chessnoun [ U ]
uk/tʃes/us/tʃes/A2 a game played by two people on a square board, in which each player has 16 pieces that can be moved on the board in different ways
Examples
- I'm not conversant with the rules of chess.
- She's quite a hotshot at chess.
- In chess, the pieces can only move in certain directions.
- If you want to get anywhere in chess, you have to study the various openings.
- The Russian chess team have routed all the rest.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Board games
- backgammon
- bishop
- blitz
- board game
- castle
- Chutes and Ladders
- counter
- defence
- draught
- endgame
- forfeit
- gambit
- grandmaster
- pawn
- pin
- queen
- queenside
- resign
- rook
- square
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Examples from literature
- Football is a game – but chess, video games, and hide and seek are games, too, each with its own rules.
- It's fun to play chess against a computer.
- One brain scientist said that, although we can make a computer that can beat world champions at chess, we still can’t make a robot that can move nearly as well as us.
- There are chess competitions and chess stars.
- Afterwards he taught me poker, and I beat him at three tough chess games.
- I found him busily studying a problem in chess.
- The annals of chivalry continually speak of the barons playing at these games, and especially at chess.
- The prisoners play football, tennis, cards and chess.
- We may then suppose that chess was a favourite evening amusement of the Celt.