Tempo (chess)
In chess, tempo refers to a "turn" or single move. When a player achieves a desired result in one fewer move, one "gains a tempo" and conversely when one takes one more move than necessary one "loses a tempo". Similarly, when one forces one's opponent to make moves not according to the initial plan, one "gains tempo" because the opponent wastes moves. A move that gains a tempo is often called a move "with tempo".
A simple example of losing a tempo may be moving a rook from the h1 square to h5 and from there to h8 in the first diagram; simply moving from h1 to h8 would have achieved the same result with a tempo to spare. Such maneuvers do not always lose a tempo however—the rook on h5 may make some threat which needs to be responded to. In this case, since both players have "lost" a tempo, the net result in terms of time is nil, but the change brought about in the position may favor one player more than the other.
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| 1 | 1 | ||||||||
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Read more about Tempo (chess): Gaining A Tempo, Losing A Tempo, Spare Tempo, Reserve Tempo
Famous quotes containing the word tempo:
“I have never yet spoken from a public platform about women in industry that someone has not said, “But things are far better than they used to be.” I confess to impatience with persons who are satisfied with a dangerously slow tempo of progress for half of society in an age which requires a much faster tempo than in the days that “used to be.” Let us use what might be instead of what has been as our yardstick!”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)