Chess Glossary : Section C
Caissa
1. Chess has its own deity – the Goddess Caissa. To invoke the luck of this Goddess, the incantation goes like this (you say): “Caissa was with me.”
2. The Chess Glossary Team has a deity, too – the Goddess Paymemore. Their incantation goes like this: “Paymemore and I work.” Unfortunately, management has a deity for such occasions – the Goddess Youare and it’s phrase is short and sweet: “Youare fired.”
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Calculation of Variations
When anticipating your next move, you – ideally – work out possible sequences of moves, in your head, before selecting what you think is the best course of action. Garry Kasparov is very good at this. The Chess Glossary Team are, er, not.
Candidate Master
Kind of an ‘entry level’, the ‘CM’ title is awarded to a player, by FIDE, usually upon achieving an ELO Rating of 2200 or more.
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Candidate Move
During your game, after studying the board and analyzing possible moves, you discard potentially poor moves and further analyze the potentially good ones – each good one is a Candidate Move (as it’s a candidate for actually being played).
Candidates Match
A Candidates Match refers to a specific knockout match between two players in the Candidates Tournament (see the entry below).
Candidates Tournament
Organized by the World Chess Federation (FIDE), this specific Tournament is held in the third and last qualifying cycles to decide who goes forward to contest the World Chess Championship.
Capped Pawn
Refers to a specific Pawn used by one player to Checkmate their opponent. Playing with a Capped Pawn is something of a handicap. It means one of the players, usually the stronger (more-capable) player must deliver Checkmate with a particular Pawn (just 1 of the available 8 Pawns!), while the weaker player can Checkmate with any Pawn or Piece available, as per normal games of Chess.
Capped Piece
Same principle as the Capped Pawn handicap, only the stronger player must Checkmate their opponent (usually a weaker player) using a specific Piece (e.g. the Kingside Rook).
Capture
A move that, under the rules of chess, causes an enemy Pawn or Piece to be removed from the chessboard. The usual Capturing method is for a Pawn or Piece to land directly on a square occupied by an enemy Pawn or Piece. The exception to this is during En Passant. The King is the only Piece that cannot be Captured.
Castle
1. A special move that takes place between the King and Rook, on either the King’s side or Queen’s Side of the board, with the sole purpose being to quickly get your King to relative safety, while releasing a Rook from it passive corner square.
2. What some bankers allegedly had before they spanked your money into sub-prime housing.
Casual Game
Also referred to as a “Skittles Game”, or a “Friendly Game”, and is one that is not played as part of a tournament, exhibition, or match. Quite often, these games won’t be timed.
CC
Short for Correspondence Chess, which is Chess played by post or, now, by email … You make a move, you post/email it out to your opponent. If you haven’t died of boredom, you get then next move back in the post/your inbox and off you go again.
Center
1. The four central squares on the Chess Board – d4–d5–e5–e4 – make up what is known as the Small Center. Securing a controlling majority in the Small Center can be strategically important and can often lead to a player, favorably, dictating the game’s outcome. It’s the prime reason why so many Chess Openings focus on trying to control this little region of the Board.
2. America’s two fingers up at the English’s “centre”, which they, incidentally, swiped from the French, where all words sound good but are hopelessly spelt.
Centralization
This refers to the act of moving your Pieces – one or more – toward the Center of the chessboard.
Center Pawn
The Pawns that sit in front of their respective King and Queen – one on the ‘d’ file, the other on the ‘e’ file – are known as the Central Pawns.
Cheapo
1. Lidl Baked Beans.
2. A Cheapo is a slang term that refers to a crude trap that a player might set when in a losing position – it’s a last-ditch attempt to Swindle their way to a Win or, at the very least, a Draw.
Check
1. Blank, signed and made payable to the “Chess Glossary Team”, please.
2. When a King is directly threatened by an opposing piece.
Checkmate
According to the rules, and idly confirmed by the Chess Glossary Team, this is Game Over – if this has happened to your King, you’ve lost.
