Leukopenie!

Do you know this neologism? It was used by the chess author and journalist Hans Kmoch in his book "Pawn Power in Chess"; I have the German edition "Die Kunst der Bauerführug" (something like "The Art of Moving Pawns"). 

Leukopenie has to do with color weakness, in this case the specific weakness in the white squares. This occurs typically by the lack of the light-squared bishop, together with an unfortunate pawn structure. 

Here one example how Kmoch explained different grades of leukopenie:

The knight can attack both colour complexes, but the bishop even don't know that white squares exist. We are discussing a game where Botwinnik won a game in a position where his opponent's allowed a heavy "leukopenie". You can check it in our club 

https://www.chess.com/club/simple-chess-by-michael-stean

Medical Definition of leukopenia

A previous thread debated the usefulness of the term and pointed out that Kmoch had dozens of unusual terms including another term for inability to fight dark square weakness- melanopenia.

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/melano--amp-leuco--terms-for-dark--amp-light-squared-weaknesses

Yes, it is not a new word, but a neologism in the sense that it was (probably) the first time proposed as a chess terminology. People got completely crazy about his terms, but they are rather useful. We also use "outpost" instead of "square on the fourth, fifth, sixth, or seventh rank which is protected by a pawn and which cannot be attacked by an opponent's pawn" (Wiki), and we say "I got a passed pawn" or "passer" and not "I got a a pawn with no opposing pawns to prevent it from advancing to the eighth rank; i.e. there are no opposing pawns in front of it on either the same file or adjacent files", right? Leukopenie is the short term for "white square weakness" or "weak white colour complex".

If i can be of help..its a greek word : ΛΕΥΚΟ + ΠΕΝΙΑ (LEUKO+ PENIA) = WHITE + POOR ..

We use it as a chess term in Greek, meaning that you cannot control the white squares of the board..

so your opponent should take advantage of your weak color in that case.. of your "Leukopenia" 

Here another example of leukopenie, an example I found in a book by Herman Grooten on strategy, p. 142 (I have a German edition):

This is Ehlvet versus Hulse, New York Open, 1993. 

You can see the game here: https://books.google.ch/books?id=oIOzDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA131&lpg=PA131&dq=ehlvest+hulse+1993+chess&source=bl&ots=DsrnxTds9o&sig=D4YSuUdkrDTtXdUyoPw4uvdntqE&hl=de&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjXpsHxkq_XAhUBcBoKHQXKBPsQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=ehlvest%20hulse%201993%20chess&f=false

A strong knight against a poor bishop. Interesting game, especially the way how white with 8.R f5 prevented black to regroup his figures and place the rook on the a-file.

Are you talking about your own experience? Hope not :-)

Okay, let's talk about chess again... things are getting weird here

The German language is prone to combining several words into one, creating what look like monstrosities to any non-German.  The danger is that this can devolve into jargon, terms that only members of the privileged inner circle understand.  If you are an enthusiastic but nevertheless complete beginner, it can be daunting to see zugzwang, zwischenzug, luft, prophylaxis, pins, batteries, smothered mates and more, not to mention the names of various openings and the seemingly random ECO codes that go with them, not to mention learning chess notation for the first time.

I think leukopenie is a valid term, insomuch as it describes a strategic element of the chess game, but I doubt it describes something useful enough to create a unique term to enter wider circulation, especially when the simpler term Bad Bishop already exists.  Indeed, Good Knight vs Bad Bishop (or the inverse) seems to encapsulate everything you need to know about this idea without being obscure.

To go further, it is possible to have a lead in development; to have a massive lead in development; to have a lead in development in a closed position where it is less important; a lead in development where the opponent hasn't castled and the position is wide open; a lead in development of 1, 2 or more tempi, etc.  Each one is unique, each one has unique properties, each one could be defined by a new jargon term to encapsulate everything the particular type of lead in development ... but it would be an academic exercise with little to know practical benefit.  And I say this as a graduate student of philosophy, perhaps the most jargon infested discipline of academia: the world doesn't need more jargon.

"Leukopenie" is Greek, not German and the more I think about its origin describing the lack of white blood cells to respond to an infection, the more I like it.

I think Leukopenie is not a good example to describe how the German language is, as this word is a "Fremdwort" (foreign word) in German (from Greek, actually).

I learned German as an adult, and I never perceived the combining of words in this language as something wrong or difficult to deal. In English you would describe Zwischenzug as a "in-between move", which is also a combination of words, but written in a more clumsy way. The same with Luftloch, which in English would be something like "air hole".  By the way, the very long German words are also considered as ridiculous in German-speaking countries.

We should not forget that English had the same roots as German; both were developed from a Proto-Germanic language, and there are a lot of similarities between them, of course. (In English there is also a lot of word which combine words,  like "bemerkenswert" meaning "noteworthy"). 

'Leukopenie' is just the German word for the English 'leucopenia,' meaning 'lack of white blood cells.'  'Leuko-' is Ancient Greek for 'white,' 'pene' is Ancient Greek for 'almost,' lacking' or 'limited,' so both together make 'lack of whites,' or low white blood cell count.  'Pene' is also the source of the English word, 'peninsula,' meaning 'almost an island.' 

Also a Ducth word. The Dutch and German are in this case the same.

A lack of white blood cells, this is correct.

Perhaps you should read above about weakness on light squares (Leukopenie)

I am not proposing anything, I began this thread to show another example of weakness in a colour complex. We are discussing this in our club. I just used the term leukopenie as fun, as I knew that a lot of people will spend their time discussing the term (which is in my opinion not relevant) instead of discussing this other similar positions.