- Backward pawn
- A pawn that has fallen behind its neighbours on adjacent files and cannot safely advance — a permanent weakness.
- Battery
- Two or more long-range pieces aligned on the same line, attacking along it as a unit.
- Bishop pair
- Both bishops of the same colour on the board — usually a long-term advantage, especially in open positions.
- Blockade
- Placing a piece directly in front of an enemy pawn to immobilise it, often using a knight or bishop.
- Color complex
- The set of squares of a single colour — light or dark — considered together as a strategic battleground.
- Compensation
- Non-material assets — activity, structure, initiative — that justify a material sacrifice.
- Decoy
- Luring a piece to a square where it becomes a target — usually by offering a sacrifice it cannot refuse.
- Deflection
- Forcing a piece away from a critical defensive duty, so that what it was guarding becomes vulnerable.
- Desperado
- A doomed piece that, before being lost, captures as much enemy material as possible.
- Discovered attack
- Moving one piece reveals an attack from another piece that was previously blocked along the same line.
- Double attack
- A move that creates two threats at once, more than the opponent can answer in a single reply.
- Doubled pawns
- Two pawns of the same colour on the same file — created by a capture and often considered a structural weakness.
- Exchange sacrifice
- Giving up a rook for a minor piece — bishop or knight — in return for long-term positional compensation.
- Fianchetto
- Developing a bishop to the long diagonal via b2/g2 (or b7/g7), behind the knight's pawn moved one square.
- Fork
- A single piece attacks two or more enemy units at once, forcing the opponent to lose material on the response.
- Gambit
- A deliberate sacrifice of material — usually a pawn — in the opening, in exchange for development or initiative.
- Good bishop, bad bishop
- A bishop is 'good' when its own pawns sit on the opposite color squares (mobile) and 'bad' when they sit on its own color (blocked).
- Hole
- A square in your camp that no friendly pawn can ever defend — a permanent home for an enemy piece.
- Initiative
- The ability to make threats and set the agenda, forcing the opponent to react rather than create plans of their own.
- Interference
- Placing a piece between two coordinated enemy pieces, breaking their cooperation.
- Isolated pawn
- A pawn with no friendly pawns on the adjacent files — vulnerable to attack but often controlling key central squares.
- Lucena position
- A winning rook-and-pawn endgame technique with the pawn on the seventh rank, using the rook as a 'bridge' to shelter the king from checks.
- Maróczy bind
- A pawn structure with White pawns on c4 and e4, restraining Black's central pawn breaks for the long term.
- Minority attack
- Advancing pawns on the side where they are outnumbered, to create a structural weakness in the opponent's larger pawn majority.
- Novelty
- A new move in a previously analysed opening line — often the product of deep home preparation, sometimes decisive.
- Opposite-colored bishops
- Each side has one bishop, but on different colors — endgames with this material balance are drawish, middlegames sometimes sharp.
- Opposition
- Two kings facing each other on the same file, rank, or diagonal with one square between them — the side not to move holds the opposition.
- Outpost
- A square in or near enemy territory that cannot be attacked by an enemy pawn — an ideal home for a knight or bishop.
- Overloading
- A piece has too many defensive duties — attacking one of its tasks succeeds because it cannot answer two threats.
- Passed pawn
- A pawn with no enemy pawn in front of it or on the adjacent files — free to advance toward promotion.
- Pawn chain
- A diagonal line of pawns of the same colour, each defending the next — the spine of many middlegame structures.
- Pawn island
- A group of one or more pawns of the same colour separated from other friendly pawns by at least one empty file.
- Pawn storm
- A coordinated advance of multiple pawns toward the enemy king, intended to open lines and create attacking threats.
- Philidor position
- A drawing rook-and-pawn endgame defense — the defender keeps the rook on the third rank to prevent the attacking king from advancing.
- Pin
- A line attack on a less valuable piece that cannot move without exposing a more valuable piece behind it.
- Prophylaxis
- Preventing the opponent's plan before it begins — a quiet move that stops something the opponent wanted to do.
- Removing the defender
- Capturing or exchanging off the piece that defends a target, so the target can be taken on the next move.
- Restriction
- A positional method of limiting the opponent's piece mobility before any concrete attack is launched.
- Skewer
- A line attack that forces a more valuable piece to move, exposing a less valuable piece behind it to capture.
- Tempo
- A single unit of time in chess — one move. Gaining a tempo means developing or threatening while forcing the opponent to react.
- Transposition
- Reaching the same position by different move orders — a common feature in openings, sometimes used as a strategic weapon.
- Triangulation
- A king manoeuvre using three squares to lose a tempo and pass the obligation to move back to the opponent.
- Vancura position
- A drawing technique against a rook-pawn endgame: the defending rook attacks the pawn from the side, denying the attacker progress.
- X-ray attack
- A long-range piece exerts pressure through an enemy piece on the same line, threatening what lies beyond.
- Zugzwang
- A position where every legal move worsens your position — but you must move anyway.
- Zwischenzug
- An 'in-between move' — a forcing intermediate move inserted into a sequence the opponent expected to be automatic.