Is there a word to count one moving by one player? Is there a word to count one moving by one player?
For example, the following series of moves:

e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6

is counted as three moves. But if I want to denote &quot;e4&quot; as a unit of a count, what word should I use?
There is indeed such a word for so called &quot;half-moves.&quot; The terminology used is the word ply. To speak of multiple ply, plies is used. One would refer to the move &quot;e4&quot; as the first ply of the game.  An example demonstration of it can be seen at work in CSE's very own diagram viewer.
Sometimes, a user wants to add a game to their post, but wants the diagram to start with a specified board position. For example, this question would look like the below picture without the word &quot;ply&quot; to refer to the wanted position.

But with the code [startply &quot;38&quot;] having four spaces in front of it, the page, when loaded, shows the position after Black's 19th moves, i.e. the 38th ply, and before White's 20th move, the 39th ply.

White's ply count will always be odd while Black's will always be even. Do note that while &quot;half-move&quot; is a broadly used term as well, it is basically a laymen's term, and &quot;ply&quot; is the offical one.