Forms: 4–5 ches, chees, 4–7 chesse, 5 schesse, 4, 7– chess; in Comb. 6 cheast, Sc. chas, 6–7 chest(e, 7 ches; also 5–6 chesses, 6 chestes, cheast(e)s, 7 chests. [ME. ches, chess, aphetic f. AF. and OF. eschès (OF. also eschecs, eschas, eschax, escas, mod.F. échecs = échè-z) ‘chequers, chess,’ pl. of eschec (escac, etc.) CHECK sb.1 So med.L. had scacci, scāci, scāchi, It. scacchi, Pr. escacos, all plurals, as name of the game; Sp. and Pg., on the other hand, have preserved in Sp. ajedrez, Pg. xadrez, the Arabic name, shâṭ-ranj, from OPers. chatrang, Skr. chaturanga lit. ‘the four angas or members of an army (elephants, horses, chariots, foot-soldiers).’ Cf. CHECK sb.1]
1. A game of skill played by two persons, on a chequered board divided into sixty-four squares; each player having a set of sixteen ‘men,’ consisting of king, queen, two bishops, two knights, two castles or rooks, and eight pawns; the object of the game is to place the adversary’s king in checkmate. (In early use, often the chess.)
[c. 1180. A. Neckam, De Nat. Rerum [cap. De Scaccis], De scaccorum ludo … scribere non erit molestum.]
a. 1300. Cursor M. (Cott.), 28338. I ha me liked … til idel gammes, chess and tablis.
c. 1325. Coer de L., 2172. They found Kyng Richard at play, At the chess in his galeye.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Frankl. T., 172. They dauncen and they pleyen at ches [v.r. chesse] and tables.
1474. Caxton, Chesse, 2. Vnder this kyng was this game and playe of the chesse founden.
1546. Langley, Pol. Verg. De Invent., II. viii. 49 b. The Chesse were inuented … by a certaine wiseman called Xerxes.
1630. Brathwait, Eng. Gentl. (1641), 96. There is no one game which may seeme to represent the state of mans life to the full, so well as the Chesse.
1643. Sir T. Browne, Relig. Med., I. § 19. Thus the Devill playd at Chesse with mee.
1822. Hazlitt, Table-t., I. v. 102. It requires a good capacity to play well at chess.
† b. in form chesses, chests.
1440. J. Shirley, Dethe K. James (1818), 12. As the Kyng plaid at the chesses with oone of his knyghtis.
c. 1489. Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, ii. 58. As they were playnge togyder at the Chesses.
1556. T. Hoby, trans. Castiglione’s Courtyer (1561), Yy iv b. To be meanly seene in the play at Chestes, and not ouercounninge.
1562. J. Rowbothom (title), The Pleasaunt and Wittie Plaie of the Cheastes.
c. 1610. Donne, Poems, 2nd Lett. to Sir H. Wootton. Whose deepest projects, and egregious gests Are but dull morals of a game at Chests.
1640. G. Watts, trans. Bacon’s Adv. Learn., 181. He was playing at chests.
c. fig.
c. 1657. Lett., in Clarendon, Hist. Reb., XV. (1847), 857/2. I have often observed, that a desperate game at Chess has been recover’d after the loss of the Nobility, only by playing the pawns well.
1887. F. E. Gretton, Classical Coincidences, vii. 5. Hannibal, in his famous game of chess with Fabius.
† 2. The pieces or board used in playing; the CHESS-MEN. Obs. [So med.L. scacci, OF. eschecs.]
1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 4308. Take furþe the chesse or þe tabler.
c. 1320. Sir Tristr., 1227. His harp, his croude was rike, His tables, his ches he bare.
c. 1400. Beryn, 1732. The Ches was al of yvery, the meyne fressh & newe.
1474. Caxton, Chesse, IV. viii. After that it is said in the chappitres of theschessys.
1613–8. Daniel, Coll. Hist. Eng. (1621), 35. Called him the sonne of a Bastard, and threw the Chesse in his face.
3. Loosely used to translate Gr. ἀστράγαλοι, πεσσοί, L. tesseræ, etc.
1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), VII. 75. Knyȝhtes of golde playenge with chesses of golde [tesseris aureis; Trevisa, dees of golde].
1676. Hobbes, Iliad, XXIII. 90. And Childishly the quarrel took at Chess [ἀμφ᾽ ἀστραγάλοισι].
1725. Pope, Odyss., I. 143. At Chess [πεσσοῖσι] they vie.
4. Comb., as chess-game, -king, -pawn, -player, -playing, -rook; † chess-maker, one who makes chess-men, etc.; † chess-play, (a.) ? a set of materials for the game, chess-board and chess-men (see quot. 1481); (b.) the game of chess; chess-table, a small table inlaid as a chess-board. Also CHESS-BOARD, -MAN.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res. (1858), 13. Councillors of State sit plotting, and playing their high *chess-game, whereof the pawns are Men.
1646. J. Hall, Poems, I. 8. Like *Chess-kings brave.
1481–90. Howard Househ. Bks. (1841), 514. Pay[d] to the *chesmaker for ij *chesplayes viijd.
1831. Carlyle, Misc. (1857), II. 296. The soldier a *chess-pawn to shoot and be shot at.
1596. Carew, Huarte’s Exam. Wits, viii. 112. *Chesse-play, is one of the things, which best discouereth the imagination.
1656. Beale, Chesse-Play, 16. This most excellent and delightfull game of Chesse-play. Ibid., 121 (Advt.) The Stationer to the Ingenious *Chesse-player.
1833. Brewster, Nat. Magic, xi. 269. These machines … sink into insignificance when compared with the automaton chess-player.
c. 1400. St. Alexius (Laud 622), 989. Of *chesse pleieyng & of tablere.
1833. Brewster, Nat. Magic, xi. 272. The chess-playing machine … was exhibited … in Presburg, Vienna, and Paris.
1864. Boutell, Heraldry Hist. & Pop. (ed. 3), xv. 197. Charged with a golden *chess-rook.
