Chess

(ches.) [Fr. éch ecs; from the cry of check, when the king is so placed as to incur being taken.] (Games.) Agame played by two persons sitting opposite to each other, and having between them a checkered board, containing 64 squares, alternately white and black. It is a game of Asiatic origin, but it has become a favorite with all civilized nations. The Chinese pretend to have known it 200 years before the Christian era. In the 6th cent. it was brought from India to Persia, whence it was spread by the Arabians and the Crusaders all over the then known world. The che board is so placed that each player has a white square at his right hand. Each side has 8 men, or pieces, consisting of a king, queen, 2 knights, 2 bishops, and 2 rooks, or castles, besides 8 pawns, or foot-soldiers. The object of the game is to bring the adversary's king into such a position that he would be taken at the next move, which is called checkmating. [See CHECKMATE.] C. is the king of all games, and maybe termed the only one wherein science is everything, leaving nothing to be done by mere chance. The game is now largely cultivated by the people of nearly all civilized countries, and forms the subject of a distinct and highly interesting cla of literature. [s. 174]