Chess Terms Explained. Short Definitions With Examples
Chess has its own language, and it is easier to learn one word at a time. Each term below gets a plain definition, a position you can see, and a short video of about 30 seconds. We add new terms here as we make them.
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Gambit
A gambit is an opening move with a bigger plan behind it. The plan starts by offering material, usually a pawn, and the catch is what you hope to get in return. That is usually faster development, control of the center or an attack. Your opponent can accept the offer or decline it. The word comes from an Italian term for tripping someone up.
The King's Gambit starts with 1.e4 e5 2.f4, and the f pawn is the offer. If Black takes, White aims to develop quickly and open attacking lines, but White's king is less sheltered. The Queen's Gambit starts with 1.d4 d5 2.c4, the same idea with a different pawn. White challenges Black's center, and that pawn often comes back, so the sacrifice can be temporary. Neither opening offers the king or the queen. They stay out of the gift box.
You will also meet the Smith-Morra Gambit against the Sicilian, and the Benko Gambit for Black. A word of warning though. Giving away a pawn without getting enough in return is just giving away a pawn. Away from chess, a gambit is any calculated opening move meant to gain an advantage. For a famous game that started as a King's Gambit, read the Immortal Game.
Gambit in 70 seconds. Watch on YouTube
Fianchetto
A fianchetto is a bishop developed onto the long diagonal of the board. The word is Italian for little flank. A player moves the knight's pawn one square, for example g3, and then puts the bishop on the square behind it, Bg2. From there the bishop looks down the longest diagonal and quietly pressures the center, instead of fighting for it with pawns.
You will see it in the King's Indian Defense, the Grunfeld, the English Opening and many others, on both sides of the board. Black can do the same with ...g6 and ...Bg7, and a queenside version uses b3 and Bb2. The bishop is well protected behind its pawns and it also helps shelter the king after castling. The price is a slower start and a few weaker squares if that bishop is ever traded off.
Fianchetto in 45 seconds. Watch on YouTube
En passant
En passant is French for in passing, and it is the one pawn capture that surprises people. A pawn can advance two squares on its first move. If it lands right beside an enemy pawn, that enemy pawn may capture it, on the square the first pawn skipped. It is one diagonal step, and the speeding pawn comes off the board.
The catch is timing. The right exists only on the very next move. Play something else, and the chance is gone. The rule is there so that a pawn cannot simply skip past an enemy pawn by taking two steps. Skipping the stop does not mean skipping the consequences.
En passant in 35 seconds. Watch on YouTube
Fork
A fork is one piece attacking two or more enemy pieces at the same time. The opponent can only save one of them, so you win material. Like the fork on a dinner table, it has several prongs and picks up more than one thing at once.
Any piece can fork, but knights are the specialists, because their jump is hard to see coming. In the position below the white knight is about to land on c7. From there it attacks the king on e8 and the rook on a8 at once. Black must answer the check, and the rook is lost.
To avoid being forked, before each move look at where the enemy knight could land next, and check whether two of your pieces sit on squares it attacks together. To fork, look for two undefended or valuable pieces that a single piece can reach at once. The same pattern appears in our chess puzzles.
Fork in 25 seconds. Watch on YouTube
Zugzwang
Zugzwang is a position where the player to move wishes they could pass. In chess you are never allowed to pass. If every legal move makes your position worse, you are in zugzwang, and being forced to move is the problem. The word is German for compulsion to move.
It is most common in endgames, where few pieces are left and every move changes something important. The simplest example is the opposition in a king and pawn ending. When two kings face each other with one square between them, the player who has to move must step aside and let the other king through. The same position with the other side to move can be completely different, and that is what makes zugzwang so tricky.
A zugzwang often wins a game that looks equal. You do not attack anything. You take away every safe move your opponent has, then let their own turn do the damage. When you plan an endgame, count who runs out of safe moves first.
Zugzwang in 30 seconds. Watch on YouTube
Sources for Chess Terms
- Terms and examples follow standard chess usage. Each term also has a 30 second video made by Sartaba Mind Games.