Stars and Stripes: Check It Out, Mate: Vocabulary for International Chess Day, July 20

Widely recognized as one of the greatest and most difficult board games in the world, chess originated in India in the 6th century C.E., spreading into Persia and the Muslim world — undergoing rule changes over the course of many centuries — before arriving in Europe and beyond. Learn this list and become a vocabulary grandmaster!
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. advantage
    the quality of having a superior or more favorable position
    Since white always moves first, having that color can provide a player with a distinct advantage in that he can make immediate headway on a preferred strategy. Endgame
  2. attack
    an offensive against an enemy
    The point was to allow white, his opponent, to occupy the center squares, making the pieces a clear target that would be vulnerable to Bobby’s attack. Endgame
  3. board
    a flat portable surface designed for games
    For many chess players—and especially for those people who don’t know the game—witnessing two players competing without sight of a board can evoke astonishment. Endgame
    Board literally means "plank of wood," which is logical for a playing surface that until recently would have almost always been fashioned from wood. It's an ancient word, going back through Germanic languages to Sanskrit.
  4. capture
    the removal of an opponent's piece from the chess board
    What if he allowed Byrne to capture his queen, the most powerful piece on the board? Endgame
  5. center
    an area that is in the middle of some larger region
    He was also particularly interested in the collection titled Morphy's Games of Chess, which displayed the great player’s tactical ingenuity and his adherence to three general principles: rapid development of one’s pieces, the importance of occupying or capturing the center squares of the board, and mobility—the necessity of keeping lines, ranks, files, and diagonals open. Endgame
    In the early stages of a game, establishing control of the center is essential for launching attacks and building an effective defense. Centrum is Latin for "the midpoint of a circle," which comes from the Greek kentron, meaning the point of a compass used to draw circles.
  6. checkered
    patterned with alternating squares of color
    Photographic blowups of Fischer and Spassky adorned the windows of almost every shop, with black-and-white checkered displays serving as backdrops for huge papier-mâché chess pieces. Endgame
    Checkered describes the board you play chess or checkers on, and can also be used to describe a person or institution's uneven past: containing both dark and light periods.
  7. checkmate
    an inescapable attack on an opponent's king, in chess
    Since chess had become such a motivating force in his life, he might have been incapable of dreaming about the game, or any game, except in symbolic form—that is, his psyche might have automatically defaulted to characters instead of pieces, plots and counterplots instead of variations on the board, murders in place of checkmates. Endgame
    Check has a number of meanings, but the sense here is related to the "stop," "restrain," or "impede" definition. When a king is exposed to a direct threat, such that it could be captured on the next move, the king is in check and must move or have another piece intervene to block the attack. If the king cannot move or be protected, that's checkmate: the end of the game.
  8. develop
    move one's pieces into more advantageous positions
    Bring out your knights before developing your bishops, especially the Queen's Bishop. Exeter Chess Club
    A key part of the early stages of a chess game is the development of a player's pieces, where they're deployed to advantageous spots that allow them freedom of movement. Moving your bishops onto open diagonals to build an attack is a classic type of development.
  9. diagonal
    an oblique line of squares on a checkerboard
    Bobby’s answer to Collins’s move was always instantaneous, his response bursting from somewhere deep in his unconscious as he visualized bishops speeding along the diagonals, knights catapulting over pieces and pawns, and rooks seizing crucial squares. Endgame
    Bishops move exclusively along diagonals, and because of the way pieces are arranged before a game each player has one bishop on black squares and one on white. In addition to moving along straight lines, the queen can also move diagonally.
  10. gambit
    a chess move in which the player sacrifices minor pieces
    His smooth-as-butter rapid win over Azerbaijani super-GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in Moscow is a case in point, as White employs the queenside minority attack to perfection in a classic Queen’s Gambit Declined battle. Washington Times
    There are a number of famous gambits in chess, where a player, often black, will offer a pawn or other minor piece to get the other player to take it. The sacrifice can change the momentum of the game, creating opportunities that outweigh the cost of the lost piece.