Chess960
A Chess variant (i.e. a tweaked/modified version of the main, International Chess). Played on a regular Chessboard, Chess960 was invented by former World Chess Champion Bobby Fischer and allows players to setup their Pieces (not the Pawns) in a random starting order, on the Back-Rank. Because of the random setup, this variant has also been referred to as Fischer Random Chess.
Chess Annotation
Some say it’s witchcraft; others can get the hang of the maths and know exactly where the pieces are on the board, in any chess tournament that they haven’t been invited to take part in.
Chessboard
What the Pawns and Pieces sit on. The Chessboard is, basically, flat square tile consisting of a checkered-pattern of 32 dark-colored squares and 32 light-colored squares.
Chess Clock
Alternative name for a Chess Timer and used to keep time during, um, timed games of chess. There are two faces on a typical Chess Clock. When a player finishes their move, they press down the button on ‘their’ clock, which stops their timer and starts the timer ticking down on their opponent’s clock.
Chess Database
A database containing various chess positions for use in all good computerised chess trainers/simulators. Some databases go ballistic with over 30 million positions and half a million programmed games for you to pit your wits against.
Chess Endgame
The final stages of a game of Chess and where the Chess Glossary Team make a concerted effort not to win. By this time, most of the pieces, of either side, have been captured, though it can be a bit of a blur as to when the endgame takes over from the middlegame.
Chess Glossary Team
Not really deserving of a mention, but totally getting one here.
Chess Middle Game
Seasoned Chess players often declare the start of the Middle Game is when a player has moved the last of their major pieces – that is, the Knights, Bishops, Rooks, Queen and King have been moved from their starting place along their back row.
Chess Notation
Another way of saying Annotated Chess, or Chess Annotation … however you say it, it all amounts to the same thing (and will never, this side of Doomsday, be fathomable by the Chess Glossary tea lady).
Chess Opening
Describes the sequence of moves during the first stage of a game of chess. The Chess Glossary Team doesn’t want to over-tax the mind of beginner chess players, but, according to The Oxford Companion to Chess, there are 1327 named openings and variations.
Chess Peices
An entry shamelessly listed for the benefit of the search engines – apparently, in their excitement at discovering a use for Google, there are some who blatantly ignore accuracy in favour of a typo … Such errors can often be the result of a Polytechnic education.
Chess Problems
The term, Chess Problems, is another name for Chess Puzzles.
Chess Puzzle
To the beginner, these are somthing of a mystery – a bit like Sudoku is to the mathematically-challenged. With time and practice of the basic game, such puzzles become a training aid to improve your powers of chess-logic.
Chess Rating
With the Chess Glossary Team on unpaid leave, it was Wikipedia to the rescue to tell you that this term refers to “systems used in chess to calculate and estimate strength of the player, based on his performance versus other players”.
Chess School
Yes, there is such a thing … if you want to dramatically improve your game, there are detailed courses available specifically to teach the game of chess.
Chess Simul
Simul: short for Simultaneous and refers to an exibition of Chess, usually by a Grand Master or high-ranking, show-boating player, who gets to display his skill by playing games against multiple opponents, at the same time – he makes a move, goes to the next player … rinse and repeat until all games are finished.
Chess Software
Can range from simple games, played partly for entertainment; to hardcore chess engines, designed to train and develop your level of skill anywhere from beginner up to Grandmaster.
Chess Success Secrets
What beginners think Grandmasters have, but in actual fact turns out to be due to dedicated study of the art of chess … along with an unhealthy liking for coffee.
Chess Supplies
Coffee, Red Bull, and your favorite selection of high-energy, low nutritional value snacks from the sweet shop.
Chess Timer
Basically, a siamese-clock – it’s got two heads, one to count time taken for White’s moves, the other to do ditto for Black’s moves. When it’s your move, you start the timer; when you’ve completed your move, you stop your timer and your opponent’s timer starts automatically … and this pattern repeats itself until the game is over.
