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Talk:Fifty-move rule

move 70
"Drawn on move 70" Does this mean the 70th move of the game or 20 moves after the 50 move rule could have been invoked? Rmhermen 15:07 3 Jul 2003 (UTC)

 * Of the game. I'll make it explicit. --Camembert

 * I added a link to a page that contains the moves of the game. Oddly enough, there are two versions of the moves. The one in the page I linked to (Mad Aussie's) and the one found from Chess records. Chessgames.com doesn't have either of the games, which is a pity. However, I found the game from the database of the Chessmaster 9000 program and the moves were as in Mad Aussie's page: ending at 69. Kh2 Rd7 ½-½. --ZeroOne 13:28, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

I changed the maximal number of moves needed in the rook+bishop vs. rook endgame from 115 to 59, which is the maximal number of moves needed until mate or capture. I also changed in the third exceptional position from "and a bishop on the opposite color as the opponent's pawn" to "and a bishop on the same color as the opponent's pawn". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.230.96.234 (talk • contribs)

 * Good. Yes, the number of moves to a capture is what matters, since it restarts the 50-move counter.  Good edits.  Bubba73 (talk), 02:04, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

Priority (importance)
Should this perhaps be importance=Highrather than Mid? I was marking pages on specific aspects of the official rules as High importance if they are something that the average club player or beginning tournament player would or should know. I don't have a strong opinion on it but want to see what other people think rather than just changing it. Quale 15:05, 30 April 2007 (UTC)

 * I'm the one that put in Mid importance. i notice that in many cases you have rated things as being more important than I would.  However, I have no objections to changing it to High importance.  I didn't think it was very important because it rarely comes up - probably easily the least common form of a draw.  However, you are right in that it is something the club or tournament player should know.  Bubba73 (talk), 15:20, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

...can continue forever...
no game can continue in perpetuity. there are a finite number of possible positions in the game, and once each one has been repeated twice, it's a draw, right? i think!? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.128.51.51 (talk • contribs) 15 June 2007

 * The point is that the draw must be claimed by either player. So the same position may be repeated more than three times if no player claims the draw, which usually happens though. --ZeroOne ( talk | @ ) 11:49, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

Black could claim draw in example game
The article states, "The last capture occurred on White's 63rd move (and the last pawn move occurred before that). Black could have written his 112th move on his scoresheet and claimed a draw." But if Black were to make his 112th move, it would be Black's 50th without a pawn move or capture (Black's 63rd through 112th), but White would only have moved 49 times with no pawn move or capture (White's 64th through 112th). So the first opportunity to claim a draw under the 50-move rule would have been White's 113th move. Am I missing something here, or should this be changed? Holy 18:59, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

 * I believe you are correct. I'll fix it a little later.  Bubba73 (talk), 21:34, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

 * Actually, it is correct to say that the draw can be claimed after White's 112th move. Black can write down his 112th move, and if it is not a capture or pawn move, he can claim a draw.  (That would be the 50th consecutive move.)  Similarly for White on his 113th move. Bubba73 (talk), 01:03, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

 * That was still not right, but the article is correct now. White can claim it after black's 112th move by writing down a move that would be his 50th move w/o a capture or pawn move.  Bubba73 (talk), 05:32, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Bubba73, good job. It's right on the money now. Plus, that's a good point, that either player can claim the draw without writing down his intended move after White's first opportunity to claim the draw. Holy 15:57, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

 * I think I was the one that got it somewhat wrong to begin with. Bubba73 (talk), 18:56, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

PS, I like the example because:
 * 1) It is an actual example of when both 9.3.a and 9.3.b would apply
 * 2) it is between two very famous players
 * 3) it ties into stalemante and the two knights endgame.  Bubba73 (talk), 22:42, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Omission of Castling from 50 Move Draw Rule should be Mentioned as Inconsistent
Both captures and pawn moves are irreversible, so they are part of the 50 move draw rule. Well, castling is also irreversible (as is acknowledged by its inclusion in the Third Repetition of a Position draw rule. Therefore, castling should be added to the 50 move draw rule, by FIDE and the USCF. This wiki article would be slightly better if it mentioned the inconsistency of excluding castling from the 50 move draw rule. - GeneM —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.197.194.236 (talk) 01:47, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

 * I think that the reason that captures and pawn moves reset the 50-move counter is that they indicate that progress is being made, not that they are irreversible per se. Castling counts as a regular move in the 50-move count.  Bubba73 (talk), 02:15, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

 * Secondly, that should not be mentioned unless there is a WP:reliable source saying that, otherwise it is original research or the editor's opinion. That is, the article is about the way the rules are, not what some people think they should be.  Bubba73 (talk), 02:17, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

 * I was just wondering about that, i.e., whether there was some historical justification for castling not resetting the fifty-move counter. Finding nothing in the article, I had to look here.  I do think that a mention of the philosophical inconsistency would not be out of place in the article. WHPratt (talk) 14:43, 7 December 2012 (UTC)

 * It could be included if there is a reliable source. Otherwise it is the editor's opinion and should not be included.  Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 17:05, 7 December 2012 (UTC)

 * A while back I said that castling is not reversible, but it doesn't reset the move count. It isn't reversible in one move, but you could take three moves to undo it.  Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 00:23, 8 December 2012 (UTC)

 * But, after castling you lose the right to castle, so it is irreversible in that sense. Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 00:24, 8 December 2012 (UTC)

And I checked several books for the reason for the count starting after the last capture or pawn move and for castling not resetting it, but I didn't find anything. The capture/pawn move started in 1851. But it seems to me that the conditions are more about making progress towards winning the game rather than being irreversible, per se. Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 00:45, 8 December 2012 (UTC)

 * The rationale within the Third-Repetition-of-Position rule was that even if the static piece placement were identical in two positions, the right to castle (or perhaps to make an en passant capture) affected the dynamics of the position, and had to be taken into consideration. We're testing for zero progress in this case.
 * The fifty-move rule isn't looking at a particular position, but rather long-term prospects. Different philosophies in play at diffrerent times, I'd say. WHPratt (talk) 15:04, 8 December 2012 (UTC)
 * I'm thinking now that if castling did indeed reset the fifty-move-count, it would be of little import. Try to imagine someone attempting to execute a difficult checkmate, say K + B + N vs K.  So he's going to castle midway through the process and buy himself 50 more moves?  Ridiculous! If he's got an extra rook just sitting around waiting to castle, he should instead be using it to assist in an easy checkmate.  Can anyone come up with a scenario in which such a rule change would make any difference WHPratt (talk) 01:54, 10 December 2012 (UTC)

 * That means that he would go through 49 moves of just moving the bishop! Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 02:55, 10 December 2012 (UTC)

 * There is one thing. If a player starts without a particular rook as a means of giving "odds" (handicap), he can still castle as if that rook were there.  So, at a critical juncture, said player could move his king two squares towards the nonexistant rook and reset the counter in the course of a difficult checkmate, and with no rooks involved.  But odds games would have other eccentricities in general, and shouldn't be discussed.  They aren't standard chess. WHPratt (talk) 13:52, 10 December 2012 (UTC)

In retroanalysis problems castling does reset the 50-move count. Double sharp (talk) 04:20, 4 June 2018 (UTC)

Reason for the rule
One should add some reasons as to whythis rule was adopted, e.g. by giving a list of endgames "typically" or always winnable within 50 moves.--129.70.14.128 (talk) 03:33, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

 * I don't know of a reference to why there is the rule, but it is obviously to keep a game from going on indefinitely. The basic checkmates all require well under 50 moves - K+Q: 9 moves, K+R: 16 moves, K+2B: 19 moves, K+B+N: 33 moves - with perfect play by both sides.  K+Q vs. K+R, etc takes fewer than 50 moves to win.  The part about no capture or no pawn move is a pretty good indication of no progress being made otherwise.  But now there are quite a few rare endgames that require more than 50 moves (see pawnless chess endgames) - some require 66, some require hundreds.  Bubba73 (talk), 03:47, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

 * Maybe all 4-pieces endgames require less than 50 moves? It would be a somewhat "natural" limit then. --Roentgenium111 (talk) 21:06, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

 * All four-piece endgames without pawns require fewer than 50 moves to win, if a win can be forced. But most endgames have more than four pieces.  Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 21:20, 4 November 2013 (UTC)
 * And with pawns, each pawn move resets the count. Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 21:23, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

 * Thanks for the info; then I don't know a good explanation either.... --Roentgenium111 (talk) 20:11, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

 * I thought that K+R vs K+B could take more than 50 moves to resolve. WHPratt (talk) 21:07, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

 * King and rook versus king and bishop is almost always a draw. The rook can win if it can quickly win the bishop (a fork or skewer within a couple of moves) or in some cases if the king and bishop are cornered in the wrong corner (the bishop is on the same color as the corner square).  Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 21:23, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

 * The rook and bishop versus rook endgame often bumps up against the 50-move rule. Most positions are a theoretical draw with optimal play.  But it is difficult to defend, and the superior side often keeps playing.  Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 23:31, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

 * Maybe that's the one that I had in mind. Thanks.  WHPratt (talk) 04:12, 6 November 2013 (UTC)

Change from high to mid importance
I changed this from High importance to Mid importance. Although similar rules such as threefold repetition are High (I think), the fifty move rule is rarely used, compared to threefold repetition. If you think it should be high, change it back. Bubba73 (talk), 20:01, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

 * It is viewed about 100 times per day, though. Bubba73 (talk), 21:08, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

75 moves in the late 1980s
There are some references for the rule for some positions being 75 moves in the late 1980s. However, I now have the 1985 and 1989 rulebooks (there are none in between) and they don't say anything about 75 moves. The 100 move rule for some positions existed in 1985 but in 1989 it was changed to 50 moves for all positions. Bubba73 (You talkin' to me?), 18:12, 5 April 2010 (UTC)

 * I'm still trying to sort out the history of when the rule was extended past 50 moves. I'm getting rulebooks to try to fill in the history.  Books other than rulebooks conflict with what official rulebooks say. Bubba73 (You talkin' to me?), 17:55, 13 April 2010 (UTC)

paragraph removed
I removed the paragraph about the irreversible moves - it has been unreferenced since December, 2011. I checked several rulebooks and books about the history of chess, and none of them said anything about irreversible moves. Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 16:07, 4 March 2012 (UTC)

New 75 move rule
It seems the "Statement of rule" section needs to be edited. It currently states "Theoretically, a game could continue indefinitely this way..." but this is what the new rule 9.6b (added in 2014) is targeting: ''any consecutive series of 75 moves have been completed by each player without the movement of any pawn and without any capture. If the last move resulted in checkmate, that shall take precedence.'' (FIDE Handbook) so that no game is even allowed to continue indefinitely, even if neither player is claiming. -Håkan 148.177.129.211 (talk) 07:57, 15 September 2015 (UTC)

 * You're right. Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 19:28, 15 September 2015 (UTC)

 * Thanks for pointing this out. I tried to explain the 2014 rule, feel free to improve it if you find a better wording.  Rule 9.6a might deserve mention in three-fold repetition.  Quale (talk) 04:11, 16 September 2015 (UTC)

 * That's better. Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 04:47, 16 September 2015 (UTC)

Intermediate “double amount” rule
When I started playing chess, I read through the FIDE rules in the back of my chess textbook (in a Norwegian translation, but I don't think it matters). I clearly remember them discussing the 50-move rule, but they had a variation I haven't seen in the history section here: It stated that if “the experts” (without further qualifications; probably meant as “prevailing endgame theory” or something) had determined a position to require more than 50 moves to mate, the player would be given twice the amount of moves said experts deemed necessary to mate.

