Mortons Fork

Morton's Fork describes a choice between two equally unpleasant alternatives, or two lines of reasoning that lead to the same unpleasant conclusion.

Cardinal Morton, Chancellor under King Henry VII, habitually extracted taxes from wealthy London merchants for the royal treasury. His approach was that if the merchants lived ostentatiously, they obviously had sufficient income to spare for the king. Alternatively, if they lived frugally, they must have substantial savings and could therefore afford to contribute to the king's coffers. In either case they were impaled on "Morton's Fork".

Familiar to bridge players as the "Morton's Fork Coup"; I suspect chess players know this as well, if perhaps under a different name. -- JohnWebber

Well, there's the "knight's fork", wherein a knight attacks two pieces simultaneously and the victim must give up one to save the other. Then there's "zugzwang", which is where you're in an OK position, but it's your move, and any move you can make will leave you worse off.