Want names for these situations...

Mr. Squod, I cannot tell a lie ... now that Luftwaffles has so disarmingly admitted to having his bit of fun (at which I had heartily laughed when he posted it), I must tell you that the "High Five" in my post #18 is also my own creation. I hope you haven't already included it in any videos yet, and apologize for my flippancy in the face of the scientific quest for accuracy.

Looking forward to your entertaining videos!

What's the matter with everybody here? They're treating chess like a *game*!

Here's another situation where I wondered if there is a name for it...

One player has pinned a valuable piece, often a rook pinned against a king along a diagonal by the opponent's bishop, but rather than immediately capture the pinned piece, the player takes advantage of the fact that the pin gives the player an extra tempo in addition to the win of the exchange. For example, the king would eventually likely have to first step aside to free itself from the pin, which loses a tempo, then as soon as the king steps aside, only then would the bishop capture the rook.

I was unaware of this tiny tactical nuance until relatively recently, where I began to notice it being used in an occasional professional game, and once in a game that I saw in a chess club. It's a professional touch, whereas before I knew about it I would have immediately captured the more valuable piece. I doubt there is a name for the situation but I thought I'd ask anyway. (And please don't make up a name like "German pin" unless you can tell me where you saw or heard the name!)

owltuna,

Yes, that's a perfect example of what I was describing, thanks, even using the same pieces I mentioned.

Nope, no name of it, sorry.

Closest I can think of is the "pin it and win it" phrase to remind learning players that when a piece is pinned, if you take the time to bring more attackers you can usually win it.

As for that situation, it's actually a theme with non-pinned pieces too.  For example if you have two attackers on a pawn and they have 1 defender, it's always good to look for ways to improve your position while maintaining the threat.  The idea is your opponent must make a move after your improvement move, but has less options... sometimes due to defenders being tied to defense but also because capturing a pawn necessarily opens up their position for them a bit.

You seem to be into this, so I'll bring up another idea... looking at a pair of moves.  If your move improves something while their's doesn't, then you've gained a bit... that's the sort of idea that's going on there.

Anyway, this brings up a related term, but a quick google search doesn't show it, so you'll just have to trust me that I've heard it somewhere like a lecture on youtube or book.  "Dead body" meaning an indefensible piece (usually a pawn).  For example:

White can play Bc2-a4 and Bxc6 and there's nothing black can do to stop it so I call c6 a dead body.  But instead of going after the pawn that is dead in any case, white can first improve his position with a move like Rfb1, taking the open file and threatening infiltration on b7.  Then his next course of action can be Bc2-a4-xc6.  White is better either way, but as you said there is a certain professional touch when choosing a great move over a good move.

Nice wisdom, shell_knight. That was a nice generalization of the pin situation I described, and I had never thought of that generalization before.

Thanks.

How long have you been playing?  Because you're asking for terms I was thinking you're a beginner.  I think it's great you're noticing and trying to categorize types of situations.  I wish I'd been that observant when I was starting out.

I'm an older guy who has been playing since about age 12, so I'm definitely not a beginner. Part of my interest in terms is for use in some instructional videos I've been considering making, and part of my interest is for "chunking," which is grouping patterns into single named entities so that they can be remembered and taught more easily, which is what psychologists say is the difference between highly skilled chess players and not-so-skilled chess players. So yes, "chunks" are definitely valuable to know as an efficient way of learning chess, in my opinion. (https://chessprogramming.wikispaces.com/Chunking)

Yeah, that's excellent IMO.

One reason I like trying to answer questions from relative beginners at my club... it basically forces you to do this chunking when you have to give a reply in a sentence or two.