Master: Someone with a US Chess Federation rating between 22. Knight: The chess piece that moves like an “L”, or the shortest move that is not a straight one. Isolated Pawns: Pawns that have no other pawns of the same color on adjacent files are isolated and "alone", lacking support by fellow pawns. International Master: Someone with the intermediate International Chess Title Illegal Move: A move that either a) Moves a piece in an illegal manner, or 2) Results in an illegal position. Grandmaster: Someone with the highest International Chess Title As a verb, "to flag" means to lose the game on time.įool’s Mate: A 2-move mate similar to 1.f3? e5 2.g4? Qh4#.įorfeit: When a player doesn't show up for a game he is forfeit and loses.įork: A double attack, usually by a Knight or Pawn (thus looking like a “ fork” in the road), a common chess tactic. Also trading ("winning") a Rook for a Knight or Bishop is to be "up the Exchange".įianchetto: To develop a Bishop on a long diagonal (b2 or g2 for White b7 or g7 for Black).įIDE Master: Someone with the lowest International Chess Titleįifty-Move Rule: A type of draw where both players make 50 moves consecutively without either player advancing a pawn or making a capture.įile: The rows of a chess board going up and down, lettered a-h (lower case), with “a” always on White’s left (and Black’s right).įive Minute/Blitz: A game where each player has five minutes to make all his moves.įlag: The part of an analog clock that rises when the minute hand nears the hour and falls at the hour. The ending phase of chess.Įxpert: Someone with a US Chess Federation rating between 20.Įxchange: Trading pieces, usually of equal value. A piece is en prise if it can be captured but is not guarded.Įndgame: The part of the game where the King should come out and fight (with fewer pieces left on the board). The word “tie” s not used.Įn 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.Įn Prise: Literally "in take" - able to be captured for free. Stalemate, Lack of Mating Material, 50-Move Rule, etc. To be checkmated.ĭesperado: A piece that is going to be captured anyway so it can "sacrifice" itself at the highest cost.ĭiscovery: An attack by a piece that was opened up via another piece’s move.ĭouble Attack: An attack on two (or more) pieces by a single moveĭoubled Pawns: Two pawns of the same color on the same file as a result of a captureĭoubled Rooks: Two Rooks forming a battery on a rank or file.ĭraw: Any game that ends without either player winning, e.g. You do not have to announce “check”.Ĭheckmate: An attack on the King where there is no way for your opponent to finish his turn and no longer have the King attacked. 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)Ĭapture: (or Take) not Kill – to remove a piece from the board via a legal move.Ĭastle: To move your unmoved King 2 squares toward an unmoved Rook and to move the Rook on the other side of the King is the castling move.Ĭheck: An attack on the King. Many blitz games are 5 minutes per player for the entire game.īook: Besides the kind with a spine, a “book” move is one that a player has learned to play in a particular position in the opening (from a “book” or other media) without the need to “ calculate”.īlunder: A bad move primarily a move that turns a win into a loss or draw, or a draw into a loss.īughouse: A variant of chess with two players on each side – a player gets the pieces his partner captures.īye: What you get when you can’t play a round, but are still continuing to play in the tournament. Note: in chess, amateurs can win money, sometimes quite a bit, at tournaments like the World Open.Īttack: When you move a piece to a square where you could capture an opponent’s piece NEXT move.īack Rank: The rank where a player sets up his major pieces (1st for White 8th for Black)īack-Rank Mate: A checkmate on the 1st or 8th rank with a Rook or Queen.īattery: Lining up two pieces that move similarly, like a Queen and Rook or Queen and Bishop.īlitz: Fast chess. At the US Amateur, masters cannot play at the US Amateur Team tournaments, the team has to average below master rating. Replaced older Descriptive Notation (“P-K4" is now "e4") about 1970.Īmateur: In chess, a non-master. And even though the Rook is not a "castle" and the Knight is not a "horse", the beginner at chess will find many useful definitions here, compiled by National Master Dan Heisman.Īction Chess: A game where each player only has 30 minutes to make all his moves.Īlgebraic Notation: A method for writing moves down by using the names of the pieces and the ranks and files. One of the best ways to make progress at chess is to become familiar with the terminology used by chess players.
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