Spite Check
A checking move played by a side that is already lost, offering no real hope of saving the game but delaying the inevitable or provoking a mistake.
A spite check has no sound follow-up plan behind it; it is played mainly out of desperation, occasionally as a last practical attempt to induce an error under time pressure.
Etymology
Edward Winter's article on the spite check assembles the term's usage history without settling its coinage. Winter quotes Harry Golombek in the British Chess Magazine of July 1955, pages 219-220, calling the move 35...Ra1+ the spite check in its purest form. Winter adds his own editorial view that, although not all reference books agree, he would reserve the term for moves which offer no realistic prospect of success. He notes related phrasings across languages and authors: Chernev applied it to Janowsky v Capablanca, New York 1916; Tartakower and du Mont called a Blackburne check a rancorous check; Tarrasch used the German Racheschach, literally a revenge check; and Spanish has jaque por despecho. Winter directs readers to Chess Notes 6966 and 6967 for a discussion of the earliest known occurrences of spite check and spite sacrifice, but those items were not retrieved here, so no earliest date is asserted.
First documented: n.a. — Earliest instance located in this research is Harry Golombek in the British Chess Magazine, July 1955, pp. 219-220, quoted by Edward Winter; Winter indicates earlier occurrences are discussed in Chess Notes 6966-6967, which were not verified here
Translations
Translations for this term haven't been added yet.