RD Glossary
rapid chess
Chess with reduced time control, usually 30 minutes. Sometimes also called quick chess.
rating
Quantitative measure for a chess player's strength. Chess ratings are usually determined from games against other rated chess players. There are many different rating systems that cannot be directly compared.
round robin
Tournament organization form in which each player plays every other participant an equal number of times. In a double round robin tournament, every player plays twice against every other player, once with White and once with Black.
sac
Often used as abbreviation for sacrifice.
Scandinavian defense
The Scandinavian defense, also called center counter defense, is characterized by the moves 1. e4 d5. It is classified as B01 in the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings (ECO). The Scandinavian is one of the oldest recorded defenses dating back to a game played between Francesco di Castellvi and Narciso Vinyoles in Valencia in 1475.
skewer
Tactics based on an attack on a valuable piece that is forced to move away to avoid capture, exposing a less valuable piece to the attack.
stalemate
A game ends with stalemate if there are no legal moves available for the side that has to move and the king is not in check. The game is then finished and counted as draw. See also the entry for stalemate at Wikipedia.
threefold repetition rule
Rule of chess stating that a player can claim a draw if the same position occurs three times, or will occur after their next move, with the same player to move, and with each player having the same set of legal moves each time, including the right to take en passant and the right to castle. It is important to note that the game is not automatically drawn but that the player whose turn it is has to claim the draw.
time control
In competitive chess, each player has a given time to make her/his moves. Several different time control methods exist. In the most simple case, a player has a fixed time to make all her/his moves. In time controls with increments or time-delay, some time is added to the clock after each move. In over-the-board chess events, players often have a fixed time to finish the first x moves of the game and get additional time after that.
zugzwang
From German, direct translation: "forced to move". The player who is to move always has to make a move. Normally, having the chance to make a move is a good thing. However, there are positions where all legal moves are bad. The side having to move in such a situation is then said to be in zugzwang.

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