What is Development in chess?
Bringing your knights and bishops off the back rank into the game.
Good opening play is mostly about fast development and king safety. Pieces sitting on their starting squares do nothing; develop them toward the center early.
Spot development in your own games
Free. Chess2EZ finds the patterns you keep missing and explains each in plain English.
Analyze my games →More chess terms
- InitiativeBeing the side making threats and dictating play.
- OppositionA king-and-pawn endgame technique of facing kings with one square between them.
- Promotion (queening)A pawn reaching the far rank becomes any piece, almost always a queen.
- Passed pawnA pawn with no enemy pawns able to block or capture it on its way to promotion.
- Isolated pawnA pawn with no friendly pawns on the adjacent files.
- Doubled pawnsTwo friendly pawns stacked on the same file.