zugzwanghttp://www.oed.com/dictionary/zugzwang_n%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_useZugzwang, n.
First published 1986; not fully revised

Zugzwangnoun

Chess.
  1. 1904–
    A position in which a player is obliged to move but cannot do so without disadvantage; the disagreeable obligation to make such a move. Frequently in Zugzwang. Also transferred.
    1. 1904
      White has struggled bravely and only loses by ‘Zugzwang’.
      Lasker's Chess Magazine vol. I. iv. 166
    2. 1930
      The move..puts Black into a Zugswang [sic] position that speedily loses.
      British Chess Magazine vol. I. 196
    3. 1935
      White has constrained his opponent to move, has placed him, as we say in Germany, in Zugzwang.
      Smith & Bone, translation of Tarrasch's Game of Chess i. 5
    4. 1942
      Black now has only a few pawn moves left after which he is in complete ‘Zugzwang’.
      H. Golombek, 50 Great Games Modern Chess 53/2
    5. 1963
      A doubling of the grab theme, in which a black unit is captured on a number of different squares, leading to zugzwang.
      M. Lipton et al., Chess Problems 259
    6. 1973
      She is, to use a chess term, in complete Zugzwang. She could only make six tricks for a penalty of 200.
      Country Life 13 September 744/2

Zugzwang, n. was first published in 1986; not fully revised.

Zugzwang, n. was last modified in December 2024.