text:
Severus Snape
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Severus Snape
Harry Potter character
Alan Rickman as Severus Snape
in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
First appearance
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Last appearance
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Created by
J. K. Rowling
Portrayed by
Alan Rickman (adult)
Alec Hopkins (teenager)
Benedict Clarke (child)
Mick Ignis (young adult)
House
Slytherin
Severus Snape is a fictional character in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. An exceptionally skilful wizard, his coldly sarcastic and controlled exterior conceals deep emotions and anguish. A Professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Snape is hostile to the series' protagonist, Harry, the moment he sets foot in Snape's classroom; this hostility is rooted in Harry's resemblance to Harry's father James, who bullied and harassed Snape during their time at Hogwarts. Though philosophically attracted to the Dark Arts and Lord Voldemort's ideology of wizard supremacy, Snape's love for Muggle-born Lily Evans, Harry's mother, eventually compels him to defect from the Death Eaters. Snape becomes a double-agent on behalf of Albus Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix, and protects Harry throughout the series.
A central mystery of the series concerns Snape's loyalties. For much of the series, Snape's actions seem to serve Harry's nemesis, Lord Voldemort, although Harry's mentor, Dumbledore insists that he trusts Snape. Snape dies at the hands of Voldemort in the final chapters of the seventh book, at which time his back story is revealed: as a teenager, Snape was a close friend of Harry's mother Lily, and he turned on Voldemort after the latter sought to kill Lily and her family.
Snape's character, which becomes more layered and enigmatic as the series progresses, was widely acclaimed by readers and critics. Rowling described him as "a gift of a character"[1] whose story she had known since the first book, and Elizabeth Hand of The Washington Post opined that Snape's life "is the most heartbreaking, surprising and satisfying of all of Rowling's achievements".[2] Actor Alan Rickman portrayed Snape in all eight Harry Potter films, released between 2001 and 2011.
Contents
[hide]
1 Character development
2 Appearances
2.1 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
2.2 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
2.3 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
2.4 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
2.5 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
2.6 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
2.7 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
2.7.1 Epilogue
3 Appearances in other material
3.1 Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
4 Portrayal in films
5 Characterisation
5.1 Outward appearance
5.2 Personality
5.3 Magical abilities and skills
5.4 Family
5.5 Loyalties
6 Reception
7 In popular culture
8 References
9 External links
Character development
In an interview,[3] Rowling described Snape's character as an "antihero". She has said that she drew inspiration for Snape's character from a disliked teacher from her own childhood,[4] and described Snape as a horrible teacher,[5] saying the "worst, shabbiest thing you can do as a teacher is to bully students."[6] However, she does suggest in the books that he is generally an effective teacher.[7] Although Rowling has said that Gilderoy Lockhart is her only character that she "deliberately based on a real person",[8] Snape was reportedly based, at least in part, on John Nettleship, who taught Rowling chemistry and employed her mother as an assistant at Wyedean School near Chepstow.[9][10][11] For Snape's surname, Rowling borrowed the name of the village of Snape, Suffolk.[12] In a 1999 interview[13] and again in 2004,[8] Rowling singled out Snape as one of her favourite characters to write.
Rowling was less forthcoming about Snape than she was for other characters, because his true loyalties and motivations were not revealed until the final book.[14] However, she hinted numerous times at Snape's important role, suggesting that people should "keep their eye on Snape".[4][15] In 1999, answering a question regarding Snape's love life and the redemptive pattern to his character, Rowling expressed her surprise at the foresight.[16] Rowling also disclosed that after the publication of Prisoner of Azkaban, there was one female fan who guessed Snape loved Lily Potter, making Rowling wonder how she had given herself away.[17]
After the completion of the series, Rowling began to speak openly about Snape, discussing the contrast between his character arc and that of Albus Dumbledore.[18] Rowling said "the series is built around [the Dumbledore and Snape storylines]", and maintained that she always knew what Snape would turn out to be at the end and that she carefully plotted his storyline throughout the series. "I had to drop clues all the way through because as you know in the seventh book when you have the revelation scene where everything shifts and you realise...what Snape's motivation was. I had to plot that through the books because at the point where you see what was really going on, it would have been an absolute cheat on the reader at that point just to show a bunch of stuff you've never seen before."[17] Rowling further said in an interview that she wanted Snape to find redemption and forgiveness: "Snape is a complicated man...he was a flawed human being, like all of us. Harry forgives him...Harry really sees the good in Snape ultimately... I wanted there to be redemption."[19]
Appearances
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Snape first appears in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, shortly after Harry arrives at Hogwarts. He is the school's Potions Master, though he is widely rumoured to covet the Defence Against the Dark Arts post.[20] Snape himself confirms the rumour in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.[21] Snape is a sinister and malicious teacher who makes frequent snide and disparaging remarks at Harry's expense. He quickly becomes the primary antagonist of the book, as Harry suspects him of plotting to steal the philosopher's stone, and of attempting to kill him. Only the climax of the book reveals that Professor Quirrell, in league with Lord Voldemort, is the real enemy; Snape, suspicious of Quirrell, had been looking out for Harry throughout the book. In the final chapter, Dumbledore suggests that because Harry's father James had saved Snape's life when they were both students, even though the two detested each other, Snape felt responsible for Harry in return.[22] As the final book reveals, this is not the full story. In any case, even after Quirrell's true role is revealed, Harry retains feelings of suspicion and resentment towards Snape, and their relationship remains tense. Snape's behaviour and attitude towards Harry also remain unchanged.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Snape has a minor role in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, where he helps Gilderoy Lockhart oversee Hogwarts' short-lived Duelling Club,[23] but he has little interaction with the main plot. It is while attending the Duelling Club that Harry learns the Expelliarmus spell, which plays a significant role in later books, by seeing Snape use it.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Snape demonstrates his expertise with potions by brewing the complex Wolfsbane potion for the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, Remus Lupin.[24] Throughout the third book, Snape suspects that Lupin may be helping Harry's godfather Sirius Black enter Hogwarts castle; Sirius had been convicted (wrongly, as it is later revealed) of murdering Peter Pettigrew and innocent bystanders, and betraying the Potter family's hiding place to Voldemort. This suspicion stems from Lupin's friendship with Sirius and Harry's father, James, while they were all at Hogwarts as students.[25] Near the climax of the book, Snape attempts to apprehend Sirius, but Sirius escapes with Harry's aid. Snape informs Dumbledore of this circumstance, and when Harry and Lupin are not punished, Snape retaliates by revealing to the entire school that Lupin is a werewolf, forcing the latter to resign his post.[26]
Prisoner of Azkaban reveals more details about the connection between Snape and James. While in school together, Sirius once tricked Snape into almost entering the Shrieking Shack while Lupin was there, transformed into a werewolf. James realised the danger and stopped Snape, saving his life; this is the incident Dumbledore referred to at the end of the first book. Snape, however, believes James' actions were self-serving, to avoid being expelled.[27]
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Snape's role in the fourth novel, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, is not substantially different from that of the previous three books. He is apoplectic when Harry is unexpectedly entered into the Triwizard Tournament. Later Harry accidentally falls into Dumbledore's Pensieve and views memories of several Death Eater trials from years before. At one point, Snape is named as a Death Eater by Igor Karkaroff, but Dumbledore comes to Snape's defence, claiming that although Snape had indeed been a Death Eater, he changed sides before Voldemort's downfall and turned spy against him. Later, Dumbledore assures Harry that Snape's reformation is genuine, though he refuses to tell Harry how he knows this, saying the information "is a matter between Professor Snape and myself".[28]
At the end of the book, Dumbledore attempts to convince a disbelieving Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, that Voldemort has returned. As proof, Snape willingly shows Fudge the restored Dark Mark on his arm. He is subsequently sent on a secret mission by Dumbledore. This mission, as had been implied in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and revealed in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, was to rejoin the Death Eaters and spy on Voldemort as a re-doubled agent, while pretending to spy on Dumbledore on behalf of Voldemort.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Teenage Severus Snape (Alec Hopkins) in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
