Chess - Glossary
A glossary of chess terms.
A piece is active when it is able to participate in guards and attacks.
A board location notation in which the ranks are numbered from 1 (white's home rank) to 8 (black's home rank), and the files are lettered from `a' (queen's rook's file) to `h' (king's rook's file), and spaces are denoted by their file letter followed by their rank number.
Collectively, a player's chessmen.
TODO
The rank containing the king's home space.
Toward the player's back rank.
See also: forward.
Two or more pieces supporting each other on the same line.
A species of chessman. Due to the way it moves, it always remains on the same color space as its home.
One of the two colors of chess spaces, pieces, and players.
See also: color, white.
The playing surface for the game. Comprised of an 8 by 8 square lattice of equal-sized square spaces. The rows are called ranks, and the columns are called files. The spaces are alternately black and white as one moves up a file, or across a rank. The space at the intersection of the first rank and the first file (conventionally, the lower-left space on the board) is black.
When a piece is moved to a space occupied by an enemy chessman, the previous occupant is captured, and removed from play.
A special move involving the king and one of the rooks. Also, an informal alternate name for a rook.
See: castle long, castle short, rook.
Castling involving the king's rook.
Castling involving the queen's rook.
When one player castles short and the other castles long.
The four central spaces, at the intersection of ranks 4 and 5 and files d and e.
A guard against the opposing king.
See also: checkmate, double check, exposed check.
Trapping the opposing king. The word `mate' comes from a word meaning `to kill'.
See also: check, trap.
The special clock used in timed chess games.
The name given to the objects that are moved around on the board during a game of Chess.
Short for chessclock.
See: chessclock.
Refers not to the actual color of things, but to the fact that there are two distinct kinds of each, and these are given the names `black', and `white'.
See also: black, white.
A sequence of forced moves leading to advantage.
Chess played by postal or electronic mail.
Destruction of the pawn structure protecting the hostile king's by way of a sacrifice.
See: English Descriptive Notation.
Moves that activate chessmen.
The conceptual equivalent to a rank or file, but rotated 45 degrees. As ranks and files are to rooks, diagonals are to bishops. The long diagonals are the two diagonals that connect opposite corners of the board.
A battery on a diagonal involving the queen and a bishop.
The piece that moves ends up guarding the king, but its movement also exposes check by another piece as well.
See also: check, exposed check.
Two pawns of the same color on the same file.
A battery of two rooks.
See: stalemate
French for `in passing'. A special pawn capture rule.
French for `in take'. When a chessman is threatened.
See: opponent.
An older notation where the files are referred to by side of the board (queen's or king's) along with the type of piece on the home rank at the beginning of the game (rook, knight, bishop). The ranks are referred to by the names 1 to 8 as with algebraic notation, but the counting is relative to the home rank of the player. So, each space will have two names: one when referred to by black, and another when referred to by white.
When check is achieved indirectly. Most commonly, the piece that moves ends up in a position such that it guards the enemy king. But, if instead, the piece that moves gets out of the way so that some other piece guards the king, check has been exposed.
See also: check, double check.
When a bishop moves from its home onto one of the long diagonals.
The time forfeit indicator on the chessclock.
A forcing sequence leading up to checkmate.
When there is only one legal move possible. For example, when the king is in check, and there is only one way to remedy it. Sometimes also used to refer to a weaker situation when there is only one ``good'' move. For example, when the Queen is threatened and there is only one way to neutralize the threat.
Toward the enemy's back rank.
See also: backward.
Another name for scholar's mate.
An opening involving a pawn sacrifice.
A chessman sacrificed by Black in the Gruenfeld Defense.
A piece guards an enemy piece when the enemy piece is in a space that could be reached by it in the next move, without regard for the possibility that the piece under consideration may in reality be pinned in its current location.
Also, a piece can guard a friendly piece so that if the guarded piece is captured, the guarding piece can capture back.
See also: pin, threat.
A line with no friendly pawn that does have an enemy pawn.
TODO.
The initial space of a piece.
A pawn which does not have any neighboring friendly pawns.