Does anyone else remember such a rule? If so, can it be inserted at its right place in the history? Sesse (talk) 20:38, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

 * Yes, that was the rule for several years. I think this is discussed in the history section.  Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 21:02, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

 * Oh, I see now; they're just older than I thought: “In 1928 FIDE enacted rules that if an endgame theoretically requires more than 50 moves to force checkmate, twice that number of moves were allowed.”- Sesse (talk) 13:58, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

 * The rule was still in effect when I started playing in the late 1960s. Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 15:04, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Example Filipowicz versus Smederevac wrong
This example is wrong as the game ends in a draw after 49 moves each without capture or pawn advance, not 50. Most trivial and clear to all, for completeness only I mention this again: The last capture or pawn move in the game was 20...h5. Both players afterwards played the moves 21 to last move 69, so the game ends after 49 moves each without capture or pawn move. There is no source provided what exactly happened, and possibly not easily found (my opinion). With the given information, only speculations are possible, and this is inappropriate for an encyclopedia. The first scenario for legally claiming a draw would be, that White had made the 70th move, then Black wrote down his 70th move, and claimed the draw for the Fifty-Move rule. (Both moves being no captures and no pawn moves.) In this case, often the last half move is not recorded. But in this scenario, there must be the 70th move of White. The last move in the game, in various sources, is however 69... Rd7. There is no information that more moves have been played as recorded, making this a valid claim and as shown, such a scenario is even unlikely. Possibly there was an invalid draw claim, or they even agreed to stop the game for no progress. Wrapping this up, for the game, only speculative scenarios are possible. It did not end with at least fifty moves each without capture or pawn move, and as such does not belong here. The game is special and also mentioned as such under Latest first capture. Here the place is appropriate, but most annoying the Fifty-Move is stated again, and again without source information except the game PGN, which shows otherwise.

The decisive question is: How comes that this is declared as an example for a draw by the Fifty-Move rule when only 49 such moves have been played?

If there would be source, like that they planned two more moves, that would be different. But nothing in this direction is mentioned. As such the statement that the game is a draw by the Fifty-Move rule is simply false. If nothing new is found, I think this must be rewritten. The options I see are to find a better example,remove the example ormention as is, sort of "an example of a game with nearly fifty moves without capture or pawn moves before the endgame is ...". Mentioning the game as such is even bad per my opinion as this article is quoted a lot, without thinking, thus spreading the wrong statement. Dlbbld (talk) 18:16, 4 July 2020 (UTC)

 * Yes, White should have made move 70, Black should notify the director of intended move, so it is a little wrong. But it is unusual as a 69-move game with no captures. Perhaps both players said that they didn't intend to capture, but this would not be the correct procedure.  Or perhaps they thought it was 50 moves by one player.  But that is, as you say, speculation.  Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 20:39, 4 July 2020 (UTC)

 * Not for the first time, chess.com is wrong, as is chessgames.com. Both are generally unreliable sources, though we often use chessgames.com as a convenient link to a replayable game board. They both omit the moves 68...Nf7 69.Nh3. See https://timkr.home.xs4all.nl/records/recordstxt.htm#Latest%20first%20capture and https://timkr.home.xs4all.nl/palview3/recgames.htm. Tim Krabbe's site may be self-published, but it is very well researched. He is up there with Edward Winter for reliable chess information. MaxBrowne2 (talk) 01:24, 5 July 2020 (UTC)

 * @ MaxBrowne2 you are saying "Both are generally unreliable sources". Can you give game examples after 1960 or sources stating that? Just as additional information, this game is entered in Chessbase Big Database 2020 as in chess.com. Chessbase is one of the most used commercial chess databases, would you say that Chessbase is also not reliable for games after 1960? You have stated the problem with Jim Krabbé's website already yourself, that it is self-published. If it cited a primary source, that would solve it, but I couldn't find a primary source on the website. Even if the quality in chess.com would be "bad", it would still be questioning why exactly this game is incorrect. Only a primary source can solve this problem. Which I would look for example a newspaper report shortly after the tournament, the FIDE records (is there such a thing??). But as such, the statement is not based on a primary source and with different secondary sources; this remains the problem it is. Dlbbld (talk) 16:53, 6 July 2020 (UTC)

 * See WP:RSSELF: "Self-published expert sources may be considered reliable when produced by an established expert on the subject matter, whose work in the relevant field has previously been published by reliable, independent publications." I think we all agree Krabbé qualifies in spades as an established expert on the subject matter.  As for the unreliability of chess.com and chessgames.com, I'm not sure why we should be assured they are reliable for games after 1960.  Is that supposed to be a conservative estimate of when they can be considered reliable?  Otherwise I wonder what changed to make them perhaps unreliable in 1959 but certainly entirely trustworthy in 1960.  Chessgames.com at least was highly unreliable for old games, and the problem is I have no idea whether they can be trusted for all newer games and if so when the dividing line between unreliable and reliable is.  I also don't have any idea what editorial and quality control chessgames.com uses for its games database.  That doesn't mean that we can't make use of these sites in articles and I think they are fantastic resources, but I never want to see a Wikipedia article make a claim about lifetime head-to-head records or the like that is cited only to the results of an online games database search.  In the past we've had chess editors strongly maintain at WT:CHESS that these databases are very highly accurate and 100% complete for games in the modern era.  But I think they're wrong about completeness, and probably wrong about accuracy as well. Quale (talk) 03:30, 7 July 2020 (UTC)
 * If there's a primary source the most likely candidate would be a 1966 edition of Szachy, but there are obviously access problems with this source. What appears to have happened is that the game was incorrectly transcribed to one database and the error was subsequently copied all over the internet. I can't prove this of course but in view of the circumstances of the draw it seems the most likely explanation. Krabbe includes a note on Filipowicz's account of the game - sourced from Szachy perhaps? MaxBrowne2 (talk) 04:44, 7 July 2020 (UTC)
 * |'British Chess Literature' by Tim Harding on page 290 makes a statement regarding Chessbase database quality: "In the early days of ChessBase and the internet, there was a rush by people to post games they had input into free public collections.". It mentions especially 1945: "Nowadays ChessBase appear to be taking more care to check their pre-1945 games, but more needs to be done." I just took 1960 to be on the safe side regarding the game, picking the year has no meaning otherwise. Dlbbld (talk) 07:45, 7 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the further details. I received astonishing information which settles the matter finally for me regarding confirmation of the way you mentioned the game was played. I hopefully will revert here quickly, just wanted to state this in advance as from my view. Dlbbld (talk) 05:39, 7 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Don't keep us hanging, what is your "astonishing information" and where did it come from? MaxBrowne2 (talk) 05:59, 7 July 2020 (UTC)
 * After careful consideration, I think I can mention already, as such without citation it is a personal statement only and of course can be freely doubted. I addressed FIDE on this matter and nearly fell off the chair when I got a response the same day from Andrzej Filipowicz himself with a PGN and CBV (Chessbase) attached, confirming the moves you mentioned and the draw claim. He is an IA, and as such, I assume affiliated with FIDE. That is, of course, information without citation and cannot be used and can be doubted. I asked for permission to cite, and I hope to receive as such to clarify the issue. Dlbbld (talk) 07:25, 7 July 2020 (UTC)
 * As already mentioned I have written to FIDE about this game and received a reply from Andrzej Filipowicz himself. As he is an IA, I assume he is in contact with FIDE. My mail was an official request for clarification, so the response is an official statement. In the reply, the game moves are confirmed to be as on Tim Krabbé's website and that the game was two times adjourned. Also that in fact a draw request for the Fifty-move rule was made by Andrzej Filipowicz, and that the opponent was not happy with it. Can you please advice how to proceed best with this information? This is of general interest and no reason to stay with me. Clearly, I will not post a mail here. That would be inappropriate. I forwarded it to Tim Krabbé. I also informed the mentioned websites chessgames.com, chess365.com and chesstempo.com that their version is incorrect. Do you have any experience how such corrections can be made best? Is there any chance that the wrong record will be changed? Dlbbld (talk) 15:49, 8 July 2020 (UTC)

 * I'm glad that he confirmed it. But the game is already referenced to Tim Krabbé so I think that is sufficient.  Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 16:21, 8 July 2020 (UTC)

 * I have read this article as a regular Wikipedia user, trying to find some examples for the fifty-move rule. The first example I put aside, as mentioned everywhere I checked, there have been 49 moves. As the article uses chessgames.com all over, I assumed this source is ok, and added links for a few missing games. For the unexpected information that chessgames.com and others are not reliable, this also must be formulated towards Wikipedia. Wikipedia cites these sources regularly, so in respect to citing these sources, Wikipedia is as bad as these sources. Don't misunderstand this as saying the articles are bad, which I do not.

 * Finally the information regarding wrong game in chessgames.com and similiar should find it's way into the article. So other do not fall in the same trap as I did. But then, starting all over, there is no primary source, and if I add this, it is just own research.

