Blunder
A bad move; primarily a move that turns a win into a loss or draw, or a draw
into a loss. Note that ANY bad mistake is a blunder - not just a counting
mistake, or falling into another tactic.
Bughouse
A variant of chess with two players on each side – a player gets the pieces his
partner captures.
Bye
What you get when you can’t play a round, but are still continuing to play in
the tournament. Byes don’t count for ratings, but can be either 0 points,
½ point, or 1 point (in case you want to play, but are the odd person
available)
Calculation
The part of analysis involving forced sequences.
Capture (or
Take) To remove a piece from the board via a legal move
-
not kill or eat (although other languages use these terms)
Castle
To move your unmoved King 2 squares toward an unmoved Rook and to move the Rook
on the other side of the King; not another name for a rook.
Check
An attack on the King. You do not have to announce “check”.
Checkmate
An attack on the King where there is no way for your opponent to finish his
turn and not longer have the King attacked.
ChessBase
An advanced chess database program that enables one to store and search games,
etc.
Chessville
An online chess community with information, store, forum, etc.
Closed
File
A file with pawns of both sides
Counting
(Dan) "Making sure your pieces are safe from capturing sequences: that no sequence of captures on any square will lose material" There is a fine line between advanced counting and the "Removal of the guard tactic". I would say that counting is when the captures on the squares are independent and removal of the guard starts when the captures on the squares are dependent.
Further, I believe there are two types of Counting problems:
1) "easy" ones where all the
captures are on one square, and
2) "harder" ones where you have
choices of captures on multiple squares and some sequences end up better
than others, so you have to find the correct capturing sequence.
Critical
move One
which should be played carefully and slowly. One general definition is where the
best move(s) are enough better than the second best to make a difference (win to
draw or loss; draw to loss; easy win to difficult win). Critical moves often
include complicated decisions, trading pieces, or inflexible plans which cannot
be changed.
CTD
Club Tournament Director
Dan's
Metric (Dan)
The move number
in a game where you first accomplish that all your non-pawns (except the King) are
developed.
Deep
Blue
A famous IBM chess playing program, hardware based, which played Garry Kasparov
in two world-famous matches in 1996 and 1997, winning the second.
Descriptive Notation An old
chess notation used primarily in English texts including moves such as
"P-K4" or "NxB"
Desperado
A piece that is going to be captured anyway so it can "sacrifice"
itself at the highest cost.
Discovered
Attack An attack by a piece that was opened up via another piece’s move.
(also "Discovery")
Discovered
Check A discovery where the discovered piece also
makes a check.
Discovery
See Discovered Attack
Domination
a) When a knight or bishop dominates the other, by guarding all it's potential
moves
b) (Dan) when a move, compared to another, has all pros and no cons
Double
Attack
An attack on two (or more) pieces by a single move
Double
check
A discovered check where both the discovering and discovered piece both deliver
check. In that case, the opposing king must move.
Doubled
Pawns
Two pawns of the same color on the same file as a result of a capture
Doubled
Rooks Two
Rooks forming a battery on a rank or file.
Draw
NOT “tie” - Any game that ends without either player winning, e.g. Stalemate,
Lack of Mating Material, 50-Move Rule, etc.
En
Passant
Capturing a pawn that moved 2 spaces with a pawn that could have captured it if
it had only moved 1 space, on the next turn only.
En
Prise
"In take" - able to be captured for free. A piece is en prise
if it can be captured but is not guarded.
Endgame
The part of the game where the King should come out and fight (with fewer pieces
left on the board).
Evaluation
The part of the thought process performed at analysis nodes (moves that generate
positions) which asks Who stands better, how much, and why?
Exchange
(the) Trading a Bishop or
Knight for a Rook is winning the Exchange. Losing a Rook for a Bishop or Knight
is losing the Exchange. NOT the same as trading pieces.
Expert
Someone with a US Chess Federation rating between 2000 and 2199
Fianchetto
To develop a Bishop on a long diagonal (b2 or g2 for White; b7 or g7 for Black).
FIDE
International Chess Federation
FIDE
Master (FM) Someone with
the lowest International Chess Title
Fifty-Move
Rule A type of draw where both players make 50
moves consecutively without either player advancing a pawn or making a capture.
File
The rows of a chessboard going up and down, lettered a-h (lower case), with “a”
always on White’s left (and Black’s right)
Five
Minute/Blitz A game where each player has five minutes to make all his moves. Blitz can also
be any fast game.
Flag
The part of an analog clock that rises when the minute hand nears the hour and
falls at the hour.
Fool’s
Mate
A 2-move mate similar to 1. f3?? e5 2. g4??? Qh4#
Forcing
moves Checks, captures, and threats
or, more specifically, checks, threats of mate, captures, and other threats.
Forfeit
Has 2 Definitions, depending upon context
1)When
you don’t show up for a game (which is therefore not rated), or
2)When
someone loses on time, a “time forfeit” (which is rated like any other loss)
Fork
A double attack, usually by a Knight or Pawn (thus looking like a “fork” in the
road).
Fritz
A popular and very strong chess engine.
