Chess

Chess is a board game played between two players. It is played on a chessboard, which is a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. At the start, each player controls sixteen pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, twobishops, and eight pawns. The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent's king, whereby the king is under immediate attack (in "check") and there is no way to remove or defend it from attack on the next move. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess

Rules

The players alternately move one piece at a time (with the exception of castling, when two pieces are moved simultaneously). Pieces are moved to either an unoccupied square, or one occupied by an opponent's piece, capturing it and removing it 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.

White always moves first. Each chess piece has its own style of moving. The Xs mark the squares where the piece can move if no other pieces (including one's own piece) are on the Xs between the piece's initial position and its destination. If there is an opponent's piece at the destination square, then the moving piece can capture the opponent's piece. The only exception is the pawn which can only capture pieces diagonally forward.

* pawns can only move to the white circles to capture, and cannot capture with their normal move

History

The current form of the game emerged in Europe during the second half of the 15th century after evolving from a much older game (Shatranj) of Indian origin. Aspects of art are found in chess composition. Theoreticians have developed extensive chess strategies and tactics since the game's inception. One of the goals of early computer scientists was to create a chess-playing machine. Chess is now deeply influenced by the abilities of chess programs and the opportunity for online play. In 1997 Deep Blue became the first computer to beat a reigning World Champion in a match when it defeated Garry Kasparov.

The tradition of organized competitive chess started in the 16th century. The first official World Chess Champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, claimed his title in 1886; the current World Champion is Viswanathan Anand. Chess is a recognized sport of the International Olympic Committee, and is led by the FIDE. Today, chess 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.

Game Design Elements

turn based movement, victory goal, set area of play, and various piece types

Art

there are art elements in the different peices and boards and how they are decorated. an example of this is different modles used for the pieces or different colors. some pieces are modeled after actual warriors and knights while other are just the standard sets. some boards look like marble or have different designs while others are just the standard black and white checker board.

Links

Bulleted list of links to sites with more information or playable versions

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