Noun: chess
| Singular | chess |
| Plural | chesses |
Sample Sentences
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At the tender age of 20, Penguingm1 is already one of the best hyperbullet and ultrabullet chess players in the world. [2020 October 1, Aaron Alford, “Cloud9 signs grandmaster chess player Penguingm1”, in Dot Esports, archived from the original on 19 Jun 2021:]
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FIDE appeals to all chess players and federations to accept this view. [2022, “2023 Laws of Chess”, in FIDE, archived from the original on 16 Mar 2025, page 2:]
Nouns inflected like chess
penniless-bench,
wintergrass,
kitchen pass,
grey fox,
grey box,
trailer hitch,
paleness,
loaded march,
Tush Push,
horribleness,
slaughteress,
chapparvovirus,
greenwax,
royal flush,
crab cactus,
geostress,
syngas,
wintercress,
ichthys,
ichthus, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
1. Etymology tree
2. Proto-Indo-European *tek-
3. Proto-Indo-Iranian *kšáyati
4. Proto-Iranian *xšáyati
5. Old Persian 𐏋 (XŠ)
6. Middle Persian 𐭬𐭫𐭪𐭠 (mlkʾ)
7. Classical Persian شاه (šāh)bor.
8. Arabic شَاه (šāh)der.
9. Old French eschésbor.
10. Middle English ches
11. English chess
12. From Middle English ches, chesse, from Old French eschés, plural of eschec, from Medieval Latin scaccus, from Arabic شَاه (šāh, “king [in chess]”), from Classical Persian شاه (šāh, “shah, king”), from Middle Persian 𐭬𐭫𐭪𐭠 (mlkʾ /šāh/), from Old Persian 𐏋 (XŠ /xšāyaθiya/).
13. Compare German Schach and Italian scacchi. Compare French échecs (“chess”) and its descendants: Catalan escacs and Dutch schaak. More at check and shah (“king of Persia or Iran”). See: Middle English Nouns '
ches', German Nouns '
Schach', Italian Nouns '
scacchi', French Nouns '
échecs', Catalan Nouns '
escacs', Dutch Nouns '
schaak'.