Initiative in a
chess
Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...
position belongs to the player who can make threats that cannot be ignored, thus putting the opponent in the position of having to spend turns responding to threats rather than creating new threats. A player with the initiative will often seek to maneuver their pieces into more and more advantageous positions as they launch successive attacks. The player who lacks the initiative may seek to regain it through .
Discussion
Due to moving first,
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White ...
starts the game with the initiative, but it can be lost in the
opening by accepting a
gambit. Players can also lose initiative by making unnecessary moves that allow the opponent to gain
tempo
In musical terminology, tempo ( Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (ofte ...
, such as superfluous "preventive" (
prophylactic) moves intended to guard against certain actions by the opponent, that nonetheless require no specific response by them. The concept of tempo is closely tied to initiative, as players can acquire the initiative or buttress it by gaining a tempo.
The initiative is important in all phases of the game, but more important in the
endgame than in the
middlegame and more important in the middlegame than in the
opening. Having the initiative puts the opponent on the defensive.
Grandmaster Larry Evans considers four elements of chess: ''
pawn structure'', ''force'' (), ' (controlling the and
piece
Piece or Pieces (not to be confused with peace) may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Games
* Piece (chess), pieces deployed on a chessboard for playing the game of chess
* ''Pieces'' (video game), a 1994 puzzle game for the Super NES
* ...
), and ''time''. Time is measured in
tempos. Having a time advantage is having the initiative. The initiative should be kept as long as possible and only given up for another advantage.
See also
*
First move advantage in chess
In chess, there is a general consensus among players and theorists that the player who makes the first move (White) has an inherent advantage. Since 1851, compiled statistics support this view; White consistently slightly more often than Black ...
*
Tempo (chess)
In chess and other chess-like games, a tempo is a "turn" or single move (a half-move or ply made either by White or Black). When a player achieves a desired result in one fewer move, the player is said to "gain a tempo"; conversely, when a playe ...
References
Bibliography
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Further reading
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{{chess
Chess terminology