 * Before the information from MaxBrowne2 I have searched the Internet, I did not find one source stating the game correctly. I did not find Tim Krabbé's site. The site of Tim Krabbé looks reliable, but he lacks citing a primary source for the game, which is under these circumstances necessary. Also what happens if another user edits the reference, and replaces the link with a link to chessgames.com? That would also be justifiable, as now it looks strange. All games have links to chessgames.com, except the one from Filipowicz, and this without explanation. Dlbbld (talk) 15:44, 9 July 2020 (UTC)

I sent a mail to chessgames.com, chess365.com, chesstempo.com, ChessBase and Tim Krabbé as well. No answer from first two, chess365.com corrected the game. ChessBase will try in next edition; Tim Krabbé mentioned that he is sure having an original source, but locating would take too much time. Dlbbld (talk) 21:03, 15 July 2020 (UTC)

 * That is good. I suspect that the editor who put it in originally got it from somewhere like Krabbé, but somewhere along the line it was linked to the  chessgames.com page with the incorrect moves.  Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 21:16, 15 July 2020 (UTC)

 * chessgames.com corrected the game by now (so linking to it). Dlbbld (talk) 21:03, 20 July 2020 (UTC)

New article's Seventy-five-move rule and Fivefold repetition
To be blunt, I hope that someone with administrator right's can create the mentioned articles. I read the process for creating articles and that there is a long waiting list and that administrators can shorten the process. For these two terms my opinion is, that they are clearly justified as Wikipedia entries. The Seventy-five-move rule must be mentioned together with this article, the Fifty-move rule. The Fivefold repetition together with the Threefold repetition. Threefold repetition is related to Fifty-move rule, I keep this informally for now. Both terms are not highly complex but complex enough to deserve an entry. This in itself per my view is sufficient to create these article. I hope this entry can work towards this goal, and look forward to hear other opinions. Both terms are only quickly covered in the Chess - end of the game article. Dlbbld (talk) 19:18, 6 July 2020 (UTC)

 * I don't think they need their own articles - they would be almost entirely redundant with the other articles. The only difference is the number of positions/moves and that no claim is necessary.  Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 19:39, 6 July 2020 (UTC)
 * I agree with Bubba73. We can create redirects from seventy-five-move rule to fifty-move rule and from fivefold repetition to threefold repetition.  (In that vein we should also have a redirect from 75-move rule.) Then anyone who searches Wikipedia for those terms will come to a page that describes them, and if someone has reason to wikilink those titles they will be blue links that go to a reasonable page.  Something else that can be done right away is to add brief "seventy-five-move rule" and "fivefold repetition" entries to glossary of chess terms.  And actually I would remove mention of these rather esoteric rules from the main chess article entirely as being not of great interest to the subject of chess as a whole. There's a reason we have a rules of chess article and don't (or rather shouldn't since actually we do) try to stuff every obscure rule into the main chess page.  They can live in rules of chess and in the other articles mentioned.  Quale (talk) 03:11, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

 * I agree with the redirects. Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 03:58, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

 * Please consider the points below. The rules itself in their full extent and their various implications are poorly understood.
 * The two rules are effective since 1 July 2014. Notably, the arbiter must draw the game in these situations. This main point was wrongly stated in Chess article, showing misconception. By the way, under USCF rules the arbiter may declare a draw, but under FIDE rules the arbiter must declare a draw.
 * Before the introduction of the two rules, the possible number of moves in a chess game was not limited. With the introduction of these two rules (any of the two would be enough) the possible numbers of moves are now limited. This is a substantial change in game theory.
 * The potential outcome for some position's changes. This is surprising at first, thus often neglected. For example, please consider a position where White has a mate in over 75 moves, involving no capture or pawn move by White and Black having no capture or pawn move. And the position is played with ideal play by White and ideal play by Black, by Black as not knowing the Fifty-move rule, so not making the draw request in a lost position. With the Seventy-Five-move rule, this is a draw, with the Fifty-move rule a win for White.
 * Engine play must be adapted and changes with these rules in endgames. This article is explaining this for the Fifty-move rule: http://galen.metapath.org/egtb50/.
 * The rules lead to invalid games played in OTB Blitz and partly Rapid games. As practically the rules are hard to check, and the games are invalid if they continue beyond any of the two rules. Examples: The games below continued although the game had already ended according to the rule. Notably the first ended in a win by White, despite should have ended by draw by the rules.
 * Fivefold repetition rule: This game is from World Blitz Championship in 2018, Yu vs Alekseenko, there is a fivefold repetition after 91.Qa8+ (91.Qa8+ 89.Qa8+ 87.Qa8+ 85.Qa8+ 83.Qa8). The game should have been stopped and declared as a draw. However, play continued, and Yu finally won the game.
 * Seventy-five-move rule: This game is from World Blitz Championship in 2015, Guijarro vs Antipov, there are 75 moves each without capture or pawn move after 137.Kg2 (starting with 62...Nd7). The game should have been stopped and declared as a draw. However, play continued and finally ended as a draw.
 * Most unaware too many the rules are at the same level as mate (rule "6.2.1.1 the move ends the game"). As such draw claims based on these rules after a game loss are automatically valid, also after the game is finished and the score sheets are signed.
 * The rules are applied in online play. With online play becoming increasingly popular that also increases the weight the rules have. There two examples where the computer ended the game:
 * Fivefold repetition rule: This game is from PRO Chess League KO Stage (won by Caruana), Robson vs Moranda, there is a fivefold repetition after 42...Kf8 (42...Kf8 40...Kf8 38...Kf8 36...Kf8 34...Kf8). The computer immediately ends the game and declares as a draw.
 * Seventy-five-move rule: This game is from PRO League Group Stage in 2019, Firouzja vs Demchenko, there are 75 moves each without capture or pawn move after 126...Kg7 (starting with 52.Kf2). The computer immediately ends the game and declares as a draw.
 * Dlbbld (talk) 13:15, 7 July 2020 (UTC), added examples Dlbbld (talk) 08:55, 9 July 2020 (UTC)

 * The suggestions with the redirects are nice at first thought but at second thought I would dismiss them. It gives a wrong impression that, e.g. the Seventy-Five-move rule is a special case of the Fifty-Move rule, which is finally not correct. @Quale: I'm afraid I have to disagree putting the mentioned rules anywhere near to "rather esoteric rules". I play online Blitz chess regularly, and draws by Fivefold repetition happens regularly. All four rules are relevant. As is they are mentioned on the Chess and Rules of chess page, not on the glossary page, where they definitely must be mentioned. If the mentioning on the Chess page is finally appropriate I can't make an opinion, the article is enormous, and I can't jump into one discussion after the other. However, if there would be articles for the rules that would resolve the problems as they could be linked. Dlbbld (talk) 22:43, 7 July 2020 (UTC)

 * Thanks for the very precise analysis and considering my arguments. I agree on all points that the mentioned detail information is suited better in other articles. I had no general intent to incorporate such detail information in the article on its own, that is merely my understanding why these two rules have significance. The requirement of having more than one source I don't know how to meet, I only know the FIDE rules as a source. I am happy with the redirects and subsections. I gave the subsections a try and would be happy if somebody can do the necessary finetuning to the wording before the sections get deleted. For consistency shouldn't here also be a redirect 3-fold repetition as for 5-fold repetition? Dlbbld (talk) 20:51, 9 July 2020 (UTC)

 * The general criterion for creating a new article is that the topic should be "notable", with the definition of notability being somewhat flexible, but generally described in WP:NOTE.

 * There is a handy-dandy index of popular chess articles at WikiProject Chess/Popular pages. It shows how often someone has looked up an article "recently" -- currently, it shows the month of June.  On this list, Fifty-move rule is in 213th place, while Threefold repetition is in 145th place.  These positions are pretty good and suggest that creating separate articles for these topics was a good decision.  (That decision was made way before I started editing Wikipedia.)

 * Judging from the seat of my pants, I suspect that if articles were created for the 75-move rule and/or fivefold repetition, they would languish at the bottom of the list for many years. But the suggestion of using redirects seems pretty sensible to me.  Bruce leverett (talk) 23:30, 7 July 2020 (UTC)
 * As Bruce says, standalone articles should meet the requirements of WP:N. One thing I didn't find on that page in my quick scan is the idea that in general more than one source with significant coverage is expected to justify an article.  So for example if an article used only the FIDE Handbook as a source that would be considered weak.  You can consider what sources in addition to the FIDE Handbook make significant mention of these rules.  (It's important also to know that WP:N applies to articles, not individual claims.  So 5-fold repetition and 75-move rule are definitely significant enough to be explained in articles, WP:N only applies to the question of whether a standalone article is warranted.)
 * As to the specifics of the importance of these rules, I have to say that I greatly disagree. In my opinion the 75-move rule and 5-fold repetition are among the least important chess rules.  As evidence I offer the fact that chess thrived for 1600 years without either of them.  And I do maintain that the 75-move rule is a special case of the 50-move rule and 5-fold repetition is a special case of 3-fold repetition, and this is not the wrong impression.  (The obvious point is the 3-fold and 5-fold use identical definitions of what positions are considered the same [section 9.6.1 on 5-fold incorporates the section 9.2.2 definition of same position from the 3-fold rule] and 50-move and 75-move share the same "no pawn move or capture" condition.)
 * The fact that chess becomes a finite game with 5-fold repetition is of little practical significance. As evidence I offer the fact that every chess game played in the 1600 years without the rules did in fact end, so as a practical matter, little changed on that point.  As far as game theory goes, I find the supposition that any readers would look for the fivefold repetition article hoping to learn something about the mathematical game theory of chess to be highly implausible.  I do think the significance of the rule in making chess finite is worthy of mention, but that mention should be in a context where game theory is being discussed, not a standalone article almost entirely about something else.  Be aware that this mention needs a WP:RS reliable source.  Although it's obvious that 5-fold repetition makes chess a finite game, it isn't obvious enough to to be claimed in an article without providing a source.  I also think that in game theory chess was widely considered a finite game anyway even before the 5-fold repetition rule.  (Either player alone without cooperation of the other could make chess finite even without the 5-fold rule simply by claiming 3-fold repetition if it occurs.) I find the conditions imposed in the third reason (Black makes perfect moves but doesn't know the 50-move rule and so fail to claim a draw) to be so contrived as to be uninteresting in either a practical or a theoretical context.  You say this is "often neglected", but I think there's an obvious reason for that—no one cares about the potential outcomes of a game with a player who makes perfect moves but doesn't know the rules.     For the fourth item, if chess engine play really needs a significant adaptation, a better place to discuss that might be computer chess where it would have context.  I don't find the other arguments to weigh significantly in demonstrating that any necessary points could not be made in a sections of fifty-move rule and threefold repetition.
 * I have created the redirects fivefold repetition, 5-fold repetition, seventy-five-move rule, 75-move rule and seventyfive-move rule. This doesn't preclude making them standalone articles instead, so anyone who feels that these would be better as standalone articles should feel free to edit those pages and replace the redirect with article text.  My personal suggestion would be to instead start by creating a "Fivefold repetition" section in the threefold repetition article and a "75-move rule" section in the fifty-move rule article.  Once those new sections are sufficiently developed, the merit of standalone articles might become readily apparent and should be easier to demonstrate to the skeptics.  Quale (talk) 01:45, 8 July 2020 (UTC)

