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A handicap (or "odds") in chess is a way to enable a weaker player to have a chance of winning against a stronger one. There are a variety of such handicaps, such as material odds (the stronger player surrenders a certain piece or pieces), extra moves (the weaker player has an agreed number of moves at the beginning of the game), extra time on the chess clock, and special conditions (such as requiring the odds-giver to deliver checkmate with a specified piece or pawn). Various permutations of these, such as "pawn and two moves", are also possible. Handicaps were quite popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, when chess was often played for money stakes, in order to induce weaker players to play for wagers. Today, except for time odds, handicaps are rarely seen. Rybka, however, a top-rated computer chess engine, played a successful series of handicap matches in 2007 and 2008 against human chess masters. Some new chess websites offer handicap options to their users. This is an increasingly popular and entertaining game format because it helps bridge the large chess-strength disparity frequently found in online play. == History == According to Harry Golombek, "Odds-giving reached its heyday in the eighteenth century and the early nineteenth century."〔Harry Golombek, ''Golombek’s Encyclopedia of Chess'', Crown Publishers, 1977, p. 218.〕 Indeed, it was so prevalent in the 18th century that Philidor (1726–1795) played the vast majority of his games at odds.〔 About fifteen percent of the known games of Paul Morphy (1837–1884) are games in which he gave odds.〔Macon Shibut, ''Paul Morphy and the Evolution of Chess Theory'', Dover Publications, 2004, p. 121. ISBN 978-0-486-43574-9.〕 Howard Staunton in ''The Chess-Player's Handbook'' (1847) advised inexperienced players to accept odds offered by superior players and, upon improving to the point that they can themselves give odds to some players, to avoid playing such players on even terms, warning that doing so is apt to induce "an indolent, neglectful habit of play". In 1849, Staunton published ''The Chess-Player's Companion'', a 510-page work "chiefly directed to the exposition of openings where one party gives odds".〔Howard Staunton, ''The Chess-Player's Companion'', Henry G. Bohn, 1849, p. v.〕 Just over 300 pages were devoted to odds games: Book I (pages 1 to 185) contained games played at various odds, and most of Book V (pages 380–496) discussed various types of odds, including exotic and unusual ones.〔Books II and III were devoted to games not at odds, classified by opening, Book IV analyzed the games of Staunton's 1843 match against Saint Amant. The last chapter of Book V was devoted to chess problems.〕 The late-19th century chess opening treatise ''Chess Openings Ancient and Modern'', by Edward Freeborough and Charles Ranken, included fourteen pages of analysis of best play in games played at odds of pawn and move, pawn and two moves, and either knight.〔E. Freeborough and Rev. C.E. Ranken, ''Chess Openings Ancient and Modern'', Third Edition, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner and Co., London, 1896, pp. 271–84. The authors, after discussing general principles applicable to odds games, devoted pages 274–76 to analyzing games played at pawn and move, pages 277–79 to pawn and two moves games, pages 281–82 to games played at queen knight odds, and page 283 to the unusual odds of king knight.〕 Macon Shibut writes that in the mid-19th century "chess was a gambling game ... . Individual matches for stakes were the focus of organized play. Matches between leading players attracted a wide following so masters often succeeded in finding sponsors to back their personal wagers."〔Macon Shibut, ''Paul Morphy and the Evolution of Chess Theory'', Dover Publications, 2004, p. 122. ISBN 978-0-486-43574-9.〕 However, the available sums were generally relatively meager, and travel was arduous, so the amount of money obtained in this way was not sufficient to enable professional chess players to support themselves financially.〔 Moreover, the first major chess tournament was not organized until 1851,〔"Indeed, it was not until the International Tournament of 1851, held at the Crystal Palace of the London Exhibition, that tournament play entered the chess scene." Robert Byrne ("Chess" ), ''The New York Times'', January 14, 1997. Accessed July 21, 2008.〕 and chess tournaments remained a rarity for several decades following.〔Reuben Fine writes that for Adolf Anderssen (1818–1879), winner of the 1851 tournament, "There were few tournaments (none at all from 1851 to 1857)". Reuben Fine, ''The World's Great Chess Games'', Dover, 1983, p. 16. ISBN 0-486-24512-8. Similarly, for Wilhelm Steinitz (1836–1900), the first World Champion, "active tournaments were few and far between ... Steinitz could hardly find one every three or four years". ''Id.'' at 31. It was only during Emanuel Lasker's 1894–1921 reign as World Champion that "the institution of the chess tournament was really developed", with "half a dozen international tournaments a year and innumerable local ones". ''Id.'' at 49.〕 With tournaments an unreliable means of making a living, odds-giving became a way for masters to entice amateurs into playing for wagers, since the odds gave the amateur a fighting chance.〔〔〔"It was the pernicious practice at the time (Philidor ) for the best players to give odds to weaker ones, no doubt as an inducement for them to play for wagers." Harry Golombek, ''Chess: A History'', G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1976, p. 120.〕 The odds system even became the earliest rating system: amateurs were graded according to what handicap they needed to compete against a master, and were referred to as a "Rook player" or "Pawn and move player", for example, as we would today speak of players by their Elo ratings (e.g. a "1200 player" or an "1800 player").