# chess
## English

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### Pronunciation

* enPR: chĕs, IPA: /t͡ʃɛs/
* Audio (US):(file)
* 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)
* 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

* 3-D chess
* 4D chess
* 5D chess
* Absolute Rettah chess
* Advancing chess
* Alice chess
* Ambi-chess
* antichess
* Armageddon chess
* atomic chess
* Black and White chess
* blindfold chess
* blitz chess
* Blot-straight chess
* bughouse chess
* bullet chess
* Burmese chess
* Capablanca chess
* Capablanca's chess
* Capricorn chess
* capture chess
* Cheshire Cat chess
* Chess960
* chess-apple
* chessboard
* chess boxer
* chessboxer
* chess boxing
* chessboxing
* chess cake
* chess clock
* chessdom
* chess engine
* chessic
* chessist
* chess-like
* chesslike
* chess-man
* chessman
* chessmaster
* chess master
* chess pie
* chess piece
* chess-piece
* chesspiece
* chess player
* chessplayer
* chess-playing
* chess-rating
* chess set
* chess tart
* chess timer
* Chimaera chess
* Chinese chess
* classical chess
* Complete Contramatic chess
* complicacious chess
* computer chess
* Contramatic chess
* Co-regal chess
* correspondence chess
* Courier chess
* cubic chess
* Dabbabante chess
* Decimal Oriental chess
* Decimal Rettah chess
* Demigorgon chess
* Dodo chess
* double-king chess
* Double Rettah chess
* Dunce's chess
* Ethiopian chess
* fairy chess
* fast chess
* Fischer random chess
* four-dimensional chess
* four-handed chess
* four-man chess
* four-player chess
* four-way chess
* giveaway chess
* Gorgona chess
* Gorgon chess
* Gryphon chess
* half-queen's chess
* hexagonal chess
* holochess
* hope chess
* hyperbullet chess
* hyperchess
* Idle Kings' chess
* Imitante Queen chess
* international chess
* Jabberwocky chess
* Japanese chess
* killer chess
* kinglet chess
* Korean chess
* lightning chess
* Looking-glass chess
* Los Alamos chess
* losing chess
* mad queen chess
* Mad Threeparty chess
* Manchu chess
* March Hare chess
* Meddlers' chess
* Megasaur chess
* Mimotaur chess
* minichess
* Mock chess
* Mongolian chess
* Nightrider chess
* nonchess
* Rangers chess
* rapid chess
* Rettah chess
* robot chess
* Russian chess
* Semi-queen chess
* Simpleton chess
* solving chess
* speed chess
* Sphinx chess
* suicide chess
* Synchronistic chess
* take-all chess
* three-dimensional chess
* three-handed chess
* three-man chess
* three-player chess
* three-way chess
* Timur's cubic chess
* Tri-D Chess
* Tri-Dimensional Chess
* Tweedle chess
* twin orthodox chess
* ultrabullet chess
* Unirexal chess
* Western chess
* Wyvern chess

##### Translations
#### See also

* Appendix:Glossary of chess
* checkers
* draughts
* scacchic
Chess pieces in English · chess pieces, chessmen (see also: chess) (layout · text) :
| king | queen | rook, castle | bishop | knight | pawn |

### Etymology 2

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

#### Noun

chess (plural chesses)
* (now chiefly US) Any of several species of grass in the genus Bromus, generally considered weeds.
** 2007, Michael Chabon, Gentlemen of the Road, Sceptre, published 2008, page 59:Hobbled, loudly gourmandizing the dry chess grass, they were guarded by a pair of dismounted soldiers in long, dusty coats [...].

### Etymology 3

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

#### Noun

chess (plural chesses)
* (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.
** 1881, Thomas Wilhelm, A Military Dictionary and Gazetteer:the balks are laid and covered with chesses to within 1 foot of the trestle
** 1885, Edward S. Farrow, Farrow's Military Encyclopedia; A Dictionary of Military Knowledge:ach chess consists of three planks.

### References

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

### Anagrams

* hESCs