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
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Jo Yurcaba, NBC news, 31 Jan. 2026
What has participating in chess done for you?
—Lisa Deaderick, San Diego Union-Tribune, 31 Jan. 2026
Then the Bears shifted — all three tight ends out wide and Williams to the shotgun, a master chess move that singled Loveland up to the left against Packers linebacker Nick Niemann, who during the regular season hadn’t played a defensive snap.
—Dan Wiederer, New York Times, 27 Jan. 2026
Gibney illustrates that state of waiting, of staving off what at that time appears to be the inevitable, with the famous sequence from Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, in which Max von Sydow’s medieval knight plays chess with Death on a desolate beach.
—David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 25 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for chess
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Noun
The governing bodies for sports ranging from swimming and track to pursuits like chess and darts have banned trans women from women’s events.
—Jo Yurcaba, NBC news, 31 Jan. 2026
What has participating in chess done for you?
—Lisa Deaderick, San Diego Union-Tribune, 31 Jan. 2026
Then the Bears shifted — all three tight ends out wide and Williams to the shotgun, a master chess move that singled Loveland up to the left against Packers linebacker Nick Niemann, who during the regular season hadn’t played a defensive snap.
—Dan Wiederer, New York Times, 27 Jan. 2026
Gibney illustrates that state of waiting, of staving off what at that time appears to be the inevitable, with the famous sequence from Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, in which Max von Sydow’s medieval knight plays chess with Death on a desolate beach.
—David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 25 Jan. 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 1 Feb. 2026.
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