Zwischenzug

Home * Chess * Tactics * Zwischenzug

A Zwischenzug (intermezzo, intermediate or in-between move) is a chess tactic related move, which is played instead of an obvious looking, expected move, commonly a recapture, posing an immediate threat the opponent must respond to, ideally changing the situation to the player's advantage. The term Zwischenzug was coined in 1933 by Fred Reinfeld and Irving Chernev in their book Chess Strategy and Tactics.

Chess programs may consider some kinds of Zwischenzug early, after a recapture does not fail-high, or does not improve alpha at PV-nodes. Most common is a check giving move even in quiescence search, a mate threatening move, or a otherwise attacking move considering discovered attacks.

=External Links=
 * Zwischenzug from Wikipedia
 * Top 10 chess: Tactical Motif X: ZwischenZug (In-Between Move)
 * Entr'acte - René Clair, 1924 (1), YouTube Video
 * Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp chess playing at 4:22

=References=

Up one Level