In the fifth novel, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Snape returns to a more prominent role. With Voldemort having returned to a fully corporeal body, Snape continues working as a re-doubled agent for Dumbledore.[29] He is seen prior to the start of school at Number 12, Grimmauld Place giving reports to the Order of the Phoenix.[30] He has a very strained relationship with Sirius, who owns Grimmauld Place and must remain there in hiding. The two trade frequent snide remarks and at one point almost begin a duel. Snape taunts Sirius about the latter's not being able to take an active role in the Order's missions because of his fugitive status. Harry feels later that this taunting contributed to Sirius' willingness to take unsafe risks.[31] Back at school, Snape's allegiance to the Order has no effect on his dislike for Harry.
Later in the book, Dumbledore has Snape teach Harry Occlumency, the protection of the mind from outside intrusion or influence.[31] The sessions are made difficult by their mutual hostility and end prematurely when Harry uses Dumbledore's Pensieve to view one of Snape's worst childhood memories without the latter's permission. He sees the memory of Snape being bullied by James and Sirius, and of calling Harry's mother Lily a Mudblood (a highly offensive term).[25] Only in the final book is it revealed that, prior to this confrontation, Snape and Lily had been close friends.
Towards the end of the novel, Dolores Umbridge – the school's politically appointed headmistress – captures Harry and interrogates him about Dumbledore's whereabouts. She sends for Snape, demanding that he provide the magical truth serum Veritaserum in order to force Harry to reveal any information he may be hiding. Snape claims that his supplies of the serum have been exhausted after Umbridge used the drug to force information about Dumbledore's Army from Cho Chang. It is later revealed that Snape had in fact supplied Umbridge with fake Veritaserum on the prior attempt. Snape then carries Harry's cryptic warning about Sirius' capture to the other Order members, allowing them to come to the rescue in the Department of Mysteries.[32] Harry still holds Snape partly responsible for Sirius' death, believing Snape's goading spurred Sirius into joining the battle.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
In the second chapter of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Bellatrix Lestrange and Narcissa Malfoy visit Snape at his home in Spinner's End. Narcissa's son Draco has been given a difficult task by Voldemort, and Narcissa swears Snape to an Unbreakable Vow that he will protect Draco, help him complete Voldemort's task, and finish the task himself if Draco fails. When questioned by Bellatrix about his loyalties, Snape says he has been working for Voldemort ever since Voldemort's return, and explains his actions in the previous books in that light. He points out that gaining Dumbledore's trust and protection has kept him out of Azkaban and free to operate on Voldemort's behalf.[33]
At the start-of-term feast at Hogwarts, Dumbledore announces Snape as the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. Horace Slughorn, a retired Hogwarts teacher, replaces Snape as Potions Master. With Snape no longer teaching Potions, Harry enrolls in Slughorn's class and is lent an old textbook until his new one arrives. Harry finds marginalia, including a variety of hexes and jinxes seemingly invented by an unknown student, and substantial improvements to the book's standard potion-making instructions. The text is inscribed as being "the Property of the Half-Blood Prince". The notes greatly bolster Harry's performance in Potions, so much so that he impresses Slughorn. Snape, who maintains that he "never had the impression that [he] had been able to teach Potter anything at all", is suspicious of Harry's newfound Potions success.[34]
Later, during a fight with Draco, Harry casts one of the Prince's spells marked "For Enemies," and is horrified by the devastating wounds it inflicts to Draco's face and chest. Snape rushes to the scene and heals Draco, then interrogates Harry regarding the spell, using Legilimency to extract the source of Harry's knowledge (the Potions textbook) from Harry's mind. When Snape insists that Harry show him his Potions textbook, Harry hides the Prince's book and gives him Ron Weasley's book instead. As punishment for the attack and knowing Harry is lying about the textbook, Snape assigns Harry detention during the final Quidditch match of the year.[35]
Before leaving Hogwarts to accompany Dumbledore in locating another horcrux –part of Voldemort's soul– Harry discovers from Professor Trelawney that it was Snape who overheard the prophecy and told it to Voldemort, resulting in Voldemort hunting down Harry and his parents. Despite this and Harry's angry questions, Dumbledore avers his trust in Snape. Returning to Hogwarts after retrieving Voldemort's Horcrux, Harry and Dumbledore alight atop the school's astronomy tower. Gravely weakened by the horcrux's protective potion, Dumbledore tells Harry he must fetch Snape, but before Harry can leave, Draco suddenly arrives, intending to carry out Voldemort's order to assassinate Dumbledore, closely followed by other Death Eaters (followers of Voldemort), and Snape. Snape interrupts the planned murder, killing the headmaster himself.[36] Harry, who is paralysed under his invisibility cloak by Dumbledore for his own protection, witnesses the kill, and is released upon Dumbledore's death. Enraged, he pursues Snape, Draco, and the Death Eaters as they flee the castle. Snape easily blocks Harry's spells and jeeringly points out Harry's mistakes, but never strikes back. During the confrontation, Snape reveals himself as the eponymous "Half-Blood Prince" (being the half-blood son of Muggle Tobias Snape and pure-blood Eileen Prince). Snape passes through the school gates and Disapparates with Draco in tow at the book's end.[37] The full relationship between Dumbledore and Snape and the reason for Snape's actions remain unknown until the final book. In an interview, Rowling mentioned that at this point in the series, the Harry–Snape relationship has become "as personal, if not more so, than Harry–Voldemort."[38]
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Voldemort and his Death Eaters have tightened their grip on the wizarding world. Snape is named Headmaster of Hogwarts, while Death Eaters Alecto and Amycus Carrow are appointed as Hogwarts staff. The novel focuses largely on Harry and his friends, and events outside the school; therefore Snape plays a limited role at the start. In the course of the book, Harry and Ron are led to find the Sword of Godric Gryffindor by a Patronus taking the form of a doe.[39] (Towards the end of the book, Harry learns that this was Snape's Patronus, taking the same shape as Harry's mother Lily's Patronus, a visible sign of his lifelong love for Harry's mother, and that Dumbledore had asked Snape to ensure that Harry gained possession of the sword.[40] The novel also reveals that Snape had covertly used his position as Headmaster to protect the students and to contain the Carrows.[40])
Towards the end of the school year, Professors McGonagall, Flitwick, and Sprout force Snape to flee the school.[41] Voldemort summons Snape to the Shrieking Shack. Erroneously believing Snape is the master of the Elder Wand and that Snape's death will make him the master of the Wand, Voldemort kills Snape by having his pet snake Nagini bite him through the neck.[42] The dying Snape releases a cloud of memories and tells Harry, who has watched the entire scene from a hidden spot, to take and view them.
From these memories, Harry sees Snape's childhood and learns his true loyalties. In this vision, Harry learns that Snape befriended Lily as a child when they lived near each other. Upon their arrival at Hogwarts, the Sorting Hat placed Snape and Lily into Slytherin and Gryffindor Houses, respectively. They remained friends for the next few years until they were driven apart by Snape's interest in the Dark Arts; the friendship finally ended following the bullying episode that Harry had briefly seen in the fifth book, in which Snape calls Lily "Mudblood". Despite this separation and Snape's enduring animosity toward Lily's eventual husband James Potter, Snape continued to love Lily for the rest of his life.
The memories also show that as a Death Eater, Snape had revealed to Voldemort a prophecy made by Sybill Trelawney, causing Voldemort to attempt to prevent it by killing Harry and his parents. Snape, who had not realised until too late that the prophecy was referring to Lily and her family, asked Voldemort to spare Lily. Still in terror for her life, he also approached Dumbledore, admitted his actions, and begged him to protect the Potters. Dumbledore chided him for thinking only of himself and not of Lily's husband and child, but agreed and ensured that they were placed under the Fidelius Charm. In return, Snape secretly allied himself with Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix as a double agent against Voldemort, using his powers of Occlumency to hide his betrayal from Voldemort. However, Snape demanded of Dumbledore that his love for Lily (his reason for switching sides) be kept a secret, especially from Harry, because of the deep animosity he felt towards Harry's father and his mixed feelings towards Harry (who reminded him of both his love for Lily Potter and her death, and his animosity towards James Potter). Dumbledore agreed and kept the secret throughout his life, although questioning Snape's request to "never reveal the best of you". Even with his efforts to protect her, Snape felt responsible for Lily's death at Voldemort's hands.
