Luft
Encyclopedia
Luft, the German
word for "air" (sometimes also "space" or "breath"), is used by some chess
writers and commentators to denote a space left by a pawn
move into which a castled
king
may move, especially such a space made with the intention of avoiding a back rank checkmate
. A move leaving such a space is often said to "give the king some luft". In German itself, however, such a space would be called a Luftloch (air-hole).
A simplified example is seen to the right. Black is threatening checkmate
with the simple 1...Re1# and White must deal with this threat. The right thing to do is to give the king some luft by moving a pawn on the g or h file: 1.g3, 1.g4, 1.h3 and 1.h4 will all avoid immediate checkmate. After each, 1...Re1+ can be simply met with 2.Kg2 or 2.Kh2.
It is usually better to move the h-pawn (or the a-pawn if the king is on the queenside) because moving the f-pawn can weaken the king's position and moving the g-pawn creates holes at f3 and h3 (or f6 and h6 for Black on the kingside). In the diagram, Black has a weak luft because of the holes on a6 and c6; White has a strong luft, without holes .
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
word for "air" (sometimes also "space" or "breath"), is used by some chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
writers and commentators to denote a space left by a pawn
Pawn (chess)
The pawn is the most numerous and weakest piece in the game of chess, historically representing infantry, or more particularly armed peasants or pikemen. Each player begins the game with eight pawns, one on each square of the rank immediately in front of the other pieces...
move into which a castled
Castling
Castling is a special move in the game of chess involving the king and either of the original rooks of the same color. It is the only move in chess in which a player moves two pieces at the same time. Castling consists of moving the king two squares towards a rook on the player's first rank, then...
king
King (chess)
In chess, the king is the most important piece. The object of the game is to trap the opponent's king so that its escape is not possible . If a player's king is threatened with capture, it is said to be in check, and the player must remove the threat of capture on the next move. If this cannot be...
may move, especially such a space made with the intention of avoiding a back rank checkmate
Back rank checkmate
In chess, a back-rank checkmate is a checkmate delivered by a rook or queen along a back rank in which the mated king is unable to move up the board because the king is blocked by friendly pieces on the second rank . A typical position is shown to the right...
. A move leaving such a space is often said to "give the king some luft". In German itself, however, such a space would be called a Luftloch (air-hole).
A simplified example is seen to the right. Black is threatening checkmate
Checkmate
Checkmate is a situation in chess in which one player's king is threatened with capture and there is no way to meet that threat. Or, simply put, the king is under direct attack and cannot avoid being captured...
with the simple 1...Re1# and White must deal with this threat. The right thing to do is to give the king some luft by moving a pawn on the g or h file: 1.g3, 1.g4, 1.h3 and 1.h4 will all avoid immediate checkmate. After each, 1...Re1+ can be simply met with 2.Kg2 or 2.Kh2.
It is usually better to move the h-pawn (or the a-pawn if the king is on the queenside) because moving the f-pawn can weaken the king's position and moving the g-pawn creates holes at f3 and h3 (or f6 and h6 for Black on the kingside). In the diagram, Black has a weak luft because of the holes on a6 and c6; White has a strong luft, without holes .