zugzwang

From German Zugzwang, from Zug (“move”) +‎ Zwang (“compulsion”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈzʌɡzwæŋ/, /ˈzuːɡzwæŋ/

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zugzwang (countable and uncountable, plural zugzwangs or zugzwänge)

1. (chess) A situation in which a player is forced to make a disadvantageous move.
2. in figurative uses
   • 2002: Carl Friedrich Graumann and Werner Kallmeyer [eds.], Perspective and Perspectivation in Discourse, page 174

     An explanation for this phenomenon may be that speech acts that include instructions (e.g., a command or request) show a higher level of activity than speech acts of assertion; the ethnomethodological analysis of conversation speaks of conversational Zugzwänge:²⁴ a request, a question or a command demands a reaction of the addressee.

Zugzwang typically refers to a situation in which a player is forced to make a disadvantageous move though he or she would prefer not to make a move.

• Zugzwang

• zugzwang on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

From German Zugzwang.

• IPA^(key): /tsuɡts.vaŋɡ/

zugzwang m (plural zugzwangs)

1. (chess) zugzwang

• “zugzwang” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).