Line #30 YMMV/Chess


1	[[Memes/{{Chess}} Memetic Mutation]] has its own page.
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3	* AccidentalInnuendo: The liberal use of the term "mating" (as in checkmating) in game discussions means you're bound to hear at least a few phrases that sound very awkward when interpreted as talking about the ''other'' kind of "mating".
4	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation:
5	** In shogi (a Japanese chess variant), the "king" has also been viewed as representing the children of that player -- the future, if you will. Referenced in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}''.
6	** A blocked bishop is traditionally seen as useless since it's hemmed in by pawns and can barely move, let alone attack anything. But a different point of view is that it can be a useful way to shore up a critical pawn structure.
7	** The queen is the most powerful chess piece, contrary to some, but not all historical queens. In chess's origin country in the East, the queen was actually a vizier, an obviously male adviser who historically could act as a power behind a throne, [[EvilChancellor especially if the king is young or weak]]. However, in the equally patriarchal Europe, this piece became a queen, but it may represent political influence, as queens acted as ambassadors and diplomats. The queen's power in chess may reflect either political influence or the actions of a queen's agents, spies, and personal guards. In the end, she is still acting on the orders of her king. More cynical schools of thought may see the queen's power in [[TheVamp seduction and sex]].
8	** The king's limited mobility in chess is often interpreted as being a weaker piece. Some assume that it refers to the fact that many historical kings were older, physically weaker men who were well past their battle years. A more modern interpretation suggests that this is symbolic of the fact that a king's power was not in what he could personally do, but in the influence and control that he had over others. A physically powerful man may be able to fight several enemies at once and win, but this does not necessarily translate into leadership, political, or strategic skills. A king pre-occupied with the governing of his kingdom, daily aspects of the StandardRoyalCourt, and the task of [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatOpposition people pleasing]] is usually obligated to leave the fighting to the professionals.[[note]]Although a king can't be "fired" or "voted out of office" per se, a king can still be "removed", but it's often not a very pleasant aspect for the king in question.[[/note]] History has shown that there is an [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatResponsibility inverse relationship between the amount of power one has and the amount of freedom to act independently]].
9	* AmericansHateTingle: Chess is popular in most of Asia, where it originated, with the notable exceptions of Japan and China. In Japan they play TabletopGame/{{Shogi}}, and in China they play TabletopGame/{{Xiangqi}}.
10	** In recent years China has become a powerhouse in international chess, between World Champion Ding Liren, Women's World Champion Hou Yifan[[note]] who became a Grandmaster at 14 and won her first championship at 16, both records for women's chess[[/note]], ''fifty'' other recognized Grandmasters[[note]]all of them having gained that title since 1990 and most since 2000[[/note]], as well as multiple Chess Olympiad medals. It's still not as popular with the general public as Xiangqi (or {{TabletopGame/Weiqi}} for that matter) but that margin is much, much narrower than it used to be.
11	* AnnoyingVideoGameHelper:
12	** The famous ''smothered mate'', where a single knight forces a king into a corner, surrounded by its own "protective" pieces who block out all escape squares, allowing this beautiful (and somewhat embarrassing) checkmate. There are countless other checkmates where the king's only escape(s) are blocked by its own pieces, the most common of which (among relative novices) is that of the king being mated by an opposing queen or rook on the back rank because he's hemmed in by the pawns in front of him.
13	** This is also part of why beginning players tend to be cavalier about discarding their pawns: why waste a turn on them when you could be using it to deploy your more powerful pieces? Oh, right: because they're ''in the way''.
14	* CharacterTiers: Called relative value. The key word is relative; each piece is worth, on average, a certain number of points, but they can all vary according to the situation (open vs. closed game, middlegame vs. endgame, etc.). These points are a marker of who's ahead in material and don't count at all for gameplay purposes. This isn't the only important indicator of who's winning (having a good position or control of the board can balance out a material disadvantage) and the player with weaker or fewer pieces sometimes wins; all the material advantage in the world won't save you from a SurpriseCheckmate.
15	** ''Top Tier'': The queen is by far the most overpowered piece, and is one of the ''major pieces''. Worth 9 points.
16	** ''High Tier'': The rooks are, along with the queen, considered the ''major pieces''. Worth 5 points each, it's generally bad to lose one of them in exchange for, say, a bishop. Two rooks are slightly better than a queen, but to get that advantage, you need to co-ordinate them well.