 * First I did not say how long these articles should be. To avoid misunderstanding, I think these should be short articles, like ten sentences or so and two examples. Articles still suitable, for this is too long to include on other pages per my opinion.
 * Then the discussion of whether these rules are special cases of the existing rules or not needs a closer look. When I said that the rules are not special cases of the existing rules, I took a rule-technical point of view. The rules define what it means to "repeat" (turn, position, etc.). The threefold repetition rule then says that a draw is claimable after three such repetitions. The fivefold repetition rule says that the game ends in a draw after five such repetitions. These rules are in fact defined independently, and neither rule needs the other to be applied. As such rule technically, they are completely independent. Now there is also a historical point of view. The fivefold rule was long introduced after the threefold rule, and it might be the case, that it would never have been defined, would there be no threefold rule before. That is speculation. In this sense, however, one could say there is a dependency on the evolvement of the rules. The same thoughts apply to the fifty-move and seventy-five-move rules. So it depends on the point of view making this statement. I don't know the point of view here from you, but if it's a rule-technical point of view, I don't see it this way. For writing an article, both points of view are equally valid. Dlbbld (talk) 09:19, 9 July 2020 (UTC)

I agree no separate article is necessary. I simply do not see any significant coverage of either topic in reliable sources – neither topic meets WP:N. On the other hand I appreciate the significance of the change in that they dispense with the need to make a valid claim. I would suggest editing the lead of the existing articles to note these changes made by FIDE. I also think it makes sense to add standalone entries on the new rules to the glossary of chess.

I note the discrepancy mentioned above with respect to how FIDE and the USCF apply these new rules. What is the situation in other national federations? How universal is the adoption of some version of these rules? This is the sort of information that could go into a separate section as suggested by Quale. Cobblet (talk) 16:40, 8 July 2020 (UTC)

I'm a new newbie to Wikipedia (but not to chess) and have to take things how they come. I can agree to the thoughts by Quale regarding game theory. But then on the other side if this topic is handled there, I don't see why the article could not reference articles defining the terms fivefold repetition and seventy-five-move rule and would have to reference to sub parts of other pages. These rules are standalone rules, and as such per my understanding should be defined on it's own. I don't understand why the anticipation that nobody would read these articles by Bruce Leverett is a reason not to write them. An encyclopedia should be complete. Dlbbld (talk) 09:32, 9 July 2020 (UTC)

title: Talk:Fifty-move rule


text:
Piermont

Piermont is the name of two places in the United States of America:

 * Piermont, New Hampshire
 * Piermont, New York

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Piermont


text:
Don Domanski

Don Domanski (April 29, 1950 – September 7, 2020) was a Canadian poet.

Biography
Domanski was born and raised in Sydney, Nova Scotia, and lived briefly in Toronto, Vancouver and Wolfville, before settling in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he lived for most of his life. Author of nine collections of poetry, his work has been translated into Arabic, Chinese, Czech, French, Portuguese, and Spanish. In a review of Wolf-Ladder John Bradley described Domanski's poetry as "earthy and astral, dark and buoyant, a cross between Robert Bly, Ted Hughes, and the Brothers Grimm."

In 1999 he received the Canadian Literary Award for Poetry from CBC (the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). His 2007 collection All Our Wonder Unavenged was honoured with the Governor General's Award for Poetry, the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia Masterworks Award, and the Atlantic Poetry Prize. In 2014 he won the J.M. Abraham Poetry Award for Bite Down Little Whisper. Domanski mentored other poets through the Banff Centre for the Arts Wired Writing Studio and the Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia Mentorship program.

Also a visual artist, he created art that appeared in galleries in Halifax and Seoul, South Korea, and on covers of his poetry collections. Domanski also collected fossils for over a decade, and subsequently turned his attention to meteorites and Stone Age tools. He found a neural arch of a 350-million-year-old (Lower Carboniferous) amphibian previously thought to have gone extinct in the Devonian period. He was given credit for the find in Amphibian Biology, Vol. 4,   Palaeontology, The Evolutionary History of Amphibians, ed. Harold Heatwole and Robert L. Carroll. His interest in religions inspired visits to churches and cathedrals in France, Ireland, England and Argentina, mosques in Istanbul, Rumi's tomb in Konya, and Buddhist temples and monasteries in China.

Poetry collections

 * 1975: The Cape Breton Book of the Dead (House of Anansi Press)
 * 1978: Heaven (House of Anansi Press)
 * 1982: War in an Empty House (House of Anansi Press)
 * 1986: Hammerstroke (House of Anansi Press)
 * 1991: Wolf-Ladder (Coach House Press) (shortlisted for a Governor General's Award)
 * 1994: Stations of the Left Hand (Coach House Press) (shortlisted for a Governor General's Award)
 * 1998: Parish of the Physic Moon (McClelland & Stewart)
 * 2007: All Our Wonder Unavenged (Brick Books) (winner of the Governor General's Award, The Atlantic Poetry Prize and the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia Masterworks Award)
 * 2013: Bite Down Little Whisper (Brick Books) (shortlisted for a Governor General's Award; winner of J. M. Abraham Poetry Prize)
 * 2021: Fetishes of the Floating World (Brick Books)

Pamphlets

 * 2006: All Our Wonder Unavenged (Jack Pine Press)
 * 2006: Poetry and the Sacred (Ralph Gustafson Lecture, Institute for Coastal Research)
 * 2014: Field Notes (Corbel Stone Press)
 * 2015: Fetishes of the Floating World (espresso)

Anthologies

 * 2007: Earthly Pages: The Poetry of Don Domanski (Wilfrid Laurier University Press)
 * 2021: Selected Poems, 1975-2021 (Hardcover) (Corbel Stone Press)
 * 2022: Selected Poems, 1975-2021 (Softcover) (Xylem Books)

Honours

 * 1999 – Canadian Literary Award for Poetry (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation)
 * 2007 – Governor General's Award for All Our Wonder Unavenged
 * 2008 – The Atlantic Poetry Prize for All Our Wonder Unavenged
 * 2008 – Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia Masterworks Award for All Our Wonder Unavenged
 * 2014 – J.M. Abraham Poetry Award for Bite Down Little Whisper

title: Don Domanski


text:
Dover Castle

Dover Castle is a medieval castle in Dover, Kent, England and is Grade I listed. It was founded in the 11th century and has been described as the "Key to England" due to its defensive significance throughout history. Some writers say it is the largest castle in England, a title also claimed by Windsor Castle.

Iron age
This site may have been fortified with earthworks in the Iron Age or earlier, before the Romans invaded in AD 43. This is suggested on the basis of the unusual pattern of the earthworks which does not seem to be a perfect fit for the medieval castle. Excavations have provided evidence of Iron Age occupation within the locality of the castle, but it is not certain whether this is associated with the hillfort.

Roman era

The site also contains one of Dover's two Roman lighthouses (or pharoses), one of only three surviving Roman-era lighthouses in the world, and the tallest and most complete standing Roman structure in England. It is also claimed to be Britain's oldest standing building. Built in the early 2nd century, the 5-level 8-sided tower was made of layers of tufa, Kentish ragstone, and red bricks. The castle lighthouse survived after being converted into a belfry in the Saxon era (c. 1000), having a new upper layer added (c. 1430), and was partially renovated in 1913–1915. The scant remains of the other Roman lighthouse, known as the Bredenstone or the Devil's Drop of Mortar, are located on the opposing Western Heights, across the town of Dover. The Roman lighthouse at Boulogne-sur-Mer across the Channel, known as the Tour d'Ordre, survived for many centuries, and its light should have been visible from Dover. It was built circa AD 39 by order of the Emperor Caligula, possibly in preparation for an invasion of Britain. Suetonius refers to Caligula's "erection of a tall lighthouse, not unlike the one at Pharos, in which fires were to be kept going all night as a guide to ships". Coastal erosion led to it toppling into the sea in 1644. Engravings of its height may show how the Dover Roman lighthouse once looked.

Saxon and early Norman
After the Battle of Hastings in October 1066, William the Conqueror and his forces marched to Westminster Abbey for his coronation. They took a roundabout route via Romney, Dover and Canterbury. From the Cinque Ports foundation in 1050, Dover has always been a chief member—it may also have been this that first attracted William's attention, and got Kent the motto of Invicta. In the words of William of Poitiers: "Then he marched to Dover, which had been reported impregnable and held by a large force. The English, stricken with fear at his approach had confidence neither in their ramparts nor in the numbers of their troops ... While the inhabitants were preparing to surrender unconditionally, [the Normans], greedy for money, set the castle on fire and the great part of it was soon enveloped in flames...[William then paid for the repair and] having taken possession of the castle, the Duke spent eight days adding new fortifications to it'. The Castle was first built, entirely out of clay. It collapsed to the ground and the clay was then used as the flooring for many of the ground-floor rooms."

In 1088, eight knights were appointed under tenures to guard Dover Castle. Their names were William d'Albrincis, Fulberl (or Fulbert) de Dover, William d'Arsic, Geoffrey Peverell, William Maminot, Robert du Port, Hugh Crevecoeur, and Adam Fitzwilliam.

Henry II to early modern times
It was during the reign of Henry II that the castle began to take recognisable shape. The inner and outer baileys and the great keep belong to this time. Maurice the Engineer was responsible for building the keep. From 1179 to 1188, the king spent over £6,500 on the castle, an enormous sum considering that his annual revenue was likely around £10,000.