A species of chessman. The only one that may not be captured (because if it is not permitted to even be guarded, much less threatened, and as soon as it is not possible to remove such a guard or threat--called checkmate--the game is over).
On the half of the board containing the king's home. Files `e' to `h'.
See also: queenside.
A species of chessman. The only one that can jump over other pieces.
A pattern that arises when one side sacrifices the Queen to checkmate with one bishop and two knights.
A rank, file, or diagonal.
A contiguous portion of a line. Maximally, an entire line; minimally a single space.
A square left open in front of the king to prevent checkmate on the home rank.
Queens and rooks.
Short for chessman.
From the Persion mat (death).
See: checkmate.
Another name for chessmen.
An attack that could leat to checkmate.
Knights and bishops.
A white ply followed by a black ply. Sometimes used to refer to a ply itself, when the ply is an occupation rather than a capture.
See also: ply, occupy.
A guard or threat can be neutralized by one of three direct methods: (i) capture the offending enemy piece; (ii) interpose another piece; or (iii) move the piece away to a safe location. An indirect method is to create a greater threat for the opponent.
When a ply results in a chessman ending up in a space that did not already contain an enemy chessman, the piece occupies the space.
See also: capture.
A file containing no pawns of either color.
A line containing no pawns of either color.
A rank containing no pawns of either color.
The first moves in the game, where the focus is usually on the development of the pieces.
White is the opponent of black and vice-versa.
A pawn for which its file is free of enemy pawns and the two neighboring files are free of enemy pawns forward of its rank. No longer can it be blocked or captured by enemy pawns (unless another capture brings an enemy pawn onto one of these ranks).
A species of chessman. The pawn is the only chessman that moves and captures in distinct ways.
Two friendly pawns in the same rank and neighboring files.
A chessman that is not a pawn. Sometimes, the word `piece' is used in place of `chessman'. Usually context makes it clear which is meant.
A chessman is pinned when it is not legal for it to move from its current location. Usually this is caused by an enemy piece being placed such that moving the chessman would expose the king to a guard by the enemy.
Also used to refer to a weaker case when it is not desirable to lose the more valuable piece behind it.
See ply.
One play in a Chess game.
When a pawn reaches the back rank of the opponent, it is promoted to any other piece than a pawn or king.
A species of chessman.
On the half of the board containing the queen's home. Files `a' to `d'.
See also: kingside.
A species of chessman. Can participate in castling with the king.
A purposeful loss of a chessman in the interest of gaining some other advantage.
A square which is not guarded by the enemy.
Mate in four moves using the queen and bishop. Also called scholar's mate and four-move checkmate. One way it could be played is:
1. e4 e5 2. Bc4 h6? 3. Qh5 a5?? Could also be 3. Qf3 ... 4. Qxf7#
The particular moves of black are not important, just that they don't interfere with white's line of play.
An asymetrical answer to White's 1. e4. First played in Palermo in the 1500's.
1. e4
A board location that may be empty or contain a single chessman.
See space.
When the player to move has no legal move, but is not in check, it is stalemate.
TODO: Other ways: repetition, etc.
See: home rank
TODO: traditional, sudden-death
A piece is trapped when it is threatened and the threat cannot be neutralized. Also, a series of moves by one player leading to an unfavorable position for the opponent.
See also: neutralize.
See move.
A line segment containing no chessmen.
Another name for a chessman.
See also: color, black.
When an enemy rook is captured at the loss of a knight or a bishop.
German term for a situation in which a player has little time to consider his plies due to time control.
From the German `compulsion to move'. A player foregoes immediate capture of compensating material for that just lost, and instead creates a larger threat the enemy must respond to, eventually achieving material (and perhaps positional) compensation.
Also, when every possible move worsens one's position.
German for an in-between move.
Gregor N. Purdy (gregor@focusresearch.com).
gregor@focusresearch.com
Copyright (C) 1999-2006 Gregor N. Purdy. All rights reserved.
This program is free software. You may redistribute and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl iteself.
To install Games::Chess::Referee, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm
cpanm Games::Chess::Referee
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell install Games::Chess::Referee
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.