Lexicon

In chess the Greek gift sacrifice (or classical Bishop sacrifice) is a typical sacrifice of a Bishop by White playing Bxh7+ or Black playing Bxh2+ after which a winning attack evolves.

A pawn island consisting of two united pawns on half-open files.

Another term for Rooks and Queens. See also major piece

The hedgehog system is characterized by a row of Black pawns on the 6-th rank: a6, b6, d6, e6 and alternatively g6 with open c-file, against white pawns c4 and e4. When playing the hedgehog, one suffers from the lack of space - all Black pieces are placed on the three last ranks but the position has no weaknesses. Experience has shown that it's very hard to crack hedgehog positions.

The power to make threats.
Having the initiative enables one to make threats more effective than the opponent can make, thus dictating the course of the game. When the game starts, White has the first move and therewith the initiative.

See isolated pawn

In chess, an isolated pawn is a pawn for which there is no friendly pawn on an adjacent file. Isolated pawns are weak for two reasons:
1. Pieces attacking them usually have more elasticity than those defending them. In other words, the attacking pieces enjoy greater freedom to do other things (threaten to win pieces, checkmate, etc.), while the defending pieces are restricted to the defense of the pawn. This is because a piece that is attacking a pawn can give up the attack to do something else whereas the defending piece must stay rooted to the spot until the attacking piece has moved. The defending piece is thus said to be "tied down" to the pawn.
2. The square immediately in front of the isolated pawn is weak because it is immune to attack by a pawn (often providing an excellent outpost for a Knight). Thus an isolated pawn provides a typical example of what Wilhelm Steinitz called weak squares.

An isolated Queen pawn (IQP), called isolani is often a special case. An IQP is one in the Queen's file (d file). Assuming that it is a White pawn on d4, the weakness of such a pawn consists in its having to be defended and the weak square in front of it (i.e. d5 for White) being of particular importance. However the presence of open files in the important King and Queen Bishop (e and c) files as well as the outposts at e5 and c5 enable the player with the IQP very favourable attacking chances in the middle game. Once the game reaches the endgame, the isolated nature of the pawn becomes a greater weakness than these strengths. Therefore the player with the IQP must take advantage of the temporary strength before an endgame is reached. Sacrifice of the pawn by white and blockade of the pawn by black are common themes.

Source: "Wikipedia, The free Encyclopedia"

Onlooker offering unasked and not always very welcome advice during a chess game. "Kiebitz" is a Yiddish word for "peewit".

The most important chess piece that must be protected from checkmate at all times. The King can move one square in any direction with the exception of the special move called castling when it can move 2 squares. Since losing the King ends the game, it is considered invaluable. However in the endgame a centralized King is worth as much as a Knight.
Abbreviation = K

Submitted by Michael Wee

A chess piece usually shaped as a horse's head that can be moved two squares along a rank and one along a file or two squares along a file and one along a rank. The knight is the only piece that can jump other pieces to land on an open square. Its value is equal with three points.
Abbreviation = N

Source: "Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition"

A weak move, a blunder.

A form of chess in which the games are played much more quickly than the normal time limit allows.
Often both players each get 5 minutes on the clock to perform all moves of a game.

A sequence of consecutive moves (not forced), part of the same strategical plan.

An "airhole" by moving a pawn forward to create an escape possibility for his own King.

Rooks and Queens are considered "major" pieces

An attack by a majority of pawns against a minority of pawns.
The aim is to create a passed pawn.

See checkmate

All of a player's pieces (pawns included) on the chessboard at anytime.

The part of a chess game that follows the opening and comes before the endgame, beginning after the pieces are developed in the opening.

Source: "Wikipedia, The free Encyclopedia"

A short decided game (no longer than 20-25 moves) as a result of a blunder or brilliancy

Bishops and Knights are considered "minor" pieces.

Promotion of a pawn having reached the eighth rank to a piece not being a queen. The most common minor promotion, if happening, is the promotion to a knight (often with check) in order to continue a combination. This type of promotion is sometimes also designated as 'underpromotion'.

A well-known minor promotion occurred in Korody-Balogh, Budapest 1933: 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 d4 4.e3 Bb4+ 5.Bd2 dxe3! 6.Bxb4 exf2+ 7.Ke2 fxg1N+ 8.Rxg1 Bg4+ and White resigned.

An attack by a minority of pawns against a majority of pawns.
The aim is to create weaknesses in the opponent's pawn formation.

To change the position of a piece during a chess game according to the rules of play. Moves are made on the chessboard by both players in an alternate fashion.

The written record of all the moves in a chess game. Over the years several styles of notation have been used, but the most common ones are:
- short algebraic notation
- long algebraic notation
- English descriptive notation
- Numeric notation
and others. Please read the definition for each of the above for a brief but to the point description (including examples).