Chess terms

[PeterTurland]

Hello,

One of the things in chess that I get pleasure from, is it's terms.
One I learned ages ago on here, is an 'excelsior' (a passed pawn)

I like it when I get in a position, where the bishop is being protected by a pawn, that is also being protected by that bishop.
and I thought that this situation deserved it's own phrase, I have thought of an 'anchored bishop' any other suggestions?

I might be reinventing the wheel, but never mind.

[Stewart Reuben]

'Conjoined twins'. Knights that protect each other. It used to be Siamese, but that is old hat.
'Zugswang' is lovely. I have tried to think of examples in 'real life'.
'Minority attack'
'Zwischenzug' in-between move
'Fehler finger' where a player touches a piece accidentally.
'Hari kiri variation'. A series of captures made first by one player, then the other. Not re-captures.
'Gambit' possibly the most misused chess term in general society.
'J'adoube'
'en passant'
fianchetto
'black square complex'
isolani

We are intending to have a glossary of terms used in the Laws of Chess. When that project is completed, perhaps we should turn our attention to all terms used in chess.

[Paul McKeown]

Surely an Excelsior is not a passed pawn, not necessarily in any case, but rather a pawn which starting on the second rank moves on successive turns directly to promotion.

As for fehler finger the term is Fingerfehler.

I do hope the FIDE glossary is subject to a degree of spelling checking and editing before it is published.

[Ian Kingston]

Surely an Excelsior is not a passed pawn, not necessarily in any case, but rather a pawn which starting on the second rank moves on successive turns directly to promotion.

We had a thread about the Excelsior theme a couple of years ago:

http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=5213

[Angus French]

Anchoring of bishops can be important in bishops-of-opposite-colour endings. Jonathan Hawkins has a chapter on this in his book 'Amateur to IM' (which I thoroughly recommend).

What about 'desperados' - which (I believe) are knights which are likely lost (often behind enemy lines) and which seek to cause maximum damage before capture?

[PeterTurland]

Anchoring of bishops can be important in bishops-of-opposite-colour endings. Jonathan Hawkins has a chapter on this in his book 'Amateur to IM' (which I thoroughly recommend).

What about 'desperados' - which (I believe) are knights which are likely lost (often behind enemy lines) and which seek to cause maximum damage before capture?

Are you saying that in Hawkins book he used the term 'anchoring'?

[Angus French]

'Gambit' possibly the most misused chess term in general society.

Sorry but I couldn't help but link to this and, more specifically, this.

[Niall Doran]

Anchoring of bishops can be important in bishops-of-opposite-colour endings. Jonathan Hawkins has a chapter on this in his book 'Amateur to IM' (which I thoroughly recommend).

What about 'desperados' - which (I believe) are knights which are likely lost (often behind enemy lines) and which seek to cause maximum damage before capture?

I thought it was any piece that was trapped/about to be taken which caused as much damage as it could before its demise. Although having said that, any examples I've seen did seem to be with knights.

Regarding the Excelsior (now shaves even closer!), I've often wondered where the line is between a pawn scoring a try in the middle game and an endgame with no pieces on the board where all the player has to do is push the pawn to the end of the board unopposed. I'm guessing it's quite subjective.

[Angus French]

Anchoring of bishops can be important in bishops-of-opposite-colour endings. Jonathan Hawkins has a chapter on this in his book 'Amateur to IM' (which I thoroughly recommend).

What about 'desperados' - which (I believe) are knights which are likely lost (often behind enemy lines) and which seek to cause maximum damage before capture?

Are you saying that in Hawkins book he used the term 'anchoring'?

The title of the chapter is 'Dropping Down the Anchor'... the lesson aims include 'Master the concept of the anchor' and 'Be able to recognise situations where an anchor isn't possible'...

[Stewart Reuben]

Paul >As for fehler finger the term is Fingerfehler.<
I wonder if the term is obsolete anyway? Now there is no penalty for touching a piece accidentally. I did one over 50 years ago.
Nb3 and Nf3. I got confused and played Nbd2 when I intended Nfd4.

>I do hope the FIDE glossary is subject to a degree of spelling checking and editing before it is published.<
I hope so too. Are you volunteering?

'A HARRISON' (US possibly obsolete). The eponymous Mr Harrison, in a very poor position in a blitz game, would play his king next to that of his opponent. If the opponent overlooked this and made a move elsewhere, Harrison would then claim the game because of the illegal move.

[David Sedgwick]

'A HARRISON' (US possibly obsolete). The eponymous Mr Harrison, in a very poor position in a blitz game, would play his king next to that of his opponent. If the opponent overlooked this and made a move elsewhere, Harrison would then claim the game because of the illegal move.

In similar vein, three verbs, the first two of which have recently featured on this Forum:

Hadrellise, v: To remove ambiguities and poor grammar from a draft set of rules.
Holowczak, v: To amend a match result through the rigorous application of prescribed penalties, especially in the ECF Counties Championships.
Nalichowskise, v: To replace a board without lettering and numbering by a board with lettering and numbering. Named after Bogdan Nalichowski, a Guernsey player who always requests this.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Desperado is a term that definitely applies to any chess piece (well, I suppose it can't apply to the king), not just knights. On actions that don't have names yet, there are quite a few. Here are some that I've never heard names for, though they are quite common:

1) Insisting that a numbered and lettered board is set up the right way round at the start of the game. Some players, I think, see this as some sign of intrinsic chess strength - they no longer need such 'props' to help them! Of course, they then promptly start mixing up the d-file and e-file in the opening when writing down their moves...

2) Half-making a move and then pausing with your hand still on the piece while checking for traps (this is, of course, forbidden by the rules of the game, but it often happens anyway). To then retract the half-move with a muttered apology and then move that piece somewhere else probably also deserves a term.

3) Loudly gesticulating and complaining at the board in your opponent's time trouble and making dubious 10.2 claims. Hmm. Maybe better not give this type of behaviour a name! Wouldn't want to encourage it...

[Colin Patterson]

'X-ray attack' is a tricky one. Modern interpretation varies wildly, whereas older encyclopedias are largely silent on the issue. Brace thinks it is just another word for 'skewer', but that seems overly simplistic to me.

[PeterTurland]

Anchoring of bishops can be important in bishops-of-opposite-colour endings. Jonathan Hawkins has a chapter on this in his book 'Amateur to IM' (which I thoroughly recommend).

What about 'desperados' - which (I believe) are knights which are likely lost (often behind enemy lines) and which seek to cause maximum damage before capture?

Are you saying that in Hawkins book he used the term 'anchoring'?

The title of the chapter is 'Dropping Down the Anchor'... the lesson aims include 'Master the concept of the anchor' and 'Be able to recognise situations where an anchor isn't possible'...

Thanks, that is interesting.

I have no Academic qualifications, I left school at 15, this does not mean I have no academic skills, one skill I have developed is, I naturally speed read, if only I could play chess,
like I can speed read?

I s'pose I could be called an amateur philosopher, I do write on other forums, one of them globally philosophical. And some of the pieces I have written have engendered a positive response.

One of the things I think about, is the difference between information transferred literally and information transferred metaphorically.

It is interesting, how many non players use chess metaphors, this suggests chess works on a different level, to normal language.

[Clive Blackburn]

Ivanov (noun): an anti-positional and seemingly pointless move, the purpose of which becomes apparent much later in a combination. Chess engines often play these moves.

Example of usage: that last move of his was a real Ivanov!