Combination

The word arrives in English in the late 14th century as combinacyoun. Edward Winter's dedicated feature article asks when “combination” was first used as a chess term, and reports that the Oxford English Dictionary's earliest citation is The Field, 15 May 1875: “Mr Blackburne is not apt to lag when the opportunity for a fine combination presents itself.” Winter antedates the OED with J. Löwenthal's annotation to Morphy v Baucher, Paris 1858 — “The commencement of a brilliant combination, worthy of the immortal Labourdonnais…” — in the London Era of 3 October 1858, repeated in Löwenthal's Morphy's Games of Chess (1860). The word's technical definition was only pinned down much later, when in 1952/53 the editors of Shakhmaty v SSSR settled on “a forced sequence of moves which uses tactical means and exploits specific peculiarities of the position to achieve a certain goal.”

First documented: 1858 — J. Löwenthal, annotation to Morphy–Baucher, in the London Era, 3 October 1858, p. 5