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P
P: Abbreviation for Pawn.Pairings: A listing of who plays whom at a tournament.
Palamčde, Le The first Chess magazine. It was founded in 1836 by La Bourdonnais and named after the ancient Greek inventor Palamedes. Publication ceased in 1847.
Parry a Check: To place a Chessman between the King in check and the checking piece. This is one of three ways to meet a check, the other two being moving the King or capturing the checking piece. If a player in check cannot employ one of these three ways to meet the check, the King is checkmated and the game is over.
Parsing: Analysis, intended for use by NL (natural language) parsing researchers and others interested in the automated extraction of Chess data from text articles. A more complete usage requires actual game parsing. After reading the game, a parse_game() method is called, and as a result we have the moves available in an array, comments and errors in two hashes, where the keys are the move numbers and the values are comments or errors .
Passed Pawn: A Pawn unopposed, on its own or adjacent files, by a Pawn of another color. By being advanced to the eighth rank it can become any piece its owner chooses. A passed Pawn, therefore, is a source of worry for the other side and a precious advantage for its owner. Two united passed Pawns on adjacent files constitute a formidable weapon.
Passive: Description of a move which contains no threats . Also, refers to a piece with limited mobility, i.e. a piece which is not active.
Patzer: A weak player. Sometimes used more specifically to describe a weak player who either does not recognize his deficiencies or who may boast of his ability.
Pawn: Physically, the smallest unit on the Chessboard. A Pawn moves straight ahead but captures diagonally. Originally, a Pawn could only ever move a single square forward. During the renaissance a player was given the option of moving a Pawn forward two squares on its first move. If a Pawn reaches the eighth rank, it must be promoted to another piece.
Pawn break: The possibility of opening up a blocked Pawn structure by advancing a Pawn.
Pawn centre: A pair or group of Pawns of the same colour that occupy the central squares of the board.
Pawn chain: A string of two or more Pawns of the same colour along a diagonal.
Pawn grabbing: Deprecating term to describe the act of winning Pawns at the expense of development or countering an opponent’s attack. Also known as Pawn snatching.
Pawn island: A Pawn or group of Pawns separated from other Pawns of the same colour.
Pawn push: Another term for Pawn Storm.
Pawn roller: Another term for Pawn Storm.
Pawn storm: The general advance of two or more connected Pawns. A Pawn storm may be employed to attack the King, to promote one of the Pawns, to keep some of the opponents’ pieces away from another part of the board, among other things.
Pawn structure: All aspects of the Pawn setup. Also referred to as the Pawn skeleton or the arrangement of a player's Pawns on the board .
PCA: Abbreviation for Professional Chess Association. After a long term friction with the International Chess Organization (FIDE), Garry Kasparov and Nigel Short created in 1993 a rival Organization: The Professional Chess Association (PCA).
Perpetual Check: A sort of infinite cycle in which one side gives check, the other side gets out of check, the first side checks again in the same way - being unable to do otherwise without risking the loss of the game - and so on. It constitutes a draw.
Perpetual pursuit: Similar to a Perpetual Check, except that the pursued piece is a Bishop, Knight, Rook, or Queen, instead of the King.
Petite combination: A combination that involves only a few moves.
PGN: Portable Game Notation, a standard text system of chess notation used on Chess viewers programs and designed for the representation of chess game data using ASCII text files.
Phalanx: Pawn structure where two or more Pawns of the same color are side-by-side, i.e. on the same rank and on adjacent files.
Piece: Any Chess piece other than the Pawn, but usually referring to a Bishop or Knight.
Pig: Slang for Rook. Rooks doubled on the 7th rank are commonly referred to as pigs on the 7th.
Pin: A position in which a piece may not be moved because another piece would be subject to capture. If the piece subject to capture is the King, the Pin is absolute and the pinned piece cannot legally be moved. When the piece is not the King, the tactic is called a 'relative Pin'.
Plan: A short or long range goal on which a player bases his moves.
Ply: One play in a Chess game -white or black, which is one half of one complete move pair. Computers have the capability to consider the probable result of an almost infinite number of move/countermove strategems against each move made by a player (except for book openings). These levels of move combinations are referred to as " plies" or half-move s in computer terminology.
Point count: A system that gives the pieces the following numeric values: King= priceless; Queen= 9 points; Rook= 5 points; Bishop= 3 points; Knight= 3 points; and Pawn= 1 point.
Poisoned Pawn: A Pawn (often White's Pawn on b2) which is undefended during the opening but which if taken, often permits the player who gave up the Pawn to engage in a strong attack or to later win the piece taking the Pawn.
Positional Chess: A move or style of play based on long range considerations. The slow buildup of small advantages is said to be positional.
Positional Sacrifice: A sacrifice of material which improves the position of the sacrificing player.
Preventive Sacrifice: A Sacrifice made to prevent the opponent from castling.
Promotion: Also called 'Queening'. When a Pawn reaches the 8th rank, it can be promoted to a Bishop, Knight, Rook, or Queen of the same color.
Protected passed Pawn: A passed Pawn that is under the protection of another Pawn.
