Initiative

A player has the initiative when they are able to decide where to play next, and in particular, when they are not forced to answer their opponent's last move.

Having initiative is usually a good thing. As long as the player who has the initiative keeps playing forcing moves that the opponent must answer, they can keep the initiative, and can largely dictate how the game progresses. When the player makes a move that is insufficiently forcing, they may lose the initiative, and the other player may gain the initiative.

Having initiative is sometimes called sente, and not having initiative is sometimes called gote. These Japanese terms are adopted from the game of Go.

In the endgame, it sometimes happens that the two players play a sequence of moves that are mutually forcing, so that if one player deviates from the sequence of moves, the other player immediately wins. In that case, neither player has the initiative, and the game just continues along a predetermined route until one player gains the initiative again.