Zwischenzug

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The zwischenzug (German for "intermediate move", pronounced [¿tsv¿¿¿n¿tsük]) is a chess tactic in which a player, instead of playing the expected move (commonly a recapture of a piece that the opponent has just captured) first interpolates another move, posing an immediate threat that the opponent must answer, then plays the expected move (Hooper & Whyld 1992:460) (Golombek 1977:354). Ideally, the zwischenzug changes the situation to the player's advantage, such as by gaining material or avoiding what would otherwise be a strong continuation for the opponent. Such a move is also called an intermezzo (Cox 2007:216), intermediate move (Kasparov 2008:208), or in-between move (Burgess 1997:494) (Horowitz & Reinfeld 1954:180-97). When the intermediate move is a check, it is sometimes called an "in-between check" (Horowitz & Reinfeld 1954:183-85), "zwischenschach" (van Perlo 2006:479), or "zwischen-check" (Mednis 1997:270).