Glossary of Chess - C

C

Caïssa

The goddess of chess, occasionally invoked to indicate luck or good fortune: "Caïssa was with me".

Calculate

To carefully plan a series of moves while considering possible responses.

Candidate move

A move that seems good upon initial observation of the position, and that warrants further analysis.

Candidates Match

A knockout match in the Candidates Tournament.

Candidates Tournament

A tournament organised by the FIDE, the third and last qualifying cycle of the World Chess Championship. The participants are the top players of the interzonal tournament plus possibly other players selected on the basis of rating or performance in the previous candidates tournament. The top ranking player(s) qualify(ies) for the world championship.

Capped piece

A certain piece with which one player tries to deliver checkmate. When the capped piece is a pawn, it is called a pion coiffé (French for capped pawn). Playing with a capped piece is a handicap in chess.

Capture

Remove the opponent's piece or pawn from the board by taking it with one's own piece or pawn. Except in the case of an en passant capture, the capturing piece or pawn does so by occupying the same square that the captured piece or pawn occupied.

Castling

A special move involving both the king and one rook. Its purpose is generally to protect the king and develop the rook. Castling on the kingside is sometimes called castling short and castling on the queenside is called castling long; the difference is based on whether the rook moves a short distance (two squares) or a long distance (three squares).

Castling into it

A situation where one side castles in such a way that the king is in more danger at the destination than on the initial square, either immediately or because lines and diagonals can be more readily opened against it. Because beginners, in line with simplified traditional notions, often falsely assume castling to always improve protection of the king, pre-war grandmaster and leading figure of the hypermodern school Richard Réti therefore exhorted players to "castle because you must, not because you can".

Castling long

Castling queenside, notated 0-0-0.

Castling short

Castling kingside, notated 0-0.

Casual game

See friendly game.

Category tournament

The category of a tournament is a measure of its strength based on the average FIDE rating of the participants. The category is calculated by rounding up the number (average rating − 2250)/25. So each category covers a 25 point rating range, starting with Category 1 which spans ratings between 2251 and 2275. A Category 18 tournament has an average rating between 2676 and 2700.

CC

An abbreviation sometimes used for correspondence chess.

Centralization

Moving a piece or pieces toward the center of the board. In general, pieces are best placed in or near the center of the board because they control a large number of squares and are available for play on either flank as needed. Because of their limited mobility, knights in particular benefit from being centralized. There are several chess aphorisms referring to this principle: "A knight on the rim is dim" (or "grim" instead of "dim") and "A knight on the side cannot abide."

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

Center squares are marked by "X"

Centre/Center

The four squares in the middle of the board.

Central pawn

A pawn on the king's file or queen's file, i.e. on the d-file or e-file.

Cheapo

Slang for a primitive trap, often set in the hope of swindling a win or a draw from a lost position.

Check

An attack on the king. The attacked king is said to be in check.

Checkmate

A position in which a player's king is in check and the player has no legal move (i.e cannot move out of check). A player whose king is checkmated loses the game.

Chess960

A chess variant with a randomized positioning of non-pawn pieces to start the game.

Chessboard

This is the chequered board used in chess. It consists of 64 squares (eight rows and eight columns) arranged in two alternating colors (light and dark). Similar boards are also known as checkerboards.

Chess clock or Game clock

A device made up of two adjacent clocks and buttons, keeping track of the total time each player takes for their moves. Immediately after moving, the player hits his button, which simultaneously stops his clock and starts his opponent's. The picture shown displays an analogue clock where the term 'flag fall' originates. Modern clocks are digital.

Classical

1. An opening system geared towards forming a full pawn center. See also Hypermodern.

2. A game using a longer time control such as 40/2; the opposite of fast chess categories such as rapid, blitz or bullet.

Clearance

Removal of pieces from a rank, file or diagonal so that a bishop, rook or queen is free to move along it. A related term is "clearing the diagonal": removing pieces from a diagonal so that an enemy bishop, usually a fianchettoed bishop, has no targets to attack.

Clock move

A timed game is played clock move if a move is completed only when the clock has been pressed. It is therefore possible to touch one piece, but then decide to move another piece. This way of playing is common in casual games, in favour of touch move.

Clock time

Time (consumed or remaining) on the chess clock, in a tournament game.

Closed game

1. A position with few open lines (files or diagonals), generally characterized by interlocking pawn chains, cramped positions with few opportunities to exchange, and extensive maneuvering behind lines. Such a position may later become an Open game. See also Positional play.