17	** ''Mid Tier'': The bishops and knights are both considered the ''minor pieces'' and are worth about 3 points each. A bishop is worth slightly more than a knight and two bishops together are better than two knights or a mixture of both. However, the knight is better in closed games while the bishop needs a lot of room to be effective. Three of these are usually considered to be better than a queen, and two slightly better than a rook plus a pawn.
18	** ''Low Tier'': Pawns, who are mostly your first line of defense and are used to open up positions for the more powerful pieces to attack. However, they become much more important in the endgame when the board opens up and they are able to promote. Isolated pawns are very weak; connected pawns are, however, much stronger because an opponent won't want to sacrifice a more valuable piece to break them up. A single pawn can decide a game in some situations. Worth one point each, but gain value as they get close to promotion.
19	** ''Bottom Tier'': A blocked bishop (one that is hemmed in by its own pawns) is useless except for defending the pawns. Even worse is a backward pawn (a pawn which is not supported by adjacent pawns because those pawns have advanced further, and which can't advance because the square in front of it is attacked) or a doubled pawn (has a friendly pawn in front of it and can't advance).
20	* EndingFatigue:
21	** Some novice games can drag on for quite a while, especially when it's just chasing the king around the board. This is the reason why the fifty-move rule was invented (which is still pretty long for an average game). Even some professional games can last well over a hundred moves if one player is unwilling to offer a draw in a drawing position, in the hopes his opponent will make a mistake.
22	** For players from the intermediate level of the game onwards, it's considered good etiquette to resign when you're in a lost position. It avoids this trope and spares you and your opponent's time and mental energy.
23	** [[https://lichess.org/analysis/8/p6p/7p/p6p/b2Q3p/K6p/p1r5/rk3n1n_w_-_-_0_1?color=white This position]], as explained [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5iy0VpwbSY here]], is forced mate for White in ''130 moves''. The 50-move rule is irrelevant, as it resets with each pawn move.
24	* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff:
25	** Having evolved in India, the Middle East and Southern Europe, modern chess has been dominated by Russians. To put this in perspective; the 2010 World Championship (India's Viswanathan Anand vs. Bulgaria's Veselin Topalov) was the first championship since ''1921'' to have no Russian-born participant.
26	** The rise of Anand helped create an Indian chess boom from the 2000s that has resulted in a massive increase in the amount of Indian grand masters and other high level players from the country.
27	* ItsHardSoItSucks: Many new players give up once they get past "learn how each piece moves and the win condition" and realize that ''how'' to win is so extensively complex, often getting confused when they're up against an opponent who can accurately predict that they'll have checkmate in a specific number of moves. It's perhaps because of these complaints that many believe SmartPeoplePlayChess.
28	* MemeticBadass: Chess.com's Martin bot, when not being treated as a MemeticLoser, will get this treatment instead. Given that he can ''consistently'' find some of the worst moves in every position yet can still see mate in two, some players have speculated that he's secretly a grandmaster-level player who intentionally plays badly so that his opponents (including his kids, according to his profile) don't get discouraged from playing the game.
29	* MemeticLoser: The Martin bot on Chess.com is [[WarmUpBoss the weakest computer opponent]] in the game, akin to VideoGame/PunchOut’s Glass Joe. His ludicrously poor playing of the game has led to him being a symbol of mockery by users of the website.
30	* PopularGameVariant:
31	** A common house rule for the base game is that when a pawn gets promoted to Queen, that Queen can be represented with an upside down rook. This can happen when the actual Queen is still on the board and no replacement is available. This house rule is actually included in the official United States Chess Federation rulebook, but not in the FIDE rules that are used in the rest of the world, and doing so under those rules will result in an arbiter coming to the table, turning the Rook back the right way up and forcing you to play on with the "Queen" becoming a Rook instead.
32	** Many chess variants are popular enough to show up on major chess sites:
33	*** Classical time controls (at least 2 hours per player) may be the "default", but many players enjoy faster time controls like rapid (15 minutes plus 10 seconds additional time per move), blitz (3 minutes plus 2 additional seconds per move) and even bullet (''less than 3 minutes total per player''). Rapid and blitz have their own FIDE-sanctioned tournaments.
34	*** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer_random_chess Fischer Random Chess]], also known as [=Chess960=], randomizes the opening setup in order to downplay the memorization of openings and force players to evaluate the game over the board. It's popular enough that it was acknowledged by FIDE in 2008 and got its first sanctioned tournament in 2019, with many top chess players attending.
35	*** Antichess is a variant where you have to capture opposing pieces if you can, and the goal is to lose all of ''your'' pieces.
36	*** Atomic chess adds the rule that a capture will cause an "atomic explosion" which kills all non-pawn pieces in the eight surrounding squares.