In 1216, during the First Barons' War, a group of rebel barons invited the future Louis VIII of France to come and take the English crown. He had some success breaching the walls, but was ultimately unable to take the castle. The vulnerable north gate that had been breached in the siege was converted into an underground forward-defence complex (including St John's Tower), and new gates built into the outer curtain wall on the western (Fitzwilliam's Gate) and eastern (Constable's Gate) sides. During the siege, the English defenders tunnelled outwards and attacked the French. During the time of Stephen de Pencester, a windmill was erected on Tower 22, which was later known as the Mill Tower. By the Tudor age, the defences themselves had been superseded by gunpowder. They were improved by Henry VIII, who made a personal visit and added to it with the Moat Bulwark. During the English Civil War, it was held for the king but then taken by supporters of the Parliamentarians in 1642 without a shot being fired. Knowing the castle was lightly guarded, a local merchant Richard Dawkes accompanied by 10 men scaled the cliffs and attacked the porter's lodge, obtaining the keys and entering the castle before the garrison was summoned. Dover Castle was a crucial observation point for the cross-channel sightings of the Anglo-French Survey undertaken between 1784 and 1790, which used trigonometric calculations to link the Royal Greenwich Observatory with the Paris Observatory. This work was overseen by General William Roy.

19th century
Massive rebuilding took place at the end of the 18th century during the Napoleonic Wars. William Twiss, the Commanding Engineer of the Southern District, as part of his brief to improve the town's defences, completed the remodelling of the outer defences of Dover Castle by adding the huge Horseshoe, Hudson's, East Arrow and East Demi-Bastions to provide extra gun positions on the eastern side, and constructing the Constable's Bastion for additional protection on the west. Twiss further strengthened the Spur at the northern end of the castle, adding a redan, or raised the gun platform. By taking the roof off the keep and replacing it with massive brick vaults, he was able to mount heavy artillery on the top. Twiss also constructed Canon's Gateway to link the defences of the castle with those of the town.

With Dover becoming a garrison town, there was a need for barracks and storerooms for the additional troops and their equipment. The solution adopted by Twiss and the Royal Engineers was to create a complex of barracks tunnels about 15 metres below the cliff-top, and the first troops were accommodated in 1803. The windmill on the Mill Tower was demolished during the Anglo-American War on the orders of the Ordnance Board. It was said that the sale of materials from the demolished mill did not cover the cost of the demolition. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the tunnels were partly converted and used by the Coast Blockade Service to combat smuggling. This was a short-term endeavour, though, and in 1827 the headquarters were moved closer to shore. The tunnels then remained abandoned for more than a century.

Between 1856 and 1858, Anthony Salvin constructed a new officer's barracks to the south of the castle. Salvin was responsible for the exterior, which he designed in a Tudor Revival style, while the castle's Clerk of the Works, G. Arnold, was responsible for the interior.

Second World War
The outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 saw the tunnels converted first into an air-raid shelter and then later into a military command centre and underground hospital. In May 1940, Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay directed the evacuation of French and British soldiers from Dunkirk, code-named Operation Dynamo, from his headquarters in the cliff tunnels. A military telephone exchange was installed in 1941 and served the underground headquarters. The switchboards were constantly in use and had to have a new tunnel created alongside it to house the batteries and chargers necessary to keep them functioning. A statue of Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay stands outside the tunnels in honour of his work on the Dunkirk evacuation and protecting Dover during the Second World War.

Post-war
After the war the tunnels were to be used as a shelter for the Regional Seats of Government in the event of a nuclear attack. This plan was abandoned for various reasons, including the realisation that the chalk of the cliffs would not provide significant protection from radiation, and because of the inconvenient form of the tunnels and their generally poor condition. Tunnel levels are denoted as A - Annexe, B - Bastion, C - Casemate, D - Dumpy and E - Esplanade. Annexe and Casemate levels are open to the public, Bastion is 'lost', but investigations continue to locate it and gain access. Dumpy (converted from Second World War use, to serve as a Regional Seat of Government in the event of an atomic war) is closed, together with its esplanade (last used as an air raid shelter in the Second World War). Between 2007 and 2009, English Heritage spent £2.45 million on recreating the castle's interior. According to figures released by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, 368,243 people visited Dover Castle in 2019. The Queen's & Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment Regimental Museum is located in the castle. Dover Castle remains a Scheduled Monument, which means it is a "nationally important" historic building and archaeological site that has been given protection against unauthorised change. It is also a Grade I listed building, and recognised as an internationally important structure. The Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports is officially head of the castle, in his conjoint position of Constable of Dover Castle, and the Deputy Constable has his residence in Constable's Gate.

In October 2021, the castle was one of 142 sites across England to receive part of a £35 million grant from the government's Culture Recovery Fund.

Churches and chapels
There are two sacred places within the grounds of the castle:
 * Royal chapel - Located within the keep, dedicated to St Thomas Becket.
 * St Mary in Castro - A Saxon church, rebuilt in the Victorian era.

Filming location
The castle has been used by productions in TV series such as the Doctor Who episode The Mind of Evil, Wolf Hall, The Hollow Crown and The Amazing Race 31. The medieval setting has also been used in films such as Lady Jane (1986), Hamlet (1990), To Kill a King (2003), The Other Boleyn Girl (2007), Into the Woods (2014), and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015).

Images

 * A series of aerial photos of Dover Castle
 * Images of World War II tunnels
 * Dover Castle images from English Heritage

title: Dover Castle


text:
Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham

Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham (3 February 1478 – 17 May 1521) was an English nobleman. He was the son of Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, and Katherine Woodville, and nephew of Elizabeth Woodville and King Edward IV. Thus, Edward Stafford was a first cousin once removed of King Henry VIII. He frequently attended the courts of Henry VII and Henry VIII. He was convicted of treason and executed on 17 May 1521.

Family
Edward Stafford, born 3 February 1478 at Brecon Castle in Wales, was the eldest son of Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, and Catherine Woodville (the daughter of Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers, by Jacquetta of Luxembourg, daughter of Pierre de Luxembourg, Count of St. Pol) and was thus a nephew of Elizabeth Woodville and King Edward IV.

By his father's marriage to Catherine Woodville, Stafford had a younger brother, Henry Stafford, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, and two sisters: Elizabeth, who married Robert Radcliffe, 1st Earl of Sussex, and Anne, who married firstly Sir Walter Herbert (d. 16 September 1507), an illegitimate son of William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke, and secondly George Hastings, 1st Earl of Huntingdon.

After the execution of the 2nd Duke of Buckingham, his widow, Catherine Woodville, married Jasper Tudor, second son of Owen Tudor and King Henry V's widow, Catherine of Valois. After Jasper Tudor's death on 21 December 1495, Catherine Woodville married Sir Richard Wingfield (d. 22 July 1525). Catherine Woodville died 18 May 1497. After her death, Sir Richard Wingfield married Bridget Wiltshire, daughter and heiress of Sir John Wiltshire of Stone, Kent.

Career
In October 1483 Stafford's father was central in Buckingham's rebellion against King Richard III. He was beheaded without trial on 2 November 1483, whereby all his honours were forfeited. Stafford is said to have been hidden in various houses in Herefordshire at the time of the rebellion, and perhaps for the remainder of Richard III's reign. After Richard III's defeat at Bosworth on 22 August 1485, and King Henry VII's accession to the crown, Stafford was made a Knight of the Order of the Bath on 29 October 1485 as Duke of Buckingham, and attended Henry VII's coronation the following day, although his father's attainder was not formally reversed by Parliament until November. The young Duke's wardship and lands were granted, on 3 August 1486, along with the wardship of his younger brother, Henry Stafford, to the King's mother, Margaret Beaufort, and according to Davies it is likely Buckingham was educated in her various households.

Buckingham was in attendance at court at the elevation of Henry VII's second son, the future King Henry VIII, as Duke of York, on 9 November 1494, and was made a Knight of the Order of the Garter in 1495. In September 1497 he was a captain in the forces sent to quell a rebellion in Cornwall.

As a young man, Buckingham played a conspicuous part in royal weddings and the reception of ambassadors and foreign princes, "dazzling observers by his sartorial splendour". At the wedding of Henry VII's eldest son and heir Arthur, Prince of Wales, and Catherine of Aragon in 1501, he is said to have worn a gown worth £1500. He was the chief challenger at the jousting tournament held the following day.

At the accession of King Henry VIII, Buckingham was appointed on 23 June 1509, for the day of the coronation only, Lord High Constable, an office which he claimed by hereditary right. He also served as Lord High Steward at the coronation and bearer of the crown. In 1509 he was made a member of the King's Privy Council. On 9 July 1510 he had licence to crenellate his manor of Thornbury, Gloucestershire, and according to Davies rebuilt the manor house as "an impressively towered castle" with "huge oriel windows in the living-quarters in the inner court".

In 1510 Buckingham was involved in a scandal concerning his sister, Anne, who was the wife of George Hastings, 1st Earl of Huntingdon. After hearing rumours concerning her and Sir William Compton, Buckingham found Compton in Anne's room. Compton was forced to take the sacrament to prove that he and Anne had not committed adultery, and Anne's husband sent her away to a convent 60 mi from the court. There is no extant evidence establishing that Anne and Sir William Compton were guilty of adultery. In 1523 Compton took the unusual step of bequeathing land to Anne in his will, and directing his executors to include her in the prayers for his kin for which he had made provision in his will. There are some suggestions that the affair continued until 1513. Buckingham returned to the King's graces, being present at the marriage of Henry's sister, served in Parliament and was present at the Field of the Cloth of Gold negotiations with Francis I of France and at negotiations with Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.

From June to October 1513 Buckingham served as a captain during Henry VIII's invasion of France, commanding 500 men in the "middle ward". About 1517 he was one of 12 challengers chosen to joust against the King and his companions but excused himself on the ground that he feared to run against the King's person. He and his wife, Eleanor, attended the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520.

Although Buckingham was appointed to commissions of the peace in 1514 and charged—together with other Marcher lords—with responsibility for keeping order in south Wales, particularly along the borderland Welsh Marches, he was rebuked by the King in 1518 for failing to achieve the desired results. Buckingham exercised little direct political influence and was never a member of the King's inner circle.

