Handicap (chess)
Initial setup for pawn and move: Black starts without the f-pawn; the weaker player (White) moves first.
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Initial setup for queen rook in exchange for the opponent's queen knight: White starts without the a-rook; Black, on the other hand, removes their b8-knight and moves their queen rook to b8. The stronger player (White) moves first.
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Handicaps (or odds) in chess are setup or rule modifications which enable a weaker player to have a higher 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 handicaps are rarely seen in serious competition outside of human–computer chess matches. As chess engines have been routinely superior to even chess masters since the late 20th century, human players need considerable odds to have practical chances in such matches – as of 2025, approximately knight odds for strong grandmasters.
History
[edit]According to Harry Golombek, "Odds-giving reached its heyday in the eighteenth century and the early nineteenth century."[1] Indeed, it was so prevalent in the 18th century that Philidor (1726–1795) played the vast majority of his games at odds.[1] About fifteen percent of the known games of Paul Morphy (1837–1884) are games in which he gave odds.[2] Other strong odds-givers of this time were George Henry Mackenzie (1837–1891) and Wilhelm Steinitz (1836–1900).[3]
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".[4] 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".[5] 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.[6] 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.[7]
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."[8] The available sums were generally relatively meager, however, 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.[8] Moreover, the first major chess tournament was not organized until 1851,[9] and chess tournaments remained a rarity for several decades following.[10] 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.[8][11][12] 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 many people would today speak of players by their Elo ratings (e.g. a "1200 player" or an "1800 player").[13]
The playing of games at odds gradually grew rarer as the nineteenth century proceeded.[1] Today, except for time odds, they have all but disappeared.[14] 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' [coming] to underpin all analysis". From this perspective, a game beginning from a "lost" position becomes less interesting, even distasteful.[15] Writings by Wilhelm Steinitz (1836–1900), the first World Champion, and James Mason (1849–1905) are consistent with the last point.[16][17] GM Larry Kaufman argued in 2024 that another factor was that chess became more popular and the standard of play rose, so that it was no longer reasonable to give piece odds to strong players.[3]
World Chess Champion Bobby Fischer often gave odds, as did IM Israel Albert Horowitz before him. Against FIDE Master Asa Hoffmann, Fischer first gave pawn and move (f7), then pawn and two moves, and then pawn and three moves.[3] In an interview with Ralph Ginzburg published in the January 1962 issue of Harper's Magazine, 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.[18][19][20] Fischer later claimed that Ginzburg had distorted what he had said.[21]
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.[22]
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 (GM) Jaan Ehlvest after giving pawn odds (removing a different pawn each time).[23] In January 2008, Rybka defeated GM Joel Benjamin after giving draw odds.[24] In March 2008, Rybka gave pawn and move (removing a different pawn each time) to GM Roman Dzindzichashvili, drawing the match 4–4.[25] In June 2008, Rybka gave knight odds to FIDE Master John Meyer, losing 4–0.[26][27] On July 6, 2008, Rybka gave Meyer odds of pawn and three moves, winning 3–1.[28][29] In 2015, Komodo (co-authored by Don Dailey and Larry Kaufman) defeated strong grandmasters at the f7-pawn handicap and rook (a1) for knight (b8), without losing a single game.[3]
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Top human players still occasionally play odds matches against engines. In 2016, Komodo played Hikaru Nakamura in four odds games, giving pawn & move odds, pawn odds, exchange odds, and 4-move odds. The first three ended drawn, while Komodo won the last game to win the match 2½–1½.[30] In 2018, Komodo played another handicap series against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Komodo won four games at pawn and two moves odds, two-pawn odds, queen for rook + queen's knight odds, and knight for f7-pawn odds. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won at odds of exchange and pawn for knight, while the last "Knightmare" game (diagram) was drawn.[31] Finally, in 2020, Komodo played a 6-game match against GM David Smerdon at knight odds. GM Smerdon blundered away the first game, but rallied to win the remaining five.[32]
From 9 November 2023, Leela Chess Zero supports playing at knight odds (b1 or g1) on Lichess.[33] Against "par" grandmasters (Elo around 2500), the bot scored +24−5=2. Kaufman suggests that "only an 'elite' grandmaster could win a rapid match from LeelaKnightOdds".