37	*** Bughouse is a 4-player variation where two teams of two players face each other on two boards. Teammates use opposite colours and give captured pieces to their partner.
38	*** Crazyhouse incorporates a variation of the drop rule in TabletopGame/{{shogi}}.
39	*** Duck Chess on chess.com went viral in late 2022. It adds the neutral "duck" piece that is moved at the end of each player's turn, and acts as a blocker.
40	*** Fog of War adds a FogOfWar mechanic.
41	*** Horde chess gives one player a normal chess army, while the other gets [[ZergRush a bunch of pawns]].
42	*** King of the Hill adds the rule that moving your king to a center square is an InstantWinCondition.
43	*** Racing Kings changes the game to revolving around getting your king to the opposing rank.
44	*** Three-check chess adds the rule that if you've put in check three times, you automatically lose.
45	* ScrappyMechanic:
46	** Explaining castling to a new player can get pretty daunting. Even in intermediate play a lot of confusion can still occur as to what is or isn't a legal castling scenario.
47	** En passant can cause a lot of trouble in novice games due to the obscure nature of the rule.
48	** Players in online chess with low time controls will often have a setting to auto promote to a Queen. In the few situations where an underpromotion is better, this is a problem if they forget how to cancel the auto promotion.
49	** Differences between the FIDE and United States Chess Federation rules can cause issues for players in a tournament played under the ruleset they aren't used to, as well as the two major online chess websites, Lichess (using FIDE) and Chess.Com (under USCF). One major issue is that the US Chess rules automatically draw in certain insufficient material situations that require a blunder for one player to lose.
50	* SelfImposedChallenge:
51	** The most common handicaps have the stronger player start off with less material, give the weaker player extra moves, or have a win condition of checkmating with a certain piece. Players can opt for a combination of the aforementioned handicaps as well.
52	** Some high-ranked players challenge themselves by conducting a simultaneous exhibition against multiple opponents at once. The ultimate form of this is the simultaneous blindfold exhibition in which a strong player plays a simultaneous exhibition without looking at the boards, meaning that said player has to memorize each game's position.
53	** More humorously, a few players try to win with joke openings such as the [[https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Chess_Opening_Theory/1._e4/1...e5/2._Ke2 Bongcloud Attack]].
54	* ThatOneRule:
55	** The "en passant" move of the pawn is the most frequently overlooked or forgotten rule in the game. And for a newbie, thinking that you can move your piece to safety, only to discover that it's not actually safe, can be extremely frustrating. 1d6chan [[https://1d6chan.org/wiki/Chess#Special_rules even jokes that the hardest part of writing a chess A.I. is programming them to argue for half an hour that you can't do that with a pawn.]]
56	** Castling is another move that can be difficult to properly understand due to all the stipulations regarding it. It can only be done when both the king and the rook in question have not moved, there are no pieces between the king and rook, the king is not in check, the king does not end in check, and the square the king passes through (where the rook ends) is not under attack. There is also a common misconception that the rules are ''even stricter''. You are allowed to castle if the rook is under attack or moves through a square under attack, or if the king has previously been in check, provided all the previous rules are upheld. Even ''grandmasters'' have sometimes gotten this wrong.
57	* ParanoiaFuel: One of the first things a player has to learn is that a single blunder can shatter an otherwise brilliant game to pieces, and that they should take their time to calculate their moves and examine as many possibilities, threats and opportunities as possible. Time limitation make it even more stressful for obvious reasons.
58	* ViewerSpeciesConfusion:
59	** The piece that moves in an L-shape and jumps sure looks like a horse in most chess sets, but English-speaking players say that it's a "Knight". Most other languages are more [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin straightforward]] and call this piece by their words for "horse". Knights did frequently ride horses.
60	** A similar case could be said with the "Rook". It looks like a castle, not a bird! (It comes from the Persian word for castle.) Some players do call it a "Castle". Do note the term castling and the fact that most other languages call it a "tower" or something similar. Strangely, in Russian the Rook is called a Ладья (''lad'ya'') which means "Longship" (like the Vikings used).
61	** The Bishop in Spanish-speaking countries is called an "Alfil", which is a remnant of the original Arabic version of the game where the piece was an elephant (al-fil).[[note]]It also spent some time as a jester in medieval Europe before ending up as a bishop.[[/note]] In Russian the piece is just straight up called Слон (''slon'') which is the Russian word for "elephant." Good luck finding many people who know this rather obscure tidbit, specially since the piece looks nothing like an elephant.

Context YMMV / Chess