I was speaking to a friend about chess.com and explained to him how I made certain moves to lull my opponent into a false sense of security when he jokingly remarked that the move should be named after me..( please note this was only in jest!). However, this got me thinking as to how the names of certain openings, moves etc are actually gven? Is their a committee overseeing it? Do they just emerge in chess conversations and lore? Can someone put forward a move or tactic to be named etc.?

Excuse my ignorance if this seems a silly question.

Cheers

It seems that they are given according to the first GM who developped the system (or his country).

I don't think there is any committee... I'd rather call this a professional jargon. As far as I know openings are not commonly famous by one and the same name - here are two examples:

Ruy Lopez opening in Bulgaria is called Spanish opening

Petrov Defense  - Russian party

So to me it is a slang that has become so common that we take it for granted.

Many thanks.. so I cant have a move named after me ? lol

Sure you can...check out the Bongcloud! :-)

If you're very good at makerting, chess and at spreading memes, perhaps, who knows? Just add "Ha, I [your name]ed you!" and hope it catches on :)

On the contrary, slang terms and jargon are constantly evolving things.  As I was teaching my daughter how to play chess, I kept opening up with the scholar's mate over and over until she saw what I was doing and figured out how to defend against it.  Then I started opening with the 4 possible Fool's Mate combinations over and over until she finally saw it and learned how to take advantage of it.  I didn't tell her they were "Fool's Mate" openings.  I called them my "Sandbag Openings" cuz I was sandbagging to give her a better chance at winning.  I'm still playing the "Sandbag Openings" against my nephew and stepson, but you won't find "Sandbag" in any book of Chess Openings.

At the moment, in all games as black, my 1st move is Nf6.  Now if my opponent opened with e4, then my move is called The Alekhine Defence.  If they opened with d4, then my move is called The Indian Defence.  But no matter what they open with, I always refer to 1...Nf6 as my "Dark Knight Opening," and feel compelled as I'm moving to say, "I'm Batman."

As I've been reading up on Openings online, it seems like almost every opening has more than one name.  It's just a matter of enuf people using the same term to reference the same thing until the 2 things become associated with each other in the subconscious.

So I'll help with circulating "The Bealfeirste."  What are the moves?  ;)

Names are given usually to the inventor of the move, a practicioner or even a place where it has been played.

I was playing in a tournament where I was playing a double game with an opponent. ( I hope he does not mind me saying this, though I'm unsure whether he knew what I did). He had taken a number of peices and I could see he was going to beat me in one of the games and he was also in a strong position in the other, and I did not rate my chances of winning. I then saw a possible opportunity to check him and checkmate within a couple of moves in the second game. The problem however, was, that  I needed him to move certain pieces to give me a chance . Remember, we were playing the 2 games at the same time.As I had little hope of winnng the first game, I made a mistake which lost my knight and eventually I resigned. However, at the same time in the second game, I also sacraficed a pawn, bishop and finally a rook, which he took with his queen. I hoped that he saw nothing suspicious in these moves, as I had played badly in the first game. I had wanted him to take my rook with his queen as it left the way open for me to check with my rook and checkmate with my queen. That therefore is my Bealfeirste tactic when playing a double game!