Editing Chess (section)

===1945–1990: Post-World War II era===
[[File:Mikhail Botvinnik 1962.jpg|thumb|left|[[Mikhail Botvinnik]], the first post-war World Champion]]
After the death of Alekhine, a new World Champion was sought. FIDE, which has controlled the title since then, ran a tournament of elite players. The winner of the [[World Chess Championship 1948|1948 tournament]] was Russian [[Mikhail Botvinnik]]. In 1950, FIDE established a system of titles, conferring the title of [[Grandmaster (chess)|Grandmaster]] on 27 players. (Some sources state that, in 1914, the title of chess Grandmaster was first formally conferred by Tsar [[Nicholas II of Russia]] to Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, [[Siegbert Tarrasch|Tarrasch]], and [[Frank Marshall (chess player)|Marshall]], but this is a disputed claim.{{refn|This is stated in ''The Encyclopaedia of Chess'' (1970, p. 223) by [[Anne Sunnucks]], but is disputed by [[Edward Winter (chess historian)]] in his [http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter38.html Chess Notes 5144 and 5152].|group=note}})

Botvinnik started an era of [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] dominance in the chess world, which mainly through the Soviet government's politically inspired efforts to demonstrate intellectual superiority over the West<ref>{{Cite thesis|title=Storming Fortresses: A Political History Of Chess In The Soviet Union, 1917-1948|url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0s71f0cw|publisher=UC Santa Cruz|date=2013|language=en|first=Michael Andrew|last=Hudson|access-date=19 April 2021|archive-date=25 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210425094201/https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0s71f0cw|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=The match of the century|url=https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/the-match-of-the-century|access-date=2021-09-08|website=Adam Smith Institute|date=September 2019 |language=en-GB|archive-date=8 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210908234912/https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/the-match-of-the-century|url-status=live}}</ref> stood almost uninterrupted for more than a half-century. Until the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]], there was only one non-Soviet champion, American [[Bobby Fischer]] (champion 1972–1975).<ref>{{harvp|Kasparov|2003b|pp=7–8}}</ref> Botvinnik also revolutionized [[Chess theory#Opening theory|opening theory]]. Previously, Black strove for equality, attempting to neutralize White's [[first-move advantage in chess|first-move advantage]]. As Black, Botvinnik strove for the initiative from the beginning.<ref>{{harvp|Kasparov|2003b|p=7}}</ref> In the previous informal system of World Championships, the current champion decided which challenger he would play for the title and the challenger was forced to seek sponsors for the match. FIDE set up a new system of qualifying tournaments and matches. The world's strongest players were seeded into [[Interzonal]] tournaments, where they were joined by players who had qualified from Zonal tournaments. The leading finishers in these Interzonals would go through the "[[Candidates Tournament|Candidates]]" stage, which was initially a tournament, and later a series of knockout matches. The winner of the Candidates would then play the reigning champion for the title. A champion defeated in a match had a right to play a rematch a year later. This system operated on a three-year cycle. Botvinnik participated in championship matches over a period of fifteen years. He won the world championship tournament in 1948 and retained the title in tied matches in 1951 and 1954. In 1957, he lost to [[Vasily Smyslov]], but regained the title in a rematch in 1958. In 1960, he lost the title to the 23-year-old Latvian prodigy [[Mikhail Tal]], an accomplished [[Chess tactics|tactician]] and attacking player who is widely regarded as one of the most creative players ever,<ref>{{Cite web|last=Pete (Pete)|title=The 12 Most Interesting Chess Players Ever|url=https://www.chess.com/article/view/the-12-most-interesting-chess-players-ever|access-date=2021-04-19|website=Chess.com|date=28 April 2018 |language=en-US|archive-date=19 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210419131201/https://www.chess.com/article/view/the-12-most-interesting-chess-players-ever|url-status=live}}</ref> hence his nickname "the magician from Riga". Botvinnik again regained the title in a rematch in 1961.