Buckingham's literary patronage included two translations, a printed translation of Helyas, Knyghte of the Swanne (on the Knight of the Swan), which he commissioned in 1512, and A Lytell Cronicle, a translation of an account of the Near East which he may have commissioned in 1520 in connection with his proposed pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

Betrayal and execution
Buckingham was one of few peers with substantial Plantagenet blood and maintained numerous connections, often among his extended family, with the rest of the upper aristocracy, activities which attracted Henry's suspicion. During 1520, Buckingham became suspect of potentially treasonous actions and Henry authorised an investigation. The King personally examined witnesses against him, gathering enough evidence for a trial. The Duke was finally summoned to Court in April 1521 and arrested and placed in the Tower. He was tried before a panel of 17 peers, being accused of listening to prophecies of the King's death and intending to kill the King. Buckingham was executed on Tower Hill on 17 May 1521 and posthumously attainted by Act of Parliament on 31 July 1523, disinheriting most of his wealth from his children.

Some conclude this was one of the few executions of high personages under Henry VIII in which the accused was "almost certainly guilty". However, Sir Thomas More complained that the key evidence was hearsay from servants who, as commoners, were threatened and tortured to extract false confessions.

Marriage and issue
In 1488, Henry VII had suggested a marriage between Buckingham and Anne of Brittany, but in December 1489 the executors of Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland, paid the King £4,000 for Buckingham's marriage to Percy's eldest daughter Eleanor (d. 1530). They had a son and three daughters:

 * Henry Stafford, 1st Baron Stafford (18 September 1501 – 30 April 1563), who married Ursula Pole, daughter of Sir Richard Pole by his wife, Margaret, Countess of Salisbury, daughter of George, Duke of Clarence.
 * Lady Elizabeth Stafford (c. 1497 – 30 November 1558), the second wife of Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk.
 * Lady Katherine Stafford (c. 1499 – 14 May 1555), who married Ralph Neville, 4th Earl of Westmorland.
 * Lady Mary Stafford, the youngest daughter, who married, about June 1519, as his third wife, George Neville, 5th Baron Bergavenny.

Buckingham is also said to have had three illegitimate children:

 * George Stafford.
 * Henry Stafford, who represented Stafford in Parliament 1545–1555.
 * Margaret Stafford (c. 1511 – 25 May 1537), whom Buckingham married to his ward, Thomas Fitzgerald of Leixlip, half-brother to the Earl of Kildare.

In fiction

 * The accusation and condemnation of Buckingham is depicted in the Shakespeare play Henry VIII.
 * In the 2003 two-part drama Henry VIII starring Ray Winstone and Helena Bonham Carter, Buckingham is played by Charles Dance. His character was a minor one, killed off in the first 15 minutes.
 * Buckingham is a character in the first two episodes of the first season of the drama series The Tudors in 2007. Portrayed by Steven Waddington, Buckingham's intrigues are fictionalised, with several key facts omitted.
 * Buckingham's (fictional) son is a character in the novel The Blanket of the Dark, by John Buchan (1931). He has grown up as Peter Pentecost in the forests near Oxford and is told of his true heritage in the year 1536. Later he has a fateful encounter with the King and decides that he does not wish to pursue a life of power.
 * He is portrayed by Olly Rix in the 2019 Starz miniseries The Spanish Princess, where he is depicted early on as seducing one of Catherine of Aragon's ladies in waiting.

title: Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham


text:
Talk:Occupation of Iraq timeline

I am moving this similarly named page as well. MB 15:40 3 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Well, it's no longer 2003, so should this page be closed down and a new 2004 timeline started? Or, should this simply be moved to U.S.-led occupation of Iraq timeline, since the main article is called U.S.-led occupation of Iraq? I favor the second choice and will move it if there are no objections. --Minesweeper 05:24, 13 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Why are all these quotes by the various officials here? Is that really something that should be on this kind of timeline? - Andre Engels 14:46, 31 Aug 2004 (UTC)

 * Unless the quotes are a new statement of policy, I think they are irrelevent. Perhaps the quotes should be moved to a separate timeline. Also, this timeline should probably start on April 15, 2003, since that is when the "Iraq War Timeline" ends. If there is going to be information about what happened before April 15, they should be on topic-- they should deal with the establishment of the CPA and reconstruction in particular places of Iraq. I don't think that general US policy towards Iraq is appropriate. AdamRetchless 14:18, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)

What happened in November 2003?
If you look at a count of coalition casualties, you'll see that there was a huge number of casualties in November 2003. What happened then? I've scanned the web and can't figure out what caused all of those casualties. This timeline doesn't really indicate the cause either. It mentioned a single large event (downing of a helicopter), but that doesn't account for the sharp rise in casualties.

Other increases in casualties occured in April and August of 2004. The cause of those increases are indicated in this timeline (Falluja and Al Sadr), but their importance is not apparent. AdamRetchless 14:13, 30 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Consolidate with Iraq timeline?
I know we'd like to keep these two topics separate, but since the news in Iraq for 2003 and 2004 IS the occupation / war, shouldn't we consolidate it? Jgardner 06:02, 2004 Oct 13 (UTC)

quotations or timeline?
This entry seems to transmogrify confusingly from a quotation book into a more normal timeline in mid-stream. I just noted that 2003 Invasion of Iraq says about this page, "See 2003–2004 occupation of Iraq timeline for the White House statements" so maybe the original intent was merely to document statements here. Obviously that's changed now. Anyway, I think it's odd and confusing. Sbwoodside 07:33, 26 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * I agree. I don't have time to change it, but it definitely needs to be fixed.

End of occupation
The multinational forces in Iraq are @ the sovereign's request. June 28, 2004 should be the last date in this timeline. JDR 21:13, 23 September 2005 (UTC)
 * That's a technicality, but if if the timeline is finished there, a new article should be created with everything after it. --66.168.50.185 05:17, 22 November 2005 (UTC)
 * We should only separate the article if we have a generally agreed upon definition of sovereignty. If the division is on the basis of nominal sovereignty as opposed to effective, then it should be stated thus, avoiding the ambiguous term sovereign. --Zachbe 14:47, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

Sources?
Some sources would be nice in this article, since this, as with all articles on Wikipedia, aspires to be an encyclopedia entry that can be edited by anyone. It is especially important since the peer moderation is scarce.

Vandalism for May 1 2003 timeline?
President George W. Bush declares major combat operations over. Mission Acomplished

That statement seems unencyclopedic. 65.93.36.72 22:48, 8 April 2007 (UTC)

Rename
Like many other articles on war timeline, I support this article should be renamed as Iraq War timeline. And the other article, 2003 Iraq war timeline, will be renamed as 2003 invasion of Iraq timeline or Timeline of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. 207.233.69.239 (talk) 19:09, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

title: Talk:Occupation of Iraq timeline


text:
Walsall

Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre of the borough of the same name in the West Midlands, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located 9 mi north-west of Birmingham, 7 mi east of Wolverhampton and 9 mi from Lichfield.

Walsall is the administrative centre of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Walsall. It was transferred from Staffordshire to the newly created West Midlands County in 1974. At the 2011 census, the town's built-up area had a population of 67,594, with the wider borough having a population of 269,323. Neighbouring settlements in the borough include Darlaston, Brownhills, Pelsall, Willenhall, Bloxwich and Aldridge.

Early settlement
The name Walsall is derived from "Walh halh", meaning "valley of the Welsh", referring to the British who first lived in the area. However, it is believed that a manor was held here by William FitzAnsculf, who held numerous manors in the Midlands. By the first part of the 13th century, Walsall was a small market town, with the weekly market being introduced in 1220 and held on Tuesdays. The mayor of Walsall was created as a political position in the 14th century.

The Manor of Walsall was held by the Crown and given as a reward to royal proteges. In 1525, it was given to the King's illegitimate son, Henry Duke of Richmond, and in 1541 to the courtier Sir John Dudley, later Duke of Northumberland. It was seized by Queen Mary in 1553, after Northumberland had been found guilty of treason.

Queen Mary's Grammar School was founded in 1554, and the school carries the queen's personal badge as its emblem: the Tudor Rose and the sheaf of arrows of Mary's mother Catherine of Aragon tied with a Staffordshire Knot.

The town was visited by Queen Elizabeth I, when it was known as 'Walshale'. It was also visited by Henrietta Maria in 1643. She stayed in the town for one night at a building named the 'White Hart' in the area of Caldmore.

The Manor of Walsall was later sold to the Wilbrahim and Newport families, and passed by inheritance to the Earls of Bradford. On the death of the fourth Earl in 1762, the estate was transferred to his sister Diana, Countess of Mountrath and then reverted to the Earls of Bradford until the estates were sold after World War II. The family's connection with Walsall is reflected in local placenames, including Bridgeman Street, Bradford Lane, Bradford Street and Mountrath Street.

Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution changed Walsall from a village of 2,000 people in the 16th century to a town of over 86,000 in approximately 200 years. The town manufactured a wide range of products including saddles, chains, buckles and plated ware. Nearby, limestone quarrying provided the town with much prosperity.

In 1824, the Walsall Corporation received an Act of Parliament to improve the town by providing lighting and a gasworks. The gasworks was built in 1826 at a cost of £4,000. In 1825, the corporation built eleven tiled, brick almshouses for poor women. They were known to the area as 'Molesley's Almshouses'.

The 'Walsall Improvement and Market Act' was passed in 1848 and amended in 1850. The Act provided facilities for the poor, improving and extending the sewerage system and giving the commissioners the powers to construct a new gas works. On 10 October 1847, a gas explosion killed one person and destroyed the west window of St Matthew's Church.

Walsall finally received a railway line in 1847, 48 years after canals reached the town, Bescot having been served since 1838 by the Grand Junction Railway. In 1855, Walsall's first newspaper, the Walsall Courier and South Staffordshire Gazette, was published.

The Whittimere Street drill hall was completed in 1866. The Victorian Arcade in the town centre, originally named the Digbeth Arcade, was completed in 1897.

First World War
Over 2000 men from Walsall were killed in fighting during the First World War. They are commemorated by the town's cenotaph, which is located on the site of a bomb which was dropped by Zeppelin 'L 21', killing the town's mayoress and two others. Damage from the Zeppelin can still be seen on what is now a club on the corner of the main road, just opposite a furniture shop. A plaque commemorates the incident. The town also has a memorial to local VC recipient, John Henry Carless and decorated air ace Frederick Gibbs.

