United States Armed Forces Chess refers to the annual Armed Forces Chess Championship held annually since 1960 by the United States Department of Defense and the United States Chess Federation. It also refers to the study of the game of chess by the United States Armed Forces for military applications.

The first tournament was held in 1960, and continued uninterrupted until 1993, when the support of the United States Department of Defense was withdrawn. The United States Chess Federation and the US Chess Center supported the tournaments until 2001, when the support of the US Department of Defense was resumed. Emory Tate won the Armed Forces Chess Championship five times, in 19883, 1984, and three times in a row from 1987-1989, an unequaled record.^[1]

The United States Armed Forces has studied chess in a number of different applications, from the understanding of psychology, game theory, problem solving, decision making, risk taking and leadership, not to mention in computer programs, artificial intelligence and algorithms. ^[2]

The Defense Technical Information Center lists over 1,500 reports dealing with chess, chess theory and other applications of chess research.^[3]

• "Check Chess Out." Army Times. October 1990. Volume 51 (9), page 2.
• Accession Number: ADA225613. The Game of Chess. Descriptive Note : Technical rept. Corporate Author : CARNEGIE-MELLON UNIV PITTSBURGH PA ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND PSYCHOLOGY PROJECT. Personal Author(s) : Simon, Herbert A.; Schaeffer, Jonathan. Full Text: http://www.dtic.mil/get-tr-doc/pdf?AD=ADA225613. Report Date : 17 DEC 1990. Pagination or Media Count: 21. Abstract : We have seen that the theory of games that emerges from this research is quite remote in both its concerns and its findings from the von Neumann Morgenstern theory. To arrive at actual strategies for the play of games as complex as chess, the game must be considered in extensive form, and its characteristic function is of no interest. The task is not to characterize optimality or substantive rationality, but to define strategies for finding good moves -- procedural rationality. What is emerging, from research on games like chess, is a computational theory of games: A theory of what it is reasonable to do when it is impossible to determine what is best -- a theory of bounded rationality. The lessons taught by this research may be of considerable value for understanding and dealing with situations in real life that are even more complex that the situations we encounter in chess -- in dealing, say, with large organizations, with the economy, or with relations among nations. The game of chess has sometimes been referred to as the Drosophila of artificial intelligence and cognitive science research - a standard task that serves as a test bed for ideas about the nature of intelligence.
• Larkins Wins 56th Armed Forces Open.
• Hater, David A. 2016. "Officers Pay Double: Larry Larkins wins 56th Armed Forces Championship, and our correspondent examines how Chess helped our overseas forces." January 2016. Pages 38-42.
• Kmoch, Hans. Chess Games of the First Thomas Emery Armed Forces Tournament; An Analysis and Study. New York: American Chess Foundation, 1961. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/7081745.
• Newell, Allen and Herbert A. Simon. 1964. Accession Number: AD0619386. Title: AN EXAMPLE OF HUMAN CHESS PLAY IN THE LIGHT OF CHESS PLAYING PROGRAMS. Corporate Author: CARNEGIE INST OF TECH PITTSBURGH PA. Personal Author(s): Newell, Allen; Simon, Herbert A. Full Text: http://www.dtic.mil/get-tr-doc/pdf?AD=AD0619386. Report Date: AUG 1964. Pagination or Media Count: 92. Abstract: This paper is concerned with the use of chess programs to study human thinking. The work on chess programs has produced a collection of mechanisms sufficient to play chess of modest caliber. Independently of their detailed characteristics, they help understand what must be done in order to play chess. The approach used was to examine in some detail the behavior of a man deciding what move to make in a specific middle game position. Having available a protocol, a transcript of the verbal behavior of the man while he is analysing the board and making his decision. Previous work with protocols in other tasks (proving theorems, guessing sequences, learning concepts) has aimed at constructing computer programs that match the behavior in detail. In this paper the authors undertake only the first stages of such an analysis, laying bare the reasoning the subject employed, by examining his protocol in detail. The analysis draws upon ones general knowledge about reasoning mechanisms and how to organize
• United States, and National Audiovisual Center. USAF Sports and Recreation 1964. U.S. Dept. of the Air Force, 1965. Reviews Air Force team and individual 1964 tournament championships, including bowling, volleyball, basketball, bobsledding, curling, chess, judo, track and field, tennis, softball, golf, and model airplane flying. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/5597606.
• Wilkins, David Edward. [www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a076872.pdf Using Patterns and Plans to Solve Problems and Control Search.] Stanford Artificial Intelligrance Laboratory. Memo AIM-329. July 1979. Abstract: The type of reasoning done by human chess masters has not been done by computer programs. The purpose of this research is to Investigate the extent to which knowledge can replace and support search In selecting a chess move and to delineate the issues involved. This has been carried out by const ructing a program , PARADISE (PAttern Recognition Applied to Directing SEarch), which finds the best move in tactically sharp middle game positions from the games of chess masters.
• Young, Franklin Knowles. Chess Strategetics; Illustrated. Military Art and Science Adapted to the Chessboard. Boston: Little, Brown and Co, 1900. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/3259721.

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• U.S. Armed Forces chess champions
• 9http://www.chessmaniac.com/armed-forces-chess/ Armed Forces Chess]