Intermediate Chess Terms - Pt. 1
Chess terminology is an important part of learning the game once you've got past the completely newbie stage of learning. Today we'll go over some of the most important terms that all intermediate players should know. If you enjoy this content please remember to share this post with your friends and follow me here on chess.com! Without any further ado let's get right into it!
En Passant
En Passant is a special chess move related to the movement and capturing of pawns. As you should all know, pawns can move forward 1 or 2 spaces on their first move. En Passant can occur when your pawn is 4 squares away from their original starting position, and your opponent's pawn moves from its starting position 2 squares forward to be side by side with yours. Any normal beginner would think that they can no longer capture this pawn and it is out of their reach, as we can no longer diagonally capture this pawn(unless they're a complete noob and capture with pawns forward and sideways - don't do that). This is where they're wrong - your pawn moves diagonally to the square your opponent's pawn would've been on if it had only moved one square forward, and removes the opponent's pawn completely off the board - earning you some pretty confused looks at the board when your opponent has never learnt this rule before. Aside from the 'forced en passant' meme, make sure to not just take en passant because you can, as this can and most likely will lead to problems for you, and isn't always useful for your position - so just remember to evaluate the board position before going on with your plan to initiate en passant.
Pawn Storming
A pawn storm is useful when you and your opponent have castled to opposite sides of the board. Unless the center is locked or static, a pawn storm will merely weaken your king. Use the pawns parallel to you opponent's king to charge in and weaken the king. Again, as with all moves, don't just charge in. There is no reason to lose 3 or 4 pawns when you could avoid losing even one. Support the storm with your other pieces, make your opponent pay dearly for each piece. Used correctly, a pawn storm is a deadly weapon, however, make sure that you are ahead of your opponent's pawn storm!
Castling(beginner term)
Castling is a defensive action that many players take part way through the game to get their kings to safety out of the middle of the board, where they can be vulnerable and exposed to many different threats. The king moves 2 spaces to either side(kingside or queenside), with the rook that side of the board moves directly over and beside the king. Castling also helps activate your rook, and get it into the game, and sometimes right into open files when going for the aggressive queenside castle. The Rook may not move more than one space past the King. Also, this can only be done if both pieces have yet to move. The move may not be made to get out of check nor if the king would be moving through or into a threatened square (out of, through, or into check).
Rook Lift
Lifting a rook simply means that you bring your rook off of the back rank by first going up, and then to either side. Maybe not as fancy as some of you have hoped - but rook lifts are strategic efforts to launch an attack in a confrontational fashion where one side directs his/her rook up from the first or eighth rank to get another piece in some sort of kingside, queenside or central attack. Sometimes rooklifts are just for intensifying an attacking factor or position, and sometimes it leads to forced mates.
Pinning
A "Pin" is an incredibly powerful tactic that, when used correctly, can end a game instantly. Pinning a piece is when your bishop attacks 2 pieces of equal or greater value. The term pinning the piece to the king means that the piece cannot move, or the king will be under attack. This is called an absolute pin, where moving the piece is an illegal move, as it places the king in check. Another kind of pin is the familial or relative pin. Instead of the king being behind the piece, there may be a queen or a rook. In this case, the piece can move, but it is only in rare cases a good idea, as it lays the more valuable piece behind it under attack - this is a tactic used in the budapest gambit to deliver a beautiful smothered mate. With understanding the pin, the next step is to learn about attacking the pin.
Skewering
Skewers, also called “x-ray attacks” are performed on a line with a queen, rook, or bishop. A skewer is when a valuable piece is attacked, and when it moves, a lesser piece is exposed to capture, winning material. So, in a sense, the skewer is the inverse of the pin.
Forking
This basic tactic will win you many games at the intermediate level, where the opponent will simply resign in the frustration of having missed the deadly fork that they now succumb to. A fork is when one of your pieces(or pawns)attacks 2 of your opponents pieces. An example of a fork is when a knight attacks both the opposing king and queen at the same time. Unless the knight can be taken, the king is forced to move, as it is in check, and the queen(or any other piece) can be taken, at little to no expense.
Discover Checks/Attacks
In a discovered check one piece moves and in doing so opens up a line towards the opposing king for a bishop, a rook or the queen. This happen when a pawn or a piece moves somewhere else so that a piece behind it can attack the enemy king. Sometimes these attacks won't be very useful without a clear objective, but if a knight is in front of the major piece, be on the lookout for a serious attack on the queen.
Double Checks
Fascinating example of this deadly tactic - https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1259009
Double Checks are a more dangerous form of discovered check. The difference being that the piece behind it is able to attack the enemy king while the moving piece is able to attack as well. These will force the king to move because capturing or blocking one piece doesn't work since the other piece will be able to attack no matter what - a king cannot place itself into checkmate. GMs love to set up double checks because of their awesome attacking power and can lead to dangerous tactics on the rooks, queen, and king.
Pt. 2 tmrw, until then!
