File (chess)

This page explains commonly used terms in chess in alphabetical order. Some of these have their own pages, like fork and pin. For a list of unorthodox chess pieces, see fairy chess piece; for a list of terms specific to chess problems, see chess problem terminology.

See also: Sample chess game

Contents: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

• Adjournment: Suspension of a long chess game with the intention to continue later, usually the following day.

• Algebraic notation: A way of recording a chess game using alphanumeric codes for the squares.

• Annotation: Describing a game using a combination of written comments, chess symbols or notation.

• Arbiter: A tournament official who arbitrates disputes and performs other duties such as keeping the score when players are under time pressure.

B

• Back rank: a player's first rank (the one on which the pieces (not pawns) stand in the initial array); white's back rank is black's eighth rank and vice versa.

• Back rank mate: A checkmate delivered by a rook or queen along a back rank in which the mated king is unable to move up the board because the king is blocked by friendly pieces (usually pawns) on the second rank.

• Bad bishop: A bishop which is hemmed in by pawns of its own color.

• Bishops on opposite colors: A situation which can arise in an endgame when one side has only its white-squared bishop remaining while the other has only its black-squared bishop remaining. Since neither bishop can ever capture or attack the other, this often leads to the game ending in a draw.

• Blindfold chess: A form of chess in which one or both players is not allowed to see the board.

• Blitz chess: A form of chess with a very small time limit, usually 3 or 5 minutes per player for the entire game. With the advent of electronic chess clocks, it is often the case that the time remaining is incremented by 1 or 2 seconds per move.

• Blunder: A very bad move, an oversight (indicated by "??" in notation).

• Bughouse Chess: A specialized game of chess played on teams of two or more.

C

• Castling: A special move involving the king and one rook.

• Centre/Center: The 4 squares in the middle of the board.

• Checkmate: A position in which a player's king is in check and the player has no legal move (i.e cannot move out of check). A player whose king is checkmated loses the game.

• Combination: A clever sequence of moves, often involving a sacrifice, to gain the advantage. The moves of the other player are usually forced, i.e. a combination does not rely on the opponent to make a mistake.

D

• Diagonal: A line of squares along which a bishop moves.

• Discovered attack: When one piece moves to a square where it checks the opposing king and in so doing exposes a different opposing piece to attack from a piece which had not moved.

• Discovered check: When one piece moves out of the way to enable another piece to give check.

• Domination: A situation whereby capture of a piece is unavoidable despite it having wide freedom of movement.

• Double attack: When one piece, other than a knight, attacks two opposing pieces concomitantly (when a knight does this it is called a fork); or the piece in question may attack only one opposing piece but at the same time command a square to which it can deliver checkmate on the next move, in which event the attack is called a double attack with mate threat.

• Double check: When a king is in check by two pieces at the same time. This can arise only if the piece moving out of the way to create a discovered check also itself gives check, and the only solution to it is to move the king, as capturing the checking piece is not an option since there are two of them, and interposition is likewise impossible as there would be two lines of attack to block. For this reason, double check often culminates in checkmate.

• Doubled rooks: Two of a player's rooks placed on the same (open) file.

• Doubled pawns: A pair of pawns (of the same color) on the same file.

• Dumbbells: Two pieces which mutually defend one another, particularly a bishop placed diagonally in front of a pawn of the same color.

E

• En passant (from the French): The rule that allows a pawn that has just advanced two squares to be captured by a pawn on the same rank and adjacent file.

• En prise (from the French): A piece that can be captured. Usually used of a piece that is undefended and can be captured.

• Endgame: The stage of the game when there are few pieces left on the board.

• Exchange:
  • The capture of a pair of pieces, one white and the other black, usually of the same type (i.e rook for rook, knight for knight etc).
  • The advantage of a rook over a minor piece. The player who captures a rook while losing a minor piece is said to have won the exchange, and the opponent is said to have lost the exchange.

F

• Family check: A knight fork that attacks more than two opposing pieces concomitantly (in most cases the king being one of them, but this is not an absolute requirement despite the inclusion of the word "check").

• Fianchetto: The development of the bishop to the second square on the file of the adjacent knight (that is, b2 or g2 for white, b7 or g7 for black).

• File: A column of the chessboard.

• Fifty move rule: The game is drawn after fifty moves without a pawn move or capture.

• Fool's mate: The shortest possible chess game, 1. f3 e5 2. g4 Qh4#.

• Forced move: A move which is clearly the only one which does not result in immediate catastrophe for the moving player.

• Fork: When one piece, generally a knight or pawn, simultaneously attacks two (or more) of the opponent's pieces, often specifically called a knight fork when the attacker is a knight. In cases where a piece other than a knight or pawn does this, the term double attack is more commonly used.

