The 2016 World Chess Championship is currently underway in New York. Reigning champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway is defending his title against Russian Sergey Karjakin. The match will be twelve games long, and if it ends in a tie, the championship will be decided in a series of speed matches, with players being given increasingly less time to make their moves in each game. The match began with seven draws, and Karjakin won game 8 to take a 4½-3½ lead. Game 9 will be played today. In honor of Carlsen and Karjakin's battle, ON THIS DAY highlights some chess-related items from our collection.

	The game of chess originated in India sometime around the 6th century. The documentary Algorithms follows some current players in that country, one adult and his three young proteges in the world of Blind Chess. They travel to several tournaments, including the World Junior Blind Chess Championship, and talk about the ways that mastering the game has helped them to cope with other struggles. Algorithms is available for streaming at Hoopla.
	In 1770, Wolfgang von Kempelen constructed "The Turk," which he claimed was a machine that could play chess; its various owners toured the world for more than 80 years, exhibiting The Turk throughout Europe and the Americas. It was, of course, a hoax; the cabinet was designed to allow a human player to hide inside and control the movements of the pieces. Robert Lohr's novel The Chess Machine imagines the story of The Turk from the point of view of one of the chess masters inside the box; it's available as an e-audio from OverDrive.
	The musical Chess takes place during a World Chess Championship match between a Russian and an American, set against the backdrop of the Cold War. The show's characters and plots have undergone a lot of editing and changes in various versions of the show since the original 1984 concept album, but the songs (music by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus of ABBA, lyrics by Tim Rice) have always been delightful. The 2008 recording Chess in Concert is, Rice says, the final version of the show, and it features Josh Groban, Idina Menzel, and Adam Pascal in the principal roles. Chess in Concert is available for streaming at Hoopla.