Gambit
Sacrificing material (usually a pawn) in the opening for a lead in development,
open lines, and/or attacking chances
Grandmaster (GM)
Someone with the highest International Chess Title
Hope
Chess
(Dan) When you make a move without considering whether a possible opponent reply of a
check, capture, or threat can be met.
My use of Hope Chess was NOT supposed to cover these other "Hope"
possibilities:
a) When you make a threat and hope your opponent does not see it, nor
b) When you make a bad move on purpose but hope your opponent makes a worse one
c) You make a unanalyzed move quickly and hope the move/idea/maneuver works
anyway
Horse
A beginner's word for a knight (worse: "He took my horsey!")
Hydra
A multiprocessor, hardware-based chess program. Very strong. Successor to Deep
Blue.
ICC
Webcast An
online chess radio station, formerly Chess.FM, open to Internet Chess Club
members - Dan has a radio show, "Ask the Renaissance Man" every
Thursday night at 9-10 PM Eastern
increment
time (in seconds) added to your clock for each move. For example, in the Team4545
League the time control is 45 45 so you get 45 minutes for the game plus 45
seconds added for each move. As opposed to time-delay
Illegal
Move
A move that either a) Moves a piece in an illegal manner, or 2) Results in an
illegal position, such as leaving the moving player's king in check at the end
of the move.
Initiative
When your opponent is constantly responding to your forcing moves (checks,
captures, and threats)
Insufficient
Losing Chances - A USCF draw rule where a player with less than two minutes
remaining on an analog clock may claim a draw if he thinks he is clearly not
losing but is in danger of losing on time. The TD has several options on how to
rule, depending on the position. A common ruling is to exchange the analog clock
for a time delay clock, but giving the claiming player half of his remaining
time.
International
Master (IM) Someone with the "intermediate" International Chess Title
Internet
Chess Club (ICC) - a leading chess server and owner of ICC Webcast
(formerly Chess.FM)
Isolated
Pawns Pawns that have no other pawns of the same color on adjacent files.
J'Adoube
French. Means "I adjust" - used before touching a poorly placed piece
to place it on the center of a square, or to fix a piece accidentally knocked
over.
Knight
not Horse – the piece that moves like an “L”
LTD
Local Tournament Director
Luft
German for "air" - a place where the king can escape to prevent
back-rank mate
Master
Someone with a US Chess Federation rating between 2200 and 2399 is a national
master.
Match
A series of games with a purpose (as opposed to "game" which is a
single contest between two players):
a) A set of games between two players, e.g. the "World Championship
Match"
b) A set of games between two chess teams; e.g. "Our club will play a match
against their club"
Material
Piece value - when you win a pawn, a piece, the Exchange, you are winning
"material" On the average a Knight and Bishop are worth 3.25 pawns, a
Rook 5 pawns, a Queen 9.75 pawns, and the King has a fighting value of about 4
pawns. Give yourself a bonus of 0.5 pawns if you have the advantage of the
Bishop pair.
Mobility
(Dan) The number of moves a piece has, broken up into:
a) potential mobility - the number of moves a piece would have from a given
square if the board was empty
b) actual mobility - the number of moves a piece has in a any given position
c) global mobility - the number of future squares a piece can land upon in any
given position
MCO
Modern Chess Openings. A classic opening encyclopedia now in its 14th edition.
NCO
Nunn's Chess Openings. A competitor to MCO
Notation
The recorded moves of a game. Note that you don't "notate" a game -
you record it.
Novice
Nook My award-winning column at Chess
Cafe on how to improve at chess. Not
just for novices!
NTD
National Tournament Director
Open
File
One with no pawns of either color
Open
Game A game with
lots of open files, especially the d and e-files. Alternately, a game that
begins 1.e4 e5.
Patzer;
fish A
weak chess player
Piece
Has 3 Definitions, depending upon context:
1.
All the chess men, as in “Get all the pieces out of the bag”
2.The
non-pawns, as in “You have to develop all your pieces”
3.
A Bishop or Knight, as in “I am up (ahead) a piece”
Pin
An attack by a Rook, Bishop, or Queen, on a piece that cannot/should not move
because a piece behind the attacked piece along the line of attack is worth
even more (if the piece behind is a King, this is an “absolute” pin) and the
piece is not allowed to move, or it would put the King into check, which is
illegal.
Ply
A half-move, or the move of one player. When both players move, that is
two ply, or one full move.
Promote
What a pawn does that reaches the other side of the board. The moving player
replaces it with a Queen, Rook,
Bishop, or Knight on the promoting square. So you can have nine Queens,
maximum.
PSCF
PA State Chess Federation
Rank
The rows of a chessboard going sideways, numbered 1st-8th
starting from White’s side as 1st
Rating
A measure of skill. USCF Ratings
range from roughly 0 (basically
impossible to get this low - no one ever has) to 3000; most scholastic
beginners start around 400. Even if you lose all your games
in your first few tournaments you are still usually about 200.
Record
To write down the moves of a game (verb). The noun is notation.
Real
Chess
(Dan) For every move you consider whether a possible opponent reply of a check,
capture, or threat can be met.