20th century developments
Walsall's first cinema opened in the town centre in 1908; however, the post World War II decline in cinema attendances brought on by the rise in television ownership resulted in that and all of Walsall's other cinemas eventually being closed. The first Wurlitzer theatre organ in Great Britain was installed in the New Picture House cinema in Lower Bridge Street in the town centre. It was later renamed the Gaumont then Odeon.

Slum clearances began after the end of World War I, with thousands of 19th century buildings around the town centre being demolished as the 20th century wore on, with new estates being built away from the town centre during the 1920s and 1930s. These were concentrated in areas to the north of the town centre such as Coal Pool, Blakenall Heath (where Walsall's first council houses were built in 1920), Goscote and Harden. after the end of World War II, Beechdale.

Significant developments also took place nearer to the town centre, particularly during the 1960s when a host of tower blocks were built around the town centre; however, most of these had been demolished by 2010.

The Memorial Gardens opened in 1952 in honour of the town's fallen combatants of the two world wars. The Old Square Shopping Centre, a modern indoor shopping complex featuring many big retail names, opened in 1969. The Old Square shopping centre is currently laying derelict, with shops set to open in the centre soon. Primark and The Co-operative have opened in the former Tesco store, after the supermarket chained moved to Littleton Street on the site of Walsall College. The college agreed a land swap with Tesco resulting in the construction of a new college building as part of the new Tesco development. A row of derelict shops were demolished in 2016, and rebuilt as a Poundland, which opened on Saturday 15 July 2017, and B & M, which opened on 17 August 2017.

Much of the reconstruction of the post-war period was quickly reconsidered as ugly and having blighted the town. In 1959, John Betjeman advised that with sensitive restoration the old buildings of the High Street could become "one of the most attractive streets in England." Instead, almost every building was demolished.

The County Borough of Walsall, which was established at Walsall Council House and originally consisted of Walsall and Bloxwich, was expanded in 1966 to incorporate most of Darlaston and Willenhall, as well as small parts of Bilston and Wednesbury. The current Metropolitan Borough of Walsall was formed in 1974 when Aldridge-Brownhills Urban District was incorporated into Walsall. At the same time, Walsall was transferred from the historic county of Staffordshire to become part of the new West Midlands county.

The Saddlers Centre, a modern shopping mall, opened in 1980, being refurbished within a decade. On 23 November 1981, an F1/T2 tornado touched down in Bloxwich and later moved over parts of Walsall town centre and surrounding suburbs, causing some damage. The Jerome K. Jerome museum, dedicated to the locally born author (1859–1927), was opened in 1984.

The town's prolific leather industry was recognised in 1988 when the Princess Royal opened Walsall Leather Museum.

By the 1990s, a canalside area in the town centre known as Town Wharf was being developed for leisure, shopping and arts facilities.

21st century
The town's new art gallery opened at Town Wharf in early 2000. The following year, Crown Wharf retail park opened nearby, accommodating retailers including Next and TK Maxx which closed on 9 September 2020.

The 21st century has also seen a number of housing regeneration projects in the most deprived areas. Many of the town's 1960s tower blocks have been demolished, as well as interwar council housing in parts of Blakenall Heath and Harden, along with all of the Goscote estate. New private and social housing has been built on the site of most of the demolished properties.

Redevelopment and local government reorganisation
Walsall underwent modernisation in the 1970s with a new town centre being built at the expense of some medieval properties. In 1974, Walsall was transferred from the county of Staffordshire to form the metropolitan county of the West Midlands.

The Saddlers' Centre, a modern shopping complex, was opened in the town centre in 1980. This included a new Marks & Spencer department store.

Early 2000 saw the opening of The New Art Gallery Walsall in the north-west of the town centre near Wolverhampton Street, along with the new Crown Wharf Retail Park shortly afterwards. Part of Park Street, the town's main shopping area, was redeveloped around the same time. The centrepiece of this redevelopment was the new British Home Stores department store, which relocated from St Paul's Street at the end of the 1990s. The BHS store closed in 2016 after the company went into administration. Marks and Spencer closed their store a few years later.

Construction is ongoing in St Matthew's Quarters. A new Asda store opened in 2007 and when completed St Matthew's Quarters will also include brand shops and modern flats. In 2010 Tesco opened a new 10000 sqft shopping complex upon the former site of Walsall College, which moved to its new Wisemore Campus the year prior.

The Savoy Cinema was a landmark on Park Street for more than half a century after its opening on 3 October 1938. It was refurbished in 1973 and became the Cannon Cinema after a takeover in 1986, but closed on 18 November 1993 after operating as a cinema for 55 years. It was demolished some 18 months later and the town's new Woolworth's store was built on its site. The store closed down at the end of 2008 when the retailer went into liquidation, and the building was re-occupied by a new T J Hughes department store which opened on 9 October 2009. However, the building became vacant again on 14 August 2011 when financial difficulties led to T.J. Hughes pulling out of the town after less than two years of trading. (TJ Hughes returned to the former Argos store in the Saddler Centre but have since closed for a second time.) It was re-occupied two months later with the opening of a Poundland store in the building on 22 October that year.

Geography
A local landmark is Barr Beacon, which is reportedly the highest point following its latitude eastwards until the Ural Mountains in Russia. The soil of Walsall consists mainly of clay with areas of limestone, which were quarried during the Industrial Revolution.

Suburbs and areas

 * Alumwell

Beechdale

Bentley

Bescot

Birchills

Blakenall Heath

Butts

Caldmore

Chuckery

Coalpool

The Delves

Fullbrook

Forest Estate

Goscote

Great Barr

Harden

Highgate

Leamore

North Walsall

Palfrey

Park Hall

Pheasey

Pleck

Reedswood

Rushall

Ryecroft

Shelfield

Tamebridge

Demography
The 2011 census put Walsall's estimated resident population at around 269,000 people, an increase of around 6.2% from the previous census in 2001.

White British people make up 76.9% of Walsall's population, with the share of residents from a minority ethnic group at 23.1% in 2011, higher than the 19.5% in England and Wales and an increase from 14.8% in Walsall in 2001. The largest increase is in people of Asian background, with a rise from 10.4% in 2001 to 15.2% in 2011.

The Christian share of the population of Walsall in 2011 was 59%, followed by adherents of no religion at 20%, Muslims at 8.2%, and Sikhs at 4.3%.

As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, with Walsall's high British Asian population, the British Muslim, British Hindus and Sikh communities are all overrepresented compared to the national average.

The Walsall dialect is often referred to as "Yam-Yam". The accent is often incorrectly referred to as a Brummie accent by people from outside the West Midlands.

Economy
Walsall has had many industries, from coal mining to metal working. In the late 19th century, the coal mines ran dry, and Walsall became internationally famous for its leather trade. Walsall manufactured the Queen's handbags, saddles for the royal family and leathergoods for the Prince of Wales. Walsall is the traditional home of the English saddle manufacturing industry, hence the nickname of Walsall Football Club, "the Saddlers". Apart from leather goods, other industries in Walsall include iron and brass founding, limestone quarrying, small hardware, plastics, electronics, chemicals and aircraft parts.

Walsall's location in Central England and the fact that the M6 runs through the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall has increased its investment appeal. The main RAC control centre is located in Walsall close by J9 of the M6 and there are now plans to redevelop derelict land in nearby Darlaston and turn it into a state-of-the-art regional centre. Between Bloxwich and Walsall there is a business corridor where TK Maxx has recently opened a regional depot. Currently established businesses include Homeserve plc and South Staffordshire Water.

The three largest businesses by turnover in the borough are all involved with the storage and distribution of retail goods to an associated network of high street or cornershop stores. Poundland Ltd (owned by South African giant Steinhoff), A F Blakemore and Sons Ltd and One Stop Stores Ltd (part of Tesco plc) turn over more than £4.5bn annually between them.

Education
Walsall is home to the University of Wolverhampton's Sports and Art Campus and School of Education, all part of the Walsall Campus in Gorway Road, which includes a student village. Walsall College provides further education, and is based around three sites across Walsall. There are ten secular junior schools and three religious junior schools near the town centre. Walsall also houses many secondary schools, including comprehensives, academies, private and grammar schools (Namely Queen Mary's Grammar School and Queen Mary's High School).

The age of transfer to secondary school throughout the borough is 11 years, although the Aldridge-Brownhills area of the borough had a system of 5–9 first, 9–13 middle and 13–18 secondary schools until 1986, as the former urban district council of this area had adopted the three-tier system in 1972.

Schools within the borough are administered by Walsall MBC.SERCO.

Religion

Christianity is the largest religion in the Walsall Borough, shown in the 2011 census as 59.0%. The second largest is Islam recorded at 8.2%.

Of the churches in Walsall, St Matthew's Church lies to the north of the town centre near the ASDA supermarket, and can be seen when entering Walsall in any direction where it is the highest structure. In 1821, St Matthew's Church was demolished with exception of the tower and chancel and replaced at a cost of £20,000 to a design by Francis Goodwin.

St Martin's Church was consecrated in 1960 to serve the suburban housing estates of Orchard Hills, Brookhouse and Park Hall.

Mellish Road Methodist Chapel, built 1910, had to be demolished in 2011, due to subsidence.

Other churches in Walsall include: The Crossing at St Paul's, in the town centre, and the Rock Church, near the Walsall Arboretum, Walsall Community Church, which meets at the Goldmine Centre.

The Catholic St Mary's Church was built in 1827, designed by Joseph Ireland and is a Grade II* listed building.

There are also numerous mosques or Masjids in Walsall. Most of these are in close proximity to each other, located in the adjoining areas of Caldmore and Palfrey, just south of the town centre.

In the ward of Palfrey, there is Walsall's most-attended mosque, Masjid-Al-Farouq, alongside Aisha Mosque. Caldmore is home to four mosques: Masjid-e-Usman, Shah Jalal Masjid, Jalalia Masjid, and Ghausia Qasmia Mosque. In Chuckery, in the southeast of Walsall, lies Anjuman-e-Gosia Mosque, and Jamia Masjid Ghausia is located in the Birchills neighbourhood.

There is also a private Islamic school and Madrassah with four campuses across Walsall known as Abu Bakr Trust. Most mosques in Walsall also run their own evening Madrassahs.

