List of chess terms

**List of chess terms**: in alphabetical order.

## A 
### Adjournment 
When the game is  temporarily. Less common today, as most games are played to a finish. If a game is adjourned, a **Sealed move** is necessary so the player to move does not have any advantage.

### Adjudication 
Method to decide the result of an unfinished game. It is done by an expert who judges the position on the board. The expert is often appointed before the tournament or match starts. The method is only used if games are not played to a finish, and there are no **adjournments**.

### Adjust piece 
See ''J'adoube''

### Algebraic 
System of chess **notation** in which each square has one name. From White's left to right, each file is labelled from a to h. From White's bottom to top, each rank is labelled 1 to 8. Thus the left bottom square is a1, and the right top square is h8.

### Annotation 
Commentary on a game using a combination of written comments and chess **notation**.

### Attack 
An assault on part of the opponent's position. May be short-term (e.g., after 1.e4 Nf6, Black attacks White's pawn on e4), or long-term. Examples of long-term attacks:  a sustained mating attack against the enemy king or a minority attack against the opponent's queenside pawn structure. See also: **defence** and **initiative**

## B 
### Backward pawn 
Pawn on an otherwise open file, on the 2nd or 3rd rank, which cannot be supported by another pawn, or advanced.

### Bad bishop 
Bishop blocked long-term by pawns on squares of its own colour.

### Basic endings 
**Endgames** with few pawns or pieces. Set positions and ideas which can be taught to learners, and which every player should know. 
*Examples: doing checkmate with 
**a queen
**a rook
**two bishops
**a bishop and knight. 
**a rook and pawn versus an opponent rook 

### Bind 
A bind is a hold on the opponent's position which stops him from freeing it. Usually by means of pawns; a severe type of **restraint**.

### Bishop pair 
The term used to describe the retention of both bishops. This term is usually used after one of both knights has been exchanged for one of both bishops. The player with the 'bishop pair' theoretically has the advantage over an opponent with two knights, or a bishop and a knight.

### Blindfold chess 
Chess played by a strong player without being able to see the board. The player is not blind, but sits with his back to the boards, or wears a blindfold. Moves are called out in **notation**.

### Blitz chess 
Defined by FIDE (Appendix C) as a game where all the moves must be made within a set time of less than 15 minutes for each side. They are always played with **clocks**. Some special rules are required. Players need not write down the moves; touch & move does not apply. Instead, a move is completed only when the player starts the opponent's clock. There is usually a provision for a player to stop the clock and claim a draw when there is no way for the opponent to win. Wins on time must be claimed by the player; games are drawn if both flags fall.

### Blockade 
The obstruction of an enemy pawn by placing a piece in front of it so that it cannot move.

Also, more generally, the severe restraint of an opponent's position so that it is difficult for him to find active play.

### Bughouse 
A type of chess played by four players on two boards. Pieces can be moved from one board to another. A **checkmate** on either board wins the game.

## C 
### Castling 
A  move (the only one in chess) whereby king and rook move past each other. See page for details.

### Chaturanga 
The earliest form of chess. See History of chess.

### Cheating at chess 
Any  violation of the Laws of Chess. The most frequent accusations of cheating include violations of the **touch and move law** (Article 4) and 'no outside help' (Article 12) rules.

### Check 
A move which attacks the opposing king.

### Checkmate 
A move which attacks the opposing king, and which the opponent cannot get out of.

### Chess clocks 
Clocks control the timing of chess games. They show separately the time taken by each player. Electronic clocks can also count the moves made, and apply the set time limits for a game.

### Chess960 
Chess960, also called Fischer Random Chess, is a variant of chess invented and advocated by former world chess champion Bobby Fischer, announced publicly on June 19, 1996, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

### Combination 
A forcing sequence of moves, usually has a **sacrifice**, to gain the advantage. In the diagram White wins with 1.Nh6+ Kh8 2.Qg8+ Rxg8 3.Nf7#. This is both a combination and a smothered mate.

