10 most difficult chess riddles

Wilhelm was an Austrian and later American chess master, and the first undisputed World Chess Champion, from 1886 to 1894. He was also a highly influential writer and chess theoretician. He is considered to be the founder of the scientific approach to chess, unveiling in 1873 a new positional style of play.

Vera Menchik was a British-Czechoslovak-Russian chess player who gained renown as the world's first women's chess champion. She successfully defended her title six times in every other championship held during her lifetime, losing only one game, while winning 78 and drawing four games.

When Soviet players achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 20, Russian chess player Sergey Karjakin broke the rules and attained it at the age 12 (7 months), thus becoming the youngest chess grandmaster in the chess history, and chess player whose name is listed in the Guinness Book of records. Sergey Karjakin or Russia's "Minister of Defense" known for his impressive defensive skills, is now the seventh player among the top 100 players.

Chess is believed to have originated in India. The game was reported in 6th century as a gift of Indian raja to Persian shah Khosrau I Anushiruwān. Original Indian chaturanga was a base of local chatrang, and after Arab conquest of Persian empire it was brought by them to Europe, where it evolved into current form.

Since the queen is the most powerful piece, the vast majority of promotions in practical play are to a queen. If the queen is not available, the official rules are that the player should stop the game clock and summon the arbiter for the correct piece. In casual play, an upside-down rook may be used to designate a queen. Some finer sets do include an extra queen of each color.

Cylinder chess is a chess variant with an unusual board. The game is played as if the board were a cylinder, with the left side of the board joined to the right side.In 947 in India and Persia, the Arabic historian Ali al-Masudi described six different variants of chess, including astrological chess, circular chess and cylinder chess. Cylindrical board is also used in chess problems.

Using the algebraic notation, the required moves can be described as follows: e4, e5, Bc4 Nc6, Qh5 Nf6, Qxf7#. The same mating pattern may be reached by various move orders, but in all variations, the basic idea is the same: the queen and bishop combine in a simple mating attack on f7 (or f2 if Black is performing the mate).

There are 8 white and 8 black pawns.

The Fédération Internationale des Échecs or World Chess Federation was founded in Paris, France, on July 20, 1924. It is usually referred to as FIDE, its French acronym.

Four-player chess is a family of chess variants typically played with four people. A special board made of standard 8×8 squares with an additional 3 rows of 8 cells extending from each side. There are many different rule variations; most variants, however, share the same board and similar piece setup.