Removal
of the Guard - A chess tactic where the defender is captured or forced to move
so that it is no longer defending.
Resigns
When you purposely turn down your King or say “I resign” – the game is over and
you lose. Note that shaking hands does not end a game.
Round
Robin A system of pairing
players where everyone in the same (small) section plays everyone else. Unlike swiss
system, this type of tournament calls for some level of commitment on the part
of the players to attempt to complete all their games.
Rybka
The best
PC-based chess playing program in 2006.
Sandbagger
Someone who purposely keeps his rating low in order to qualify for easier
sections and a better chance to win money.
Scholar’s
Mate To mate on f7 (or, for
Black, f2) with a Queen or a Bishop in 4 moves – usually a very bad thing to
try. When teaching about this, Dan calls this “Dumb and Dumber”.
Section
A part of a chess tournament where the players are paired together.
Sections may be divided by rating class, scholastic vs. non-scholastic, rated
vs. unrated, Scholastic Level, etc.
Semi-Open
File A file with a only pawns
of the opponent
Senior
Master Someone with a US Chess
Federation rating over 2399
Skewer/
X-ray Tactical Motif: Sort of
an inside-out pin. A move that attacks a piece of value, and there is a piece
behind it along the line of attack of equal or lesser value that will be
attacked anyway if the attacked piece moves.
Skittles
Chess for fun or chess without a clock; A skittles room is where
you go and play for fun while waiting for your next formal pairing.
Slow
chess
Chess played at long enough time controls where good moves are generally more
important than the time remaining.
Stalemate
When the player to move isn’t in check, but none of his pieces can move.
This is a type of draw (not all draws are stalemantes!)
STD
Senior Tournament Director
Sudden
Death A time control period
where all the moves have to be played within a certain amount of time (on that
player’s clock).
Swindle
A successful risk taken when a player is losing and purposely does not play the
best move in the hopes that the opponent will make a mistake, and then that
happens. A swindle sets a "trap" by making a less-than-optimum move to
complicate the position.
Swiss
System A system of pairing
tournaments whereby players are paired against other players who are doing
about as well as they are. Wherever possible, players get about an equal
number of games with Black and White, and will not play the same opponent twice.
TD
Tournament Director
t/d
time delay - the amount of time a digital clock waits before your official time
begins decrementing. Usually this is 5 seconds for over-the-board US Chess
Federation play. This differs from an increment, which adds time to your
clock.
Tabiya
Arabic word originally meaning the opening setup of pieces, but now more
commonly used to mean the standard moves of any opening, i.e. the real game
starts after the players play the tabiya.
Tactics
A forcing set of moves that involves piece safety and checkmating. In
advancing level of complexity, this includes:
-
En
Prise (can take a piece for free)
-
Counting
(is each piece safe for potential captures on its square?)
-
Motifs
(pins, double attacks, removal of the guard, etc.)
-
Non-sacrificial
combinations of motifs
-
Sacrificial
combinations
Team
Tournament A tournament where the players play in
rating order, first board against first, second against second, etc.The result
is a team win, loss, or draw, depending on whether most of the players win or
lose (or half of them do).
Team
4545
An online league which plays on the ICC
and provides fun team play at the time control of 45 minutes with a 45 second
increment
Tempo
The “time” it takes for one of the players to make one move. A “turn”.
The
Exchange Winning a Rook for a
Bishop or Knight is called winning “The Exchange”. Coming out ahead
on a trade (say winning a queen for a rook) is not winning the exchange.
Threat
A move which can win material, checkmate, or make progress next move if
the opponent does not stop it. Attacks on under-defended
pieces are an example of a threat.
Three-Fold
Repetition of Position A type of draw where
the same position is reached three times with the same player to move.
Does not require the same moves and can occur at any point in the game.
Tie
When two players have the same score in a tournament or match. Not when a
game is drawn.
Time
Control How
much time one has for a game. "G" means all the moves and
"SD" is sudden death, meaning that time control requires all the
remaining moves must be played in a specified period.
In USCF over-the-board notation one uses a slash for moves/time:
40/2; SD/1 is 40 moves in 2 hrs followed by remaining moves in 1 more hr; G/30
all moves in 30 min
Online the two numbers are minutes per game and seconds incremented.
So 60 5 is one hour for the game and 5 extra seconds per move.
Time
Delay
The preferred way of using a clock at a USCF tournament; a digital clock
is set to NOT run for the first N seconds on each move. Time is not added, as it
is with a time increment.
Time
Increment Adding time for each move made. For
example, a time increment of 5 seconds adds five seconds to the clock each time
a move is made. Same as "increment"
Time
Management The skill where, when done correctly, you try for two
goals:
A) To spend almost all your time for the game ("Macro time
management") and
B) Where you spend more time on moves that require it (critical, complicated,
etc.) "Micro time management" See The
Two Move Triggers
Touch
Move
The rule that says:
1.If
you touch a piece you have to move it,
2.If
you let go of a piece you have to leave it there
3.If
you displace an opponent’s piece, you have to take it.