Swindle
A trick or resource that rescues a lost or worse position by exploiting the opponent's error or overconfidence.
A swindle typically relies on setting a practical trap in a difficult position, hoping the opponent, believing the game already won, plays carelessly and falls for it.
Etymology
The verb swindle, “to cheat, defraud,” is a 1782 back-formation from swindler (1774), which comes from German Schwindler, from schwindeln “to be giddy, act extravagantly, swindle.” The OED notes the word is said to have been introduced into London by German Jews about 1762. Chess kept the word but stripped out the dishonesty: in chess a swindle carries no implication of unethical or unsportsmanlike conduct, and simply names a ruse by which a player in a losing position tricks the opponent into a win or draw instead of the expected loss. The chess term is inseparable from Frank Marshall, who was proud of his reputation for swindles and in 1914 wrote a book entitled Marshall's Chess 'Swindles' — to Marshall the word meant a particularly imaginative method of rescuing a difficult, if not lost, position. Wikipedia explicitly states it does not know an earliest chess citation or a coiner for the term.
First documented: 1914 — Frank Marshall, Marshall's Chess “Swindles” (1914) — earliest confirmable chess publication using the term in its title; the term's true first chess use is unconfirmed
Translations
Translations for this term haven't been added yet.