Added on 6/21/2025
We have prepared this chess glossary as a lighthearted guide to all those mysterious terms that chess people keep throwing around. Tactical tricks, tournament lingo, and the stuff that sounds German or French (because it is). Let’s dive in!
Armageddon
A special tie-break game that has gained popularity in recent times. White gets more time, Black gets draw odds. Invented to ensure a decisive result and maximum drama.
Advanced Pawn
A Pawn that’s made it deep into enemy territory, often past the midpoint of the board. Brave, ambitious, and occasionally delusional.
Advantage
When one side has the upper hand: material, space, activity, or just vibes. Doesn’t guarantee a win, but it sure helps.
Analysis
What happens after the game (or during, if you’re bold). You go over moves, spot missed wins, and convince yourself you almost played like a grandmaster. Done with your opponent, it’s also a chance to explain how you were totally winning, even if you lost.
Back-Rank Mate
The King is stuck behind its own pawns on the first rank, and a Rook or Queen slides in for the kill. Brutal, embarrassing — and a beginner’s classic.
Battery
Two heavy pieces (Rooks or Queen + Rook) lined up on the same file or rank, multiplying their power. Basically a cannon.
Blindfold game
A game played without seeing the board. Either on an empty board, or with the player (or both players) literally blindfolded. Works well if you have the memory of an elephant and the nerves of a Jedi.
Blitz (time control)
Literally meaning “flash” in German, this refers to games played with very fast time controls — typically 3 to 5 minutes per player. Pure adrenaline. The most popular modality for online play.
Blunder
A really bad move. Usually followed by silence, facepalming, or swearing.
Bots
Non-human opponents powered by algorithms and silicon brains. They never sleep, never tilt, and never miss a fork — unless you set them to “Easy.” Great for training, humbling, or getting mercilessly crushed at 3 a.m. You can try ICC’s bots here.
Brilliancy
A dazzling, creative move that makes jaws drop. Marked with one or two exclamation points in notation. These are the highlight reels of chess, often turned into puzzles or diagrams, earning their place in history. A one-way ticket to immortality.
Bughouse
Chaotic, loud, and absurdly fun. A team game played in couples where captured pieces get passed to your partner, who can drop them on their board. Blitz meets mayhem. Not for the faint of heart—or purists. But actually, everybody loves it, even the purists.
Bullet (time control)
Chess games where each player has just 1 minute for the entire game. Old-timers will say it’s not real chess. Still awesome. You first saw it on ICC.
Castling
A weird move where your King and Rook switch places (sort of). Good for safety and getting your Rooks into action. Don’t ask us who or how came up with the idea: no one knows, but it happened about five hundred years ago. This innovation drastically reduced early checkmates and allowed for more dynamic middle games. Kramnik proposes to abolish it.
Checkmate
The end of the road. The King is under threat, and there’s no way out. Game over, no take-backs. It’s how every chess player dreams of finishing—and dreads seeing on the other end.
Chess960
Also known as Fischer Random. The pieces on the back rank get shuffled (with some rules), creating 960 possible starting positions. Say goodbye to memorized openings—here, creativity leads the way.
ChessBase
The go-to software for serious players and coaches. A massive database of games, openings, and analysis: like Google, but for chess nerds. If it happened on a board, it’s probably in there.
Classical
The longest and most serious time control in chess. Think hours, not minutes. No rush, just deep thought, slow pressure, and the occasional soul-crushing blunder on move 72.
Clearance
Clearing a square, rank, or diagonal so another piece can jump in and shine. Like rolling out the red carpet—for a tactical bomb.
Composition
A chess puzzle created for beauty, not battle. Crafted positions where every move feels like poetry. No clocks, no opponents: just pure, elegant chess artistry.
Correspondence Chess
Chess by mail, email, or online server—played over days, weeks, or even years. No clocks, no rush. Perfect for deep thinkers, night owls, and people with very patient opponents.
Development
The part of the opening where you bring your pieces out and get them ready for battle. Knights before bishops, don’t rush the Queen, and try not to move the same piece twice—everyone deserves a turn.
Discovered attack
When you get one of your pieces out of the way, to “discover” an attack from another long-range piece hidden behind it. Think of it as pulling the curtain on a sniper.
