Thursday, January 27, 2005

Chess word play

At A Patzer's Tale, Daniel discusses how nomenclature affects chess thinking:

In chess we name all of the major tactics and even the not-so-major tactics because it helps us think about ideas more clearly.... When I learned about 'double-check' I had already conceptualized the idea but had not used [it] with regularity until then..... On the flip side, semantics can hinder development too. I dreaded the bad bishop for a while, until I read ... a quote from Suba, "Bad Bishops protect good pawns." Then I became enthralled with the bad bishop to [the] point a human can be enthralled with bad bishops.

Here are a few additional alternatives to common chess concepts which might expand our thinking:

  • Doubled pawns = Dual outposts
  • Isolated Queen Pawn (IQP) = IQP kingside mating attack formation
  • g4 vs. the Semi-Slav = Kasparov's Junior killer
  • King stuck in the center = King poised for the endgame
Can you add any of your own?

No comments: