# chess

Pronunciation: say "CHES" /t͡ʃɛs/

## Noun

1. A board game for two players, each starting with sixteen pieces that move by fixed rules across a chessboard, the aim being to checkmate the opposing king.
   - Simple: A board game for two players, who each move sixteen pieces by set rules and try to trap the other player's king.
   - _My grandfather taught me chess on a folding board when I was seven._
   - _She was the youngest player ever to win the state chess championship._
2. Any of several grasses of the genus Bromus that are generally regarded as weeds. *(US)*
   - Simple: Any of several kinds of grass that are usually thought of as weeds.
   - _Chess had crowded out much of the wheat in the low corner of the field._
   - _By midsummer the abandoned pasture was thick with chess and other weedy grasses._

## Other meanings

- (noun) One of the platforms, made of two or more planks fastened together with dowels, that form the flooring of a temporary military bridge.

## Origin

**Meaning 1** — Old Persian lies at the start of the chain. Its word passed through Middle Persian to Persian šāh ("shah, king") and then to Arabic šāh, the king in chess. Medieval Latin made it scaccus, Old French eschec, with the plural eschés, and Middle English ches or chesse. German Schach, Italian scacchi and French échecs are comparable, and check and shah come from the same source.
**Meaning 2** — No one is sure. It may be connected with chess the game, because of the idea of being set out in rows or lines.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/chess (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).