Are you looking for a list of Chess terms, phrases, and abbreviations? Then you’re in the right place.
Below is a full Chess dictionary and complete list of Chess Terminology. This page will help you learn every term and definition you’ll come across when chatting about Chess.
Last Updated: May 28th, 2022
The Chess Journal’s Chess Glossary below lists and explains all of the terms used in Chess. If you’re still learning Chess vernacular, this is the best place for you to start. Go through and familiarize yourself with the Chess lingo. If you would like for us to add and explain a term that is not listed here, then please go ahead and use our suggestion form.
Click on one of the terms below to get the full definition.
- 3 Checkmate Chess
- 4 Player
- Arena
- Activity
- Adjournment
- Advantage
- Attack
- AlphaZero
- Alekhine’s Gun
- Adjournment
- Arbiter
- Armageddon
- Atomic Chess
- Automate Chess
- Blunder
- Backrank Checkmate
- Blockade
- Backward Pawn
- Bad Bishop
- Battery
- Beth Harmon
- Blindfold Chess
- Blitz Chess
- Boden’s Mate
- Book
- Bughouse Chess
- Bullet Chess
- Castling
- Capture Anything
- Candidate Master (CM)
- Candidates Tournament
- Chaturaji
- Chaturanga
- Check
- Checkmate
- Chess.com
- Chess Boxing
- Chess Clock
- Chess Defense
- Chess Endgame
- Chess Engine
- Chess Match
- Chess Notation
- Chess Olympiad
- Chess Pieces
- Chess Piece Value
- Chess Ranking
- Chess Rating
- Chess Tactics
- Chess Titles
- Chess Turn
- Chess Variants
- Chess960
- Chessboard
- Chessmaster Game
- Closed
- Combination
- Correspondance Chess
- Crafty
- Cramped
- Crazyhouse Chess
- Cross-Check
- Draw
- Discovery
- Development
- Deep Blue
- Deflection
- Desperado
- Discovered Attack
- Discovered Check
- Double Attack
- Doubled Pawns
- Elo Rating System
- En Passant
- En Prise
- English Chess Federation
- Evergreen Game
- Exchange Sacrifice
- Exchange Pieces
- FIDE
- FIDE Master
- Fianchetto
- File
- Fish
- Flagging
- Fog of War Chess
- Fool’s Mate
- Fossil
- Forced Move
- Fork
- Forsyth-Edwards Notation
- Fortress
- Forced
- Fritz
- Gambit
- Game of the Century
- Game of Kings
- Giveaway Chess
- Gothic Chess
- Grandmaster
- Hanging Piece
- HIARCS
- Horde Chess
- Houdini
- Hypermodern Chess
- Hippo Gambit
- Horse
- Howler
- Immortal Game
- Interference
- International Chess Day
- International Chess Federation FIDE
- International Master (IM)
- Isolated Pawn
- Isolated Queen’s Pawn
- J’adoube
- Juicer
- Leela Chess Zero
- Lucena Position
- Lichess.org
- London System
- Maroczy Bind
- Mate
- Material
- Middle Game
- Minority Attack
- National Master (NM)
- No Castling Chess
- Novelty
- Opening
- Open
- Over the board
- Opera Game
- Pawn
- Passed Pawn
- Position
- Pawn Promotion
- Pawn Storm
- Pawn Structure
- Pawn Types
- Perpetual Check
- Philidor Position
- Pin
- Poisoned Pawn
- Portable Game Notation (PGN)
- Post Mortem
- Queen
- Queening a Pawn
- Racing Kings
- Removing The Defender
- Rook
- Round-Robin Tournament
- Rybka
- Stalemate
- Super Grandmaster (GM)
- Sacrifice
- Scholar’s Mate
- Score Sheet
- Shredder
- Sideways Pawns
- Simplification
- Skewer
- Sealed Move
- Sudden Death
- Space
- Special Chess Moves
- Smothered Mate
- Square Rule
- Strategy
- Study
- Stockfish
- Swindle
- Tournament
- Tactics
- Tempo
- Time Controls
- Time Trouble
- The Turk
- Threefold Repetition
- Torpedo Chess
- Trapped Piece
- U.S. Chess Federation
- Underpromotion
- Weakness
- Win
- Winning Position
- Woodpusher
- Windmill
- Women Candidate Master
- Women FIDE Master
- Women Grandmaster
- Women International Master
- World Chess Championship
- XXL Chess
I hope this glossary of chess terms helped you. Bookmark this page in your browser for quicker access and convenience for the future.
