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Chess glossary

Every chess term explained in plain English, with a board diagram — from the rules to tactics, strategy and the endgame.

Rules

Castling
Castling is a single move where the king and a rook move at once: the king steps two squares toward a rook, and that rook hops to the king’s other side.
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Check
Check is when your king is under direct attack, and you must answer it immediately on your next move.
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Checkmate
Checkmate is when a king is in check and has no legal way to escape — it ends the game immediately, and the side delivering it wins.
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En Passant
En passant is a special pawn capture: a pawn that has just advanced two squares can be taken by an enemy pawn beside it, as if it had moved only one.
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Promotion
Promotion is when a pawn reaches the opponent's back rank and is immediately replaced by a queen, rook, bishop or knight of the same colour.
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Stalemate
Stalemate is when the side to move has no legal move but its king is not in check — the game is an immediate draw.
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Tactics

Fork
A fork is a single move that attacks two (or more) enemy pieces at once, so the opponent can only save one.
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Pin
A pin is when a piece can’t move (or shouldn’t) because a more valuable piece sits directly behind it along the line of attack.
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Skewer
A skewer is a pin in reverse: a valuable piece is attacked in front and must move, exposing a piece behind it on the same line.
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Strategy

Bishop Pair
The bishop pair is the advantage of having both of your bishops while the opponent has only one (or none), since together they cover squares of both colours.
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Development
Development is the process of bringing your pieces off their starting squares to active posts in the opening, getting ready to castle and fight for the centre.
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Doubled Pawns
Doubled pawns are two pawns of the same colour stacked on one file, the result of a capture that pulled a pawn sideways onto a file it already occupied.
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Fianchetto
A fianchetto is developing a bishop to the second rank on the knight’s file (g2, b2, g7 or b7) so it rakes down the long diagonal.
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Initiative
The initiative is the ability to keep making threats so your opponent is forced to react to you, rather than carry out plans of their own.
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Isolated Pawn
An isolated pawn is a pawn with no friendly pawns on either adjacent file, so it can never be defended by a pawn and must be guarded by pieces.
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Open File
An open file is a file (column) with no pawns of either colour on it, giving rooks and queens a clear path up and down the board.
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Outpost
An outpost is a square, usually in or near enemy territory, that your pawn defends and no enemy pawn can attack — an ideal home for a piece, especially a knight.
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Passed Pawn
A passed pawn is a pawn with no enemy pawns ahead of it on its own file or the two files beside it, so no pawn can block or capture it on the way to promotion.
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Tempo
A tempo is a single move counted as a unit of time — you ‘gain a tempo’ when you make a useful move while forcing the opponent to make a useless one.
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Weak Square
A weak square (or ‘hole’) is a square that can no longer be defended by any of your pawns, so an enemy piece can settle there safely.
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Endgame

Zugzwang
Zugzwang is a position where it’s your turn and every legal move worsens your position — you’d love to pass, but you can’t.
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Openings

Gambit
A gambit is an opening where you deliberately give up a pawn (sometimes more) early on, in return for quicker development, central control, or an attack.
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Transposition
A transposition is when a different order of moves leads to a position that could also have arisen from another opening or sequence.
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General

Blunder
A blunder is a serious mistake — typically one that hangs a piece, allows a winning tactic, or loses the game outright.
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