ChessWorld Glossary

National master
A "National Master" title is awarded by certain countries to players who achieve a certain national rating or beyond. For example the United States Chess Federation (USCF) award "National Master" titles to players who have achieved a USCF rating of 2200 or more. 

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National tournament
An chess tournament which is usually held annually to decide the national champion. The tournament is usually restricted to the local nationals of the country holding it. Some national tournaments have been as strong as Interzonal tournaments, for example the Lenningrad-Moscow 1941 tournament for the champion of the USSR was won by Botvinnik, and was exceptionally strong. The American chess legend Robert J Fischer won the US National championship for several years in a row.

 

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Norm
An official Over-the-board chess "Norm" is a good enough performance in a chess tournament to help qualify for an official chess title. FIDE the world governing body of over-the-board chess award the International master title (IM title) or International Grandmaster Title (GM title) to players who achieve three IM norms within a certain time span, as well as meeting other criteria.

On Chessworld a player can achieve tournament norms, which can qualify a player for a tournament related title. You can see the Norm holders and their titles by vising the What's going on..Top Norm holders page. 

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Notation
Methods of recording moves.

This has enabled millions of chess enthusiasts worldwide to appreciate games from tournaments both recent and from hundreds of years ago. It has done for chess what the writing of notes has done for music, and both written versions are called "scores". Fundamentally there are four main components of a game "score" :-

1. The Numbering of moves
2. The piece that is moved can be identified
3. The squares need to be identified either by DESCRIPTIVE notation or by the use of coordinates or some other system
4. Conventional symbols are often needed for describing the special castling move and other special moves as shown in the following examples:-

a) 0-0 is castling kingside, whilst 0-0-0 is castling queenside.
b) For pawn promotions, the equals sign is often used e.g. f8=r to denote the f pawn underpromoting into a Rook.
c) For captures the symbol "x" is often used.
d) When players are keeping "score" in a game, it is now, in 2006, a Fide requirement to denote draw offers with the symbol "=" to the right of the move of which a draw was offered

In 2006, the dominant standard for recording games electronically has become "PGN notation". PGN notation as well as having seven mandatory tags indicating the two Player's names, Location of the game (Site tag), tournament of the game (Event tag), Year of the game, Result of the game, has a gamescore which is in Short-algebraic notation format. It making use the above a-c special symbols. Due to the massive popularity of PGN, you can now obtain game scores from many websites on the Internet. The Chessworld Master's collection is based on the PGN standard.  

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Novelty
A "Novelty" generally refers to a new move in a previously well-trodden opening variation which usually brings an advantage to the person playing it.

The great US Master Frank Marshall spent years waiting to hatch a prepared Opening novelty to spring against the genius Capablanca, which became known as the "Marshall Gambit". Capablanca managed to survive the novelty of the ferocious gambit variation idea.

[Click here to replay the game] Capablanca vs. Marshall, 1918 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 O-O 8.c3 d5 9.exd5 Nxd5 10.Nxe5 Nxe5 11.Rxe5 Nf6 12.Re1 Bd6 13.h3 Ng4 14.Qf3 Qh4 15.d4 Nxf2 16.Re2 Bg4 17.hxg4 Bh2+ 18.Kf1 Bg3 19.Rxf2 Qh1+ 20.Ke2 Bxf2 21.Bd2 Bh4 22.Qh3 Rae8+ 23.Kd3 Qf1+ 24.Kc2 Bf2 25.Qf3 Qg1 26.Bd5 c5 27.dxc5 Bxc5 28.b4 Bd6 29.a4 a5 30.axb5 axb4 31.Ra6 bxc3 32.Nxc3 Bb4 33.b6 Bxc3 34.Bxc3 h6 35.b7 Re3 36.Bxf7+ 1-0

 

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Novice
A chess player right at the beginning of their chess experience is termed a "Novice". Novices have to be careful not to fall into Opening traps such as the "Fools mate" or "Scholar's mate". Generally players who are new to chess, should first try and improve their tactical skills, and master the fundamental principles of openings without delving into too much depth for particular Opening variations. A knowledge of basic endings is also good to aquire early on.

 

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Nunn's Chess Openings
An opening book by British Grandmaster John Nunn who is a widely respected opening theoretician. 

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