Chess Tournaments
Get good, enter Tournaments – some you can invite yourself along to; others are more select and invitation-only (such as the Amber Chess Tournament) … prizes can range from trophies to, more sensibly, cash (such as the Amber Chess Tournament) … The Chess Glossary Team are resigned to the fact they’ll never be invited to such a cash happy tournament and face an unfair life picking peanuts out of poo for this hackneyed website.
Chess Trainer
Similar to the Chess School concept, but in a more one-on-one environment and totally out of fiscal reach for the low-rent, low-yielding Chess Glossary Team.
Chess Tutorial
Similar to both the Chess School concept and Chess Trainer concept, but nobody wants to face personal responsibility, so it’s usually a $27 eBook or a faceless website (like this one).
Classical Style
Refers to the playing style that focuses on trying to create a full pawn center. An alternative style is that of the Hypermodernist players, who are anti the center pawn play, prefering to control the center from the Flanks.
Clearance
Is a piece of your own side getting in the way of a good move? One solution is to sacrifice said piece, for the benefit of a superior positional gain – Such a sacrifice is often referred to as a “Clearance Sacrifice”.
Clock Move
The Chess Glossary Team failed to wrap their collective mind around this one, gave up without protest and resumed farming Gold in World of Warcraft. Luckily, those good fellas down the road at Wikipedia Towers had done their homework and came up trumps with: A timed game is played clock move if a move is completed only when the clock has been pressed. It is therefore possible to touch one piece, but then decide to move another piece. This way of playing is common in casual games, in favour of touch move.
Closed File
At the start of the game, each side has one Pawn on a single File (from ‘a’ to ‘h’). All Files begin as Closed Files … A File only becomes an Open File when BOTH Pawns (White & Black) leave the File (either to capture enemy or because they’ve been captured). If only one of the two opposing Pawns remains on that File, it’s known as a Half-Open File.
Closed Game
Where either side has a Pawn Structure that blocks the diagonal paths of the Bishop, this is known as a Closed Game – if you spot this during one of your games, should it come to an Exchange of pieces, protect your Knights, as their ability to jump over pieces is now more tactically valuable than the Bishop’s long-range, but stuck-on-the-ground movements.
Closed Position
Another way of referring to a Closed Game – the Center is claustrophobic with Pawns, which block movement of Bishops, Knights and Queens … Knights are good in these situations.
Closed Tournament
1. The Chess Glossary Team missed the bus, got there late, only to find it closed. On the bright side, they found a good pub with a pool table, so the day wasn’t totally lost.
2. Refers to an invitation-only type of Chess Tournament – if your name’s not down, you ain’t playing.
CM
Abbreviation for the Candidate Master Chess Title, which is awarded by FIDE to players who reach an Elo rating of 2200 points or more. The title abbreviation will go before the player’s name, e.g. CM Jon Doe.
Color
Refers to the respective armies (White & Black) and also to the checkered-pattern of squares on the chessboard, which is made up of “light-color squares” and “dark-color squares”.
Combination
1. When a forced series of moves is accompanied by a Sacrifice, which ‘combine’ to take advantage of any potential for positional and/or material advantage.
2. Sausage, Chips & Gravy = Good Combination; Mentos & Diet Coke = Interesting Combination; Child + Pick ‘n’ Mix + Long Car Journey = Bad Combination.
Compensation
1. Sounds like a good idea to the Chess Glossary Team, but they’ll only take cash payments.
2. If, for instance, you sacrifice a Rook (worth 5 points), to capture 2 Pawns (2 points) and a Knight (3 points), you’d have received Compensation for the loss of your Rook. There may be an imbalance in your Compensation, but it returns an equivalent benefit. Gambits sacrifice Pawns or Pieces, but can gain you an advantage in development, which would be the Compensation.
Compromised King-side
You have a Compromised King-side if your opponent can attack your King’s position, with advantage, hence the spelling of “King-side“, to represent the side the King is on, as opposed to “Kingside” or “Queenside”, which refer to the two specific chess board zones.
Computer Chess Game
Non-hardcore game of chess that can be played on a computer… examples include Chess Titans and Lego Chess … If you want hardcore, Fritz looks good for your money – there are others, but the idle lay-abouts in the Chess Glossary office have neglected their research duties in favour of watching reruns of Battlestar Galactica.
