Nd6 Re1+ 34. Kh2 Nxf2 35. Nxf7+ Kg7 36. Ng5+ Kh6 37. Rxh7+ 1-0

Chess is the game of kings and peasants, particle physicists and Chicago bartenders; a global game hundreds of years old and equally as complex. Chess has a long and detailed history ranging from a game played in the 6^th century India all the way to its more modern incarnation in the 15^th century Italy and Spain. There is also a theory which places the origins of chess even further, back to the 2^nd century BC in China. It is difficult to determine exactly who and where chess was invented, but one thing is certain chess is as much a game of geniuses as it is an encounter with the human mind on a whole different level.

The rules of chess are fairly basic, the tactics of chess are straightforward, but the practice of chess is not. On a standard chess board there are sixty-four squares arranged in eight rows of eight. There are two sides, white and black, and each side has sixteen pieces: one king, one queen, two bishops, two knights, two rooks and sixteen pawns. Each piece also has a set of possible moves. A pawn can move one space forward, two spaces if it is it’s first move and always attacks to its forward diagonal; a king can move in any direction one space; a queen can move in any direction any number of spaces; a bishop can move diagonally any number of spaces; a rook can move vertically or horizontally any number of spaces and a knight moves in the shape of an “L,” meaning it moves one square over and then two squares ninety degrees in either direction of the new square. A knight is also the only piece which can jump other pieces. White always moves first and the game is over when either one player has placed the king in checkmate or the player whose turn it is can not make a legal move. Check and checkmate occur when a player places the king in danger where next turn the player could potentially capture the king. When check is declared a player must protect the king by blocking the attacking piece, moving the king or capturing the attacking piece. Checkmate occurs when there is not viable option to get out of check.

In conjunction with the above rules, there are a few special moves available to certain pieces on the board. For example a player can do a move called castling where the king moves two squares toward the rook and then places the rook on the other side of the king. This is a strong defensive move which is only allowed if certain conditions are met: neither the king nor rook have moved this match, there are no pieces between the king and rook, and the king is not in check nor will cross through check. In addition to castling, there is an advance move called en passant which occurs when a pawn, advancing two spaces forward lands on a square adjacent to an opponent’s pawn. The opponent can then capture the pawn with an en passant and move to the square the captured pawn passed over. Finally, chess has a promotion system. When a pawn lands on the 8^th row of the chess board (the back row of the opponent’s side) the pawn can be promoted to any of the other pieces except for a king or other pawn. Most promotions are queens, but sometimes a knight can be just as useful (same with a bishop and rook).

The game of chess at first glance appears to be a fairly straight forward game with different pieces accomplishing different tasks with each player moving one piece at a time, however, the complexity of the moves available and the number of different moves makes chess one of the more complicated games, especially to master. The ability to think two to five and sometimes even twenty moves ahead is invaluable in a game often determined by subtle movements and tactical feints. Chess is as much a game about analyzing tactical information as it is a game between the personalities of the two players. In an overly competitive society, like Western Europe and America, the players play their opponents and not the board. They are quicker and sometimes more rash in their thinking because they are not playing a game against sixteen other chess pieces but against a person. In a collectivist culture, like Russia, the players play and are trained to play the board. The opponent is an uncontrollable factor in the equation and thus only the board and the thirty-two pieces matter. One of the reasons chess is so prominent is this divide between East and Western schools of thought. Politics come into play everywhere and just like the space race, the super powers of the world competed on the small chess board, and in the game of chess the patient tempered mind of the Russian player attained victory numerous times.

A game which is based on the logical and mathematically determinable movements of a set number of pieces seems like a game rooted firmly in intellectual prowess and computational mechanics, placing it in the realm of computers and only the super smart. However, the opposite is true. The process of piece placement and strategy development rests outside of the brains’ intellectual centers and in the spatial recognition and development hub, the parietal and occipital lobes of the brain. Researchers at the University of Minnesota discovered, using an MRI scan of an average person playing a chess match, the game causes neurons to fire in parts of the brain not typically associated with general intelligence level. Chess is not just a game for the super smart, it is a game for everyone and with the research questioning how much intelligence is actually used in higher level cognition and problem solving. The parietal lobe, a mystery to science in many ways, may also regulate and act on more than previously believed.

While humans are able to spatially process information at a level independent of general intelligence, the game of chess should still be a fundamentally easy process for a computer, which uses reasoning and logic to solve problems. Again, the opposite was true for many years and to some still is with respects to how a computer solves a chess problem. Since the 1960’s chess advocates have issued a challenge to any computer which can best them in a game of chess played by proper chess tournament rules. It wasn’t until 1996 in the now infamous match between the then reigning Grandmaster Garry Kasparov of Russia and Deep Blue, a computer designed by IBM where a machine finally beat a human player fairly in chess. Deep Blue used an evaluation function to determine the value of every move on the chess board and would search through six to twelve different plies and determine the best course of action. The machine was also able to analyze and learn from past experiences, showing intelligence and creative thinking as described by Kasparov after Deep Blue avoided a trap he set which the computer fell for twice before in previous matches. Kasparov would go on to win the set 4-2, but it was the first time a computer had ever beaten a reigning world champion. It is now believed computers have surpassed humans in chess playing capabilities with the most powerful chess software, Deep Fritz, beating the reigning world champion in a decisive 2-4 match and it has been proven in shorter games computers hold the advantage over humans, but in a longer game the advantage is not so clear.

The race between man and machine in chess drove the need to faster and better computers, but it also forced programmers to think of better and more efficient ways of coding. A brute force search algorithm, so popular with previous chess playing computers just could not handle the amount of parameters required to play at a Grandmaster level; chess maybe the motivating behind eventual artificial intelligence where a computer not only learns from experience, but is able to process information beyond search queries and data storage.

Chess may also hold the key to more than understanding how our brains operate, according to Freudian psychologists, chess allows a player to act out deep seated ambition typically considered immoral and impractical in a society. "Silently they are plotting (and attempting to execute) murderous campaigns of patricide, matricide, fratricide, regicide and mayhem." There has also been some speculation about the sexual symbolism of chess, although it is not a highly regarded theory. Whatever the reason for playing chess, it is undeniable the attraction and artistry the game provides for its players and spectators. After playing a game with a friend, whether you win or lose you always shake hands, switch sides and reset the board ready for the next round.

Order another drink, take out a cigarette, chat with your neighbors and laugh because it’s your move.

**So I had a nice little piece written up about the classic game dots and boxes. I wanted to do something difficult and interesting, but sadly there is only one serious article/book on the game and all other sources kept point to chess so I switched at the last minute to chess to give myself a little more reference material to work with, and thus the above short historical response. The title is a reference to the endgame of Kasparov v Deep Blue Game 1.**