Snape's memories then reveal that Dumbledore had impetuously tried to use the Gaunt ring which had been cursed by Voldemort, and had been suffering from a powerful curse. Snape's knowledge of the Dark Arts enabled him to slow the spread of the curse from Dumbledore's hand through his body, but he would have died within a year. Dumbledore, aware that Voldemort had ordered Draco to kill him, had asked Snape to kill him instead as a way of sparing the boy's soul and of preventing his own otherwise slow, painful death. Although Snape was reluctant, even asking about the impact of such an action on his own soul, Dumbledore implied that this kind of coup de grâce would not damage a human's soul in the same way murder would.[40] Snape agreed to do as the Headmaster requested. Snape's memories also provide Harry with the information he needs to ensure Voldemort's final defeat, in the form of conversations Snape had with Dumbledore.[40]
Rowling noted in an interview that because Snape abandoned his post before dying or officially retiring, a portrait of him does not immediately appear in the Headmaster's office following his death. She adds, however, that she would like to think Harry made Snape's true loyalty and heroism known in the Wizarding world, and that he lobbied to ensure that a portrait be installed in the office.[43] In a separate interview, Rowling discussed Snape's back story, saying she had planned it ever since she wrote the first book because the whole series is built around it and she considers him one of the most important characters of the seventh book.[17]
Epilogue
In the epilogue to Deathly Hallows, set nineteen years after Harry defeats Voldemort, Harry has named his second-born son Albus Severus, after Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape. As Albus is about to enter his first year at Hogwarts, he expresses concern that he will be sorted into Slytherin. Harry tells his son, "you were named for two headmasters of Hogwarts. One of them [Snape] was a Slytherin and he was probably the bravest man I ever knew."[44]
Appearances in other material
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
When Draco and Astoria Greengrass' son Scorpius Malfoy finds himself in an alternate timeline in which Voldemort won the Battle of Hogwarts, killed Harry and his allies and instituted a terrible reign of terror, he desperately searches for help in restoring history to its original course. He finds that in this reality Snape is still alive and still teaches at Hogwarts, and asks for his help. At first Snape is suspicious of him, since this timeline's version of Scorpius is a bully and a Voldemort stalwart. But when Scorpius shows that he knows of Snape having been in love with Lily, Harry's mother - Snape's most closely guarded secret - Snape becomes convinced that he does indeed come from a different timeline where Harry and his friends won. Snape then reveals that he, together with the fugitive Ron and Hermione Granger, maintain the last remnants of Dumbledore's Army - still waging hopeless resistance against the all-powerful Voldemort. In talking with Scorpius, Snape had learned that Harry would name his son "Albus Severus" and would regard Snape as "probably the bravest man I ever knew" - and is deeply moved. Though having guessed that in the other timeline he would die, Snape nevertheless willingly helps Scorpius recreate this timeline - and being discovered by Dementors, Snape sacrifices himself in order to cover Scorpius' escape.
Portrayal in films
Severus Snape appears in all eight Harry Potter films,[45] portrayed by British actor Alan Rickman. Rickman was Rowling's personal choice to portray the character.[46] He had conversations with Rowling about his character and is one of the few Harry Potter actors that she spoke to prior to the completion of the book series about the future direction of the character.[47] "He knew very early on that he'd been in love with Lily," said Rowling. "He needed to understand […] where this bitterness towards this boy who's the living example of her preference for another man came from."[48]
Rickman used this knowledge of Snape's ultimate loyalties throughout the films to decide how to play certain scenes, deliver specific lines, or use body language to convey specific emotions.[49] When the directors of the films would ask him why he was doing a scene a certain way or delivering a line in a specific manner, Rickman would simply reply that he knew something they didn't.[49]
Rickman himself refrained from talking about Snape, asking readers to wait and "see what unfolds" in the course of the novels; however, he did say Snape is a complicated person, very rigid and full of himself; in an interview he went further, saying: "Snape isn't one who enjoys jokes and I strongly fear that his sense of humour is extremely limited... But in his defence, I will add that he didn't have an easy adolescence, particularly during his studies at Hogwarts."[50] He also said Snape is a fascinating character, and that he takes immense pleasure in playing such an ambiguous person.[51]
Rickman's performance as Snape was widely acclaimed by critics, fans and Rowling herself. Entertainment Weekly listed Rickman as one of the most popular movie stars in 2007 for his performance as Snape, saying: "As the icy, humourless magic instructor Severus Snape, Rickman may not be on screen long—but he owns every minute."[52] Rickman also noted fans' reactions; in an interview, he said he found "that people in general adore Snape. He is sarcastic, stubborn, etc, etc. But he is also fascinating. I have a lot of fun impersonating him."[51] Rickman was nominated for several awards for his portrayal of Snape, and in 2011, was elected the best character portrayal in all the Harry Potter films series.[53]
In 2011, Empire magazine published an open letter from Rickman to J.K. Rowling, ruminating on the ten years of working on the Potter films and thanking her for telling the story.[54]
In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifteen-year-old Snape (portrayed by Alec Hopkins) makes a brief appearance in a flashback to Snape’s youth. In the final film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, the younger Snape, perhaps ten or eleven, is played by Benedict Clarke. In 2016, a fan film prequel, Severus Snape and the Marauders, was released online and Snape was played by Mick Ignis.[55]
Before Alan Rickman was offered the role of Severus Snape, the role was originally offered to Tim Roth,[56] who turned the role down in favour of portraying General Thade in Planet of the Apes.[57]
Characterisation
Outward appearance
Snape is described as a thin man with sallow skin, a large, hooked nose, and yellow, uneven teeth. He has shoulder-length, greasy black hair which frames his face, and cold, black eyes. He wears black, flowing robes which give him the appearance of "an overgrown bat".[58] The youthful Snape had a "stringy, pallid look", being "round-shouldered yet angular", having a "twitchy" walk "that recalled a spider" and "long oily hair that jumped about his face".[25]
In the chapter illustrations by Mary GrandPré in the American editions of The Prisoner of Azkaban, The Order of the Phoenix, and The Half-Blood Prince, Snape is depicted with a moustache and goatee, long black hair, and a receding hairline.
Personality
Snape is generally depicted as being cold, calculating, precise, sarcastic, and bitter. He strongly dislikes Harry and often insults him by insulting his father James. As the series progresses, it is revealed that his treatment of Harry stems from Snape's bitter rivalry with James when they were in school together. In particular, James and Sirius bullied Snape, which according to Alan Rickman caused the already lonely boy to further "shut himself in".[51] Rowling further described the young Snape as insecure and vulnerable: "Given his time over again [Snape] would not have become a Death Eater, but like many insecure, vulnerable people he craved membership of something big and powerful, something impressive.[...] [He] was so blinded by his attraction to the dark side he thought [Lily] would find him impressive if he became a real Death Eater."[3]
The adult Snape, on the other hand, is portrayed as very self-assured and confident of his abilities, to a degree that Rickman described as "full of himself."[50] Director David Yates said Snape is a character with gravitas, authority and power.[59] Snape typically displays a very calm and collected demeanour, rarely at a loss for words or taken off guard. His temper, however, is sometimes short where Harry is concerned and positively flares when dealing with his erstwhile tormentor Sirius, or when accused of cowardice. His otherwise impassive and aloof attitude seems to stem from his belief that people who cannot control their emotions are weak.[31]
Like some other prominent members of Slytherin house, Snape is shown to be a clever and cunning wizard.[42][60] He is intelligent and has a keen, analytical mind. In an interview, Rowling adds that Snape is immensely brave,[19] and when asked if she considers Snape a hero, replied: "Yes, I do; though a very flawed hero. An anti-hero, perhaps. He is not a particularly likeable man in many ways. He remains rather cruel, a bully, riddled with bitterness and insecurity—and yet he loved, and showed loyalty to that love and, ultimately, laid down his life because of it. That's pretty heroic!"[3]
Magical abilities and skills
