chess

English Online Dictionary. What means chess‎? What does chess mean?

English

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Pronunciation

• enPR: chĕs, IPA^(key): /t͡ʃɛs/
• Rhymes: -ɛs

Etymology 1

From Middle English ches, chesse, from Old French eschés, plural of eschec, from Medieval Latin scaccus, from Arabic شَاه (šāh, “king [in chess]”), from Classical Persian شاه (šāh, “shah, king”), from Middle Persian 𐭬𐭫𐭪𐭠 (mlkʾ /⁠šāh⁠/), from Old Persian 𐏋 (XŠ /⁠xšāyaθiya⁠/).

Compare German Schach and Italian scacchi. Compare French échecs (“chess”) and its descendants: Catalan escacs and Dutch schaak. More at check and shah (“king of Persia or Iran”).

Noun

chess (usually uncountable, plural chesses)

2. A board game for two players, each beginning with sixteen chess pieces moving according to fixed rules across a chessboard with the objective to checkmate the opposing king.

   Synonyms: international chess, Western chess

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• Appendix:Glossary of chess
• checkers
• draughts
• scacchic

Etymology 2

Uncertain; perhaps linked to Etymology 1, above, from the sense of being arranged in rows or lines.

Noun

chess (plural chesses)

1. (now chiefly US) Any of several species of grass in the genus Bromus, generally considered weeds.

Etymology 3

Compare French châssis (“a framework of carpentry”).

Noun

chess (plural chesses)

1. (military, chiefly in the plural) One of the platforms, consisting of two or more planks dowelled together, for the flooring of a temporary military bridge.

References

“chess”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• hESCs