chess

• enPR: chĕs, IPA^(key): /t͡ʃɛs/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɛs

From Middle English ches, chesse, from Old French eschés, plural of eschec, from Vulgar Latin *scaccus, from Arabic شَاه‎ (šāh, “king in chess”), from Persian شاه‎ (šāh, “shah, king”), from Middle Persian 𐭬𐭫𐭪𐭠‎ (šāh), from Old Persian 𐏋 (XŠ /xšāyaθiya/). See check.

chess (usually uncountable, plural chesses)

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

• chessboard
• chess clock
• chesslike
• chessman
• chess piece
• chess set
• computer chess
• Japanese chess

Chess pieces in English · chess pieces, chessmen (see also: chess) (layout · text)
king	queen	castle, rook	bishop	knight	pawn

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

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

chess (plural chesses)

1. (now chiefly US) Any of several species of grass in the genus Bromus, generally considered weeds.
   • 2007, Michael Chabon, Gentlemen of the Road, Sceptre 2008, p. 59:

     Hobbled, loudly gourmandizing the dry chess grass, they were guarded by a pair of dismounted soldiers in long, dusty coats [...].

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

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.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Wilhelm to this entry?)

   • Farrow

     Each chess consists of three planks.

• hESCs