Shouldering
An endgame technique in which one king uses its own body to block the opposing king from approaching a key area of the board.
By stepping into the path of the enemy king, the shouldering king denies it the direct route to a pawn or key square, forcing a longer detour that can cost the tempo needed to catch up.
Etymology
Shouldering is a metaphor imported into chess from physical jostling: one king blocks the opposing king's path, denying it the direct route and forcing it to take a longer or less effective one. The technique is used above all in king and pawn endgames, to gain or keep the opposition, to control key squares, to escort a passed pawn, to force zugzwang, or to keep the enemy king away from a passer. The same idea is also known in English chess writing as body-checking, an image drawn from ice hockey. The term is informal: it is not a headword in Wikipedia's Glossary of chess, and no source fetched here identifies who coined it or when it first appeared in print.
First documented: n.a. — n.a. - coinage and first use not stated in any source fetched
Translations
Translations for this term haven't been added yet.