Echesspedia

KAGAN NEUESTE SCHACHRICHTEN

German periodical founded by Bernhard Kagan.  It was published from 1921 to 1932 and included contributions from the best players at the time.  The periodical stopped as an indirect result of the great German financial crash.

Kagan (centre) with the competitors at Berlin 1918 together with Lasker, Rubinstein, Schlechter and Tarrasch

KAMIKAZE CHESS

A type of Fairy chess in which each piece and pawn is removed from the board once it captures an opposing man.

KEY

the first move of a solution. A problem which unintentionally has more than one key is said to be cooked.

KIBLITZER

Term derived from the Yiddish (peewit) which means a bystander whose comments on a game of chess are audible to the players.

KING

The most important piece, but not the most powerful.  The king is shown by the character K. It can be played to any of the adjacent squares horizontally, vertically or diagonally.  The king may not be moved to a square where it finds itself under check. Meeting the certain conditions once during the game, players have the right for castling, a combined move of king and one of the rooks.  This move originated from the king’s leap, a move introduced in Italy in the 13^th century.  In the initial position each player has one king placed on e1 and e8 for white and black respectively.  Unlike other pieces, the king can never be captured.  The game is won if the player checkmates the opponent’s king, or drawn if the opponent’s king is stalemated.  In the opening and in the middle game players usually strive to protect the king, but in the endgame with a lesser number of pieces on the board, the tactical role of the king grows and can often become decisive.

Name of the King in other languages:

Shah, Konge, Koning, Roi, Köning Kiróly, Shah, Re, Konge, Rey, Kung.

KING HUNT

The process of chasing your opponent’s King from a square where he is protected to a square where he is vulnerable

KNIGHT

A minor piece, represented by the character N or the graphical __ that has had a move of a fixed length that has not changed throughout the entire history of chess.  There are many ways to describe the knight’s move but the idea is always the same.  There are two parts: the first – two squares in any direction and the second – one square off the rank or file along which the first part of the move was made.  Unlike other pieces, the knight can jump over other pieces.  After each move the knight finds itself on a square of opposite colour.  It is equal to a bishop or approximately three pawns.  The maximum number of squares it can move to or attack is eight if located on the centre of the board; the minimum is two if located on the corner of the board.  Therefore, it’s potential increases in the centre.  In most European languages, the name of the piece is associated with cavalry.  It is only in German where it is called Springer, which means leaper.

The Staunton pattern knight is modelled from the famous Greek horse of the Elgin Marbles in the British Museum of London.

KNIGHT’S TOUR

One of the oldest puzzles dating from the 14^th century.  The problem is to find a sequence of 64 moves by which the knight can visit each square of the chessboard consecutively.  The possible solutions were never calculated.

A “closed tour” is one in which the square at the end of a knight’s tour is a knight moved away from the first square, as in the second example below.  The master of Shatranj as-Suli published the following two closed tours:

The first example shows perfect axial symmetry on the left halfboard, the second is composed of two quasi-symmetrical half-board tours.

KNOCK-OUT

This format for a chess tournament was first used in London, 1851 and was more recently used for the World Championships between 1997 and 2004 and since 2005 for the World Cup.
The players who lose their games in a round or who receive the lowest scores are progressively eliminated.