Compensation

The word's literal sense is a near-perfect description of what chess players mean by it. Etymonline dates compensation to the late fourteenth century in English, from Latin compensationem, glossed as a weighing one thing against another, a balancing, a noun of action from compensare, to weigh one thing against another, formed from com plus pensare, a frequentative of pendere meaning to hang, weigh, pay. Wikipedia defines the chess sense as the typically short-term positional advantages a player gains in exchange for a typically material disadvantage, and lists the standard forms: better pawn structure, the two bishops or bishop pair, piece activity and development, an exposed enemy king, passed pawns, and control of key squares. It offers Polugaevsky-Evans 1970 and Spassky-Fischer 1960 as examples. Wikipedia's chess glossary gives a parallel definition, that which is gained in return for a loss, often a positional improvement in return for loss of material. Neither chess source offers an etymology, a coiner, or a first citation for the chess usage.

First documented: n.a. for the chess sense; the English word dates from the late 14th century per Etymonline — n.a. for the chess sense