Chess. [a. AF. estale, perh. vbl. n. f. estaler STALE v.3] = STALEMATE.
1423. James I., Kingis Q., clxix. ‘Off mate?’ quod sche … ‘thou has fundin stale This mony day.’
c. 1470. MS. Ashmole 344, lf. 18 b. Þan draw thi fers in to e & þi other fers in to f as nye thy knyght as thow mayst savyng stale.
1591. Florio, 2nd Fruites, 75. It is no check-mate, but a stale.
1625. Bacon, Ess., Of Boldness (Arb.), 519. They stand at a stay; Like a Stale at Chesse, where it is no Mate, but yet the Game cannot stirre.
1647. Ward, Simple Cobler, 57. When the Parliament shall give you a mate, though but a Stale.
1656. F. Beale, trans. Biochimo’s Roy. Game Chesse-play, 13. A stale is given when one King hath lost all his men, and hath but one place left to fly into, if then the adversary bar him of that place without checking him, so that he being now out of check cannot remove but into check, it is then a stale, and he that giveth it to the distressed King loseth the Game.