Connected Major Pieces
The Major Pieces are the Rooks and Queen(s). At the beginning of each game, these pieces are separated by Knights (x2), Bishops (x2) and the King. Connecting your Major Pieces enhances their collective strength, making them a potent force, for both attack and defence.
Connected Passed Pawns
Two or more diagonally-connected Pawns of an opponent, which can no longer be prevented from getting to the enemy’s back row – thus enabling Promotion.
Connected Pawns
Two or more Pawns that belong to the same army and are on adjacent Files, are referred to as Connected Pawns – one can provide a support point for the other.
Connected Rooks
When both Rooks that belong to the same army have clear sight of each other – there’s no Pawns or Pieces blocking the way – then these are Rooks are Connected … Connected Rooks become more powerful, because they can work together in attack or defence. Castling, besides getting the King to safety, also speeds up the process of getting your Rooks Connected.
Control
1. A player whose pieces dominate any area, file or rank, on the board, is said to control that region.
2. When in reference to the Chess Glossary Team, “Out of” is the prefix you want, first.
Control Of The Center
The army who has more units controlling the Center Zone of the chessboard, is said to have Control of the Center. E.g. White has 2 Knights and 5 Pawns controlling a combined total of 12 squares in Center; Black has 1 Knight and 6 Pawns controlling a combined total of 10 squares in the Center … In this example, White has Control of the Center, by a controlling majority of 2 squares.
Correspondence Chess
Another failure to do their fair share of research has resulted in a copy-and-paste raid on Wikipedia: “Correspondence chess is chess played by various forms of long-distance correspondence, usually through a correspondence chess server, through email or by the postal system; less common methods which have been employed include fax and – we in the Chess Glossary Team kid you not – homing pigeon“.
Corresponding Squares
Also known as Relative Squares, Sister Squares and Coordinate Squares, the Corresponding Squares can sometimes be seen in the Endgame phase and are squares that can result in reciprocal zugzwang.
Countergambit
A Gambit which is attempted by Black. White offers Gambits; Black offers Countergambits.
Counterplay
When a player has undergone sustained attack and now begins his own attacking maneuvers, he is responding with his own Counterplay … It’s a more-involved attacking sequence, than a single Counter-attack.
Cramp
1. When a player’s pieces are lacking available squares to move, resulting in tactical disadvantage. Also known as having Cramped Position
2. Perennial fib, tactically used by the resident salad-dodger to explain sudden non-involvement during School Sports Day and, suspiciously, timed-to-perfection, to coincide with the start of any event that involves commitment to run.
Cramping Pawn
A ‘Good’ Pawn to have and one which puts Cramping pressure on the enemy’s position … Typically the Pawn will be a ‘Passed Pawn’ which is one square away from Promotion.
Crippled Majority Wing
A Crippled Majority Wing is one where an army has more Pawns on one of the Flanks, but those Pawns contain some sort of crippling weakness, such as Doubled Pawns or Isolated Pawns, which prevents the Majority Wing from forcing a Passed Pawn against the Minority Wing facing it.
Critical Position
1. Stage of a game where the player’s next set of moves could equally win or lose the battle.
2. When it comes to war, the cowardly spirit is evergreen in the Chess Glossary Team. When it comes to a fight, their Critical Position is, “After YOU“.
Critical Square
Also referred to as a Key Square, this is a specific square that is strategically important. It allows either side to realize an important goal or objective. For instance, one Critical Square might allow greater positional control, from which you can plan stronger attacks. Another example of a Critical Square would be one that allows allows your army to protect a Pawn, so it can safely head for Promotion.
Cross-Check
When a player gets their King out of Check by blocking with a piece which delivers a Check, or reveals a Discovered Check, against the opposition King, this latter Check becomes the “Cross-Check”.
Crosstable
After each game in a tournament, the results are updated from everyone to see. The results are in tabular form and the arrangement allows players to cross-reference the results of the participating players.