Chess

Chess is beyond doubt, the most popular board-game ever in the history of mankind. Millions play it every day, either in person or online or against the computer, or through e-mail or other – more traditional – forms of correspondence.

There were television programs dedicated to teaching people to play chess, shows about famous players, and tournaments.

In its present form, Chess is thought to have appeared in the 15^th century, in Southern Europe, but if one seeks its true origins he’ll have to go all the way to India, to a much earlier period.

The game is played on a checkered board, called rather appropriately “chessboard”. Two players can play it (although there are versions out there that 3 or even more people can play, however these are more recent inventions and they qualify as novelty rather than a set-piece game) each in control f a virtual “army” of 16 chess-pieces.

The set of pieces at the disposal of each player, is either black or white, and it is made up of eight pawns – the foot-soldiers of the army, with no special abilities, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, a King and his Queen.

All the pieces except the pawns possess some sort of special abilities, which make them more valuable. By far the most versatile and thus more valuable piece a player has is the Queen.

Nowadays, playing chess against different computer programs is in full bloom. It was in 1997 that IBM’s Deep Blue proved that machines were indeed able to take on the most skilled human players