  11. initiative
    the first of a series of actions
    Fischer plunged into the game with his trusted and thoroughly analyzed opening, the Ruy Lopez, instantly seizing the initiative and generating pressure in the center squares. Endgame
  12. knight
    a chessman shaped to resemble the head of a horse
    After describing which piece was which by name, the rules went on to explain the intricacies of how each piece moved: “The Queen moves as many squares in any direction as is possible, the Knight moves in an L shape and can jump over other pieces or pawns,” etc. Endgame
    Knights are the pieces shaped like horses' heads. They are the only ones on the board that can jump over other pieces, using a particular L-shaped move. A Germanic word, knight could mean "servant" or "soldier," and in English it refers to an elite class of warrior, often on horseback, in service to a ruler.
  13. material
    things needed for doing or making something
    When white plays the King’s Gambit they are usually looking to give up material and then have the initiative for the early part of the game. Chess.com
    In chess, material refers to pieces, usually related to describing any numerical advantage one player may have by capturing more of their opponent's pieces.
  14. opponent
    a contestant that you are matched against
    Under the Median System of tie-breaking, which was to be used in all tournaments conducted by the United States Chess Federation, all of the scores of all of the opponents of the players who are tied are totaled, the top two and the lower two are deleted, and whoever played the highest rated (and therefore more difficult) opponents would be declared the winner. Endgame
  15. pawn
    the least powerful piece in chess
    Spassky concealed a black pawn and a white pawn behind his back in the time-honored fashion and then brought his closed hands forward across the board. Endgame
    Pawn comes from ped-, the Latin word for "foot," as in "foot soldier:" the lowliest rank in an army. Pawns are not powerful, but if they make it to the far side of the board, they can be promoted into a queen or any other piece.
  16. promotion
    the act of raising in rank or position
    “I could be a sacrifice pawn,” she said to the press. “But in chess there is such a thing as pawn promotion, where a pawn can become a queen. Bobby-san is my king and I will become his queen.” Endgame
  17. protect
    shield from danger, injury, destruction, or damage
    Normally, playing without a queen is crippling, almost tantamount to an automatic loss. But what if Byrne, in capturing Bobby’s queen, wound up in a weakened position that left him less able to attack the rest of Bobby’s forces and less able to protect his own? Endgame
  18. rook
    a castle-shaped chess piece that moves in a straight line
    So many peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches, bowls of cereal, and plates of spaghetti were consumed while Bobby was replaying and analyzing games that the crumbs and leavings of his food became encrusted in the crenellated battlements of his rooks, the crosses of his kings, the crowns of his queens, and the creases in the miters of his bishops. Endgame
    Rooks are the castles, placed in the corners of the board when play begins. They're powerful pieces, moving in straight lines and crucial in the middle and end game for pinning down an opponent's king. The word comes from the Sanskrit ratha meaning "chariot," since in the early Indian game that was the form the pieces took. The word, like the game, traveled through Persian (ruk) and Arabic before becoming the Old French rok.
  19. stalemate
    drawing position in chess
    When Bobby didn’t answer and the press interviewed Euwe about it, he issued an apt reply: “At the moment we are in a complete stalemate.” Bobby was about to checkmate himself, however. Endgame
    If a game cannot be won by either player, that's a stalemate. It results in a draw, which is not an uncommon outcome in tournaments.
  20. strategy
    an elaborate and systematic plan of action
    Bernard Zuckerman, who was almost as studious as Bobby in analyzing games, especially the strategy of opening moves, was born just days apart from Bobby and ultimately would become an international master. Endgame
  21. threaten
    present a danger to
    Svidler threatens to capture Black's key defender, the bishop on b7, with his rook. U.S. Chess
  22. trade
    exchange or give in exchange for
    When Bobby offered to trade rooks, Euwe responded by offering him a draw on the forty-first move. Endgame
    If you take your opponent's rook with one of yours and she promptly takes the offending piece in return, that's a trade.
Created on Fri Jun 19 10:32:46 EDT 2020 (updated Thu May 11 13:48:33 EDT 2023)

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