Ludek Pachman (1924-2003) was a Grandmaster (1954) who was imprisoned twice in Czechoslovakia after openly protesting the Soviet occupation of his land in 1968. He had been editor of one of the daily underground newspapers published illegall... Read more »
Enrico Paoli was born in Trieste on January 13, 1908. He learned chess at the age of nine. In 1938, he won the Italian championship. He won it again in 1957, and in 1968, at the age of 60. He became an International Master ... Read more »
A passed pawn is a pawn with no opposing pawns to prevent it from advancing to the eighth rank, i.e. there are no opposing pawns in front of it on the same file nor on an adjacent file. A passed pawn is sometimes colloquially called a passer. Pass... Read more »
Pieces are passively place if they do not have many squares they can move to. Compare with active pieces. Read more »
Play which responds to an opponents threats, rather than furthering one's own plans. Compare to active play. Read more »
Patzer (alternately patser) is a derogatory description, connoting someone whose chess abilities are minimal. The term is drawn from the German word for bungler, or maladept. A patzer may be a beginning chess player, or someone whose play ap... Read more »
Louis Paulsen (1833-1891) was the second prize winner (after Paul Morphy) in the first American Chess Congress in 1857. He was born in Germany but emigrated to America in 1854 with his family and established a distillery and a tobacco trade ... Read more »
While a student in Scotland, Max Pavey (1918-1957) won the Scottisch Champion in 1939. He was U.S. Ligntnng Champion in 1947. He was New York State Champion in 1949. In 1950, his U.S. Chess Federation rating was 2442 (#15 in the ... Read more »
The new pawn move, advancing two squares on its first move instead of one, was first introduced in Spain in 1280. Starting a game by making two pawn moves before the opponent moved was common in Germany and Holland up to the 16th century, an... Read more »
In 1997, the Japanese ambassador’s mansion in Lima was taken over by a terrorist group (Tupac Amaru rebels), where 72 hostages were held. A chess set was delivered during the hostage crises. Embedded in the chess pieces wer... Read more »