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• enPR:chĕs,IPA^(key):/t͡ʃɛs/

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• Rhymes:-ɛs

FromMiddle Englishches,chesse, fromOld Frencheschés, plural ofeschec, fromMedieval Latinscaccus, fromArabicشَاه(šāh,“king [in chess]”), fromClassical Persianشاه(šāh,“shah, king”), fromMiddle Persian𐭬𐭫𐭪𐭠(mlkʾ/⁠šāh⁠/), fromOld Persian𐏋(XŠ/⁠xšāyaθiya⁠/).

CompareGermanSchach andItalianscacchi. CompareFrenchéchecs(“chess”) and its descendants:Catalanescacs andDutchschaak. More atcheck andshah(“king of Persia or Iran”).

chess (usuallyuncountable,pluralchesses)

2. Aboard game for twoplayers, each beginning with sixteenchess pieces moving according to fixed rules across achessboard with the objective tocheckmate the opposingking.

   Synonyms:international chess,Western chess

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

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

chess (pluralchesses)

1. (now chieflyUS) Any of several species ofgrass in thegenusBromus, generally consideredweeds.
   • 2007, Michael Chabon,Gentlemen of the Road, Sceptre, published2008, page59:

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

CompareFrenchchâssis(“a framework of carpentry”).

chess (pluralchesses)

1. (military, chiefly in theplural) One of theplatforms, consisting of two or moreplanksdowelled together, for theflooring of a temporarymilitarybridge.
   • 1881,Thomas Wilhelm,A Military Dictionary and Gazetteer:

     the balks are laid and covered withchesses to within 1 foot of the trestle

   • 1885,Edward S. Farrow,Farrow's Military Encyclopedia; A Dictionary of Military Knowledge:

     achchess consists of three planks.

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

• hESCs