A B C D E F G-H I-L M-N O P Q-R S T U-Z

Gambit: A voluntary sacrifice of a pawn or a piece in the opening with the idea of gaining the initiative, a lead in development or some other compensating factor.

General Principles: Basic rules of play designed to serve as guidelines for less advanced players. As one’s experience grows, one learns that rules are meant to be broken. For example: the old rule of always capture with a pawn towards the center is widely followed, but a good 30% of the time it is correct to capture away from the center. Other rules (such as avoid doubled pawns, castle as early as possible, develop Knights before Bishops, etc.) are also just as suspect. The simple fact is that every situation must be looked at with an open mind--dogma is not something to be nurtured in life or in chess.

Ghosts: Threats that exist only in your own mind. A fear of your opponent or a lack of confidence will often lead to the appearance of ghosts and the cropping up of blunders in your play.

Grandmaster: Conferred by FIDE, it is the highest title (aside from World Champion) that one can achieve. It is awarded to players who meet established performance standards. Other titles (in order of importance) are International Master and FIDE Master. Once earned, these titles cannot be taken away.

Grandmaster Draw: When Grandmasters make a quick, uninteresting draw, it is called a Grandmaster draw. Nowadays a quick draw between any class of players is given the same label.

Hack: A derogatory chess term meaning a state of chess ineptitude.

Hanging: An unprotected piece or pawn exposed to capture is said to be hanging.

Hanging Pawns: Two adjacent friendly pawns on their fourth rank, separated from other friendly pawns, and subject to frontal attack on one or two half-open files. Through often objects of attack, they also possess a certain dynamic potential. Thus the battle rages around the question, “are they strong or weak?”

The diagram shows a common hanging pawns’ situation. The hanging pawns on c5 and d5 give Black an edge in space, good control of the central squares and pressure down the half open b-file. However, they are also exposed to attack.

Hog: See Pig.

Hold: A defensive term meaning to “hang on.” Such and such a move would have held out longer means that the move would have offered tougher resistance, but would most likely have ultimately failed. Such and such a move would hold means that the mentioned move would have allowed a successful defense.

Hole: A square that cannot be defended by pawns. Such a square makes an excellent home for enemy pieces (especially Knights). For example, the opening 1.c4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.e4 is playable, but leaves a hole on d4 that, after 3…g6 and 4…Bg7, can easily be used by a Black piece.

Hutch: A special room set aside for players in a tournament to analyze their games and play skittles. Such a room allows various kinds of activity to go on without disturbing the unfinished games in the tournament. Usually used by the non-masters (called Rabbits), the term hutch becomes easily understandable. See Rabbit and Skittles.

Hypermodern: A school of thought that insists that indirect control of the center is better than direct occupation. In particular Reti and Nimzovich successfully propagated the idea of central control from the flanks. Unfortunately, they took their ideas to extremes--just as the classicists did. Today it is recognized that both schools of thought are correct, and a blending of the two is the only truly balanced method.

A B C D E F G-H I-L M-N O P Q-R S T U-Z