All seven novels show Snape to be a very powerful wizard and to have been outstanding while a student. He specialises in potion making and has talent and passion for the Dark Arts. Sirius claimed that Snape knew more hexes and curses as a first-year student at Hogwarts than most seventh-years knew.[60] Particularly gifted in potion making, Snape added major improvements to his Potions textbook while still a student. Also as a student, Snape shows a rare gift for discovering new spells. Lupin describes Sectumsempra as Snape's "speciality" in Deathly Hallows.[61] Snape is shown using this spell as a teenager against Harry's father James[25] and in the aerial battle in the last novel when he accidentally hits George Weasley (acting as a Potter decoy) with it while actually aiming for a Death Eater who was trying to attack Lupin, causing George's right ear to be severed off permanently. Despite Sectumsempra's deadly power, Snape can also heal the wounds it causes.[35] Snape is adept at reversing or containing fatal damage from other dark curses as well, due to his vast knowledge of Dark Arts, as he does when Dumbledore[40] and then Katie Bell[62] are cursed. Skilful in the arts of Legilimency and especially Occlumency, Snape is able to both access the minds of others and protect his own thoughts—indeed, though Snape does not care for the term himself, Harry forms the uncomfortable impression early in the series that the Potions Master is able to "read minds." Being an Occlumens, Snape is able to keep his betrayal from Voldemort, who is himself described as being "the greatest Legilimens" in history.[33] According to Rowling, Snape is the only Death Eater capable of producing a full Patronus, which, like Lily's, is a doe.[3] Snape is a talented duellist, able to hold off by himself (if only briefly) a group of three Hogwarts professors that included former duelling champion Filius Flitwick. Professor McGonagall later implies that Snape learned to fly without the use of a broom, a rare skill previously displayed only by Voldemort.[41]
Family
Snape's family background is mostly shown in flashbacks during the course of the last three novels. Snape was born to Eileen Prince, a witch, and Tobias Snape, a Muggle, making him a half-blood (hence the name, "Half-Blood Prince"). This is rare for a Death Eater, as remarked in the last book, though Voldemort himself also had a Muggle father. Snape spent his early childhood living with his parents in a small house in Spinner's End. Snape's family was a poor one and he is described as wearing ill-fitting clothes "that were so mis-matched that it looked deliberate". As a child, Snape was apparently neglected and his parents often fought with one another. Snape was very eager to leave his home to go to Hogwarts.[40] Towards the end of the last novel, Harry draws parallels between his childhood, Snape's, and Voldemort's.[63]
Loyalties
Snape's true loyalty was one of the most significant questions in the series up until the end of the final instalment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Although the first five novels depict him as unfair and vindictive towards Harry and his friends, he invariably ends up protecting or otherwise helping them when they or their allies are in danger. Several characters express doubts about his loyalty, but Dumbledore's trust in him is generally taken to be the final word. The sixth novel, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, departs from that model. In the second chapter, Snape claims to have been working for Voldemort ever since the latter's return, and only pretending to help Dumbledore.[33] By killing Dumbledore toward the end of the novel, Snape seems to place himself firmly in Voldemort's camp.[36] Rowling maintains this impression through the early chapters of the seventh novel. However, near the climax of the book, Snape leaves Harry his dying thoughts (to be viewed in the Pensieve) and ultimately reveals to Harry that he had been loyal to Albus Dumbledore throughout the series.[40] Snape's fierce devotion to and love of his childhood friend Lily, Harry's mother, is the foundation of that loyalty.[40]
After Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Snape's loyalty was a matter of intense debate among the fans. The issue was given special attention in the marketing campaigns on behalf of the last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. "Is Snape Good or Evil?" was one of the questions in Scholastic Inc.'s seven-question series, part of its marketing campaign for the book.[64] As part of the Waldenbooks marketing campaign, two free stickers, one that said "Trust Snape" and another that stated "Snape Is A Very Bad Man" were available with the book. Borders Group published a separate book on the topic, The Great Snape Debate, containing essays and arguments from both sides of the debate.[65][66]
Reception
The secretive attitude and gradual unfolding of Snape's character was broadly admired, with Stephen Fry, the UK audio books narrator, saying in 2003: "Most characters like Snape are hard to love but there is a sort of ambiguity—you can’t quite decide—something sad about him—lonely and it’s fascinating when you think he’s going to be the evil one..., then slowly you get this idea he’s not so bad after all."[67] David Yates, who directed the final four films of the series, also expressed his views on the character, saying: "A character like Snape, where you're not really sure if he's a good guy or a bad guy, that gives you a latent tension... I think the coolest thing you can do with an audience is deny them a little bit of information."[59] Despite being less than kind, the character quickly gained popularity within fandom to a level that surprised Rowling herself.[8] Joyce Millman suggests in her essay "To Sir with Love" in the book Mapping the World of Harry Potter, that Snape is derived from a tradition of Byronic heroes such as Wuthering Heights' Heathcliff.[68] Jenny Sawyer from The Christian Science Monitor commented on the character's development in the series.[69] She claimed that Snape is the only protagonist who genuinely has a choice to make and who struggles to do the right thing, hence the only one to face a "compelling inner crisis". She believed the popularity of the character is due to the moral journey and inner conflict that Snape undergoes within the series, as it is the hero's struggle and costly redemption that really matter: "[Snape's] character ached for resolution. And it is precisely this need for resolution—our desire to know the real Snape and to understand his choices—that makes him the most compelling character in the Potter epic."
The final revelation of Snape's loyalty in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was viewed positively by fans and critics alike. Daniel Radcliffe, who portrays Harry Potter in the movie series, expressed his delight, saying he was pleased to see that his theory that Snape would end up being a sort of tragic hero came through.[70] Elizabeth Hand from The Washington Post wrote, "The much-maligned loner Snape does not come onstage until the latter part of "Deathly Hallows," but when he does the book becomes his: Snape's fate, more than Voldemort's, perhaps more even than Harry's, is the most heartbreaking, surprising and satisfying of all of Rowling's achievements."[2]
IGN listed Snape as their 4th top Harry Potter character, saying that he makes "quite an impact in the Harry Potter series",[71] and IGN's Joe Utichi called Snape his favourite Harry Potter character and praised his character development.[72] Shortly after the release of the final film, MTV held a public poll for fans to vote for the best character in the series, and Snape was voted #1.[73] Around the same time, Empire magazine held a public poll for fans to vote for the 25 greatest characters in the series, and Snape once again came in at #1.[74] In May 2011, Snape was again voted as the #1 favourite Harry Potter character in a public poll held by the Bloomsbury publishing house.[75] In 2014, Watchmojo.com ranked him #1 on their "Top 10 Harry Potter Characters" list (beating Harry Potter; who is ranked #2) while they ranked him #3 on their "Top 10 Most Gut-Wrenching Harry Potter Deaths" list two years later.
In popular culture
The character of Severus Snape has appeared in various animated parodies of Harry Potter. He is a starring character in Neil Cicierega's online Potter Puppet Pals parodies, and has a centric episode titled Bothering Snape. Also, the video The Mysterious Ticking Noise with the chorus "Snape, Snape, Severus Snape" was the winner for "Best Comedy" of the year 2007 at YouTube; it currently has over 170 million views.[76] Snape is also parodied as Professor Santory Snapekin in Sluggy Freelance's webcomic entitled Torg Potter. In the first parody, Torg defeats a plot by Professor Snapekin to achieve ultimate power.[77]
In a 2004 sketch on Saturday Night Live in which Lindsay Lohan appears as Hermione Granger, Snape is portrayed by Will Forte.[78] Snape has also been parodied in UK television. Comic Relief released a story called Harry Potter and the Secret Chamberpot of Azerbaijan, in which Snape is played by Jeremy Irons.[79][80] Alan Rickman appeared himself as Snape in a Harry Potter parody named "Louis Potter and the Philosopher's Scone" in Alistair McGowan's Big Impression show.[81] In the Harry Bladder sketches in All That, Snape appears as Professor Chafe (portrayed by Jeremy Rowley), whose legs were badly chafed, causing him to be unnecessarily mean. Many sketches feature students brewing potions that did silly things, like enlarge students' behinds, give males large breasts, or change people into bras. In a sketch comedy named "Cooking With..." on Australian TV series The Wedge, Snape catches Harry and Hermione making love.[82] In A Very Potter Musical, Snape is played by actor Joe Moses.
References
Jump up ^ "Rowling on Snape". half-bloodprince.org. Archived from the original on 26 July 2011. Retrieved 3 November 2012.
^ Jump up to: a b Elizabeth Hand (22 July 2007). "Harry's Final Fantasy: Last Time's the Charm". Washington Post. Retrieved 18 March 2008.
^ Jump up to: a b c d "Web Chat with J.K. Rowling 30 July 2007 on Bloomsbury.com" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 2 October 2007.
^ Jump up to: a b "J.K. Rowling interview transcript". The Connection. WBUR Radio. 12 October 1999. Retrieved 14 March 2008.
Jump up ^ "Barnes and Noble and Yahoo! chat with J.K. Rowling". barnesandnoble.com. 20 October 2000. Retrieved 15 September 2007.
Jump up ^ Conversations with JK Rowling, p.21, quoted at JKR Quotes about Severus Snape: Accio Quote!
Jump up ^ [OotP Ch.12]
^ Jump up to: a b c "J.K. Rowling at the Edinburgh Book Festival". J.K.Rowling Official Site. 15 August 2004. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 4 November 2012.
Jump up ^ "Rowling's 'spell' on science teacher". BBC News. 28 December 2001. Retrieved 8 November 2012.
Jump up ^ "The name's Snape, Severus Snape". This Is Gloucestershire. Northcliffe Media. 25 June 2009. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
