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Chess Glossary: Chess Terms Explained Simply

Fork, pin, zugzwang, Swiss, arbiter — chess has a language of its own, and children pick it up faster than their parents. This glossary explains the words you will hear in a chess class, read in a book or see on a tournament notice, in one or two plain sentences each. Kept by the coaches at Surat Chess Club, Vesu.

The board and the moves

Algebraic notation: The standard way to write chess moves, naming each square by a letter (file) and a number (rank), such as Nf3. See our chess notation guide.
Castling: A special move of the king and a rook together: the king moves two squares towards the rook, and the rook jumps to the other side of it. Allowed once per game, only if neither piece has moved and the king is not in, through or into check.
Check: A direct attack on the king. The player in check must get out of it on the next move.
Checkmate: A check that cannot be escaped. The game ends and the checkmated side loses.
Development: Bringing pieces off their starting squares into play, usually knights and bishops first, in the opening.
Diagonal: A line of same-coloured squares running corner to corner. Bishops and the queen move along diagonals.
En passant: A special pawn capture. If a pawn moves two squares and lands beside an enemy pawn, that pawn may capture it as if it had moved only one — but only on the very next move.
File: A vertical column of the board, lettered a to h.
Opening: The first phase of a game, roughly the first ten to fifteen moves, when players develop pieces and fight for the centre.
Promotion: When a pawn reaches the last rank it must be exchanged for a queen, rook, bishop or knight of the same colour — almost always a queen.
Rank: A horizontal row of the board, numbered 1 to 8 from White's side.
Touch-move: The rule that a player who deliberately touches one of their pieces must move it, and a player who touches an opponent's piece must capture it if legally possible. To adjust a piece without moving it, say "I adjust" first.

Tactics

Discovered attack: Moving one piece out of the way to reveal an attack by another piece behind it. If the revealed attack is on the king, it is a discovered check.
Double check: A check from two pieces at once. The only escape is to move the king.
Fork: One piece attacking two or more enemy pieces at the same time. Knight forks are the classic example.
Hanging piece: A piece that is attacked and not defended, and can simply be taken.
Pin: An attack on a piece that cannot move without exposing a more valuable piece behind it. If the piece behind is the king, the pinned piece cannot legally move at all.
Sacrifice: Deliberately giving up material to gain an attack, a better position or a checkmate.
Skewer: The reverse of a pin: a valuable piece is attacked, and when it moves, a less valuable piece behind it is captured.
Tactic: A short, forcing sequence of moves that wins material or delivers checkmate — forks, pins, skewers and the like. Most games between beginners are decided by tactics.
Back-rank mate: A checkmate by a rook or queen on the opponent's first rank, when the king is trapped behind its own pawns.

Strategy and endgames

Centre: The four middle squares (d4, e4, d5, e5) and the area around them. Controlling the centre gives pieces more room and flexibility.
Endgame: The final phase of a game, when few pieces are left and kings become active. Many won positions are lost here through poor technique.
Initiative: Having the ability to make threats that the opponent must answer, so you dictate the course of the game.
Isolated pawn: A pawn with no friendly pawns on the files next to it, so no pawn can ever defend it.
Material: The pieces and pawns each side has. Rough values: pawn 1, knight 3, bishop 3, rook 5, queen 9.
Middlegame: The phase between the opening and the endgame, when most plans and attacks happen.
Opposition: In king-and-pawn endgames, the kings facing each other with one square between them. The side not to move "has the opposition" and usually the advantage.
Outpost: A square, usually in the opponent's half, that cannot be attacked by enemy pawns — ideal for a knight.
Passed pawn: A pawn with no enemy pawns in front of it or on the neighbouring files to stop it reaching promotion.
Tempo: A single move, treated as a unit of time. Gaining a tempo means achieving something while forcing the opponent to waste a move.
Zugzwang: A position where any move a player makes worsens their position, but passing is not allowed. Common in endgames.

Results and draws

Draw: A game that ends with no winner, worth half a point to each player. It happens by agreement, stalemate, repetition, the fifty-move rule or insufficient material.
Fifty-move rule: A player may claim a draw if the last fifty moves by each side have been made with no pawn move and no capture.
Insufficient material: When neither side has enough pieces left to deliver checkmate — for example king against king, or king and bishop against king. The game is drawn.
Resign: To give up the game before checkmate, usually by stopping the clock and offering a handshake.
Stalemate: A position where the player to move has no legal move and is not in check. The game is a draw — a common and painful surprise for beginners who are winning.
Threefold repetition: A draw that can be claimed when the same position occurs three times with the same player to move.

Tournaments and ratings

AICF: The All India Chess Federation, India's national chess federation. Indian players register with it to play FIDE-rated events.
Arbiter: The referee of a chess tournament. The arbiter enforces the rules and settles every dispute at the board.
Blitz: A fast game in which each player has ten minutes or less. See time controls explained.
Classical (standard) chess: Long games in which each player has at least 60 minutes, with moves recorded on a scoresheet.
Elo rating: The rating system, named after Arpad Elo, that FIDE and most chess websites use to measure playing strength. Beating stronger players raises it; losing to weaker ones lowers it.
FIDE: The International Chess Federation, which sets the Laws of Chess, publishes ratings and awards titles. See our FIDE rating guide.
FM, IM, GM: FIDE titles: FIDE Master, International Master and Grandmaster, in ascending order. IM and GM require norms — strong results in qualifying events — as well as a rating threshold. Our King Plan coach, Jeet Jain, is an FM with two IM norms.
Increment: Seconds added to a player's clock after each move. "15+5" means 15 minutes plus 5 seconds per move.
Norm: A performance at a qualifying tournament that counts towards an IM or GM title. Usually three norms are needed.
Pairing: Who plays whom in each round, published on the pairing sheet before the round starts.
Rapid: Games in which each player has more than 10 but less than 60 minutes. The usual format for junior tournaments.
Round robin: A tournament in which every player plays every other player. Used for small, strong events.
Scoresheet: The form on which players record the moves of a classical game. It is the official record if there is a dispute.
Swiss system: The most common tournament format: nobody is knocked out, and each round players are paired with others on the same score. Explained in our first-tournament guide.
Tiebreak: A method, such as Buchholz, used to rank players who finish on the same points.
Time control: How much time each player has for the game, written like "15+5" or "90/40 + 30 + 30s".

Keep reading

Learn the words by playing the game

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