Chess is a two-player strategy board game played on a chessboard, a checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an 8×8 grid. Played by millions of people worldwide, chess is believed to be derived from the Indian game chaturanga sometime before the 7th century. Chaturanga is also the likely ancestor of the East Asian strategy games xiangqi, janggi, and shogi. Chess reached Europe via Persia and Arabia by the 9th century, due to the Umayyad conquest of Hispania. The queen and bishop assumed their current movements in the Kingdom of Valencia (modern Spain) in the late 15th century, and the modern rules were standardized in the 19th century.
The king (♔,♚) is the most important piece in the game of chess. In English, the king is represented by the abbreviation K in algebraic notation. If a player's king is threatened with capture, it is said to be in check, and the player must remove the threat of capture on the next move. If this cannot be done, the king is said to be in checkmate, resulting in a loss for that player. Players cannot make any move that places their own king in check. Although the king is the most important piece, it is usually the weakest piece in the game until the game's ending phase.
Castling is a move in the game of chess involving a player's king and either of the player's original rooks. It is the only move in chess in which a player moves two pieces in the same move, and it is the only move aside from the knight's move where a piece can be said to "jump over" another.
This glossary of chess explains commonly used terms in chess, in alphabetical order. Some of these terms have their own pages, like fork and pin. For a list of unorthodox chess pieces, see Fairy chess piece; for a list of terms specific to chess problems, see Glossary of chess problems; for a list of named opening lines, see List of chess openings; for a list of chess-related games, see List of chess variants.
Zugzwang is a situation found in chess and other turn-based games wherein one player is put at a disadvantage because of their obligation to make a move; in other words, the fact that the player is compelled to move means that their position will become significantly weaker. A player is said to be "in zugzwang" when any possible move will worsen their position.
Emanuel Lasker was a German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher who was World Chess Champion for 27 years, from 1894 to 1921, the longest reign of any officially recognised World Chess Champion in history. In his prime, Lasker was one of the most dominant champions, and he is still generally regarded as one of the strongest players in history.
In chess, a smothered mate is a checkmate delivered by a knight in which the mated king is unable to move because he is surrounded by his own pieces. In rare situations, the surrounding pieces may include an opponent's defended piece, which the king can not capture.
Checkmate is a game position in chess and other chess-like games in which a player's king is in check and there is no way to avoid the threat. Checkmating the opponent wins the game.
Akiba Kiwelowicz Rubinstein was a Polish chess player. He is considered to have been one of the strongest players never to have become World Chess Champion. Rubinstein was granted the title International Grandmaster in 1950, at its inauguration.
Carl Schlechter was a leading Austro-Hungarian chess master and theoretician at the turn of the 20th century. He is best known for drawing a World Chess Championship match with Emanuel Lasker.
Siegbert Tarrasch was a German chess grandmaster. Tarrasch is considered to have been among the strongest chess players and most influential chess teachers of the late 19th and early 20th century.
Edward Lasker was a German-American chess and Go player. He was awarded the title of International Master of chess by FIDE. Lasker was an engineer by profession, and an author of books on Go, chess and checkers. Born in Germany, he emigrated to the United States in 1914. He was distantly related to Chess World Champion Emanuel Lasker with whom he is sometimes confused.
In chess, a tactic refers to a sequence of moves that limits the opponent's options and may result in tangible gain. Tactics are usually contrasted with strategy, in which advantages take longer to be realized, and the opponent is less constrained in responding.
In chess, a queen sacrifice is a move giving up a queen in return for tactical/positional advantage or other compensation. When Mikhail Tal was asked what he looks for when finding a move, he said "First, how to sac my queen, then rook, then bishop, then knight, then pawns."
In chess, a sacrifice is a move giving up a piece with the objective of gaining tactical or positional compensation in other forms. A sacrifice could also be a deliberate exchange of a chess piece of higher value for an opponent's piece of lower value.
In chess, the fortress is an endgame drawing technique in which the side behind in material sets up a zone of protection that the opponent cannot penetrate. This might involve keeping the enemy king out of one's position, or a zone the enemy cannot force one out of. An elementary fortress is a theoretically drawn position with reduced material in which a passive defense will maintain the draw.
Joke chess problems are puzzles in chess that use humor as a primary or secondary element. Although most chess problems, like other creative forms, are appreciated for serious artistic themes, joke chess problems are enjoyed for some twist. In some cases the composer plays a trick to prevent a solver from succeeding with typical analysis. In other cases, the humor derives from an unusual final position. Unlike in ordinary chess puzzles, joke problems can involve a solution which violates the inner logic or rules of the game.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to chess:
Brinkmate is the situation in which an unavoidable checkmate sequence will be created by the player's next move.
