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 ...

, a flight square or escape square is a safe

square In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90- degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length a ...

to which a piece, especially a king, can move if it is threatened. Providing one's piece with flight squares can prevent the opponent from winning material or delivering checkmate. For example, in the Morphy Defence, the white c-pawn may be advanced to provide the light-squared white

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...

with a flight square. Conversely, it is possible to take away an enemy piece's flight squares, known as domination.

Luft

, (the German word for "

air The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing f ...

", sometimes also "space" or "breath") designates the space or square left by a

pawn Pawn most often refers to: * Pawn (chess), the weakest and most numerous piece in the game * Pawnbroker or pawnshop, a business that provides loans by taking personal property as collateral Pawn may also refer to: Places * Pawn, Oregon, an his ...

move into which a

king King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

(usually a castled one) may then retreat, especially such a space made intentionally to avoid back-rank checkmate. A move leaving such a space is often said to "give the king some luft". The term "luft", "lufting", or "lufted" may also be used (as an English

participle In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...

) to refer to the movement of the relevant pawn creating luft. (At the 45:26 mark, GM Ben Finegold of the

Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Atlanta The Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Atlanta (CCSCATL) is a chess venue located in Roswell, Georgia. It is administered by co-founder Ben Finegold, a chess grandmaster. History The CCSCATL was founded by Karen Boyd and her husband Ben Finegold ...

examines a game lost because the player is unable to luft due to his own pieces blockading his pawns.) Preventing an opponent from lufting a pawn (for example by

pinning Pinning may refer to: * Pinning, the effect of certain weapons that cause their targets to be pinned down * Pinning ceremony (nursing), a symbolic welcoming of new graduates into the nursing profession * Pinning force, a force acting on a pinned ...

it or moving a piece to the square in front of it) is a tactic that may lead to checkmate. A king's access to his luft might also be denied by the opponent subjecting the space or square to attack. The German is a close cognate to the English "lift", which is also used in chess, e.g., .

Examples

In the diagram at left, "X"s mark ''luft'' to which the king can escape back-rank checkmate delivered by the queen. Theoretical enemy knights in the indicated positions deny the king access to his ''luft''. Black dots indicate areas where threats emanating from enemy pieces capable of capturing diagonally could also deny access. The

pawn structure In a game of chess, the pawn structure (sometimes known as the pawn skeleton) is the configuration of pawns on the chessboard. Because pawns are the least mobile of the chess pieces, the pawn structure is relatively static and thus plays a large ...

seen in Black's position is , but it is a risk commonly accepted to

fianchetto In chess, the fianchetto ( or ; "little flank") is a pattern of wherein a bishop is developed to the second rank of the adjacent b- or g-, the having been moved one or two squares forward. The fianchetto is a staple of many " hypermodern" ...

. Being up a queen in the game on the right, Black will win unless he overlooks the threat of Ng6 (which sets up checkmate via Rh8#). Black wouldn't be able to capture the knight or create luft because his f-pawn is pinned by White's bishop, and his g-pawn cannot advance if a piece is on g6 blockading it. White's king is temporarily safe from check in his luft. (Black can neutralize the threat of Ng6 by playing Qb8, as then Ng6 can be met by the discovered check of Nf5+, winning the checkmate-threatening h4 rook after White reacts.)

References

Bibliography # # #Larry., Evans, (2011). ''New ideas in chess''. Cardoza Publishing.

ISBN The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier that is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency. An ISBN is assigned to each separate edition an ...

978-1-58042-274-1. OCLC 646112792. Chess terminology Chess strategy {{chess-stub

Luft

Examples

See also

References