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M

Major Pieces: The Queen and Rooks.  Because of the number of squares they command (a Queen can command 27 squares, not counting the one she occupies, a rook 14) they are considered the heavy artillery of Chess.

Majority: A player's numerical superiority of P awns on one flank. Such a majority is important because it may lead to the creation of a passed P awn.
Marienbad 1925 Tournament won by Rubinstein and Nimzowitsch, followed by Marshall, Torre, Reti, and Tartakower.

Master: In the U.S., a player with rating of 2200 or more. If a player's rating drops below 2200, the title is rescinded. There are about 90 Grandmasters in the entire world. It is also the highest ranking in Chess earned by competing in major tournaments.

Mate: Short for Checkmate.

Material: The total value in points of a player's pieces on the Chessboard. A material advantage is when a player has more pieces on the board than his opponent or has pieces of greater value.

Match: A contest between two players only, as distinguished from a tournament. The term often refers to a contest of many games, but is sometimes used to describe a single game. The first major Chess match was between La Bourdonnais and McDonnel in 1834. A lso, a contest between two teams, played on several boards.

Mating Attack: An attack which aims at Checkmate.

Mating net: A position or series of moves that leads inexorably to one in which the King must be mated or, a position where one player has mating threats. This can be accomplished with the pieces working together to trap and checkmate the enemy King.

Mating Sacrifice: A material sacrifice made to achieve Checkmate.

MCO: Abbreviation for Modern Chess Openings.

Mechanical Move: A move made with little thought because it seems to be obvious.

Median Score: A tie-breaking system applicable to Swiss tournaments. The scores of the opponents of each of the tied players are summed, first leaving out the highest and lowest scores. In tournaments with a large number of rounds, two or more of the highest and lowest scores may be deleted. Also called the Harkness Score.

Mephisto: Constructed by Charles Godfrey Gumpel and first demonstrated in London in 1878, Mephisto was described as a Chess playing automaton. It was in fact a device which contained a person who played Chess. Operated by Isidor Gunsberg, it was the first automaton to win a Chess tournament.

Middlegame: The phase of the game following the development, and the one in which much of the action takes place.  With many pieces on the board and possibilities of attack on all sides, the King normally stays well hidden in this phase.

Miniature: Also called brevity, a short game—usually about 20 moves or less. Many writers use the term only for entertaining games and therefore do not generally include draws in this category. Any Chess problem featuring seven or fewer pieces .

Minor Exchange: Tarrasch's term for the exchange of a K night for a B ishop. Because he preferred B ishops, he described the player who gave up the K night as winning the minor exchange.

Minor pieces: The Bishops and Knights. A Knight can command eight squares, a Bishop thirteen.

Minority Attack: The advance of one or more Pawns on a flank where the opponent has a Pawn majority.

Mobility: The ability to move about freely on the board.

Morals of Chess, The: A 1779 essay by Benjamin Franklin outlining the merits of Chess and advocating a specific set of rules of etiquette for play.

Muse of Chess: Another term for Caissa.

My System: Aaron Nimzowitsch's immensely influential work describing his theory of Chess, first published in English in 1929.

Mysterious Rook Move: The movement of a Rook to a closed file to discourage the opponent from making a freeing move because such a move would bring the Rook into play, a strategy advocated by Nimzowitsch.