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Chess
Terminologies
z Chess Terminologies

 General Chess Terms

 Gameplay Terms

Special Moves
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z Check
Check occurs when a piece is
attacking either the white or black
king.  The king must move
immediately or the piece attacking the
king must be taken immediately to get
away from check.  A player does not
need to call out check in order for it to
occur.
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z Double Check

Double check occurs when two

pieces are attacking/checking the
king at the same time.  When double
check occurs, the king must move
because both pieces cannot be taken
at the same time.
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Tempo
is all about the timing of your pieces to gain an initiative.
 White is said to have a slight edge because white always
moves first to start a chess game, and thus starts ahead in
tempo.

Tempo has everything to do with distracting your opponent’s

pieces and taking their timing away from them.  The best
example is when one player captures a valuable piece (such
as a queen) while also putting their opponent’s king in check.  

Tempo becomes more crucial in the end game. In many king

and pawn endgames, the game can be decided based on
tempo.  
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Illegal Move

When a player attempts to move a

piece to a square it cannot properly
move to.  Also, a player may try to
move a piece while they are in
check.  This is not permitted at any
time.

If this occurs during a timed game, the

move is taken back and the opponent
of the player who committed the illegal
move will have 2 minutes added to
their clock.
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Fianchetto

A fianchetto can occur when the kingside or

queenside knight’s pawn moves forward one
square to make room for the bishop behind it.

Finchettoing a bishop gives it the best diagonal

on the board and often more protection for your
king, or a nice long range attack on the
opponent’s rook or king if castled.

Many openings utilize a bishop fianchetto such

as the King’s Indian Defense or the
Sicilian Dragon.
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Rating

Your ELO rating is a score that

indicates how strong a player you are.
 Most new players start below 1000
while somewhat more advanced
players will be in the 1400-1500 range.
 Grand masters tend to have a rating
above 2500.
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RATING TITLE
1-1199 novice
1200-1399 Class D

1400-1599 Class C
Class B
1600-1799
Class A
1800-1999
Chess Expert
2000-2199
Chess Master
2200-2299 A mix of FIDE Master (FM)
2300+ International Master (IM)
Grandmaster (GM)
2500+
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Kingside /
z Queenside
The kingside and queenside
represent the side of the board
that either the king or queen
begins on, respectively.  Even if
the king or queen are no longer
on this side of the board during
their move, they are still
considered kingside and
queenside.
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Open file

An open file occurs when there

are no pawns positioned on an
entire column of the board (a-h).
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Semi-open file

A semi-open file occurs when

there is only one pawn positioned
on an entire column of the board
(a-h).
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 Rank – A rank is a row of the board (1-8).  The term
back rank or first rank would be labeled as row 1 on
the board for white and row 8 on the board for
black.
 Resign – Rather than play out a losing game, a
player may resign and give up the game.  Many
times players resign in a winning position because
they miss a key move that would save the situation.
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Pin

When a piece is preventing another piece from moving

because of the piece that is being attacked behind it. 
Often a piece is pinned when it is between a bishop or
rook and the opponent’s king or queen, the most valuable
pieces.

If the king would be under attack if the piece moved, then

the pinned piece is not able to move at all.
In this picture,
black’s knight can
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move, but it would
mean the end of the
black queen.  On
white’s side, the
knight cannot move
because of the pin
endangering the
king.
In this case, the
knight
z is pinned to
the queen, but it
can freely move. 
However, doing so
would cause the
loss of the queen.
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Fork

When two pieces are attacked at

the same time.  Often a king will
be in check by a piece and
another piece will be attacked at
the same time.
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 Adjust – When a player wants to centralize a piece
on the square it is on.  The player must say “adjust”
out loud in tournament play and then reposition the
piece.  This signifies that the player doesn’t mean to
move the piece, but is only adjusting it.
 Blunder – A grave mistake that will forfeit the game
or a major piece.  Blunders come in many ways, but
most commonly they occur when a player makes a
huge mistake in a game.
 Checkmate – A position in which the king is in check, cannot move, and the piece
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attacking the king cannot be taken.  Checkmate results in an immediate loss for the
player under checkmate no matter how far ahead they may be in pieces captured.

 Backrank checkmate – When the king is on the 1st or 8th rank and a rook or
queen puts the king in checkmate.  Generally the king’s pawn safety can lead to its
undoing with this type of checkmate.

 Stalemate/draw
 50 move rule – If no piece has been captured in 50 moves, the game is an automatic draw.
 This usually occurs when a beginning player cannot checkmate quickly enough with its material
 Insufficient mating material – When one player is unable to checkmate because they don’t
have enough pieces.  The best known examples are having just a king and knight, a king and a
bishop, or a king and two knights. With no other pieces on the board, these scenarios are
impossible to create checkmate and the game ends in a draw.
 3 move repetition – when the board looks the same three different times throughout a game.
 This does not need to occur in order to be declared an automatic draw.
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En Passant

can only occur on the move after

the pawn makes its 2 square
special move.  This is because of
the history of the move in that the
pawn has now had the chance to
have moved forward twice to be
adjacent to the pawn in the first
place
 En Passant
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en passant starting The white pawn has Resulting in a final

position moved directly next to position as follows
the black pawn and the
black pawn can now
capture it as if it were on
the c3 square.
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Pawn promotion

If a pawn reaches the opponent´s edge of

the table, it will be promoted – the pawn may
be converted to a queen, rook, bishop or
knight, as the player desires. The choice is
not limited to previously captured pieces.
Thus its´ theoretically possible having up to
nine queens or up to ten rooks, bishops, or
knights if all pawns are promoted.
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Castling

Castling queenside or kingside means

you must move your king two squares in
one direction or the other, and the rook
“jumps” over it.

This is all considered one move and is

annotated as 0-0 for kingside castling
and 0-0-0 for queenside castling.
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How to Castle
Kingside and
Queenside
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Castling Kingside or Short Side
Castling
 (annotated as 0-0) in which the king moves 2
squares directly towards the rook, and the rook
“jumps” it and moves 2 squares to the left.
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Castling Queenside or Long Side
Castling–
 (annotated as 0-0-0) in which the king moves 2 squares directly
towards the rook on the queenside of the board, and the rook
“jumps” it and moves 3 squares to the right.
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The following conditions must be met to castle in chess
in either direction

 You cannot castle through check

 The king cannot be in check when castling is completed.

 The king or rook cannot have moved prior to castling in

either direction
 The path must be completely cleared between the rook
and king.  Kingside includes the bishop and knight while
queenside includes the bishop, knight, and queen.