[ches] 
| a game played by two persons, each with 16 pieces, on a chessboard. |
[ches] | one of the planks forming the roadway of a floating bridge. |
| chess 1 (chěs) n. A board game for two players, each beginning with 16 pieces of six kinds that are moved according to individual rules, with the objective of checkmating the opposing king. [Middle English ches, short for Old French esches, pl. of eschec, check in chess; see check.] |
| chess 2 (chěs) n. Any of several species of brome grass, especially the cheat. [Origin unknown.] |
| chess 3 (chěs) n. pl. chess or chess·es One of the floorboards of a pontoon bridge. [Middle English ches, tier, perhaps from Old French chasse, frame, from Latin capsa, box.] |
"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]