Jump up ^ Hind, Lia (16 March 2011). "Chepstow inspiration for Harry Potter prof dies". South Wales Argus. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
Jump up ^ "Rowling eToys Interview". 2000. Retrieved 16 July 2007.
Jump up ^ Abel, Katy (1999). "Harry Potter Author Works Her Magic". Family Education. Pearson. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 3 September 2007.
Jump up ^ "World Book Day Chat". 4 March 2004. Retrieved 3 September 2007. I'm not going to tell you [what form Professor Snape's Boggart and Patronus will take], but that's because it would give so much away.
Jump up ^ "Interview with Stephen Fry at Royal Albert Hall". 26 June 2003. Retrieved 3 September 2007. It is worth keeping an eye on old Severus definitely!
Jump up ^ "J.K. Rowling interview transcript". The Connection. WBUR Radio. 12 October 1999. Retrieved 14 March 2008. I'm slightly stunned that you've said that...and you'll find out why I'm so stunned if you read book 7.
^ Jump up to: a b c "JKR: Snape and Dumbledore Two of the Most Important Characters in 'Deathly Hallows'". The Leaky Cauldron. 3 April 2008. Retrieved 7 April 2008.
Jump up ^ Adler, Shawn (15 October 2007). "'Harry Potter' Author J.K. Rowling Meets With L.A. Students, Plots Her Next Move". MTV News. Retrieved 14 November 2012.
^ Jump up to: a b Vieira, Meredith (29 July 2007). "Harry Potter: The Final Chapter". Dateline. NBC. Retrieved 14 March 2008.
Jump up ^ [PS Ch.7]
Jump up ^ [OotP Ch.17]
Jump up ^ [PS Ch.17]
Jump up ^ [CS Ch.11]
Jump up ^ [PA Ch.8]
^ Jump up to: a b c d [OotP Ch.28]
Jump up ^ [PA Ch.22]
Jump up ^ [PA Ch.18]
Jump up ^ [GF Ch.30]
Jump up ^ [HBP Ch.25]
Jump up ^ [OotP Ch.4]
^ Jump up to: a b c [OotP Ch.24]
Jump up ^ [OotP Ch.37]
^ Jump up to: a b c [HBP Ch.2]
Jump up ^ [HBP Ch.15]
^ Jump up to: a b [HBP Ch.24]
^ Jump up to: a b [HBP Ch.27]
Jump up ^ [HBP Ch.28]
Jump up ^ Melissa Anelli and Emerson Spartz (16 July 2005). "The Leaky Cauldron and MuggleNet interview Joanne Kathleen Rowling: Part One". The Leaky Cauldron. Retrieved 2 April 2008.
Jump up ^ [DH Ch.19]
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h [DH Ch.33]
^ Jump up to: a b [DH Ch.30]
^ Jump up to: a b [DH Ch.32]
Jump up ^ "Transcript of webchat with J.K. Rowling". the-leaky-cauldron.org. 30 July 2007. Retrieved 2 April 2008.
Jump up ^ [DH Epilogue]
Jump up ^ "UPDATED Videos: First Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II ABC Family preview - SnitchSeeker.com". www.snitchseeker.com.
Jump up ^ Jess Cagle (5 November 2001). "The First Look At Harry". time.com. Retrieved 31 March 2008.
Jump up ^ "JK Rowling interview in full". CBBC. 2 November 2001. Retrieved 29 July 2007.
Jump up ^ "Anelli, Melissa, John Noe and Sue Upton. "PotterCast Interviews J.K. Rowling, part two."". Retrieved 31 March 2008.
^ Jump up to: a b Boucher, Geoff. "'Harry Potter': Alan Rickman looks back on decade of dark magic". Hero Complex. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 9 June 2013.
^ Jump up to: a b "Alan Rickman Interviews Transcripts about Snape".
^ Jump up to: a b c "Alan Rickman – French Interview Translation".
Jump up ^ "The movie stars we're loving right now". EW.com. Retrieved 23 March 2008.
Jump up ^ Serjeant, Jill (14 July 2011). "Snape voted greatest "Potter" character in MTV poll". Reuters.
Jump up ^ "jeffkatz.typepad.com".
Jump up ^ Fraser Mcalpine (4 August 2017). "Harry Potter Fan Film 'Severus Snape and the Marauders'". BBC America. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
Jump up ^ Shawn Adler (7 December 2007). "What Would "Potter" Have Been Like With Tim Roth As Snape?". MTV. Retrieved 8 December 2007.
Jump up ^ The Nerdist Podcast episode 776: "Tim Roth". 23 December 2015.
Jump up ^ [PS Ch.8]
^ Jump up to: a b "Director 'denies' Potter audience... just a little". 13 July 2007. Retrieved 14 March 2008.
^ Jump up to: a b [GF Ch.27]
Jump up ^ [DH Ch.5]
Jump up ^ [HBP Ch.13]
Jump up ^ [DH Ch.34]
Jump up ^ "Scholastic asks "Is Snape Good or Evil?"". 1 May 2007. Retrieved 18 March 2008.
Jump up ^ "Severus Snape: Friend or Foe?". Retrieved 18 March 2008. Link includes video.
Jump up ^ "The Great Snape Debate – Borders Exclusive". Retrieved 18 March 2008.
Jump up ^ "Interview with Stephen Fry at Royal Albert Hall". 2003. Retrieved 3 September 2007.
Jump up ^ Mercedes Lackey, ed. (2006). Mapping the World of Harry Potter. BenBella Books, Inc. pp. 39–52. ISBN 978-1-932100-59-4. Retrieved 30 July 2008.
Jump up ^ "Missing from 'Harry Potter'". 25 July 2007. Retrieved 23 June 2008.
Jump up ^ Steve Daly. "Daniel Radcliffe Talks 'Deathly Hallows'". EW.com. Retrieved 18 March 2008.
Jump up ^ Brian Linder; Phil Pirrello; Eric Goldman; Matt Fowler (14 July 2009). "Top 25 Harry Potter Characters". IGN. Archived from the original on 19 July 2009. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
Jump up ^ Joe Utichi (3 November 2010). "The Top 10 Harry Potter Characters". IGN. Archived from the original on 6 November 2010. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
Jump up ^ Jill Serjeant; Bob Tourtellotte (14 July 2011). "Snape voted greatest "Potter" character in MTV poll". Reuters. Retrieved 25 July 2011.
Jump up ^ "The 25 Greatest Harry Potter Characters". Empire.
Jump up ^ "Snape wins favourite Harry Potter character". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-04-18.
Jump up ^ "PotterPuppetPals Top at YouTube Awards". the-leaky-cauldron.org. 22 March 2008.
Jump up ^ "Torg Potter and the Sorcerer's Nuts". Retrieved 18 July 2007.
Jump up ^ "Saturday Night Live Transcripts". Retrieved 27 July 2007.
Jump up ^ "Harry Potter and the Secret Chamberpot of Azerbaijan". tv.com. Retrieved 8 July 2007.
Jump up ^ "French and Saunders: Harry Potter and the Secret Chamberpot of Azerbaijan". .frenchandsaunders.com. Retrieved 8 July 2007.
Jump up ^ "BBC One press release" (PDF). 2001. Retrieved 20 May 2007.
Jump up ^ "Australian television: The Wedge episode guide". Retrieved 25 May 2007.
External links
Harry Potter portal
Fictional characters portal
Book: Harry Potter
Severus Snape on Harry Potter Wiki, an external wiki
Snape Character profile from the Harry Potter Lexicon
[hide]
v
t
e
The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling
Books
The Philosopher's Stone
The Chamber of Secrets
The Prisoner of Azkaban
The Goblet of Fire
The Order of the Phoenix
The Half-Blood Prince
The Deathly Hallows
Film series
Films
The Philosopher's Stone
The Chamber of Secrets
The Prisoner of Azkaban
The Goblet of Fire
The Order of the Phoenix
The Half-Blood Prince
The Deathly Hallows – Part 1
The Deathly Hallows – Part 2
Music
The Philosopher's Stone
The Chamber of Secrets
The Prisoner of Azkaban
The Goblet of Fire
The Order of the Phoenix
The Half-Blood Prince
The Deathly Hallows – Part 1
The Deathly Hallows – Part 2
Related
Cast members
Production of The Deathly Hallows
Characters
Main
Harry Potter
Ron Weasley
Hermione Granger
Lord Voldemort
Albus Dumbledore
Severus Snape
Rubeus Hagrid
Draco Malfoy
Supporting
Hogwarts staff
Order of the Phoenix
Dumbledore's Army
Death Eaters
Fictional universe
Hogwarts
Magic
Magical creatures
Magical objects
Ministry of Magic
Muggle
Places
Potions
Quidditch
Related works
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Quidditch Through the Ages
The Tales of Beedle the Bard
Prequel
Pottermore
The Cursed Child
Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide
Short Stories from Hogwarts of Power, Politics and Pesky Poltergeists
Short Stories from Hogwarts of Heroism, Hardship and Dangerous Hobbies
Games and toys
Quidditch World Cup
Lego Creator: Harry Potter
Lego Harry Potter: Years 1–4
Lego Harry Potter: Years 5–7
The Philosopher's Stone
The Chamber of Secrets
The Prisoner of Azkaban
The Goblet of Fire
The Order of the Phoenix
The Half-Blood Prince
The Deathly Hallows – Part 1
The Deathly Hallows – Part 2
Book of Spells
Book of Potions
Trading Card Game
Lego Harry Potter
Attractions
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
Orlando
Japan
Hollywood
Dragon Challenge
Flight of the Hippogriff
Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts
Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
Hogwarts Express
Harry Potter Movie Magic Experience
Warner Bros. Studio Tour London
Fandom
Harry Potter Alliance
The Leaky Cauldron
MuggleNet
LeakyCon
Wizard rock
Wrockstock
Voldemort: Origins of the Heir
Related
Influences and analogues
Legal disputes
Parodies
Politics
Religious debates
Translation
A Very Potter Musical
The Harry Potter Lexicon
The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter
Potter Puppet Pals
Book
Category
Portal
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Severus_Snape&oldid=807983894"
Categories:
Fictional English people
Fictional characters introduced in 1997
Fictional principals and headteachers
Fictional schoolteachers
Fictional double agents
Harry Potter characters
Fictional bullies
Fictional chemists
Fictional victims of bullies
Fictional murderers
Hidden categories:
Wikipedia indefinitely semi-protected pages
Use dmy dates from November 2013
EngvarB from January 2015
Navigation menu
Personal tools
Not logged in
Talk
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Namespaces
Article
Talk
Variants
Views
Read
View source
View history
More
Search
Navigation
Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikipedia store
Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page
Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page
Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version
In other projects
Wikimedia Commons
Languages
العربية
অসমীয়া
Asturianu
Azərbaycanca
বাংলা
Беларуская
Български
Bosanski
Brezhoneg
Català
Čeština
Dansk
Deutsch
Eesti
Ελληνικά
Español
Euskara
فارسی
Français
Galego
한국어
Հայերեն
हिन्दी
Hrvatski
Bahasa Indonesia
Interlingua
Íslenska
Italiano
עברית
Basa Jawa
Latina
Lietuvių
Magyar
Македонски
मराठी
Bahasa Melayu
Nederlands
日本語
Norsk
Norsk nynorsk
ଓଡ଼ିଆ
Polski
Português
Română
Русский
Scots
Shqip
Simple English
Slovenčina
Slovenščina
Српски / srpski
Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски
Suomi
Svenska
தமிழ்
ไทย
Türkçe
Українська
Tiếng Việt
文言
中文
Edit links
This page was last edited on 31 October 2017, at 05:07.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Cookie statement
Mobile view
Enable previews

