Chess
Chess a game which is some thousand years old.
It is especially popular for it's complexity.
The world organization of chess players is the FIDE
All you need is:
- two players
- chessboard with figures
- optional watch
There are a variety of different pieces, each with a variety of different moves. The most important is the king. A position where the king could be captured is called check; a player can never move his king into and must always rescue his king from such a position. If he can't, he is checkmated and loses. If, however:
:(a) the king is in not in check and can't move without getting into check and is the last piece on the board, or
:(b) the the king is in not in check and can't move without getting into check and all other pieces can't be moved because they are blocked,
then the match ends as a draw. This situation is called Stalemate.
The most powerful piece is the queen. The queen can move in a straight line in any direction unless blocked by another piece.
In contrast, rooks can move in a straight line only in non-diagonal directions, and bishops can move in a straight line only in diagonal directions.
The knight moves by 'jumping' in an l-shaped pattern, 2 squares in any non-diagonal direction and then one square perpindicular.
There are a lot of variants of chess: timed chess, three or four player versions, the usual drinking games...
*See also: