"My opponent left a glass of whisky 'en prise' and I took it 'en passant". - Henry Blackburne | SINCE 2007

Monday, June 4, 2007

CHESS TERMS

Do you know these chess terminologies?

Chess terminology has borrowed heavily from many languages from Arabic to Indian and german. Here are a few mind swinging terms.

amaurosis scachistica:
Chess blindness (oversight), described ironically as a disease by Dr. Tarrasch. There is a superb example from Krogius in the Errors section of the Canon.
Intermezzo:
See Zwischenzug
Kibitz:
To offer advice as a spectator - a dangerous pastime
Phalanx:
A triangle of pawns e.g. b3-c4-d5-e4-f3 in the KID
Prophylaxis:
Prevention. Nimzovitch talked about this rather as an end in itself, which is misleading.
tabiya:
(Arabic) Originally one of the conventional starting formations for play, now used to describe key positions arising from the opening.
Trebuchet:
A common Zugzwang position
Zeitnot:
(German) time trouble
Zwischenzug:
(German) literally, in-between move. When, for example, a re-capture is delayed for a move to make a capture, check or threat elsewhere

1 comment:

Chess said...

great stuff! thanks for the research!