Some Chess Facts

World Champions

1858 - 1866 Morphy *
1866 - 1886 Steinitz *
1886 - 1894 Steinitz
1894 - 1921 Lasker
1921 - 1927 Capablanca
1927 - 1935 Alekhine
1935 - 1937 Euwe
1937 - 1946 Alekhine
1946 (for 1 day) Euwe **
1948 - 1957 Botvinnik
1957 - 1958 Smyslov
1958 - 1960 Botvinnik
1960 - 1961 Tal
1961 - 1963 Botvinnik
1963 - 1969 Petrosian
1969 - 1972 Spassky
1972 - 1975 Fischer
1975 - 1985 Karpov
1985 - 2000 Kasparov***
2000 - 2008 Kramnik***
2008 - 2013 Anand
2013 - 2014 Carlsen

* Until 1886 the title of world champion was unofficial
** The claim that Euwe was world champion for a day in 1946 is controversial. After the death of Alekhine the powers that be gave Euwe the title of world champion. However, other powers that were objected and the title was withdrawn from Euwe. The question is whether the withdrawal of the title was retrospective. I don't think it could have been, but some would disagree.
*** Between 1993 (when Kasparov and Short broke away from FIDE to form the PCA) and 2006 (when Kramnik defeated Topalov to re-unify the title) there was a series of 'FIDE' world champions (not listed here). However, most people accept that Kasparov's claim to the title (and consequently his successor Kramnik's claim to the title) was always stronger. The competitors in the 1993 FIDE match, for example, had both been beaten by Short (in matches) on his way to his match with Kasparov. In addition to this, Kasparov's tournament record indicated that he was still the strongest player in the world until he lost to Kramnik in 2000. In fact, he remained the highest rated player in the world even after his retirement from professional chess in March 2005. Finally, there is the fact that Kramnik won the re-unification match (against Topalov) in 2006, which further vindicated the non-FIDE line of succession. Champions after 2006 hold the unified title.

Women Champions

1927 - 1944 Menchik
1950 - 1953 Rudenko
1953 - 1956 Bykova
1956 - 1958 Rubtsova
1958 - 1962 Bykova
1962 - 1978 Gaprindashvili
1978 - 1991 Chiburdanidze
1991 - 1996 Jun
1996 - 1999 Polgar
1999 - 2001 Jun
2001 - 2004 Chen
2004 - 2006 Stefanova
2006 - 2008 Yuhua
2008 - 2010 Kosteniuk
2010 - 2012 Hou Yifan
2012 - 2013 Ushenina
2013 - 2014 Hou Yifan

Top 10 Players (As of 2012)

1. Magnus Carlsen
2. Levon Aronian
3. Vladimir Kramnik
4. Viswanathan Anand
5. Teimour Radjabov
6. Sergey Karjakin
7. Hikaru Nakamura
8. Alexander Morozevich
9. Vassily Ivanchuk
10. Alexander Grischuk

Top 10 Players By Rating (As of 2000)

1. Garry Kasparov
2. Viswanathan Anand
3. Vladimir Kramnik
4. Alexei Shirov
5. Alexander Morozevich
6. Peter Leko
7. Gata Kamsky
8. Michael Adams
9. Vassily Ivanchuk
10. Evgeny Bareev

English Top 10 Players By Rating (As of 2000)

1. Michael Adams
2. Nigel Short
3. Matthew Sadler
4. Julian Hodgson
5. Jonathan Speelman
6. John Nunn
7. Anthony Miles
8. Stuart Conquest
9. Bogdan Lalic
10. John Emms

Internationally Rated Players 2650+ Elo

a) By Country as of 2007

1st Russia 11

2nd Ukraine 5

3rd China 4

4th= Armenia 3 France 3 Hungary 3 India 3 Netherlands 3 USA 3

10th= Azerbaijan 2 Bulgaria 2 England 2 Israel 2 Poland 2 Spain 2

16th= Cuba 1 Czech Republic 1 Georgia 1 Germany 1 Norway 1 Romania 1 Switzerland 1 Uzbekistan 1

b) By Country as of 2003

1st Russia 11

2nd= Hungary 3 Israel 3

4th= Armenia 2 England 2 France 2 India 2 Netherlands 2 Ukraine 2

10th= Bulgaria 1 China 1 Georgia 1 Macedonia 1 Slovakia 1 Spain 1 USA 1 Uzbekistan 1

c) By Country as of 2000

1. Russia 10

2. Hungary 3

3.= England 2, Bulgaria 2, Israel 2, Switzerland 2.

7.= India 1, Spain 1, America 1, Ukraine 1, Belgium 1, Belarus 1, Georgia 1, France 1, Czech republic 1, Poland 1, Armenia 1, Bihar 1, Netherlands 1.

