13c., from O.Fr.
esches pl. of
eschec (see
check), from the key move of the game. The original word for "chess" is Skt.
chaturanga "four members of an army" -- elephants, horses, chariots, foot soldiers. This is preserved in Sp.
ajedrez, from Arabic
(al) shat-ranj, from Pers.
chatrang, from the Skt. word.
"The chess pieces are the block alphabet which shapes thoughts; and these thoughts, although making a visual design on the chessboard, express their beauty abstractly, like a poem." [Marcel Duchamp]