ChessWorld Glossary

ChessWorld Hitchhiker's Guide to Chess

Scope: This glossary does not intend to cover player names, opening names, or Composition terms. The Glossary aims to relate the terms to ChessWorld where possible when giving examples.
If you have contributions, corrections or questions, please post them to the Chess Forum for discussion.
There is a dedicated Chess Openings Glossary

Glossary Course Modules with Game Examples

Glossary Course Modules with Tactical Puzzle Examples

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G

Gambit
A sacrifice in the opening. An example is the Kings Gambit, which White sacrifices the f pawn on the second move. See example game below:

[Click here to replay the game]

Spassky,B vs. Bronstein,D 1960
1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 d5 4.exd5 Bd6 5.Nc3 Ne7 6.d4 O-O 7.Bd3 Nd7 8.O-O h6 9.Ne4 Nxd5 10.c4 Ne3 11.Bxe3 fxe3 12.c5 Be7 13.Bc2 Re8 14.Qd3 e2 15.Nd6 Nf8 16.Nxf7 exf1=Q+ 17.Rxf1 Bf5 18.Qxf5 Qd7 19.Qf4 Bf6 20.N3e5 Qe7 21.Bb3 Bxe5 22.Nxe5+ Kh7 23.Qe4+ 1-0

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Grandmaster
A very strong chess player. The title of Grandmaster is awarded by the World Chess Federation (FIDE).

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Grandmaster draw
A short game in which neither play has gone all out to win, and in fact both players agree to a short draw after usually on a few moves.

Although sometimes criticised by the public spectators of such games, there are often good reasons for, say, the tournament leader to secure winning the tournament with some last round draws. Grandmasters who have to make a living out of chess, sometimes use an agreed quick draw to secure much needed prize funds in a less risky way than going all out to win in the final games for example.

Some tournaments try to discourage these kind of quick draws, but players are often resourceful in still drawing by other means e.g. 3-fold repetition of position, as opposed to offering a draw to the opponent.

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Greek gift
This is a sacrifice of a bishop for an unmoved h pawn of an opponent who has castled Kingside. It is often the start of a winning combination using White's knight and queen coordinated for a mating attack. An example could occur in the French defence as follows:-

Analyse position

Here White can sacrifice the bishop on h7 offering the "Greek Gift" sacrifice. Black gets a massive disadvantage accepting this sacrifice in this particular example position.

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Gringmuth notation
This is a code for transmitting moves by telegraph

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