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Zugzwang in German means ‘forced move’. It refers to a situation where you might be OK right now but if you move you lose — and you have to move. Lots of endgame examples In the Bronstein game, White will run out of pawn moves, then will have to move King or Rook — then…

You can sometimes give up material and come out with an advantage. You often see a sacrifice as part of a combination — a sacrificial combination, in Botvinnik’s language. Spielmann didn’t think these were real sacrifices. The advantage you get from sacrificing might be a mating attack (like the Greek gift) or just a very…

Any attack on the Queen’s-side would count, of course, but we normally expect the target to be the Queen’s-side itself, and not a King that has castled on that wing. The usual ingredients for an attack are required: more space, better mobility, and/or a bigger gang. (Janowsky-Capablanca, Capablanca-Alekhin) The minority attack is an example of…

A tempo is a move, more or less — the turn used to make a move. You can gain or lose (or save) a tempo by your choices, especially in the opening. In the Modern Attack against the Two Knights’ Defence, White paradoxically can gain a tempo by playing, not f2-f4, but f2-f3 (Ng5) then…

“First restrain — then blockade — lastly, destroy!” — Aron NIMZOWITSCH A blockade is just that: a block, stopping the enemy getting past a point or a line. Fischer used it as a tactical idea against Benko Locked pawn chains are a common blockade, usually stopping both players from moving freely If there is a…

“First restrain — then blockade — lastly, destroy!” — Aron NIMZOWITSCH A blockade is just that: a block, stopping the enemy getting past a point or a line. Fischer used it as a tactical idea against Benko Locked pawn chains are a common blockade, usually stopping both players from moving freely If there is a…

“Pawns are born free, but everywhere are in chains” — Andrew SOLTIS A pawn chain is a diagonal line of pawns where each pawn is protected by one to the rear. There is a very common example in the main line of the French Defence: 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4….

A pawn storm is the advance of all or most of the pawns on a wing, to gain space, to drive away defenders, to open lines, or to do all of these things. We often see pawns storms by White in the Sicilian Defence (Lambert-Puc), and Black may counter with a pawn storm of their…

A nice easy one: having more pawns than your opponent on one side (and an open file there too, otherwise we have the half-open files setting for a minority attack) Capablanca shows Marshall that a working majority is enough to win the game: you create a passed pawn. A working King’s-side majority can produce an…

Simply an arrow-shaped pawn formation, wedged into the opponent’s half of the board The one shown had the interesting property that the players must seek activity on the wing, but the pawn formation gives them little clue as to which wing.