Rennes

Rennes (French: [ʁɛn]; French: Rennes, Gallo: Resnn, Breton: Roazhon, Latin: Condate, Civitas Redonum) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the capital of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department.

Rennes's history goes back more than 2,000 years, at a time when it was a small Gallic village named Condate. Together with Vannes and Nantes, it was one of the major cities of the historic province of Brittany and the ancient Duchy of Brittany. After the French Revolution, Rennes remained for most of its history a parliamentary, administrative and garrison city of the Kingdom of France.

Since the 1950s, Rennes has grown in importance through rural flight and its modern industrial development (automotive). The city developed extensive building plans to accommodate upwards of 200,000 inhabitants. During the 1980s, Rennes became one of the main centres in telecommunication and high technology industry. It is now a significant digital innovation centre in France.

Nice

Nice (/ˈniːs/, French pronunciation: ​[nis]; Niçard Occitan: Niça [classical norm] or Nissa [nonstandard], Italian: Nizza or Nizza Marittima, Greek: Νίκαια, Latin: Nicaea) is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, and it is the capital of the Alpes Maritimes département. The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of about 1 million on an area of 721 km² (278 sq mi). Located in the Côte d'Azur area on the south east coast of France on the Mediterranean Sea, Nice is the second-largest French city on the Mediterranean coast and the second-largest city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region after Marseille. Nice is about 8 miles (13 km) from the principality of Monaco, and its airport is a gateway to the principality as well.

The city is called Nice la Belle (Nissa La Bella in Niçard), which means Nice the Beautiful, which is also the title of the unofficial anthem of Nice, written by Menica Rondelly in 1912.

Stade Rennais F.C.

Stade Rennais Football Club (French pronunciation: ​[stɑd ʁɛ.nɛ]; commonly referred to as Stade Rennais, SRFC, or simply Rennes) is a French association football club based in Rennes. The club was founded in 1901 and currently plays in Ligue 1, the top tier of French football. Rennes plays its home matches at the Roazhon Park located within the city. The team is managed by Rolland Courbis and captained by defender Romain Danzé. The team's president is René Ruello and its owner is Artémis, the holding company of businessman François Pinault.

Rennes was founded in 1901 under the name Stade Rennais and is one of the founding members of the first division of French football. Alongside FC Nantes, Rennes is one of the top football clubs in the region and the two are among the main clubs that contest the Derby Breton. The club's best finish in the league has been 4th with the club accomplishing this feat on four occasions; most recently in the 2006–07 season. Rennes have won two Coupe de France titles in 1965 and 1971. After winning the Coupe de France in 1971, Rennes changed its name to its current version.

Chess notation

Chess notation is the term for several systems that have developed to record either the moves made in a game of chess or the position of pieces on a chessboard. The earliest systems of notation used lengthy narratives to describe each move; these gradually evolved into terser notation systems. Currently algebraic chess notation is the accepted standard and is widely used. Algebraic notation has several variations. Descriptive chess notation was used in English- and Spanish-language literature until the late 20th century, but is now obsolete. There are some special systems for international correspondence chess. Portable Game Notation is used when working with computer chess programs. Systems also exist for transmission using Morse code over telegraph or radio.

Recording moves

Some move-recording notations are designed mainly for use by human players; others are designed for use by computers.

Notation systems for humans

In recognized competitions, all players are required to record all the moves of both players in order to resolve disputes about whether a player has made an illegal move and what the position should now be. In addition, if there is a time limit rule that requires each player to complete a specified number of moves in a specified time, as there is in most serious competition, an accurate count of the moves must be kept. All chess coaches strongly recommend the recording of one's games so that one can look for improvements in one's play. The algebraic and descriptive notations are also used in books about chess.

France

France (French: [fʁɑ̃s]), officially the French Republic (French: République française [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a sovereign state comprising territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European part of France, called metropolitan France, extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. France spans 643,801 square kilometres (248,573 sq mi) and has a total population of 66.6 million. It is a unitary semi-presidential republic with the capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. The Constitution of France establishes the state as secular and democratic, with its sovereignty derived from the people.

During the Iron Age, what is now Metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The Gauls were conquered in 51 BC by the Roman Empire, which held Gaul until 486. The Gallo-Romans faced raids and migration from the Germanic Franks, who dominated the region for hundreds of years, eventually creating the medieval Kingdom of France. France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years' War (1337 to 1453) strengthening French state-building and paving the way for a future centralized absolute monarchy. During the Renaissance, France experienced a vast cultural development and established the beginning of a global colonial empire. The 16th century was dominated by religious civil wars between Catholics and Protestants (Huguenots).