The Modern Era of Chess

Competition becomes formal

London hosted the first international tournament in 1851. In 1886 Wilhelm Steinitz became the first recognised world champion, and just as importantly argued that chess obeys principles — that attacks should follow from accumulated positional advantages rather than inspiration. Lasker, Capablanca, and Alekhine each answered him in their own style.

After the Second World War the Soviet school, organised around Botvinnik, dominated the championship almost without interruption. Bobby Fischer's victory over Boris Spassky at Reykjavik in 1972 ended that run and made chess front-page news worldwide.

The machines arrive

In 1997 Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov in a match, the first time a reigning world champion lost to a computer under tournament conditions. Engines kept improving until human-versus-engine matches stopped being interesting, and the relationship inverted: engines became the tools players train with rather than opponents they test themselves against.

AlphaZero, in 2017, learned the game from self-play alone and produced an aggressive, sacrificial style that surprised professionals. Stockfish, free and open source, is now stronger than any human who has ever lived and runs in an ordinary web browser — including this one.

Chess online

The internet made opponents available instantly at any strength and any hour. Streaming, online tournaments, and a wave of new interest during the pandemic brought in millions of players who had never owned a physical set. The game is more widely played now than at any point in its fifteen centuries.