d) By Sex as of 2000

Men: 33

Women: 1

International Titles

a) International Titles as of 1996

Grandmasters: 591
International Masters: 1631
Fide masters: 2005

b) International Titles as of 2001

Grandmasters: 768

c) International Titles as of 2005

Grandmasters: 959
International Masters: 2596

Random facts

• The word tabiya used to refer to the initial position, however, over the years it has come to describe critical points during play at which players decide the future course of the game.
• Kasparov became the youngest ever world champion at the age of 22. (Ruslan Ponomariov was younger but he was not the undisputed champion in the same way that Kasparov was, and Chiburdanidze was also younger but she 'only' won the women's title.)
• FIDE uses the category rating of tournaments to determine how well someone must do in a tournament to achieve a Grandmaster (or other) title. The highest category tournaments seen so far have been category 22. This indicates that the average elo rating of the players was between 2776 and 2800. The 2010 Bilbao Masters had an average rating of 2789 while in second place was a tournament in Frankfurt with an average rating of 2781.
• The largest simultaneous displays usually take place in Cuba. In 2005 the previous record of 11,000 people playing against over 500 masters was broken with the new record standing at 13,500 people playing against over 600 masters.
• In 1561 Ruy Lopez de Segura, a Spanish priest, wrote a book called "Libro de la invention liberal y arte del juego del Axedrez" which translated into English means "Book of liberal invention and the art of the game of chess". It was the first complete study of the game. The Ruy Lopez opening is of course named after him as he was the first to analyse it in detail.
• The shortest number of moves necessary to achieve checkmate from the beginning of the game is 2. The sequence is called fool's mate and runs 1. g4 e5, 2. f4 Qh4 checkmate.
• However, the shortest game of chess to have been played was probably that between Fischer and Panno in 1970 which went 1. c4, black resigns.
• It's difficult to say what the longest game of chess ever is, but the game played between Nikolic and Arsovic in 1989 must be a contender at a mammoth 269 moves. To our knowledge, the second longest game was played in 2004 between Herrera and Gonzalez and lasted for 211 moves.
• If you put one grain of wheat on the first square of the chessboard, two on the second, four on the third, eight on the fourth, and so on, then, in order to complete the pattern you will need to put nine trillion two hundred and twenty three thousand three hundred and seventy two billion thirty six thousand eight hundred and fifty four million seven hundred and seventy five thousand eight hundred and eight (9,223372,036854,775808) grains of wheat on the sixty fourth square, which is quite a lot. (Using old-fashioned English billions and trillions and not modern US billions and trillions).

The Knight's Tour Puzzle

The object is to move a knight, starting from any square on a chess board, to every other square, landing on each square only once. There are two forms of the puzzle, the open form is that described above. The closed form adds the further requirement that the knight must finish up on the square it started on (hence it lands on that square twice).
The following solutions are presented diagramatically by Dan Thomasson (DTHOMASSON@carolina.rr.com) who says "Feel free to post this solution on your web-pages", but "Please reference my name and e-mail address when posting my Knight's Tour solution", so I have.

An open solution to the knight's tour puzzle starting with the knight on a8:
1. N-b6, 2. N-a4, 3. N-b2, 4. N-d1, 5. N-f2, 6. N-h1, 7. N-g3, 8. N-h4, 9. N-g7, 10. N-e8, 11. N-c7, 12. N-a6, 13. N-b4, 14. N-a2, 15. N-c1, 16. N-e2, 17. N-g1, 18. N-h3, 19. N-g4, 20. N-h7, 21. N-f8, 22. N-d7, 23. N-b8, 24. N-c6, 25. N-a5, 26. N-b3, 27. N-a1, 28. N-c2, 29. N-e1, 30. N-g2, 31. N-h4, 32. N-g6, 33. N-h8, 34. N-f7, 35. N-d8, 36. N-b7, 37. N-c5, 38. N-d3, 39. N-f4, 40. N-e6, 41. N-d4, 42. N-f3, 43. N-e5, 44. N-c4, 45. N-a3, 46. N-b1, 47. N-d2, 48. N-f1, 49. N-h2, 50. N-g4, 51. N-h6, 52. N-g8, 53. N-e7, 54. N-c8, 55. N-a7, 56. N-b5, 57. N-c3, 58. N-e4, 59. N-f6, 60. N-d5, 61. N-e3, 62. N-f5, 63. N-d6.
This solution is special because it can be stated in a simple rule which is that you move in the same direction around the board choosing the outermost squares available.

A closed solution to the knights tour puzzle starting with the knight on a8:
1. N-c7, 2. N-d5, 3. N-f4, 4. N-h3, 5. N-g1, 6. N-e2, 7. N-c1, 8. N-a2, 9. N-b4, 10. N-d3, 11. N-c5, 12. N-a6, 13. N-b8, 14. N-d7, 15. N-f8, 16. N-h7, 17. N-g5, 18. N-e6, 19. N-d8, 20. N-b7, 21. N-a5, 22. N-c6, 23. N-d4, 24. N-b3, 25. N-a1, 26. N-c2, 27. N-e1, 28. N-g2, 29. N-h4, 30. N-f3, 31. N-e5, 32. N-g6, 33. N-h8, 34. N-f7, 35. N-d6, 36. N-c8, 37. N-a7, 38. N-b5, 39. N-a3, 40. N-b1, 41. N-d2, 42. N-c4, 43. N-e3, 44. N-f1, 45. N-h2, 46. N-g4, 47. N-h6, 48. N-g8, 49. N-e7, 50. N-f5, 51. N-g7, 52. N-e8, 53. N-f6, 54. N-h5, 55. N-g3 56. N-h1, 57. N-f2, 58. N-e4, 59. N-c3, 60. N-d1, 61. N-b2, 62. N-a4, 63. N-b6, 64. N-a8.

Chess Words In Different Languages

English	German	French	Italian	Spanish
Chess	Schach	echecs	scacchi	ajedrez
Pawn	Bauer	pion	pedone	peon
Knight	Springer	cavalier	cavallo	caballo
Bishop	Laufer	fou	alfiere	alfil
Rook	Turm	tour	torre	torre
Queen	Dame	dame	donna	dama
King	Konig	roi	re	rey
White	Weiss	blancs	bianco	blancas
Black	Schwarz	noirs	nero	negras
Check	Schach	echec	scacco	jaque
Mate!	Matt	echec et mat	scacco matto	jaque mate
Draw	remis	nulle	patta	tablas
Resign	aufgaben	abandonner	abbandonare	abandonar