### Correspondence chess 
Chess with moves sent by mail. Once popular, especially in remote areas, but now not so popular. It has been hurt by the invention of computer chess engines.

### Counter-attack 
Where a player defends by attacking his opponent instead of making defensive moves. Example: when players castle on opposite wings, both attack each other's king, making as few defensive moves as possible.

## D 
### Dark square bishop 
A bishop which moves on the dark squares.

### Defence 
*An opening played by Black, e.g. Sicilian Defence.
*A move or series of moves taken to protect a piece or position which is under attack.

### Descriptive Notation 
An older form of notation, each half of the board describes its squares based in relevance to prices of the board. An E4 opening could be described as King’s Pawn 4 or Queen’s Knight to queen’s Bishop 3. Although this method is very uncommon and superseded by Algebraic Notation, it is still encountered in several chess books.

### Development 
A fundamental concept of **opening** theory. The number of pieces in active play. Can be assessed comparatively, by counting the number of active pieces developed by each side. To some extent, development is reactive. What one player does is affected by what the opponent does. Therefore, development proceeds differently in different openings.

### Diagonals 
The squares on which bishops move, at 45o to the **ranks** and **files**.

### Discovered check 
A **check** given by a line-piece when a shielding piece or pawn is moved out of the way.

### Double attack 
The basis of all **tactics**. It occurs when one move attacks two places at the same time, as might happen with a **discovered check**, or a **fork**.

### Doubled isolated pawns 
Two pawns of the same colour on the same file which do not have a pawn of the same colour on either of the adjacent **files**.

### Doubled pawn 
Two pawns of the same colour on the same file. Can only happen after a capture by one of the pawns.

### Draw 
One of three potential outcomes of a chess game, the others being Win and Loss. Draws may occur by agreement, by **stalemate**, or by the expiration of a player's time when the opponent does not possess sufficient **material** to cause **checkmate**, i.e. a lone king. In tournament play, a draw results in a score of 0.5 for each player; otherwise the players score 1.0 for a win, and 0.0 for a loss.

### Dynamic 
A style of play which is "double-edged". Typically, long-term pawn weaknesses may be counterbalanced by piece activity. Dynamism stemmed from the teachings of the 'Hypermodern movement', which challenged the dogma found in more classical teachings, such as those of Wilhelm Steinitz and Siegbert Tarrasch.

## E 
### ELO rating 
The rating system invented by the late Professor Arpad Elo, and used by FIDE since 1970. The system gives a four-figure number which shows how well a player has scored in those games which have been entered into the database. It is an estimate of strength based on results, and is widely used to place players into categories. 2500 and above is grandmaster level.

## L 
### Living chess 
Chess played with human beings as pieces on a giant board. A spectacle which has been performed since the 15th century. Usually, masters or other celebrities decide the moves, and a steward with a stick instructs the 'pieces' where to move.

### Prophylaxis 
A key concept of **positional** chess. It is a move, or sequence of moves, to deal with an opponent's expected plan. Sometimes one can completely stop the threat; sometimes one just makes the plan relatively harmless. The idea was spelled out in detail in Nimzovich's books *My System* and *Chess Praxis*.

## R 
### Randomized chess 
The idea of choosing the layout of the pieces on the back row at random. The point is to avoid opening knowledge. White picks the pieces out of a bag and places them left to right; Black places his pieces on the corresponding squares. Alternatively, each player places his own pieces at random, producing two different arrays. The idea has been tried several times in the last 200 years, but has never caught on. There are problems. Usually special rules are needed for the king (castling?) and the bishops (no two bishops on the same colour squares). More serious is the great difficulty players experience in getting the pieces to work together.p458 See **Squeeze**.

### Zwischenzug 
An "in between move", where a player, instead of playing the expected move, first inserts a move which the opponent must answer, before making the expected move.

## References