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Key Square
In chess, particularly in endgames, a key square (also known as a ''critical square'') is a square such that if a player's king can occupy it, he can force some gain such as the promotion of a pawn or the capture of an opponent's pawn. Key squares are useful mostly in endgames involving only kings and pawns. In the king and pawn versus king endgame, the key squares depend on the position of the pawn and are easy to determine. Some more complex positions have easily determined key squares while other positions have harder-to-determine key squares. Some positions have key squares for both White and Black. King and pawn versus king In an endgame with a king and pawn versus a king, the key squares are relative to the position of the pawn. Assume that White has the pawn. If the white king can occupy a key square, he can force the promotion of the pawn but accurate play is required. Whether or not the white king can reach a key square depends on the position of the pieces a ...
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Chess Xol45
Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves no hidden information and no elements of chance. It is played on a square board consisting of 64 squares arranged in an 8×8 grid. The players, referred to as "White" and "Black", each control sixteen pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knight (chess), knights, and eight pawn (chess), pawns, with each type of piece having a different pattern of movement. An enemy piece may be captured (removed from the board) by moving one's own piece onto the square it occupies. The object of the game is to "checkmate" (threaten with inescapable capture) the enemy king. There are also several ways a game can end in a draw (chess), draw. The recorded history of chess goes back to at least the emergence of chaturanga—also thought to be an ancestor to Chess variant, similar games like and —in seventh-century History of India, India. After its introduction in Persia, it spread to the ...
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Mutual Zugzwang
Zugzwang (; ) is a situation found in chess and other turn-based games wherein one player is put at a disadvantage because of their obligation to make a move; a player is said to be "in zugzwang" when any legal move will worsen their position. Although the term is used less precisely in games such as chess, it is used specifically in combinatorial game theory to denote a move that directly changes the outcome of the game from a win to a loss. Putting the opponent in zugzwang is a common way to help the superior side win a game, and in some cases it is necessary in order to make the win possible. More generally, the term can also be used to describe a situation where none of the available options lead to a good outcome. The term ''zugzwang'' was used in German chess literature in 1858 or earlier, and the first known use of the term in English was by World Champion Emanuel Lasker in 1905. The concept of zugzwang was known to chess players many centuries before the term was coined, ...
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Chess Tactics
In chess, a tactic is a sequence of moves that each makes one or more immediate threats – a check, a threat, a checkmating sequence threat, or the threat of another tactic or otherwise forcing moves – that culminates in the opponent's being unable to respond to all of the threats without making some kind of concession. Most often, the immediate benefit takes the form of a material advantage or ; however, some tactics are used for defensive purposes and can salvage material that would otherwise be lost, or to induce stalemate in an otherwise lost position. Tactics are usually contrasted with strategy, whereby the individual moves by themselves do not make indefensible threats, and the cumulative advantage of them takes longer to capitalise. The dichotomy can be summarised as tactics concerning short-term play and strategy concerning long-term play. Examples of strategic advantages are in, compromised pawn structure in, and sustained pressure on, the opponent's position. Of ...
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Chess Terminology
This glossary of chess explains commonly used terms in chess, in alphabetical order. Some of these terms have their own pages, like ''#fork, fork'' and ''#pin, pin''. For a list of unorthodox chess pieces, see Fairy chess piece; for a list of terms specific to chess problems, see Glossary of chess problems; for a list of named #opening, opening lines, see List of chess openings; for a list of chess-related games, see List of chess variants; for a list of terms general to board games, see Glossary of board games. A B C ...
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Gambit Publications
Gambit Publications is a major publisher of chess books. The company's headquarters is in London. It has published more than 200 chess books. The company was founded by three chess players. Grandmaster (GM) John Nunn is the chess director, GM Murray Chandler is the managing director, and FIDE Master Graham Burgess is the editorial director. Some of the major books published by Gambit are ''Mastering the Chess Openings'' (four volumes) by John Watson, ''Secrets of Modern Chess Strategy'' also by Watson, ''Fundamental Chess Endings'' by Karsten Müller and Frank Lamprecht, ''Understanding the Chess Openings'' by Sam Collins, and the new ''Chess Explained'' series by various authors.{{Cite web , last=Peter Wells and 5 more , date=23 December 2013 , title=Chess Explained (8 books) , url=https://www.amazon.in/Chess-Explained/dp/B08P1K7185 , website=Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc., doing business as Amazon, is an American multinational technology company engaged in e-com ...
