Tempo: the move as a unit of currency

Chess has no clock inside the position, only moves. A tempo is one of them, and the player who spends fewer of them getting ready is the player who is ready first.

• Plural tempi
• Rule of thumb three tempi are worth about a pawn
• Opposite losing a tempo, or a wasted move

A tempo is one move, treated as time rather than as a move. You gain a tempo when a move you wanted to play anyway also forces a reply that does your opponent no good. You lose one when you put a piece somewhere and then have to move it again.

That sounds like bookkeeping. It is not. Most opening disasters below 1500 are tempo disasters: one side has four pieces out and a castled king by move eight, the other has a queen that has moved three times and a rook that has never seen daylight. Nothing tactical happened. One player simply spent their moves better.

A developing move with a threat attached

Notice what makes 3.Nc3 a gained tempo rather than a cheap chase. It is a move White was going to make anyway. If White had attacked the queen with 3.Nf3 and then had to move that knight again later, the threat would have cost as much as it earned.

Gaining one, losing one, and the trap in between

Losing a tempo is the ordinary version and it is easy to spot after the fact: a bishop goes to d3, gets hit by a pawn, and goes to c2. Two moves to reach a square one move away. Beginners lose tempi to early queen sorties, to pieces placed where a pawn can attack them, and to castling on move fifteen because there was always something more urgent.

The trap is the other direction. "With tempo" is one of the most abused phrases in chess. A check that forces the enemy king to a square it wanted to go to anyway has not gained you anything, and attacking a piece that is happy to move is a gift. Before you play a forcing move, ask what the forced reply actually does. If the answer improves their position, you have handed over a tempo while feeling aggressive.

There is a third case that confuses people, and it is real: sometimes you want to lose a tempo on purpose. In king and pawn endings, being the player who has to move is a liability, and a manoeuvre that returns the same position with the other side to move wins. That is triangulation, and it is why opposition is worth learning.

A tempo is not a zwischenzug

They get mixed up because both feel like getting a free move. A tempo is the unit: one move of time. A zwischenzug is a specific tactic, where instead of making the recapture everyone is expecting you slip in a forcing move first, collect the reply, and recapture afterwards. The zwischenzug is how you win a tempo in the middle of a sequence that looked forced.

In the opening the exchange rate is worth knowing. The old rule of thumb is that three tempi are worth roughly a pawn, which is why a gambit can be sound: a pawn buys development, and development buys the initiative.

• A forcing move is only a gained tempo if you wanted to make it anyway.
• Moving the same piece twice in the opening costs a tempo unless it wins something or answers a threat.
• An early queen is a tempo donor. It gets attacked by pieces that are developing while they attack it.
• Count developed pieces, not moves, when you want to know who is ahead in development.

Questions people ask

Related

Tempo sits under Time and plans in the reference. Nearby:

• DevelopmentGetting pieces off the back rank and working
• InitiativeBeing the player who sets the questions
• GambitA pawn given away early, on purpose
• TriangulationLosing a move on purpose with the king
• ProphylaxisA move that stops a plan before it starts