〔Macon Shibut, ''Paul Morphy and the Evolution of Chess Theory'', Dover Publications, 2004, pp. 122–23. ISBN 978-0-486-43574-9.〕 The playing of games at odds gradually grew rarer as the nineteenth century proceeded.〔 Today, except for time odds, they have all but disappeared.〔Shibut addresses the question "why has odds chess all but disappeared today?" Macon Shibut, ''Paul Morphy and the Evolution of Chess Theory'', Dover Publications, 2004, pp. 122. ISBN 978-0-486-43574-9. He notes that, "Today, the game's gambling heritage is best preserved in the arena of blitz chess and, not coincidentally, we can still find oddsgiving in blitz. However, ''time'' odds have replaced material as the preferred form of handicapping." ''Id.'' at 124.〕 Shibut posits that games played at material odds became unpopular for (1) technological, (2) political, and (3) philosophical reasons. Taking these in turn, first, the introduction of chess clocks gave rise to a new way to give odds, one that has today supplanted material odds as the preferred mode of odds-giving. Second, the Soviet Union supported chess masters and sponsored chess education, but expected chess masters "to be cultural icons, not hustlers". Third, chess began to be treated in a scientific, logical way, "with an assumption of idealized 'best play' () to underpin all analysis". From this perspective, a game beginning from a "lost" position becomes less interesting, even distasteful.〔 Writings by Wilhelm Steinitz (1836–1900), the first World Champion, and James Mason (1849–1905) are consistent with the last point.〔Steinitz wrote: () learner should seek as much as possible to play on even terms with superior players. From experience and observation we feel sure that he will learn much faster in this manner than by taking odds. The latter method of practice engenders the habit on the part of the odds-receiver of exchanging pieces without any motive other than to reduce the forces. He may also with comparative impunity commit many mistakes anyone of which would surely cost him the game if he started on even terms, and the object of the student ought to be not so much to win games as to train himself to play correctly. By taking odds a players loses the opportunity to observe the finer points of play of his adversary who on account of his inferiority in force cannot always afford to adopt the best strategy and is more apt to resort to lines of play which he knows to be unsound, relying on the inability of the weaker player to perceive the correct reply. Moreover, the openings in games at odds are quite different from those adopted in even games and, therefore, the odds-receiver is not advancing in one important branch of Chess knowledge.Wilhelm Steinitz, ''The Modern Chess Instructor'', Part I, Edition Olms Zürich, 1990 (reprint of 1889 work), pp. xxix–xxx. ISBN 3-283-00111-1.〕〔Mason wrote: Strictly speaking, odds play is somewhat foreign to the general principles of Chess, and, therefore, less conducive to improvement of the player—giver or receiver—than serious conduct of the game on proper even terms. This would be so for the weaker party, if only because correctness of development must needs be missing, the whole theory of the opening being distorted and disturbed; and it would be so, for the stronger party, if only because of the habit of speculative and unsound combination odds play so naturally induces—a habit which if once acquired is so difficult of rejection, and whose effects cannot fail to prove inconvenient to its subject, when confronted by a foeman entirely worthy of his steel, and calling for the full exercise of all his powers.James Mason, ''The Principles of Chess in Theory and Practice'', David McKay, Fourth Edition, c. 1910, pp. 317–18.〕 In an interview with Ralph Ginzburg published in the January 1962 issue of ''Harper's Magazine'', future World Champion Bobby Fischer was quoted as saying that women were weak chessplayers and that he could successfully give knight odds to any woman in the world.〔Ralph Ginzburg, "Portrait of a Genius as a Young Chess Master", ''Harper's Magazine'', January 1962, pp. 49–55, at 50.〕〔(Bobby Fischer quotes )〕〔I. A. Horowitz and P. L. Rothenberg, ''The Complete Book of Chess'', Collier Books, 1972, pp. 139–40.〕 Fischer later claimed that Ginzburg had distorted what he had said.〔Fischer biographer Frank Brady wrote of the Ginzburg interview (not specifically addressing the part about women chessplayers) that Fischer "claimed emphatically that much in it had been twisted, distorted, and taken out of context". Frank Brady, David McKay, ''Profile of a Prodigy'', Second Edition, 1973, p. 47.〕 In 2001, London businessman Terence Chapman, a master-level player, played a match against former World Champion Garry Kasparov, with Kasparov giving odds of two pawns in each game (the pawns removed were different each time); Kasparov won the match by two games to one, with one draw.〔(Kasparov makes it a knight to remember – Telegraph )〕 Rybka, a top-rated computer chess engine designed by International Master Vasik Rajlich, played a series of handicap matches against strong human players. In March 2007, Rybka defeated Grandmaster Jaan Ehlvest after giving pawn odds (removing a different pawn each time).〔(Rybka–Ehlvest I )〕 In January 2008, Rybka defeated Grandmaster Joel Benjamin after giving draw odds.〔(Rybka–Benjamin match )〕 On March 2008, Rybka gave pawn and move (removing a different pawn each time) to Grandmaster Roman Dzindzichashvili, drawing the match 4–4.〔(Rybka–Dzindzichashvili match )〕 In June 2008, Rybka gave knight odds to FIDE Master John Meyer, losing 4–0.〔(Rybka–Meyer match conditions )〕〔(Rybka–Meyer games )〕 On July 6, 2008, Rybka gave Meyer odds of pawn and three moves, winning 3–1.〔(Rybka–Meyer II match conditions )〕〔(Rybka–Meyer II games )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Chess handicap」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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