Buses
Walsall bus station is made up of two smaller bus stations: Bradford Place bus station and St Paul's bus station; one being larger than the other and providing more services. Over 90 bus routes are operated predominantly by National Express West Midlands and Rotala's Diamond West Midlands, but also by smaller operators Walsall Community Transport and Chaserider (formerly Arriva). Services from St Paul's bus station leave Walsall serving Birmingham; Wolverhampton and Willenhall; north to Bloxwich, Cannock and Brownhills; and east to Sutton Coldfield and Aldridge. In addition, services link Staffordshire areas such as Burntwood, Lichfield and Little Aston. St Paul's did have a travel Information Centre, but this was closed to save costs.

Bradford Place mainly operates buses to the south and south-west, to West Bromwich, Bilston, Willenhall, Darlaston, Oldbury, Dudley and Merry Hill Centre. There are also numerous shorter bus routes leaving from both stations which give the town centre a link to housing estates including Alumwell, Beechdale, Chuckery, Park Hall and the Walsall Manor Hospital.

Roads
Walsall is extremely well connected within the UK road network, as it is served by the M6 which connects the M1 motorway towards London and M74 motorway towards Glasgow. There are three nearby junctions which serve Walsall on the M6 motorway: J7, J9 and J10. The stretch between these junctions is one of the busiest in Europe. The town is also served by A34 road which connects Manchester and the M42 motorway towards London, and is connected regionally by the A454 Black Country route. In 2018, the UK Department for Transport estimated that 953 million miles were driven on Walsall's roads.

Railway
Walsall railway station is situated on Station Street in the town centre and is also accessible from the Saddlers shopping centre. There are typically four trains per hour from the station to Birmingham and one train per hour to Rugeley, with fewer trains in the evenings and on Sundays. There is also a suburban station at Bescot.

Trams
A tram service began in the town towards the end of the 19th century and ran until 2 October 1933.

The West Midlands Metro now runs from Wolverhampton to Birmingham city centre. Soon, the metro will operate a tram extension from north of the former Wednesbury Town railway station across Potter Lane to a stop at Brierley Hill; this will see the metro line use the corridor from Wednesbury Town to Dudley, before running street level and back onto the track at Canal Street, then branching off to Merry Hill and a tram stop at Brierley Hill.

The corridor section from Walsall to Wednesbury Town has been preserved for freight traffic to use to Round Oak Steel Terminal in the near future. It is possible that the metro extension will look to run an extension to Walsall via Bescot, but will utilise the line with either people carriers or tram-trains.

Walsall was also to be part of the former 5 Ws scheme which would have connected it to Wolverhampton, Wednesfield, Willenhall and Wednesbury. Walsall Council decided to pull Walsall and Willenhall out of the scheme in favour of reopening the line to Wolverhampton to passengers via Darlaston and Willenhall. A proposal for the new stations to be built is part of a wider investment strategy to improve local services.

Air
Walsall Aerodrome operated from the 1930s until 1956. The nearest airport to Walsall is Birmingham Airport, which is located within 30 minutes' drive.

Arboretum and illuminations
Walsall Arboretum was officially opened on 4 May 1874 by the wealthy Hatherton family. It was hoped that the park would provide "a healthy change from dogfights, bull-baiting and cockfights"; however, the 2d (old pence) admission was not popular with the public and within seven years the council took over ownership to provide free admission. Among the attractions available were two boating lakes on the sites of former quarries, tennis courts, an outdoor swimming pool, and later – in the extension – a children's play area and paddling pool.

Over the years the Arboretum has seen many events and changes, including the beginnings of the Walsall Arboretum Illuminations as an annual event in 1951.

Originally white bulbs in trees for courting couples in the autumn, in the 1960s and 1970s, the lights were purchased secondhand from Blackpool Illuminations, but over the years they were increasingly made "in house" and now all are.

The Illuminations had up to sixty thousand bulbs and took year-round planning. Although the event had attracted an estimated 250,000 people in 1995, lack of growth beyond this figure has raised the prospect of major redevelopment as the light shows have been exactly the same for a number of years. In February 2009, Walsall council announced that the Illuminations would not take place in 2009, 2010 and 2011. In January 2010, it was announced that the Illuminations had been permanently scrapped and would be replaced by other events such as concerts and laser shows throughout the year. The existing lights would be sold off where possible to interested parties.

Art gallery
The New Art Gallery Walsall opened in 2000. Named, as was its predecessor, the E M Flint Gallery in memory of Ethel Mary Flint, head of art at Queen Mary's Grammar School, an exhibitor at the Royal Academy, and a former mayor of Walsall, it contains a large number of works by Jacob Epstein as well as works by Van Gogh, Monet, Turner, Renoir and Constable. The large gallery space is host to temporary exhibitions. The lifts of the building use the voice of Noddy Holder to announce the arrival at various floors.

Museums
Walsall had two museums, Walsall Museum (closed 2015) and Walsall Leather Museum (still open). Walsall Museum featured local history objects primarily from the manufacturing trades and also had a space for temporary exhibitions, while the leather museum displays a mixture of leather goods and has recreations of leatherworkers workshops.

Public art
The refurbished Sister Dora statue stands at the crossroads of Park Street and Bridge Street. Opposite this stood a locally famous concrete hippopotamus, which has since been moved to outside the library and replaced by a fountain. The hippo was designed by local architect and sculptor John Wood. There are three works in the town centre by the sculptor Tom Lomax: "Walsall Saddle" and "Nombelisk" in Bradford Street, and "Source of Ingenuity" in The Bridge.

Literature
Though the novelist and essayist Jerome K. Jerome was born in the town, he never wrote about it. Some writers have, including the Walsall born John Petty (1919–1973) who set a number of his books in Walsall, most famously Five Fags a Day (1956). More recently the comic novelist Paul McDonald has used Walsall as a location for Surviving Sting (2001) and Kiss Me Softly, Amy Turtle (2004).

Media
Local television news programmes are BBC Midlands Today and ITV News Central. Big Centre TV, the local television channel covering Birmingham and the Black Country, was for a short time based in Walsall town centre. Big Centre TV ceased broadcasting at midnight on Friday 4 November 2016 and reopened and relaunched as Made in Birmingham at 6 pm on Tuesday 8 November 2016. On 19 August 2018, Made in Birmingham rebranded its social media pages as Birmingham TV and changed its website address. Local radio stations are BBC Radio WM, Heart West Midlands, Smooth West Midlands, Capital Midlands, Free Radio Birmingham, Greatest Hits Radio Birmingham & The West Midlands and Ambur Radio, a community based station which broadcast from the town. The town is served by the local newspapers,Walsall Advertiser and Walsall Chronicle which is owned by the Express & Star.

Sport
Walsall's football club, Walsall F.C., the Saddlers, was founded in 1888 when Walsall Town F.C. and Walsall Swifts F.C. merged. They won their first game against Aston Villa. The club currently play in Football League Two.

There are also a number of non-league football clubs based within the borough, including Rushall Olympic.

Walsall has a cricket club, Walsall Cricket Club who won Birmingham League Premier Division in 2006.

Walsall RUFC is Walsall's rugby union team which is currently competing in Midlands 1 West.

Aldridge and Walsall Hockey Club currently plays in the West Midlands Premier League and is managed by Sir Mark Grundy.

Walsall was also once home to Formula 1 constructor Ensign Racing, in Walsall Wood from 1973 to 1980, before moving to Chasetown.

Walsall was home to a horse racing course. The grandstand was constructed in 1809 at a cost of £1,300 on a piece of land donated by the Earl of Bradford on a lease of 99 years. Soon after completion, one of the lower compartments was converted into a billiards room, which contained a table donated by Lord Chichester Spencer of Fisherwick Park. Throughout the 19th century, races were held annually at the racecourse at Michaelmas.

Shopping
In 1809, a market house was constructed at the end of High Street, on the site of the market cross, for the sale of poultry, eggs, butter and dairy produce. The building was demolished in 1852 along with other buildings that had fallen into disrepair. A pig market was constructed in the town in 1815 on High Street. At its peak, the market would handle the sale of 2,000 pigs per day. In 1847, the corporation tried to construct a new market hall on the 'Bowling Green', to the rear of the Dragon Inn. The scheme proposed to use a large amount of public money to construct the hall. Shopkeepers feared that their businesses would be affected and demonstrations were held across the town against the proposals. The demonstrations forced the plans to be shelved.

Walsall town centre is a popular shopping destination in the Black Country. This is partly because of the ample supply of free or extremely cheap parking available within the town centre, including at two large supermarkets — Tesco and Asda — located on opposite sides of the town centre. Crown Wharf Retail Park is the most popular area of shopping, Housing Asda's first non-food store, Asda Living, as well as popular shops and restaurants.

Park Street remains Walsall's main shopping high street. Well-known retailers such as New Look, Deichmann, USC and Primark are all located on this fully pedestrianized high street. There is one main shopping mall 'Bradford Mall' formerly known as the 'Saddlers Centre' and two smaller malls located in the town centre. 'The Old Square' shopping mall houses other smaller retailers, while 'Quasar Centre', now known as 'Park Place Shopping Centre', houses Wilko's and the other smaller retailers. Other shopping destinations include Broadwalk Retail Park and Reedswood Retail Park.

The area around Walsall Art Gallery is under redevelopment. A new Premier Inn hotel has opened along with an 8 screen The Light Cinemas. There is also a second cinema to be opened across the road opposite Tesco, which will also house popular restaurants.

Recent changes
Projects due for completion in 2009 and 2010 include Walsall Manor Hospital redevelopment worth £174 million, the new Walsall College worth £65 million, the Waterfront South development worth £60 million and the St Matthew's Quarter worth more than £25 million. Other projects with approval include £500 million Walsall Gigaport which is a high-speed fibre optic internet environment for national and international businesses, Waterfront North development worth £65 million and the Waterfront Lex development.

Walsall Transport Package worth £17 million was also due for completion in 2009 but was actually completed earlier, allowing the early opening of a £55 million supermarket development to create scores of extra jobs. This is an overall development of roads in and out of Walsall town centre as well as those towards Walsall Arboretum.

Twin towns

 * Bahla, Oman (since 1953)
 * 🇫🇷 Mulhouse, France (since 1962)
 * 🇮🇳 Amritsar, India
 * 🇵🇸 Kobar, West Bank, Palestine

title: Walsall