Tournament Play

What is a second in chess?

  • Competition
  • Format
  • Scores

Second is a tournament term: an assistant hired to help a player in preparation for and during a major match or tournament. The second assists in areas such as opening preparation. The second also used to assist with adjournment analysis before the practice of adjournments was largely abandoned in the 1990s. This affects how games are organized, scored, paired, or decided.

Related terms

Free game review

See where second decides your games

Chessiro reviews your games with an AI coach that names the concept behind every mistake, then drills you on the exact positions where it happened until you stop repeating them.

← Browse the full chess glossary