Double check
When your King is checked by two pieces at once. You can’t block or capture both, so the King must move. Pure panic: It usually means you are in deep trouble.
Doubled Pawns
Two pawns stacked on the same file —usually not by choice. They can’t support each other, they clog things up, and they’re often just waiting to be bullied. A structural oops.
Doubled Rooks
When both rooks line up on the same file or rank, working together like a power duo. Unlike doubled pawns, this is a good kind of stacking—think pressure, control, and heavy firepower.
Draw
No winner. Can be agreed, forced, or just happen. Good or bad, depending on the mood.
Endgame
Only a few pieces remain. Quiet, subtle, and deadly. Tricks fade, technique shines, and a single pawn can decide everything.
Engine
A chess-playing software. Merciless, joyless, perfect. Your best friend and worst enemy.
En passant
The French got fancy with this one. A special pawn capture that’s only legal right after your opponent moves a pawn two squares. Confuses beginners. Infuriates intermediate players. Delights nerds. Knowing en passant tells apart newcomers and connoisseurs.
Exhibition Game
A game played for show, not score. No rating points, no titles at stake—just entertainment, education, or a bit of fun. Smiles, flashy moves, and maybe a trap or two.
Fianchetto
Thank the Italians for this one: push the b- or g-pawn and park your bishop behind it, eyeing the long diagonal. It’s a sniper nest in chess form.
Fish
Chess slang for a weak or inexperienced player. Often used with affection —or mockery. If someone calls you a fish, just smile… then try not to blunder your Queen.
Important: Not to be confused with Fischer. That’s a whole different species.
FIDE
The International Chess Federation. They safeguard the integrity of the game by, for instance, ensuring you don’t show up to your games wearing jeans. Bureaucratic but necessary.
Fischer Random
See Chess960
Flag
To lose on time. The term dates back to analog clocks, which had a tiny flag that dropped at 00:00 —like Cinderella’s carriage turning into a pumpkin. Today’s digital clocks (or ICC timers) don’t have flags, but the name stuck.
Fork
A tactic where one piece attacks two or more pieces at once. Knights are especially good at this. Think of it as multitasking for destruction.
Freestyle chess
Yet another name for Chess960, rebranded by Magnus Carlsen and his commercial partners, who in 2025 decided to launch a World Championship Grand Slam Tour under this modality.
Gambit
Another Italian word, another bold idea: sacrifice a pawn (or more!) early on to gain control of the centre of the board, get quick development, or start an attack. High risk, high flair.
Grandmaster
The highest title in chess. Requires talent, years of study, and a few tournament miracles. Not to be confused with that guy at the park who says he “almost beat Kasparov once.”
GOAT
See Garry Kasparov.
Hanging piece
A piece that is not defended by any of its teammates. It’s asking to be taken: a tactical disaster waiting to happen.
Heavy Piece
A Rook or Queen —big, powerful, and capable of sweeping the board. You bring them out after the light pieces clear the way. Think of them as the artillery in your chess army.
Hypermodernism
A 20th-century revolution in chess thinking. Instead of rushing to occupy the center with pawns, hypermoderns said: control it from a distance with pieces. Sneaky, indirect, and deeply annoying if you’re a classical purist.
ICC
The coolest place to play chess. It stands for “Internet Chess Club”, the original home of online chess.
(If you were looking for the International Cricket Council, you must have taken a wrong turn somewhere.)
Intermezzo
Italian for “in-between move.” A sneaky reply that interrupts the expected sequence, usually with a threat your opponent didn’t see coming.
J’adoube
French for “I adjust.” Said when you want to fix the placement of a piece without making a move. A polite way to say, “Don’t panic, I’m not blundering —just straightening my Knight’s ears.”
Knockout tournaments
Lose once and you’re out. Like chess meets Squid Game.
Match
A one-on-one face-off played over a series of games to settle who’s better —or just to stir up drama. Not to be confused with a casual game. This one counts. It’s the traditional format used to decide the World Championship.
The number of games (“best of 12,” for example) is usually fixed in advance, but some matches were played until one player reached a set number of wins. That turned out to be a bad idea: see Kasparov vs. Karpov, 1984.
