Editing Losing chess (section)

== History ==
The origin of the game is unknown, but believed to significantly predate an early version, named '''take me''', played in the 1870s.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Chess Eccentricities|last=Verney|first=Major George Hope|publisher=Longman, Green, & Co|year=1885|location=London|pages=191}}</ref> Because of the popularity of losing chess, several variations have spawned. The most widely played (main variant) is described in ''Popular Chess Variants'' by [[David Pritchard (chess player)|D. B. Pritchard]]. Losing chess began to gain popularity in the 20th century, which was facilitated by some publications about this variant in the UK, Germany, and Italy.

In September 1998, what was known as the "first International Losing Chess Meeting" was held in Geneva, Switzerland, courtesy of Fabrice Liardet, recognized through a tournament held there as the strongest Losing Chess player in the world at the time. Indeed, there were many international players, including the Netherlands, United Kingdom, France, as well as Switzerland. <ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last=Beasley|first=John|year=1998|title=Losing Chess in Geneva|url=http://www.mayhematics.com/v/vol4/vc30.pdf|journal=Variant Chess|volume=4|issue=30|pages=20–21|issn=0958-8248}}</ref>

Losing chess gained a new surge in popularity at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries as an online game, thanks to the implementation of this variant on [[Free Internet Chess Server|FICS]] in 1996, which greatly contributed to the popularization of losing chess.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The Ultimate Guide to Antichess|last=Andrejić|first=Vladica|publisher=JP “Službeni glasnik”|year=2018|isbn=978-86-7297-096-8|location=Belgrade}}</ref> International tournaments were held in 1998 and 2001.<ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Beasley|first=John|year=2002|title=Losing chess: The First Unofficial World Championship|url=http://www.mayhematics.com/v/vol5/vc39.pdf|journal=Variant Chess|volume=5|issue=39|pages=106–107|issn=0958-8248}}</ref> As of 2022, the IAF hosts annual international tournaments in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.<ref>https://www.antichess.org {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2024}}</ref>

The internet chess server [[Lichess]] facilitates play of the game, referring to it as "antichess";<ref name=":0" /> after regular chess it is the most popular variant on the site in terms of numbers of games played.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://database.lichess.org/|title=Lichess.org Game Database}}</ref> Since 2018 the site has hosted an annual "Lichess World Championship" for the variant.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=http://perpetualcheck.com/antichess/lichess.php|title=PerpetualCheck}}</ref> [[Chess.com]] also added this variant to their server, calling it "giveaway."<ref>{{Cite web|title=Play Chess Variants Online|url=https://www.chess.com/variants|access-date=2021-03-09|website=Chess.com|language=en-US}}</ref>