zugzwang
- In chess, a situation in which a player is obligated to move but every available move will worsen their position.
- More broadly, any situation in which being forced to act makes one's position worse than doing nothing would.
In a sentence
- With all his pieces pinned, the grandmaster found himself in zugzwang — every legal move would cost him a decisive advantage.
- The politician faced a political zugzwang: any statement he made on the issue would alienate a crucial voting bloc.
Usage note. In strict chess usage, zugzwang refers only to positions where the obligation to move is itself the decisive disadvantage; in general usage the term is applied loosely to any damned-if-you-do situation.
Where it comes from
English zugzwang · entered English 19th–20th c.
Borrowed directly from German, where it is composed of 'Zug' (move, pull) and 'Zwang' (compulsion, force). The compound therefore means roughly 'compulsion to move.' It entered English chess terminology in the late 19th to early 20th century as the game's vocabulary was standardized internationally.