Chess Vocabulary

“The game of chess; the chessboard and chess pieces make up this chess set.”

More Chess Vocabulary and Chess Facts:

• Chess is believed to have originated in India around the 6th century, under the name chaturanga.
• A game of chess is played on a chessboard with 64 squares, and each player begins with 16 pieces.
• The six chess pieces are the king, queen, rook, bishop, knight, and pawn, and each one moves in a different way.
• The knight is the only chess piece that can jump over other pieces, moving in an “L” shape.
• The word “checkmate” comes from the Persian phrase “shah mat”, meaning “the king is helpless”.

Talking About Strategy:

• Strategic (Adjective): Carefully planned to achieve a particular goal.
• Calculated (Adjective): Done after careful thought about the likely results.
• Cunning (Adjective): Clever at achieving one’s aims by indirect or deceitful methods.
• Tactical (Adjective): Relating to a carefully planned action to achieve a specific goal.
• Shrewd (Adjective): Having sharp powers of judgement; astute.
• Methodical (Adjective): Done according to a systematic or established plan.

Chess has given English plenty of expressions, too. If you win completely and leave your opponent with no way out, that’s ‘checkmate‘! And if someone is being used by another person to achieve their own goals, we say they’re being treated like ‘a pawn in someone else’s game‘.

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