Chess

The World Chess Federation (Fédération Internationale des Échecs, FIDE) hosts the World Championship matches. A list of the World Chess Championships can be found here.

The classic encounters between Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov came in the 1980s. In 1984, after 48 games had been played between Karpov and Kasparov for the World Championship Match, FIDE president Florencio Campomanes canceled the event while it was still in progress, indicating that the match had “exhausted the physical, if not the psychological resources, of not only the participants but all those connected with the match...”. No winner was declared, so Anatoly Karpov retained the title, of course.

• 1984 match, September 10, 1984 to February 15, 1985, in Moscow. Select pgn4web or Chess Viewer Deluxe (requires Java) to see the games.
• 1985 match, September 3 to November 9, 1985, in Moscow. Select pgn4web or Chess Viewer Deluxe (requires Java) to see the games.
• 1986 rematch, July 28 to October 8, 1986, in London and Leningrad. Select pgn4web or Chess Viewer Deluxe (requires Java) to see the games.
• 1987 match, October 12 to December 19, 1987, in Seville. Select pgn4web or Chess Viewer Deluxe (requires Java) to see the games.
• 1990 match, October 8 to November 7 in New York and November 26 to December 30 in Lyon. Select pgn4web or Chess Viewer Deluxe (requires Java) to see the games.

Other World Chess Championship matches are:

• The 2010 World Chess Championship Match was held in Sofia, Bulgaria. Anand defeated Topalov by 6½ to 5½: Game 1, Game 2, Game 3, Game 4, Game 5, Game 6, Game 7, Game 8, Game 9, Game 10, Game 11, and Game 12.
  • Select pgn4web, Chess Tempo, or Chess Viewer Deluxe (requires Java) to replay their games.
• The 2012 World Chess Championship Match was held in Moscow, Russia. Anand defeated Gelfand by 8½ to 7½.
  • Select pgn4web, Chess Tempo, or Chess Viewer Deluxe (requires Java) to replay their games.
• The 2013 World Chess Championship Match was held in Chennai, India. Carlsen defeated Anand by 6½ to 3½.
  • Select pgn4web, Chess Tempo, or Chess Viewer Deluxe (requires Java) to replay their games.
• The 2014 World Chess Championship Match was held in Sochi, Russia. Carlsen defeated Anand by 6½ to 4½.
  • Select pgn4web, Chess Tempo, or Chess Viewer Deluxe (requires Java) to replay their games.
• The 2016 World Chess Championship Match was held in New York City, United States of America (November 10–30, 2016). After a draw (6 to 6) in the regular games of the match, Carlsen defeated Karjakin in the rapid playoff by 3 to 1.
  • Select pgn4web, Chess Tempo, or Chess Viewer Deluxe (requires Java) to replay their games. Chess.com has game and video archives of the 2016 World Chess Championship Match.
  • Magnus Carlsen holds the world title of the World Rapid Championship, played in Berlin, Germany, in October 2015.
  • Sergey Karjakin, a resilient challenger, was selected to play Magnus Carlsen on November 11 to 30, 2016. Karjakin's games in the 2016 Candidates Tournament are listed here, and the complete 2016 Candidates Tournament is here.
• The 2018 World Chess Championship Match was held in London (November 9–29, 2018). After a draw (6 to 6) in the regular games of the match, Carlsen defeated Caruana in the rapid playoffs by winning three consecutive games out of four. Is this how we envisioned chess to be played? Championships decided on rapid games? What does it tell us? Are we giving more value to rapid games than to in-depth, well-thought-out games? Where is the glamour of old-style chess?
  • Select pgn4web, Chess Tempo, or Chess Viewer Deluxe (requires Java) to replay their games.
• The 2020 World Chess Championship Match will be held in ...

The Grand Chess Tour is a circuit of international events that demonstrates the highest level of organization for the world's best players. The 2015 Tour was created in partnership between the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis (Sinquefield Cup), Tower AS (Norway Chess 2015) and Chess Promotions, Ltd. (London Chess Classic). This circuit was possible because the legendary Garry Kasparov, one of the world's greatest ambassadors for chess, inspired the Grand Chess Tour and helped solidify the partnership between the organizers. His tireless efforts to popularize the game around the world mirror the goals and ambitions of the Grand Chess Tour. It also broadcasts live games.

Under development.

Several chess engines have been developed over the years. The one most discussed is Deep Blue. It was developed by IBM and played against GM Garry Kasparov.

You can play chess online at many places, such as ChessBase and chess.com. JChess, a simple engine, was developed in Java by Lokasoft. If you can beat the JChess engine five times in a row, you are ready for the next phase. Click here to play the Lokasoft chess engine; it needs a Java-enabled browser. Otherwise, try Gary Linscott's chess player (below) or p4wn.

Feeling nostalgic? Do you remember SARGON? It was one of the most popular chess games of the 1980s for TRS-80 computers. SARGON I was released in 1978 and SARGON II in 1979. The name “Sargon” was taken from either of the historical kings Sargon of Akkad (the first king to use his empire to try to conquer the known world) or Sargon of Assyria. The name was originally written entirely in capitals because the TRS-80 did not support lower-case text. More information about Sargon and MicroChess.

If you want to go back in time and have that same feeling of anxiety and ecstasy as when you played Sargon for the first time, click here to play against Sargon again using a TRS-80 emulator. The creators of SARGON, Kathe and Dan Spracklen, wrote First steps in computer chess programming in 1978 for Z-80 microprocessor computers. They explain the logic and procedures behind SARGON I.

This web page by Ed Schröder lists some chess programs that are free of charge. I have not personally checked these programs. p4wn is another JavaScript chess player.

Gary Linscott's JavaScript Chess Player

Use the Chess Game Analysis with Stockfish to evaluate your game.

There are several chess game notations. The most commonly used is PGN. You can replay chess games by pasting the PGN notation into the text box below and pressing the play button. You may also download programs that read chess games in PGN notation, such as ChessBase Light.

The game below was played by Bobby Fischer against Tigran Petrosian during “The Match of the Century – USSR versus the Rest of the World” in Belgrade, March 29 – April 5, 1970. To replay the game, copy the text, paste it into the text box below, and press the play button. More games of Fischer and Petrosian can be found here.

These games were played against Gary Linscott's JavaScript Chess Player (Black). Just copy and paste them into the PGN player below.

The 12 games (4 rapid, 25 min, and 8 blitz, 5 min) of a revenge match were played by ex-champions Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov on September 21–24, 2009, in Valencia, Spain, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their historic matches for the world title (1984–1990). Select pgn4web or Chess Viewer Deluxe (requires Java) to replay their 2009 games. The other games are listed above.