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Zugzwang
Zugzwang (; ) is a situation found in chess and other turn-based games wherein one player is put at a disadvantage because of their obligation to make a move; a player is said to be "in zugzwang" when any legal move will worsen their position. Although the term is used less precisely in games such as chess, it is used specifically in combinatorial game theory to denote a move that directly changes the outcome of the game from a win to a loss. Putting the opponent in zugzwang is a common way to help the superior side win a game, and in some cases it is necessary in order to make the win possible. More generally, the term can also be used to describe a situation where none of the available options lead to a good outcome. The term ''zugzwang'' was used in German chess literature in 1858 or earlier, and the first known use of the term in English was by World Champion Emanuel Lasker in 1905. The concept of zugzwang was known to chess players many centuries before the term was coine ...
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Triangulation (chess)
Triangulation is a tactic used in chess to put one's opponent in zugzwang (a position in which it is a disadvantage to move). Triangulation is also called ''losing a tempo'' or ''losing a move''. Triangulation occurs most commonly in endgames with only kings and pawns when one king can maneuver on three adjacent squares in the shape of a triangle and maintain the basic position while the opposing king only has two such squares. Thus, if one king triangulates by using three moves to return to the original square and the opposing king cannot do the same, he has lost a crucial tempo and reached the same position with the other player to move. Triangulation can occur in other endgames and even in some middlegames. Example Consider this position, with White to move. Here, Black has the opposition and is keeping the white king out. However, if White had the opposition (i.e. it were Black's move in this position), the black king would have to move away from d7 and allow the whi ...
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Chess Endgame
The endgame (or ending) is the final stage of a chess game which occurs after the middlegame. It begins when few pieces are left on the board. The line between the middlegame and the endgame is often not clear, and may occur gradually or with a quick exchange of pieces. The endgame, however, tends to have different characteristics from the middlegame, and the players have correspondingly different strategic concerns. In particular, pawns become more important as endgames often revolve around attempts to promote a pawn by advancing it to the eighth . The king, which normally is kept safe during the game, becomes active in the endgame, as it can help escort pawns to promotion, attack enemy pawns, protect other pieces, and restrict the movement of the enemy king. Not all chess games reach an endgame; some of them end earlier. All chess positions with up to seven pieces on the board have been solved by endgame tablebases, so the outcome (win, loss, or draw) of best play by bot ...
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Corresponding Squares
In chess, two squares are corresponding squares (also known as relative squares, sister squares, or coordinate squares) if the occupation of one of these squares by a king requires the enemy king to move to the other square in order to hold the position. Corresponding squares exist in some chess endgames, usually ones that are mostly blocked. Usually, there are several groups of corresponding squares. In some cases, they indicate which square the defending king must move to in order to keep the opposing king away. In other cases, a maneuver by one king puts the other player in a situation where he cannot move to the corresponding square, so the first king is able to penetrate the position. The theory of corresponding squares is more general than opposition and is more useful in cluttered positions. In this article, all members of a pair of corresponding squares are labeled with the same number, i.e. 1, 2, etc. Details Corresponding squares are squares of reciprocal (or mutual) ...
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Draw (chess)
In chess, there are a number of ways that a game can end in a draw, in which neither player wins. Draws are codified by various rules of chess including stalemate (when the player to move is not in check (chess), check but has no legal move), threefold repetition (when the same position occurs three times with the same player to move), and the fifty-move rule (when the last fifty successive moves made by both players contain no or pawn (chess), pawn move). Under the standard FIDE rules, a draw also occurs in a ''dead position'' (when no sequence of legal moves can lead to checkmate), most commonly when neither player has sufficient to checkmate the opponent. Unless specific tournament rules forbid it, players may draw by agreement, agree to a draw at any time. Ethical considerations may make a draw uncustomary in situations where at least one player has a reasonable chance of winning. For example, a draw could be called after a move or two, but this would likely be thought unsp ...
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George Walker (chess Player)
George Walker (13 March 1803 – 23 April 1879) was an English chess player and author of ''The Celebrated Analysis of A D Philidor'' (London, 1832), ''The Art of Chess-Play: A New Treatise on the Game of Chess'' (London, 1832), ''A Selection of Games at Chess played by Philidor'' (London, 1835), ''Chess Made Easy'' (London, 1836), and ''Chess Studies'' (London, 1844). George Walker (novelist), His father was a publisher and novelist. In 1839, Walker visited Paris and the Café de la Régence, where he lost (+1−2) a short match to Boncourt (chess player), Boncourt]. In 1845, he teamed up with Henry Thomas Buckle, William Davies Evans, George Perigal, and William Josiah Tuckett in London in two telegraph games (one win and one draw (chess), draw) against a team of Howard Staunton and Hugh Alexander Kennedy in Portsmouth. He won a match against Daniel Harrwitz (+7−5) at London 1846. Walker used his column in ''Bell's Life in London'' to propagate organizing the international L ...
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