Computer Chess — Chess Terms
Engines, evaluation, and the vocabulary of computer chess: how programs analyse, what their numbers mean, and the terms that surround AI play.
Beginner
- Alembic Beginner
- Alembic is not a recognized term in standard chess terminology and carries no established meaning for any opening, tactic, or strategic concept.
- Engine Eval Beginner
- Engine eval is a chess engine's numerical assessment of a position, usually shown in pawn units where +1.00 means white stands a pawn ahead.
Intermediate
- AlphaZero Intermediate
- AlphaZero is DeepMind's neural-network chess engine that learned superhuman play through self-play reinforcement learning and defeated Stockfish in 2017.
- 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.
- 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.
- Cc Player Intermediate
- A CC player competes in correspondence chess, exchanging moves by post, email or dedicated servers over days or weeks rather than in a single sitting.
- Centipawn Intermediate
- A centipawn equals one-hundredth of a pawn's value and serves as the standard unit in engine evaluations to express fractional material or positional advantages.
- Chess Boomer Intermediate
- A Chess Boomer is a player from the baby-boomer generation who typically favors classical openings, over-the-board tournaments, and pre-computer-era study habits.
- Chess Nerd Intermediate
- A chess nerd is a dedicated player who invests heavily in studying openings, theory, puzzles, and engine analysis, often prioritizing deep preparation over casual or over-the-board play.
- Discord Prep Intermediate
- Discord Prep is collaborative analysis and opening preparation done via group chats on Discord servers among club or online team players.
- Engine Junkie Intermediate
- An engine junkie is a player who over-relies on chess engines for analysis and move choices, often at the expense of independent thinking and deeper positional understanding.
- Engine Monkey Intermediate
- An engine monkey is a player who blindly follows computer engine recommendations in analysis or play without grasping the underlying ideas or strategy.
- Engine Whisperer Intermediate
- An engine whisperer is a player or analyst highly skilled at interpreting chess engine lines and evaluations, then translating them into practical human plans and decisions.
- Eval Bar Surfer Intermediate
- An eval bar surfer is a player who repeatedly checks the engine evaluation bar during online play to steer move selection instead of relying on independent calculation.
- Eval Copium Intermediate
- Eval copium is the tendency to rationalize a poor engine evaluation by fixating on minor advantages or the chance the opponent will err.
- Eval Hostage Intermediate
- An eval hostage is a position where an engine's evaluation is dominated by one forcing line or material factor, obscuring the true strategic assessment until that factor is resolved.
- MuZero Intermediate
- MuZero is DeepMind's reinforcement-learning system that masters chess via self-play by learning an internal model of game dynamics with no pre-coded rules or chess knowledge.
Advanced
- Dirty Flag Advanced
- In chess engine code a dirty flag is a boolean marker that signals cached attack maps or evaluation data must be recomputed after the position changes.