Chess Dictionary — B

Terms starting with B (38)

Babson Task Advanced

A Babson Task is a chess problem in which White must reply to each of Black’s four possible pawn promotions by promoting to the same piece to deliver mate.

Back Rank Beginner

The back rank is the first rank for White or eighth for Black, where each king starts and often remains after castling, leaving it vulnerable to mate when its own pieces block all escape squares.

Back-Rank Mate Beginner

A back-rank mate is a checkmate in which a king trapped on its back rank by its own unmoved pawns or pieces is attacked along that rank by an enemy rook or queen.

Backward Pawn Intermediate

A backward pawn lags behind its neighboring pawns on adjacent files, cannot be protected by another pawn, and usually stands on a half-open file as a lasting target.

Bad Bishop Intermediate

A bad bishop is one whose mobility and scope are restricted by its own pawns being fixed on squares of the same color.

Bare King Beginner

A bare king is a king whose side has no other pieces or pawns left on the board.

Battery Intermediate

A battery consists of two or more same-colour pieces aligned on a file, rank or diagonal, with the stronger piece behind, so the front unit can move to unleash the rear piece’s concentrated pressure.

Battery Play Intermediate

A battery consists of two or more same-color pieces aligned on a rank, file, or diagonal so the rear piece supports or attacks through the forward piece once it moves or captures.

Bean Counter Intermediate

A bean counter is a player who overvalues raw material counts and point values at the expense of positional, dynamic, and initiative factors.

Berserk Enjoyer Intermediate

A Berserk Enjoyer is a player who frequently activates the berserk option in online arena tournaments, halving their starting clock time in exchange for two points instead of one on a win.

Bishop Intermediate

A bishop is a chess piece that moves any number of unoccupied squares diagonally and remains on squares of one color for the entire game.

Bishop Of The Wrong Color Advanced

A bishop of the wrong color cannot control the promotion square of its passed pawn, typically allowing the defending king to draw a king-and-bishop versus king-and-rook-pawn ending by occupying the promotion corner.

Bishop Pair Intermediate

The bishop pair denotes possession of both bishops on opposite-colored squares, often conferring a lasting advantage in open or simplified positions.

Blackburne's Mate Intermediate

Blackburne's Mate is a checkmate pattern in which a bishop protected by a knight delivers mate along a diagonal to a king whose flight squares are blocked by its own pieces or the board edge.

Blind Pigs Intermediate

Blind pigs is the informal name for two rooks doubled on the seventh rank, where they typically create decisive threats against the enemy king and pawns.

Blindfold Chess Intermediate

Blindfold chess is a format in which players conduct a full game without seeing the board, announcing moves verbally in algebraic notation while retaining the entire position in memory.

Blindfold Simul Intermediate

A blindfold simul is a simultaneous exhibition in which one player faces multiple opponents without seeing the boards, tracking every position entirely in memory and announcing moves verbally or by notation.

Blitz Intermediate

Blitz is chess played with a fast time limit, usually five minutes or less for the whole game.

Blockade Intermediate

A blockade is the occupation of the square directly in front of an enemy passed pawn by a piece, typically a knight, which halts its advance, controls surrounding squares, and converts the pawn into a target.

Boden's Mate Intermediate

Boden's mate is a checkmate pattern in which two bishops on adjacent diagonals attack a king whose own pieces or pawns block its escape squares, most often after queenside castling.

Body Check Beginner

Body check is not a recognized term in standard chess and has no established definition or usage in rules, tactics, theory, or problems.

Bonehead Move Beginner

A bonehead move is an obvious blunder such as hanging a piece or allowing an elementary tactic that a player of the same strength should spot instantly.

Bongcloud Enjoyer Intermediate

A Bongcloud Enjoyer is a player who deliberately opens with the Bongcloud (1 e4 e5 2 Ke2) for its entertainment value rather than competitive merit.

Book Draw Intermediate

A book draw is a position or variation that opening theory or endgame tablebases have established as drawable with accurate play by both sides.

Book Slave Intermediate

A book slave is a player who memorizes long opening sequences from books or databases without grasping the ideas behind the moves, leaving them lost once the opponent deviates from those lines.

Boomer Chess Intermediate

Boomer Chess is classical chess played at a deliberate pace with long time controls, typically 60 minutes or more per player, a style often favored by older players who value deep calculation over rapid or online formats.

Boomer Move Intermediate

A boomer move is an older chess move or idea, popular before engines, once regarded as sound but shown by modern analysis to be inaccurate or inferior.

Botez Gambit Beginner

The Botez Gambit is a humorous term for the blunder of hanging one's queen, popularized by the Botez sisters on their online streams.

Botvinnik Intermediate

Mikhail Botvinnik was a Soviet grandmaster and three-time world champion renowned for his scientific training methods and deep positional understanding.

Brilliancy Intermediate

A brilliancy is a striking, often sacrificial move or sequence whose originality, depth, and elegance transform the position in an unexpected yet forcing way to produce a decisive advantage.

Brilliancy Prize Intermediate

A brilliancy prize is an award given in some chess tournaments for the most spectacular, creative, or original game or combination played.

Bronstein Delay Intermediate

Bronstein Delay is a chess-clock method that, after a player completes a move, restores to their remaining time the smaller of the preset delay or the time actually spent on that turn.

Bughouse Intermediate

Bughouse is a team chess variant played on two boards where partners immediately pass captured pieces to each other for drops on their own board on any later turn.

Building A Bridge Intermediate

Building a bridge is a rook-endgame technique, seen in the Lucena position, where the attacking rook moves beside its king to block lateral checks and let the king escort a seventh-rank passed pawn to promotion.

Bullet Checkmate Intermediate

A bullet checkmate is a swift tactical mating sequence in bullet chess that exploits the one-minute time control through instant pattern recognition rather than deep calculation.

Bullet Junkie Beginner

A bullet junkie is a player who compulsively plays bullet chess with very fast time controls such as one minute per player, often to the exclusion of slower formats.

Bullet Merchant Intermediate

A bullet merchant is an online player who grinds hundreds or thousands of bullet games in rapid succession, usually to farm rating points through volume or to sharpen reflexes and pattern recognition under extreme time pressure.

Bulletproof Intermediate

A bulletproof chess position features an exceptionally solid pawn structure and piece placement that leaves the opponent with no realistic way to open lines, create targets, or generate meaningful threats.