Pseudo-Sacrifice

The concept behind this term is securely dated even though the word itself is not. Wikipedia's article on the chess sacrifice records that Rudolf Spielmann proposed a division between sham and real sacrifices, defining a sham sacrifice as one where the player offering it will soon regain material of the same or greater value, or else force mate, and adding that a sham sacrifice of this latter type is sometimes known as a pseudo sacrifice. Spielmann set out that division in Richtig opfern!, published in German and English editions in 1935, the English version translated by J. Du Mont as The Art of Sacrifice in Chess and issued in London by G. Bell, whose contents pages are divided into Sham Sacrifices and Real Sacrifices. Wikipedia's chess glossary confirms the modern equivalence by cross-referencing pseudo sacrifice directly to sham sacrifice. What could not be established is when the specific form pseudo-sacrifice entered print, so no first-documented date is claimed for the word itself.

First documented: n.a. — n.a. for the word; the underlying sham-sacrifice category was published in Rudolf Spielmann, Richtig opfern! / The Art of Sacrifice in Chess (London: G. Bell, 1935)