values: mw-page-base noprint

values: mw-head-base noprint

attrs: class id

values: firstHeading firstHeading en

values: siteSub noprint

values: jump-to-nav mw-jump

attrs: colspan style

attrs: href class

values: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)

values: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

values:
/wiki/Alec_Hopkins
mw-redirect
Alec Hopkins

values:
infobox
width:22em;border-spacing: 2px 5px;

values: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

values: Order of the Phoenix (fictional organisation)

values:
/wiki/Gilderoy_Lockhart
mw-redirect
Gilderoy Lockhart

values:
/wiki/Lily_Potter
mw-redirect
Lily Potter

values: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

values:
/wiki/Professor_Quirrell
mw-redirect
Professor Quirrell

values:
/wiki/James_Potter_(character)
mw-redirect
James Potter (character)

values: Spells in Harry Potter (page does not exist)

values: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

values:
/wiki/Remus_Lupin
mw-redirect
Remus Lupin

values:
/wiki/Sirius_Black
mw-redirect
Sirius Black

values:
/wiki/Werewolf_(Harry_Potter)
mw-redirect
Werewolf (Harry Potter)

values:
/wiki/Shrieking_Shack
mw-redirect
Shrieking Shack

values:
/wiki/Igor_Karkaroff
mw-redirect
Igor Karkaroff

values:
/wiki/Cornelius_Fudge
mw-redirect
Cornelius Fudge

attrs: alt src width height class data-file-width data-file-height

values:
/wiki/Number_12,_Grimmauld_Place
mw-redirect
Number 12, Grimmauld Place

values:
/wiki/Dolores_Umbridge
mw-redirect
Dolores Umbridge

values:
/wiki/Bellatrix_Lestrange
mw-redirect
Bellatrix Lestrange

values:
/wiki/Narcissa_Malfoy
mw-redirect
Narcissa Malfoy

values:
/wiki/Spinner%27s_End
mw-redirect
Spinner's End

values:
/wiki/Unbreakable_Vow
mw-redirect
Unbreakable Vow

values:
/wiki/Horace_Slughorn
mw-redirect
Horace Slughorn

values:
/wiki/Half-blood_(Harry_Potter)
mw-redirect
Half-blood (Harry Potter)

values:
/wiki/Harry_Potter_universe#Pure-blood
mw-redirect
Harry Potter universe

values:
/wiki/Alecto_and_Amycus_Carrow
mw-redirect
Alecto and Amycus Carrow

values:
/wiki/Professor_McGonagall
mw-redirect
Professor McGonagall

values:
/wiki/Filius_Flitwick
mw-redirect
Filius Flitwick

values:
/wiki/Pomona_Sprout
mw-redirect
Pomona Sprout

values:
/wiki/Nagini_(Harry_Potter)
mw-redirect
Nagini (Harry Potter)

values:
/wiki/Sorting_Hat
mw-redirect
Sorting Hat

values:
/wiki/Sybill_Trelawney
mw-redirect
Sybill Trelawney

values:
/wiki/Order_of_the_Phoenix_(fiction)
mw-redirect
Order of the Phoenix (fiction)

values:
/wiki/Albus_Severus_Potter
mw-redirect
Albus Severus Potter

values:
/wiki/Astoria_Greengrass
mw-redirect
Astoria Greengrass

values:
/wiki/Scorpius_Malfoy
mw-redirect
Scorpius Malfoy

values:
/wiki/Empire_(magazine)
mw-redirect
Empire (magazine)

values: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2

values:
/wiki/George_Weasley
mw-redirect
George Weasley

values:
/wiki/Comic_Relief_(charity)
mw-redirect
Comic Relief (charity)

values:
/wiki/Big_Impression
mw-redirect
Big Impression

values:
nofollow
external text
http://whysnape.tripod.com/rickman.htm

values:
nofollow
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/19734081/
external text

values:
nofollow
external text
http://www.hpana.com/news.19880.html

values: -moz-column-width: 30em; -webkit-column-width: 30em; column-width: 30em; list-style-type: decimal;

values: display:table-cell;padding:0.2em 0.2em 0.2em 0.3em;vertical-align:middle

values: margin:0.5em 0 0.5em 1em;border:solid #aaa 1px

values:
nofollow
external text
http://www.wikia.com/wiki/c:harrypotter

values:
/wiki/Harry_Potter_Lexicon
mw-redirect
Harry Potter Lexicon

values: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (film)

values: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film)

values: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)

values: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film)

values: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film)

values: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1

values: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (soundtrack)

values: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (soundtrack)

values: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (soundtrack)

values: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (soundtrack)

values: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (soundtrack)

values: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (soundtrack)

values: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (soundtrack)

values: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (soundtrack)

values: Production of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

values: List of supporting Harry Potter characters

values: Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide

values: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game)

values: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game)

values: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (video game)

values: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (video game)

values: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game)

values: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (video game)

values: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (video game)

values: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (video game)

values: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (Universal Orlando Resort)

values: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (Universal Studios Japan)

values: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (Universal Studios Hollywood)

values: Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts

values: Hogwarts Express (Universal Orlando Resort)

values:
/wiki/Warner_Bros._Studio_Tour_London
mw-redirect
Warner Bros. Studio Tour London

values: Legal disputes over the Harry Potter series

values: Religious debates over the Harry Potter series

values: nowraplinks hlist collapsible autocollapse navbox-inner

values: Category:Fictional characters introduced in 1997

values: Category:Fictional principals and headteachers

values: Category:Wikipedia indefinitely semi-protected pages

values: Category:Use dmy dates from November 2013

values: Discussion about edits from this IP address [ctrl-alt-n]

values: A list of edits made from this IP address [ctrl-alt-y]

values: You are encouraged to create an account and log in; however, it is not mandatory

values: You're encouraged to log in; however, it's not mandatory. [ctrl-alt-o]

values:
/wiki/Severus_Snape
View the content page [ctrl-alt-c]
c

values: Discussion about the content page [ctrl-alt-t]

values: p-namespaces navigation vectorTabs p-namespaces-label

values:
p-variants
navigation
vectorMenu emptyPortlet
p-variants-label

values:
This page is protected.
You can view its source [ctrl-alt-e]

values: Past revisions of this page [ctrl-alt-h]

values: p-views navigation vectorTabs p-views-label

values:
p-cactions
navigation
vectorMenu emptyPortlet
p-cactions-label

values:
mw-wiki-logo
/wiki/Main_Page
Visit the main page

values:
/wiki/Main_Page
Visit the main page [ctrl-alt-z]
z

values: Featured content – the best of Wikipedia

values: Find background information on current events

values:
/wiki/Special:Random
Load a random article [ctrl-alt-x]
x

values: portal navigation p-navigation p-navigation-label

values: portal navigation p-wikibase-otherprojects p-wikibase-otherprojects-label

values:
uls-settings-trigger
Language settings
0
button
true

values: سيفروس سنيب – Arabic

values: চেভেৰাছ স্নেইপ – Assamese

values: সেভেরাস স্নেপ – Bangla

values: Северус Снэйп – Belarusian

values: Сивиръс Снейп – Bulgarian

values: Figuren der Harry-Potter-Romane – German

values: Σέβερους Σνέιπ – Greek

values: سوروس اسنیپ – Persian

values: Personaxes nos libros de Harry Potter – Galician

values: 세베루스 스네이프 – Korean

values: Սևերուս Սնեյփ – Armenian

values: सेवेरस स्नेप – Hindi

values: סוורוס סנייפ – Hebrew

values: Северус Снејп – Macedonian

values: सेव्हेरस स्नेप – Marathi

values: セブルス・スネイプ – Japanese

values: ସେଭେରସ୍ ସ୍ନେପ୍ – Odia

values: Северус Снегг – Russian

values: Северус Снејп – Serbian

values: செவெரசு சிநேப் – Tamil

values: เซเวอร์รัส สเนป – Thai

values: Северус Снейп – Ukrainian

values: 賽佛勒斯·石內卜 – Chinese

values: mediawiki ltr sitedir-ltr mw-hide-empty-elt ns-0 ns-subject page-Severus_Snape rootpage-Severus_Snape skin-vector action-view