[[File:Bobby Fischer 1960 in Leipzig.jpg|thumb|left|[[Bobby Fischer]], World Champion from 1972 to 1975]]
Following the 1961 event, FIDE abolished the automatic right of a deposed champion to a rematch, and the next champion, Armenian [[Tigran Petrosian]], a player renowned for his defensive and positional skills, held the title for two cycles, 1963–1969. His successor, [[Boris Spassky]] from Russia (champion 1969–1972), won games in both positional and sharp tactical style.<ref>{{harvp|Kasparov|2003b|p=8}}; {{harvp|Kasparov|2004a|pp=5–6}}</ref> The next championship, the so-called [[World Chess Championship 1972|Match of the Century]], saw the first non-Soviet challenger since World War II, American [[Bobby Fischer]]. Fischer defeated his opponents in the [[Candidates Tournament|Candidates]] matches by unheard-of margins, and convincingly defeated Spassky for the world championship. The match was followed closely by news media of the day, leading to a surge in popularity for chess; it also held significant political importance at the height of the [[Cold War]], with the match being seen by both sides as a [[Microcosm–macrocosm analogy|microcosm]] of the conflict between East and West.<ref>{{Cite magazine|title=How chess became a pawn in Russia's political war games|language=en-GB|magazine=Wired UK|url=https://www.wired.co.uk/article/world-chess-championship-2018-london-carlsen-vs-caruana|access-date=2021-09-08|issn=1357-0978|archive-date=8 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210908234912/https://www.wired.co.uk/article/world-chess-championship-2018-london-carlsen-vs-caruana|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1975, however, Fischer refused to defend his title against Soviet [[Anatoly Karpov]] when he was unable to reach agreement on conditions with FIDE, and Karpov obtained the title by default.<ref>{{harvp|Kasparov|2004b|pp=5–6}}</ref> Fischer modernized many aspects of chess, especially by extensively preparing openings.<ref>{{harvp|Kasparov|2003a|p=8}}</ref>

Karpov defended his title twice against [[Viktor Korchnoi]] and dominated the 1970s and early 1980s with a string of tournament successes.<ref>{{harvp|Kasparov|2004b|pp=5–6}}; {{harvp|Kasparov|2006|pp=5–6}}</ref> In the [[1984 World Chess Championship]], Karpov faced his toughest challenge to date, the young [[Garry Kasparov]] from [[Baku]], [[Soviet Azerbaijan]]. The match was aborted in controversial circumstances after 5 months and 48 games with Karpov leading by 5 wins to 3, but evidently exhausted; many commentators believed Kasparov, who had won the last two games, would have won the match had it continued. Kasparov won the [[1985 World Chess Championship|1985 rematch]]. Kasparov and Karpov contested three further closely fought matches in 1986, 1987 and 1990, Kasparov winning them all.<ref>{{harvp|Keene|1993|p=16}}</ref> Kasparov became the dominant figure of world chess from the mid-1980s until his retirement from competition in 2005.

====Beginnings of chess technology====
Chess-playing computer programs (later known as [[chess engines]]) began to appear in the 1960s. In 1970, the first major computer chess tournament, the [[North American Computer Chess Championship]], was held, followed in 1974 by the first [[World Computer Chess Championship]]. In the late 1970s, dedicated home chess computers such as Fidelity Electronics' ''[[Chess Challenger]]'' became commercially available, as well as software to run on home computers. The overall standard of computer chess was low, however, until the 1990s.

The first [[endgame tablebases]], which provided [[perfect play]] for relatively simple endgames such as king and rook versus king and bishop, appeared in the late 1970s. This set a precedent to the complete six- and seven-piece tablebases that became available in the 2000s and 2010s respectively.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2018-03-16|title=Endgame tablebases: A short history|url=https://en.chessbase.com/post/endgame-tablebases-a-short-history|access-date=2021-04-19|website=ChessBase News|language=en|archive-date=20 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210420013702/https://en.chessbase.com/post/endgame-tablebases-a-short-history|url-status=live}}</ref>

The first commercial [[chess database]], a collection of chess games searchable by move and position, was introduced by the German company [[ChessBase]] in 1987.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2011-05-19 |title=ChessBase is 25 |url=https://en.chessbase.com/post/chebase-is-25-everything-25-off-in-our-shop |access-date=2025-02-04 |website=Chess News |language=en}}</ref> Databases containing millions of chess games have since had a profound effect on opening theory and other areas of chess research.

Digital [[chess clocks]] were invented in 1973, though they did not become commonplace until the 1990s. Digital clocks allow for time controls involving [[Time control#Increment and delay methods|increments and delays]].