Chess

[ches] /tʃɛs/

noun
1.
a game played on a chessboard by two people who maneuver sixteen pieces each according to rules governing movement of the six kinds of pieces (pawn, rook, knight, bishop, queen, king), the object being to bring the opponent’s king into checkmate.
[ches] /tʃɛs/
noun, plural chesses.
1.
any of several weedy species of , especially Bromus secalinus .
[ches] /tʃɛs/
noun, plural chess, chesses.
1.
one of the planks forming the roadway of a floating bridge.
/tʃɛs/
noun
1.
a game of skill for two players using a chessboard on which chessmen are moved. Initially each player has one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns, which have different types of moves according to kind. The object is to checkmate the opponent’s king
/tʃɛs/
noun
1.
(US) a less common name for rye-brome
/tʃɛs/
noun (pl) chess, chesses
1.
a floorboard of the deck of a pontoon bridge
n.

13c., from Old French esches “chessmen,” plural of eschec “game of chess, chessboard; checkmate” (see check (n.)), from the key move of the game. Modern French still distinguishes échec “check, blow, rebuff, defeat,” from plural échecs “chess.”

The original word for “chess” is Sanskrit chaturanga “four members of an army” — elephants, horses, chariots, foot soldiers. This is preserved in Spanish ajedrez, from Arabic (al) shat-ranj, from Persian chatrang, from the Sanskrit word.

The chess pieces are the block alphabet which shapes thoughts; and these thoughts, although making a visual design on the chessboard, express their beauty abstractly, like a poem. [Marcel Duchamp, address to New York State Chess Association, Aug. 30, 1952]

games
A two-player game with perfect information.
Usenet newsgroup: news:rec.games.chess.
See also Internet Chess Server.
(1995-03-25)
Community Health and Environmental Surveillance System