text:
Solving chess
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Solving chess means finding an optimal strategy for playing chess, i.e. one by which one of the players (White or Black) can always force a victory, or both can force a draw (see Solved game). It also means more generally solving chess-like games (i.e. combinatorial games of perfect information), such as infinite chess. According to Zermelo's theorem, a hypothetically determinable optimal strategy does exist for chess and chess-like games.
In a weaker sense, solving chess may refer to proving which one of the three possible outcomes (White wins; Black wins; draw) is the result of two perfect players, without necessarily revealing the optimal strategy itself (see indirect proof).[1]
No complete solution for chess in either of the two senses is known, nor is it expected that chess will be solved in the near future. There is disagreement on whether the current exponential growth of computing power will continue long enough to someday allow for solving it by "brute force", i.e. by checking all possibilities.
Contents
[hide]
1 Partial results
2 Predictions on when/if chess will be solved
3 Larger chess-like games
4 See also
5 References
6 External links
Partial results[edit]
a b c d e f g h
8
8
7 7
6 6
5 5
4 4
3 3
2 2
1 1
a b c d e f g h
A mate-in-546 position found in the Lomonosov 7-piece tablebase. White to move. (In this example an 8th piece is added with a trivial first-move capture.)
Endgame tablebases have solved chess to a limited degree, determining perfect play in a number of endgames, including all non-trivial endgames with no more than seven pieces or pawns (including the two kings).[2]
One consequence of developing the 7-piece endgame tablebase, is that many interesting theoretical chess endings have been found. One example is a "mate-in-546" position, which with perfect play is a forced checkmate in 546 moves.[3]
Such a position is beyond the ability of any human to solve, and indeed no chess engine plays it correctly (unless the engine itself is designed to have access to the tablebase).
Finding positions such as this can make one speculate what other interesting chess situations will be found, as more chess positions are solved. Unfortunately, adding only one single new piece to a chess position expands the complexity of the game-tree by such a vast amount, that the development of an 8-piece endgame tablebase is currently considered an intractable problem.
Predictions on when/if chess will be solved[edit]
Grandmaster Jonathan Rowson has speculated that "in principle it should be possible for a machine to ... develop 32-piece tablebases. This may take decades or even centuries, but unless runaway global warming or nuclear war gets in the way, I think it will eventually happen."[4] However, information theorist Claude Shannon has argued that it is not feasible for any computer to actually do this, since it would either need to compare some 10120 possible game variations, or have a "dictionary" denoting an optimal move for each of the about 1043 possible board positions.[5] It is thus theoretically possible to solve chess, but the time frame required (according to Shannon, 1090 years on a 1 MHz processor) puts this possibility beyond the limits of any feasible technology.
The number of mathematical operations required to solve chess, however, may be significantly different than the number of operations required to produce the entire game-tree of chess. In particular, if White has a forced win, only a subset of the game-tree would require evaluation to confirm that a forced-win exists (i.e. with no refutations from Black). Furthermore, Shannon's calculation for the complexity of chess assumes an average game length of 40 moves, but there is no mathematical basis to say that a forced win by either side would have any relation to this game length. Indeed, some expertly played games (grandmaster-level play) have been as short as 16 moves. For these reasons, mathematicians and game theorists have been reluctant to categorically state that solving chess is an intractable problem.[5][6]
Hans-Joachim Bremermann, a professor of mathematics and biophysics at the University of California at Berkeley, further argued in a 1965 paper that the "speed, memory, and processing capacity of any possible future computer equipment are limited by specific physical barriers: the light barrier, the quantum barrier, and the thermodynamical barrier. These limitations imply, for example, that no computer, however constructed, will ever be able to examine the entire tree of possible move sequences of the game of chess." Nonetheless, Bremermann did not foreclose the possibility that a computer would someday be able to solve chess. He wrote, "In order to have a computer play a perfect or nearly perfect game, it will be necessary either to analyze the game completely ... or to analyze the game in an approximate way and combine this with a limited amount of tree searching. ... A theoretical understanding of such heuristic programming, however, is still very much wanting."[7]
Recent scientific advances have not significantly changed these assessments. The game of checkers was (weakly) solved in 2007,[8] but it has roughly the square root of the number of positions in chess. Jonathan Schaeffer, the scientist who led the effort, said a breakthrough such as quantum computing would be needed before solving chess could even be attempted, but he does not rule out the possibility, saying that the one thing he learned from his 16-year effort of solving checkers "is to never underestimate the advances in technology".[9]
Larger chess-like games[edit]
The prospect of solving individual, specific, chess-like games becomes more difficult as the board-size is increased, such as in large chess variants, and infinite chess.[10]
See also[edit]
Shannon number (a calculation of the lower bound of the game-tree complexity of chess)
First-move advantage in chess (chess-players' speculations on whether white has a slight advantage due to making the first move)
References[edit]
Jump up ^ Allis, V. (1994). "PhD thesis: Searching for Solutions in Games and Artificial Intelligence" (pdf). Department of Computer Science. University of Limburg. Retrieved 2012-07-14.
Jump up ^ "Lomonosov Tablebases". Retrieved 2013-04-24.
Jump up ^ "Who wins from this puzzle?" A mate-in-546 chess position, with discussion (Post 1: Position, Post 7: Playable).
Jump up ^ Rowson 2005, pp. 205–06.[clarification needed]
^ Jump up to: a b Shannon, C. (March 1950). "Programming a Computer for Playing Chess". Philosophical Magazine. 7. 41 (314). Archived from the original (pdf) on 2010-03-15. Retrieved 2008-06-27.
"With chess it is possible, in principle, to play a perfect game or construct a machine to do so as follows: One considers in a given position all possible moves, then all moves for the opponent, etc., to the end of the game (in each variation). The end must occur, by the rules of the games after a finite number of moves (remembering the 50 move drawing rule). Each of these variations ends in win, loss or draw. By working backward from the end one can determine whether there is a forced win, the position is a draw or is lost. It is easy to show, however, even with the high computing speed available in electronic calculators this computation is impractical. In typical chess positions there will be of the order of 30 legal moves. The number holds fairly constant until the game is nearly finished as shown ... by De Groot, who averaged the number of legal moves in a large number of master games. Thus a move for White and then one for Black gives about 103 possibilities. A typical game lasts about 40 moves to resignation of one party. This is conservative for our calculation since the machine would calculate out to checkmate, not resignation. However, even at this figure there will be 10120 variations to be calculated from the initial position. A machine operating at the rate of one variation per micro-second would require over 1090 years to calculate the first move!"
Jump up ^ http://www.chessgames.com Magnus Carlsen vs Viswanathlan Anand, King's Indian Attack: Double Fianchetto (A07), 1/2-1/2, 16 moves.
Jump up ^ Bremermann, H.J. (1965). "Quantum Noise and Information". Proc. 5th Berkeley Symp. Math. Statistics and Probability. Archived from the original on 2001-05-27.
Jump up ^ Schaeffer, Jonathan; Burch, Neil; Björnsson, Yngvi; et al. (14 September 2007). "Checkers Is Solved". Science. 317 (5844): 1518–1522. doi:10.1126/science.1144079. PMID 17641166. Retrieved 2009-03-21. (subscription required)
Jump up ^ Sreedhar, Suhas. "Checkers, Solved!". Spectrum.ieee.org. Retrieved 2009-03-21.
Jump up ^ Aviezri Fraenkel; D. Lichtenstein (1981), "Computing a perfect strategy for n×n chess requires time exponential in n", J. Combin. Theory Ser. A, 31 (2): 199–214, doi:10.1016/0097-3165(81)90016-9
External links[edit]
The Final Theory of Chess
"Infinite Chess, PBS Infinite Series" Infinite Chess, PBS Infinite Series.
[hide]
v
t
e
Chess
Outline
Chess theory
Chess titles
Grandmaster
list of Grandmasters
Computer chess
glossary
matches
engines
software
Correspondence chess
FIDE
Glossary
History
timeline
Rating system
world rankings
norms
Variants
Courier
World records
Equipment
Chess set
chessboard
pieces
King
Queen
Rook
Bishop
Knight
Pawn
Chess box
Chess clock
Chess table
Rules
Castling
Check
Checkmate
Draw
by agreement
Fifty-move rule
Perpetual check
Stalemate
Threefold repetition
En passant
Pawn promotion
Time control
Fast chess
Touch-move rule
Terms
Blunder
Chess notation
algebraic
descriptive
PGN
annotation symbols
symbols in Unicode
Fianchetto
Gambit
Key square
King walk
Pawns
backward
connected
doubled
isolated
Maróczy Bind
passed
Open file
Half-open file
Outpost
School
romantic
hypermodern
Swindle
Tempo
Transposition
Trap
Tactics
Battery
Alekhine's gun
Block
Checkmate patterns
Combination
Decoy
Deflection
Desperado
Discovered attack
Double check
Fork
Interference
Overloading
Pin
Sacrifice
Skewer
Undermining
Windmill
X-ray
Zwischenzug
Strategy
Artificial castling
Compensation
Exchange
the exchange
Initiative
first-move advantage
Middlegame
Pawn storm
Pawn structure
Piece values
Prophylaxis
Openings
Flank opening
English Opening
Zukertort Opening
Réti Opening
King's Indian Attack
Larsen's Opening
Bird's Opening
Grob's Attack
Dunst Opening
Benko Opening
King's Pawn Game
Alekhine's Defence
Caro–Kann Defence
French Defence
Modern Defence
Nimzowitsch Defence
Open Game
Italian Game
Semi-Italian Opening
Giuoco Piano
King's Gambit
Petrov's Defence
Philidor Defence
Ruy Lopez
Scotch Game
Owen's Defence
Pirc Defence
Scandinavian Defense
Tennison Gambit
Sicilian Defence
Alapin
Dragon/Accelerated Dragon
Najdorf
Scheveningen
Queen's Pawn Game
Dutch Defence
Indian Defence
Benoni Defence
Modern Benoni
Bogo-Indian Defence
Grünfeld Defence
King's Indian Defence
Nimzo-Indian Defence
Queen's Indian Defence
Trompowsky Attack
London System
Queen's Gambit
Accepted
Declined
Slav Defence
Catalan Opening
Other
List of openings
theory table
List of chess gambits
Irregular
Quick checkmates
Fool's mate
Scholar's mate
Endgames
Bishop and knight checkmate
King and pawn vs king
Opposite-coloured bishops
Pawnless endgame
Queen and pawn vs queen
Queen vs pawn
Rook and bishop vs rook
Rook and pawn vs rook
Lucena position
Philidor position
Strategy
fortress
opposition
Tarrasch rule
triangulation
Zugzwang
Study
Tablebase
Two knights endgame
Wrong bishop
Wrong rook pawn
Tournaments
List of strong chess tournaments
Chess Olympiad
Women
World Chess Championship
List
Candidates Tournament
Chess World Cup
FIDE Grand Prix
Other world championships
Women
Team
Rapid
Blitz
Junior
Youth
Senior
Amateur
Chess composition
Solving
Computer chess
Computer speed chess
Related
Cheating in chess
Chess aesthetics
Chess in the arts
in early literature
Chess books
opening books
endgame literature
Chess boxing
Chess club
Chess composer
Chess in Europe
Göttingen manuscript
Chess libraries
Chess newspaper columns
Chess periodicals
Chess problem
glossary
joke chess
Chess prodigy
Gökyay Association Chess Museum
Hall of Fame
Deep Blue
Mutilated chessboard problem
Notable games
PRO Chess League
Simultaneous exhibition
Solving chess
Staunton chess set
Top player comparison
[show]
v
t
e
Topics in game theory
Definitions
Cooperative game
Determinacy
Escalation of commitment
Extensive-form game
First-player and second-player win
Game complexity
Graphical game
Hierarchy of beliefs
Information set
Normal-form game
Preference
Sequential game
Simultaneous game
Simultaneous action selection
Solved game
Succinct game
Equilibrium
concepts
Nash equilibrium
Subgame perfection
Mertens-stable equilibrium
Bayesian Nash equilibrium
Perfect Bayesian equilibrium
Trembling hand
Proper equilibrium
Epsilon-equilibrium
Correlated equilibrium
Sequential equilibrium
Quasi-perfect equilibrium
Evolutionarily stable strategy
Risk dominance
Core
Shapley value
Pareto efficiency
Gibbs equilibrium
Quantal response equilibrium
Self-confirming equilibrium
Strong Nash equilibrium
Markov perfect equilibrium
Strategies
Dominant strategies
Pure strategy
Mixed strategy
Strategy-stealing argument
Tit for tat
Grim trigger
Collusion
Backward induction
Forward induction
Markov strategy
Classes
of games
Symmetric game
Perfect information
Repeated game
Signaling game
Screening game
Cheap talk
Zero-sum game
Mechanism design
Bargaining problem
Stochastic game
n-player game
Large Poisson game
Nontransitive game
Global game
Strictly determined game
Potential game
Games
Chess
Infinite chess
Checkers
Tic-tac-toe
Prisoner's dilemma
Optional prisoner's dilemma
Traveler's dilemma
Coordination game
Chicken
Centipede game
Volunteer's dilemma
Dollar auction
Battle of the sexes
Stag hunt
Matching pennies
Ultimatum game
Rock–paper–scissors
Pirate game
Dictator game
Public goods game
Blotto game
War of attrition
El Farol Bar problem
Fair division
Fair cake-cutting
Cournot game
Deadlock
Diner's dilemma
Guess 2/3 of the average
Kuhn poker
Nash bargaining game
Prisoners and hats puzzle
Trust game
Princess and Monster game
Rendezvous problem
Theorems
Minimax theorem
Nash's theorem
Purification theorem
Zermelo's theorem
Folk theorem
Revelation principle
Arrow's impossibility theorem
Key
figures
Albert W. Tucker
Amos Tversky
Ariel Rubinstein
Claude Shannon
Daniel Kahneman
David K. Levine
David M. Kreps
Donald B. Gillies
Drew Fudenberg
Eric Maskin
Harold W. Kuhn
Herbert Simon
Hervé Moulin
Jean Tirole
Jean-François Mertens
Jennifer Tour Chayes
John Harsanyi
John Maynard Smith
Antoine Augustin Cournot
John Nash
John von Neumann
Kenneth Arrow
Kenneth Binmore
Leonid Hurwicz
Lloyd Shapley
Melvin Dresher
Merrill M. Flood
Olga Bondareva
Oskar Morgenstern
Paul Milgrom
Peyton Young
Reinhard Selten
Robert Axelrod
Robert Aumann
Robert B. Wilson
Roger Myerson
Samuel Bowles
Suzanne Scotchmer
Thomas Schelling
William Vickrey
See also
All-pay auction
Alpha–beta pruning
Bertrand paradox
Bounded rationality
Combinatorial game theory
Confrontation analysis
Coopetition
First-move advantage in chess
Game mechanics
Glossary of game theory
List of game theorists
List of games in game theory
No-win situation
Solving chess
Topological game
Tragedy of the commons
Tyranny of small decisions
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Solving_chess&oldid=819715530"
Categories:
Chess theory
Game theory
Hidden categories:
Wikipedia articles needing clarification from July 2012
Pages containing links to subscription-only content
Navigation menu
Personal tools
Not logged in
Talk
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Namespaces
Article
Talk
Variants
Views
Read
Edit
View history
More
Search
Navigation
Main page
Contents
Featured content
Current events
Random article
Donate to Wikipedia
Wikipedia store
Interaction
Help
About Wikipedia
Community portal
Recent changes
Contact page
Tools
What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Wikidata item
Cite this page
Print/export
Create a book
Download as PDF
Printable version
Languages
Українська
Edit links
This page was last edited on 10 January 2018, at 22:08.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
Privacy policy
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Contact Wikipedia
Developers
Cookie statement
Mobile view
Enable previews