Mating Net
A sneaky setup where the King is trapped with no escape: checkmate is coming, and there’s nothing to be done. Like a spiderweb made of tactics.
Middlegame
The chaotic stretch between the opening and the endgame. This is where plans clash, tactics explode, and things get real.
Notation
The language of chess moves. Instead of saying “the horsey jumps,” you write “Nf3”. Keeps things clear, precise, and lets players argue about games decades later.
Odds
A handicap given to level the playing field—usually when a stronger player faces a weaker one. Comes in two main flavors:
Time Odds, where the stronger player gets less time on the clock. Think: 1 minute vs. 5. It’s fair until you start flagging against a 10-year-old.
Piece Odds, where the stronger player removes a piece—like a Knight, Rook, or even their Queen—before the game starts. Brutal, humbling, and strangely fun (for one of you).
Open
A tournament format where usually just anyone can join, with no titles, ratings, or invites required. Grandmasters, amateurs, prodigies, and coffeehouse legends all in the same mix. Chaotic, but democratic.
Opening
The first phase of the game, when most pieces are still on the board and everyone acts like they’ve got a plan. Because every game starts from the same position, players study and memorize sequences of moves, sometimes 20 deep or more. Openings are named after the players who invented them or the places they became famous.
OTB
Short for “Over The Board” —meaning chess played in real life, face-to-face, on a physical board. No screens, no usernames, just you, your opponent, and the faint smell of old tournament halls.
Passed Pawn
A pawn with no enemy pawns blocking its path to promotion. It’s free, it’s fearless, and if you don’t stop it in time, it’ll become a Queen and ruin your day.
Pin
A tactical motif where a piece can’t move because it’s shielding the King—moving it would expose the King to check, which isn’t allowed. A very polite form of hostage-taking.
Promotion
When a pawn reaches the 8th rank and becomes a Queen (usually). Big glow-up.
Queen’s Gambit
One of the oldest and most respected openings in chess. Also the title of the Netflix series that made millions realize how cool and fashionable chess is. The opening involves sacrificing a d-pawn. The show involves sacrificing sleep to binge it.
Round robin
A tournament where everyone plays everyone, like in a league. In the past, “double round robin” tournaments, where every participant plays every other participant twice (with black and with white), were a common occurrence. Long, fair, and exhausting.
Sacrifice
Giving up material for long-term gain. Or short-term chaos. Or because it looks cool. Spirit over matter.
Smothered mate
A knight delivers checkmate to a king that’s trapped by its own army. Claustrophobia meets poetry.
Skewer
A tactic where the big piece is in front, and when it moves, the little one behind it dies. Elegant brutality.
Simul (Simultaneous exhibition)
This is a very popular kind of exhibition where an expert player shows off his skills by taking on many lower-level opponents at once.
Stalemate
You’re not in check, but have no legal moves. It’s a draw. Often unintentional. Sometimes hilarious.
Swindle
A dirty trick to save a losing position. The stuff of legends.
Swiss Tournament
In this format, players are paired each round against others with similar scores. It avoids early eliminations, doesn’t require everyone to play everyone, and makes it possible to run events with hundreds of participants in a reasonable number of rounds. It works well—unless your tiebreak system is a disaster.
Tablebase
A database of “solved” endgames. Tells you exactly what to do with six pieces or fewer. Cold, hard truth.
Tempo (plural: Tempi)
A single move, or unit of time, in chess. Gaining a tempo means making progress while your opponent reacts. Losing one? That’s like showing up late to your own checkmate.
Underpromotion
When a pawn reaches the 8th rank and doesn’t become a Queen—on purpose! Usually a knight, for artistic or tactical reasons. Or to flex. Bold choice, usually followed by a round of applause.
Zeitnot
Another German gem. It means “time trouble.” The clock is ticking, you are running out of time, and regardless of your position, your palms are sweaty. Good luck.
Zugzwang
A German word meaning “you have to move, but every move sucks.” It is your turn, but every possible move makes your position worse or leads to outright disaster. Usually happens in endgames. A very elegant kind of suffering.
Zwischenzug
A more complicated (and much uglier) name for Intermezzo: a surprise “in-between” move that flips the script. The chess equivalent of a plot twist you never saw coming.