2. A chess opening that begins with the moves 1.d4 d5. See also Open game and Semi-open game.

Closed file

A file on which black and white both have a pawn.

Closed tournament

A tournament in which only invited or qualifying players may participate, as opposed to an open tournament. Also called an invitational tournament.

Coffeehouse

Adjective used to describe a move, player, or style of play characterized by risky, positionally dubious play that sets traps for the opponent. The name comes from the notion that one would expect to see such play in skittles games played in a coffeehouse or similar setting, particularly in games played for stakes and/or blitz chess. The Blackburne Shilling Gambit is a typical example of coffeehouse play.

Color

(See White and Black in chess) The white or black pieces. May also refer to a certain square, e.g. 1.e4 – White has played his/her pawn and is on the light-colored square.

Combination

A clever sequence of moves, often involving a sacrifice, to gain the advantage. The moves of the other player are usually forced, i.e. a combination does not give the opponent too many possible lines of continuation.

Compensation

An imbalanced equivalent return, for example sacrificing material for development or trading a bishop for one or two pawns.

Connected pawns

Refers to two or more pawns of the same color on adjacent files. See also isolated pawns.

Connected passed pawn

Passed pawns on adjacent files. These are considered to be unusually powerful (often worth a minor piece or rook if on the sixth rank or above and not properly blockaded) because they can advance together. Also see connected pawns.

Connected rooks

Two rooks of the same color on the same rank or file with no pawns or pieces between them. Connected rooks are usually desirable. Players often connect rooks on their own first rank or along an open file. cf. Doubled rooks.

Control of the centre/center

Having one or more pieces that attack any of the four centre squares; an important strategy, and one of the main aims of openings.

Cook

An unintended solution of a chess problem. The term may also be used more generally to refer to a refutation to published analysis.

Correspondence chess

This is chess played at a long time control by various forms of long-distance correspondence, usually through a correspondence chess server, through email or by the postal system. Typically, one move is transmitted in every correspondence.

Corresponding squares

Squares of reciprocal (or mutual) Zugzwang often found in king and pawn endgames. Also known as related squares.

Counterattack

An attack that responds to an attack by the other player.

Countergambit

A gambit offered by Black, for example the Greco Counter Gambit, usually called the Latvian Gambit today (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5?!); the Albin Countergambit (1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5); and the Falkbeer Countergambit (1.e4 e5 2.f4 d5). An opening need not have "countergambit" in its name to be one; for instance, the Benko Gambit (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5), Englund Gambit (1.d4 e5?), the Budapest Gambit (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5), the Blackburne Shilling Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nd4?!) and many lines of the Two Knights Defense (e.g. 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 and now 4...Bc5!? (the Wilkes-Barre Variation or Traxler Counter-Attack), 4...Nxe4?!, 4...d5 5.exd5 Na5 6.Bb5+ c6 (the main line), 4...d5 5.exd5 Nd4 (the Fritz Variation), and 4...d5 5.exd5 b5 (the Ulvestad Variation)) are all examples of countergambits.

Counterplay

Active maneuvering by the player in an inferior or defensive position.

Cover

To protect a piece or control a square. For example, to checkmate a king on the side of the board, the five squares adjacent to the king must all be covered.

Cramped

A position with limited mobility.

Critical position

A position that is of key importance in determining the soundness of an opening variation. If one side can demonstrate an advantage in a critical position, the other side must either find an improvement or else abandon that variation as inferior.

Critical square

See Key square

Cross-check

A cross-check is a check played in reply to a check, especially when the original check is blocked by a piece which itself either delivers check or reveals a discovered check from another piece.

Crosstable

An arrangement of the results of every game in a tournament in tabular form. The names of the players run down the left side of the table in numbered rows. The names may be listed in order of results, alphabetically, or in pairing order, but results order is most common. The columns are also numbered, each one corresponding to the player in the same numbered row. Each table cell records the outcome of the game between the players on the intersecting row and column, using 1 for a win, 0 for a loss, and ½ for a draw. (In a double round-robin tournament each cell contains two entries, as each pair of players plays two games alternating white and black.) Every game is recorded twice, once from the perspective of each player. The diagonal cells that correspond to the player playing himself are marked with a * or other symbol as they are not used. For examples see Hastings 1895 chess tournament, Nottingham 1936 chess tournament, and AVRO tournament.