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T

Tactics: Maneuvers that take advantage of short-term opportunities. A position with many traps and combinations is considered to be Tactical in nature.

T D: Abbreviation for tournament director.

Tempo: As in music, time. Plural, tempi.  In chess, there are basically three elements - space, time and material. Space and material are self-evident.  Time, however, is more subtle.  Initially, White, having the first move, has a time advantage (and thus, the initiative).  But White can, by making useless moves, waste time.  To make a wasteful move is to "lose a tempo."  Over the board, tempi, space and material can be exchanged back and forth for one another.

Theory: Well known opening, middle game, and endgame positions that are documented in Chess books.

Threat: A move which contains an implied or expressed attack on a piece or Pawn or the position of the opponent.

Three-time repetition: Occurs when the players have been moving back and forth, repeating the same position. Often happens when a player, behind in material and facing eventual loss, sacrifices for a perpetual check. A Three-time repetition of position results in a Draw.

Tie-Breaking System: A method used to determine a single winner when tournament play produces a tie. One tie-break is the play-off, but due to the time it takes to play additional games, this is often not feasible. Ties are sometimes resolved in favor of the player who won the most games, the player who won the individual game between the tied players, or the player who had Black if the individual game between the players was drawn.

Tietz System: A tie-breaking system sometimes used to spread out the prize fund in a round robin tournament.

Time: Time is a measure of development and also refers to thinking time, as measured on a Chess Clock.

Time control: The amount of time in which each player must play a specified number of moves. In international competitions, the typical time control is 40 moves in 2 hours for each player.

Time pressure: One of the most exciting moments in a tournament Chess game. When one or both players have used up most of the time on their Clocks but still have several moves to make before they reach the mandatory total of 40 or 45, they start to make moves with increasing rapidity, some times slamming down the pieces in frenzied panic. Terrible blunders are typical in this phase.

Time Trouble: Situation where a player has a small amount of time to make a large number of moves.

TN: Abbreviation for "Theoretical Novelty " -- a new move in an established opening.

Top Board: In a team match, the player who competes against the strongest opponents. Sometimes referred to as first board.

Touch Move: Chess rule which requires a player who touches a piece to actually move that piece (if it is his own) or take that piece (if it belongs to his opponent). If the piece touched cannot be legally moved or captured, then the player may make any move. A player may touch and piece and not be compelled to move or capture it if he first announces ”J’adoube or I adjus”.

Tournament: A contest among more than two Chess players.

Tournament Book: A collection of all the games of a tournament (or selected games if the tournament is very large). Generally a tournament book will also include some or all of the following: crosstables, complete or partial results, annotations of interesting or important games, background information on players or the tournament, and photographs.

Transposition: Reaching an identical opening position by a different order of moves. For example, the French Defense is usually reached by 1.e4 - e6, 2.d4 - d5, but 1.d4 - e6, 2.e4 - d5 transposes into the same position.

Trade: Same as exchange.

Trap: A way of surreptitiously luring the opponent into making a mistake or a move whose natural reply results in a disadvantage to the replying player.

Triangulation: A process whereby a King is moved twice to reach a square which could be attained in a single move. The beginning square and the two squares to which it is moved form a “triangle”. Triangulation is generally employed only in endings.

Tripled Pawns: Three Pawns of the same color on a single file , one in front of the other.

Turk, The: Chess playing ‘ automan’ (nickname) made in (1789) by Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen and operated by a hidden player (reputedly Allgaier, Vienna’s strongest player of the day), who was ingeniously concealed inside the machine. It was operated by many strong players and was the subject of great speculation.