Outline of chess
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to chess: Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard (a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid). In a chess game, each player begins with sixteen pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns. The object of the game is to checkmate the opponent's king, whereby the king is under immediate attack (in "check") and there is no way to remove or defend it from attack, or force  the opposing player to forfeit. Nature of chess. Chess can be described as all of the following: Rules of chess. The modern rules of chess (and breaking them) are discussed in separate articles, and briefly in the following subsections: Gameplay. Pawn structure. Pawn structure – describes features of the positions of the pawns. Pawn structure may be used for tactical or strategic effect, or both. Chess tactics. Chess tactics – a chess tactic is a move or sequence of moves which may result in tangible gain or limits the opponent's options. Tactics are usually contrasted with strategy, in which advantages take  longer to be realized, and the opponent is less constrained in responding. Fundamental tactics. Fundamental tactics include: Offensive tactics. Checkmate patterns. Checkmate pattern – a particular checkmate. Some checkmate patterns occur sufficiently frequently, or are otherwise of such interest to scholars, that they have acquired specific names in chess commentary. Here are some of the most notorious: Chess strategy. Chess strategy – aspect of chess playing concerned with evaluation of chess positions and setting of goals and long-term plans for future play. While evaluating a position strategically, a player must take into account such factors as the relative value of the  pieces on the board, pawn structure, king safety, position of pieces, and control of key squares and groups of squares (e.g. diagonals, open files, individual squares). Schools of chess. School of chess – group of players that share common ideas about the strategy of the game. There have been several schools in the history of modern chess. Today there is less dependence on schools – players draw on many sources and play according to their personal style. Chess openings. Chess opening – group of initial moves of a chess game. Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings as finished by  White, or defenses as finished by Black, but opening is also used as the general term. e4 Openings. King's Knight Openings. King's Knight Opening – Sicilian Defense. Sicilian Defense – d4 Openings. Indian Defense. Indian Defense – Endgames. Endgame – phase of the game after the middlegame when there are few pieces left on the board Venues (who and where to play). Competitive chess. Titles. Chess title – Computer chess. Computer chess – History of chess. History of chess History of chess, by period. Timeline of chess Science of chess. Chess theory. Chess theory – Chess variants. Chess variant – games similar to chess but with  different rules or pieces.