Illustration of chess
- chessboard with chess pieces arranged as at the beginning of a game
: a game for 2 players each of whom moves 16 pieces according to fixed rules across a checkerboard and tries to checkmate the opponent's king
1
: a weedy annual European bromegrass (Bromus secalinus) widely naturalized in North America as a weed especially in grain
2
: any of several weedy bromegrasses related to chess
Examples of chess in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Kris Slugg, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 Apr. 2026
Chess Mates, the latest in Netflix's Untold series of sports documentaries, centers on the feud between chess grandmasters Magnus Carlsen and Hans Niemann, the latter of whom cultivated a strong following in online chess circles.
—Randall Colburn, Entertainment Weekly, 31 Mar. 2026
Whereas AlphaGo was initially shown a number of human Go matches as a baseline, AlphaZero became dominant at a number of games—Go, chess, and so on—purely by playing itself, with zero prior knowledge, and learning from each game.
—Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, 30 Mar. 2026
In other words, Jerkins was playing chess while others were playing checkers.
—Jackson Howard, Pitchfork, 29 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for chess
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Noun
Tables and chess sets are provided.
—Kris Slugg, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 Apr. 2026
Chess Mates, the latest in Netflix's Untold series of sports documentaries, centers on the feud between chess grandmasters Magnus Carlsen and Hans Niemann, the latter of whom cultivated a strong following in online chess circles.
—Randall Colburn, Entertainment Weekly, 31 Mar. 2026
Whereas AlphaGo was initially shown a number of human Go matches as a baseline, AlphaZero became dominant at a number of games—Go, chess, and so on—purely by playing itself, with zero prior knowledge, and learning from each game.
—Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, 30 Mar. 2026
In other words, Jerkins was playing chess while others were playing checkers.
—Jackson Howard, Pitchfork, 29 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for chess
Cite this Entry
“Chess.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chess. Accessed 5 Apr. 2026.
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