBN 978-0199232765

[edit] See also
Russia portal
Novels portal

List of characters in War and Peace
List of historical novels
Natasha's Dance by Orlando Figes, a cultural history of Russia using the name of the main female character[34]


[edit] References

^ Moser, Charles. 1992. Encyclopedia of Russian Literature. Cambridge University Press. Pp. 298–300.; Thirlwell, Adam. 2005. "A masterpiece in miniature." London: Guardian UK, October 8; Briggs, Anthony. 2005. "Introduction" to War and Peace. Penguin Classics.
^ Pevear, Richard (2008). "Introduction". War and Peace. Trans. Pevear; Volokhonsky, Larissa. New York City, New York: Vintage Books. pp. VIII–IX. ISBN 978-1400079988.
^ Knowles, A.V. Leo Tolstoy, Routledge 1997.
^ Newsweek's Top 100 Books: The Meta-List, retrieved on 07 July 2009
^ Introduction?. Wordsworth Editions. 1993. ISBN 9781853260629. Retrieved 2009-03-24.
^ Feuer, Kathryn.
^ Emerson, Caryl. 1985. "The Tolstoy Connection in Bakhtin", in PMLA, Vol 100, No 1, pp. 69-71. Modern Language Association.
^ Emerson, Caryl. 1985. Ibid, p. 68-69
^ Feuer, Kathryn B. 1996
^ Pearson and Volokhonsky op cit.
^ cf. Knowles 1997, Feuer 1996
^ Feuer 1996
^ "Introduction to War and Peace" by Richard Peaver in Peaver, Richard and Larissa Volokhonsky, War and Peace, 2008, Vintage Classics.
^ Greenwood, Edward Baker (1980). "What is War and Peace?". Tolstoy: The Comprehensive Vision. London: Taylor & Francis. p. 83. ISBN 0416741304.
^ Flaitz, Jeffra (1988). The ideology of English: French perceptions of English as a world language. Walter de Gruyter. p. 3. ISBN 3110115492, 9783110115499. Retrieved 22 November 2010.
^ Figes, O, Tolstoy's Real Hero. NYRB 22 Nov 2007,pp 4-7.
^ a b c Figes O (November 22, 2007). "Tolstoy’s Real Hero". The New York Review of Books, Volume 54, Number 18.
^ a b Inna, Gorbatov (2006). Catherine the Great and the French philosophers of the Enlightenment: Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot and Grim. Academica Press,LLC. p. 14. ISBN 1933146036, 9781933146034. Retrieved 3 December 2010.
^ Feuer, Kathryn B. Tolstoy and the Genesis of War and Peace, Cornell University Press, 1996 (First Edition)
^ Troyat, Henri. Tolstoy, a biography. Doubleday, 1967.
^ Randomhouse.com
^ IMDb.com
^ TV.com
^ IMDb.com
^ IMDb.com, "La guerre et la paix (TV 2000)". Retrieved 2011-04-23
^ IMDb.com
^ Sydney Opera House: History - highlights
^ Cavendish, Dominic (February 11, 2008). "War and Peace: A triumphant Tolstoy". The Daily Telegraph (London).
^ Sharedexperience.org.uk
^ Pacificaradioarchives.org
^ "Marcy Kahan Radio Plays". War And Peace (Radio Dramatization). Retrieved 2010-01-20.
^ Billboard.com
^ Yesworld.com
^ Books.google.com

[edit] External links
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
War and Peace
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: War and Peace

English audiorecording at LibriVox.org
English translation at gutenberg
Searchable version of the gutenberg text in multiple formats SiSU
War and Peace, complete text with accompanying audio.
Full text of War and Peace in modern Russian orthography
An audio version of Book 1 of War and Peace (other books are available through links).
A searchable online version of Aylmer Maude's English translation of War and Peace
SparkNotes Study Guide for "War and Peace"
Birth, death, balls and battles by Orlando Figes. This is an edited version of an essay found in the Penguin Classics new translation of War and Peace (2005).
Homage to War and Peace Searchable map, compiled by Nicholas Jenkins, of places named in Tolstoy's novel (2008).
Russian Army during the Napoleonic Wars
The War and Peace Broadcast: 35th Anniversary, from Pacifica Radio Archives site
War and Peace at the Internet Book List
Radio documentary about 1970 marathon reading of War and Peace on WBAI, from Democracy Now! program, December 6, 2005
Discussion-Forum at Reading Group Guides

[hide]v · d · eWorks by Leo Tolstoy
Biography · Bibliography · Texts
Novels and
novellas

Childhood (1852) · Boyhood (1854) · Youth (1856) · Family Happiness (1859) · The Cossacks (1863) · War and Peace (1869) · Anna Karenina (1877) · The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886) · The Kreutzer Sonata (1889) · Resurrection (1899) · The Forged Coupon (1911) · Hadji Murat (1912)
Short stories

"The Raid" (1852) · "The Wood-Felling" (1855) · "Sevastopol in December 1854" (1855) · "Sevastopol in May 1855" (1855) · "Sevastopol in August 1855" (1856) · "A Billiard-Marker's Notes" (1855) · "The Snowstorm" (1856) · "Two Hussars" (1856) · "A Landlord's Morning" (1856) · "Meeting a Moscow Acquaintance in the Detachment" (1856) · "Lucerne" (1857) · "Albert" (1858) · "Three Deaths" (1859) · "The Porcelain Doll" (1863) · "Polikúshka" (1863) · "God Sees the Truth, But Waits" (1872) · "The Prisoner in the Caucasus" (1872) · "The Bear-Hunt" (1872) · "What Men Live By" (1881) · "Memoirs of a Madman" (1884) · "Quench the Spark" (1885) · "Two Old Men" (1885) · "Where Love Is, God Is" (1885) · "Ivan the Fool" (1885) · "Evil Allures, But Good Endures" (1885) · "Wisdom of Children" (1885) · "Ilyás" (1885) · "The Three Hermits" (1886) · "Promoting a Devil" (1886) · "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" (1886) · "The Grain" (1886) · "The Godson" (1886) · "Repentance" (1886) · "Croesus and Fate" (1886) · "Kholstomer" (1886) · "The Empty Drum" (1891) · "Françoise" (1892) · "A Talk Among Leisured People" (1893) · "Walk in the Light While There is Light" (1893) · "The Coffee-House of Surrat" (1893) · "Master and Man" (1895) · "Too Dear!" (1897) · "Father Sergius" (1898) · "Esarhaddon, King of Assyria" (1903) · "Work, Death, and Sickness" (1903) · "Three Questions" (1903) · "After the Ball" (1903) · "Feodor Kuzmich" (1905) · "Alyosha the Pot" (1905) · "What For?" (1906) · "The Devil" (1911)
Plays

The Power of Darkness (1886) · The First Distiller (1886) · The Fruits of Enlightenment (1891) · The Living Corpse (1900) · The Cause of it All (1910) · The Light Shines in Darkness
Non-fiction

A Confession (1882) · What I Believe (1884) · What Is to Be Done? (1886) · On Life (1887) · The Kingdom of God Is Within You (1894) · The Gospel in Brief (1896) · What Is Art? (1897) · What Is Religion? (1902) · A Calendar of Wisdom (1910)
Related
articles

Tolstoyan movement · Yasnaya Polyana
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Categories: 1869 novels | Novels by Leo Tolstoy | Novels first published in serial form | Philosophical novels | Napoleonic War novels | Historical novels | Epic novels | Works originally published in The Russian Messenger | Russian novels adapted into films | Novels set in Russia | Freemasonry in fiction

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