key: html

type: local

value: div

attrs: id class

values: mw-page-base noprint

values: mw-head-base noprint

value: a

attrs: id class lang

values: firstHeading firstHeading en

values: siteSub noprint

values: jump-to-nav mw-jump

value: b

attrs: href title

value: i

value: p

attrs: href class title

values:
/wiki/Indirect_proof
mw-redirect
Indirect proof

value: sup

attrs: alt src width height srcset data-file-width data-file-height

values:
/wiki/File:Chess_rdt45.svg
image
a7 black rook

values:
/wiki/File:Chess_ndt45.svg
image
h7 black knight

values:
/wiki/File:Chess_qlt45.svg
image
c6 white queen

values:
/wiki/File:Chess_kdt45.svg
image
f4 black king

values:
/wiki/File:Chess_klt45.svg
image
d3 white king

values:
/wiki/File:Chess_nlt45.svg
image
h2 white knight

values:
/wiki/File:Chess_bdt45.svg
image
d1 black bishop

values:
/wiki/File:Chess_qdt45.svg
image
h1 black queen

values: Edit section: Predictions on when/if chess will be solved

values:
/wiki/University_of_Limburg
mw-redirect
University of Limburg

values:
nofollow
external text
http://chessok.com/?page_id=27966

values: This short form reference is missing its accompanying citation; (July 2012)

values:
noprint Inline-Template
margin-left:0.1em; white-space:nowrap;

values:
nofollow
external text
https://www.webcitation.org/5oFLE7Mgx

values:
nofollow
external text
//doi.org/10.1126%2Fscience.1144079

values:
/wiki/PubMed_Identifier
mw-redirect
PubMed Identifier

values:
nofollow
external text
//www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17641166

values:
nofollow
external text
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/print/5379

values:
reflist mw-references-wrap
list-style-type: decimal;

values: Sicilian Defence, Scheveningen Variation

values: Comparison of top chess players throughout history

values: nowraplinks hlist collapsible expanded navbox-inner

values:
/wiki/Cooperative_game
mw-redirect
Cooperative game

values:
/wiki/Bayesian_Nash_equilibrium
mw-redirect
Bayesian Nash equilibrium

values:
/wiki/Dominance_(game_theory)
mw-redirect
Dominance (game theory)

values:
/wiki/Forward_induction
mw-redirect
Forward induction

values:
/wiki/Large_Poisson_game
mw-redirect
Large Poisson game

values:
/wiki/Nash_bargaining_game
mw-redirect
Nash bargaining game

values:
/wiki/Prisoners_and_hats_puzzle
mw-redirect
Prisoners and hats puzzle

values: nowraplinks collapsible autocollapse navbox-inner

values: Category:Wikipedia articles needing clarification from July 2012

values: Category:Pages containing links to subscription-only content

values: Discussion about edits from this IP address [ctrl-alt-n]

values: A list of edits made from this IP address [ctrl-alt-y]

values: You are encouraged to create an account and log in; however, it is not mandatory

values: You're encouraged to log in; however, it's not mandatory. [ctrl-alt-o]

values:
/wiki/Solving_chess
View the content page [ctrl-alt-c]
c

values: Discussion about the content page [ctrl-alt-t]

values: p-namespaces navigation vectorTabs p-namespaces-label

values: Guidance on how to use and edit Wikipedia

values: About the project, what you can do, where to find things

values: A list of recent changes in the wiki [ctrl-alt-r]

values: portal navigation p-interaction p-interaction-label

values: List of all English Wikipedia pages containing links to this page [ctrl-alt-j]

values: Recent changes in pages linked from this page [ctrl-alt-k]

values:
/wiki/Wikipedia:File_Upload_Wizard
Upload files [ctrl-alt-u]
u

values: A list of all special pages [ctrl-alt-q]

values: Permanent link to this revision of the page

values: Link to connected data repository item [ctrl-alt-g]

values: Printable version of this page [ctrl-alt-p]

values: Вирішення шахів – Ukrainian

values: /static/images/wikimedia-button-1.5x.png 1.5x, /static/images/wikimedia-button-2x.png 2x

values: /static/images/poweredby_mediawiki_132x47.png 1.5x, /static/images/poweredby_mediawiki_176x62.png 2x

values:
suggestions
display: none; font-size: 13px;

values: mediawiki ltr sitedir-ltr mw-hide-empty-elt ns-0 ns-subject page-Solving_chess rootpage-Solving_chess skin-vector action-view