G

• Gambit: A sacrifice (usually of a pawn) in the opening.

• Good bishop: A bishop which has high mobility, typically because the player's pawns are on squares of color opposite to that of the bishop.

H

• Hole: A hole (for one player) is a square that the player does not, and cannot in future, control with a friendly pawn.

I

• Insufficient material: An endgame scenario in which all pawns have been captured, and one side has only its king remaining while the other is down to a king plus one knight or a king plus one bishop. The position is a draw because it is impossible for the dominant side to force checkmate (in the event of a king plus two knights versus a lone king, checkmate is possible only if the player with the lone king blunders by moving the king to one of the four corner squares when an alternate move would always be available).

• Isolated pawn: A pawn with no pawn of the same color on an adjacent file.

K

• King-side: The side of the board where the kings are at the start of the game, as opposed to the queen-side.

L

• Lightning chess: A form of chess with an extremely small time limit, usually 1 or 2 minutes per player for the entire game.

• Long diagonal: One of the two diagonals of length 8.

M

• Major piece: A queen or rook.

• Majority: A player has a majority of pawns on one flank when the opponent has fewer pawns.

• Mate: Short for checkmate.

• Material: The (estimated) value of a player's pieces. The player with more pieces is said to have a "material advantage".

• Minor piece: A bishop or knight.

N

• Novelty: A new move in the opening.

O

• Open file: A file on which there are no pawns. Sometimes used to refer to a file on which one player has no pawns.

• Opposition: A situation in which two kings stand on the same rank or file with one empty square between them. The player on move may be forced to move the king to a less advantageous square.

• Outside passed pawn: A passed pawn that is near the edge of the board and far away from other pawns. Usually a strong advantage for the side possessing such a pawn.

P

• Passed pawn: A pawn that has no pawn of the opposite color on its file or on one of the adjacent files on its way to queening.

• Pawn structure: Pawns being the least mobile of the pieces, the position of the pawns influences the character of the game. The type of placement of the pawns is known as the pawn structure.

• Perpetual check: A player forces a draw by repeatedly putting the opponent's king under check in such a way that the opponent cannot avoid getting into check.

• Pin: When a piece can not move because doing so would expose a valuable piece, usually the king, to attack.

• Promotion: Advancing a pawn to the eighth rank, converting it to a queen, rook, bishop or knight. Promotion to a piece other than a queen is called underpromotion.

• Protected passed pawn: A passed pawn that is supported by another pawn.

Q

• Queen-side: The side of the board where the queens are at the start of the game, as opposed to the king-side.

• Queening: Promotion to a queen. Also called Promotion. Actually 'Queening' may be promotion to a knight, rook, or bishop as well.

R

• Rank: A row of the chessboard.

• Rapid chess: A form of chess with reduced time limit, usually 30 minutes per player.

S

• Scholar's mate: A four-move checkmate (common among novices) in which white plays 1. e4, follows with Qh5 (or Qf3) and Bc4, and finishes with 4. Qxf7#.

• Score: A record that each player must keep of the moves of the game, usually in algebraic notation.

• Simultaneous chess: A form of chess in which one (usually expert) player plays against several (usually novice) players simultaneously. Is often an exhibition.

• Skewer: An attack to a valuable piece to compel it to move to avoid capture and expose a less valuable piece which can then be taken by the attacker. Sometimes called a Thrust.

• Smothered mate: A checkmate delivered by a knight in which the mated king is unable to move owing to it being surrounded (or smothered) by its own pieces.

• Stalemate: A position in which a player's king is not in check and the player has no legal move. A game is drawn if one of the kings is stalemated.

T

• Tempo: An extra move, an initiative at development. A player gains a tempo (usually in the opening) by making the opponent move the same piece twice or defend an enemy piece. Pl: tempi.

• Threefold repetition: The game is drawn if the same position occurs three times with the same player to move, and with each player having the same set of legal moves each time. (The latter includes the right to take en passant and the right to castle.)

• Thrust: See Skewer above.

• Time pressure, time trouble: A player having very little time on their clock (especially less than five minutes) to complete their remaining moves. See Time control.

• Touched piece rule: A player who picks up a piece with at least one legal move (or touches it) is obliged to move that piece.

• Triangulation: A technique used in king and pawn endgames to lose a tempo and gain the opposition.

X

• X-ray attack: The threat of a piece to move through a square presently occupied by an enemy piece.

Z

• Zugzwang (from the German): When a player is put at a disadvantage by having to make a move. Usually occurs in the endgame, and rarely in the middlegame.

• Zwischenzug (from the German): An "in-between" move thrown in before an expected reply.