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Chess Glossary

All the essential vocabulary to learn chess.

The different terms

A

  • Attack: A move where a piece threatens to capture an opponent’s piece.
  • Analysis: The study of a position or a game to understand possible moves and strategic plans.

B

  • Blitz: A fast game in which each player has 3 to 5 minutes for all their moves.
  • Battery: An alignment of two pieces (often queen + bishop or queen + rook) that attack along the same rank, file, or diagonal.
  • Bishop: A piece that moves only along diagonals.

C

  • Castling: A special move involving the king and a rook that helps bring the king to safety.
  • Center: The central squares (d4, d5, e4, e5), which are strategically very important.
  • Check: A move that directly threatens the opponent’s king.
  • Checkmate: A position where the king is in check and cannot escape by any legal move.
  • Combination: A precise sequence of tactical moves leading to an advantage.
  • Counterplay: Active plans used to compensate for an unfavorable position.

D

  • Defense: A move or plan aimed at protecting one’s pieces or king.
  • Development: The opening phase where pieces are quickly placed on active squares.
  • Diagonal: A slanted line followed by the bishops (and the queen).
  • Draw: A game that ends without a winner.

E

  • En passant: A special rule allowing a pawn to capture an opposing pawn that advances two squares.
  • Endgame: The phase of the game when only a few pieces remain.

F

  • Fianchetto: The development of a bishop onto the long diagonal after advancing the side pawn (e.g., g3 followed by Bg2).

G

  • Gambit: A deliberate sacrifice of a pawn (or sometimes a piece) in the opening to gain a development advantage.

I

  • Initiative: The ability to dictate the pace of the game by forcing the opponent to respond to threats.

M

  • Mate: Common abbreviation for checkmate.
  • Minority attack: A strategy where a smaller number of pawns attacks a larger pawn group.

O

  • Opening: The first phase of the game, characterized by piece development and the fight for the center.

P

  • Passed pawn: A pawn with no opposing pawn blocking or able to stop it on its file or adjacent files.
  • Pin: A situation where a piece cannot move without exposing a more valuable piece (often the king) behind it.
  • Promotion: The transformation of a pawn that reaches the last rank, usually into a queen.

Q

  • Queen: The most powerful piece, able to move in straight lines along ranks, files, and diagonals.

R

  • Rank: A horizontal line on the chessboard.
  • Rook: A piece that moves in straight lines along files and ranks.
  • King: The essential piece that must be protected.

S

  • Stalemate: A position where a player has no legal moves but is not in check → results in a draw.

T

  • Tactic: A short-term sequence of forced moves to win material or obtain an advantage.
  • Tempo: A unit of time corresponding to a move; gaining a tempo means forcing the opponent to lose time.
  • Transposition: Reaching a known position through a different sequence of moves.

Z

  • Zugzwang: A situation where a player is forced to make a move that worsens their position.