English

Etymology

From Persian šāh māt, the king is dead (borrowed through Middle English chekmat , through Old French eschec mat ).

Noun

checkmate

1. The conclusive victory in a game of chess that occurs when an opponent's king has no possible move that can remove him from check (threat of attack).
2. Word called out by the victor of chess when an opponent is placed in checkmate.
3. Any situation that has no obvious escape and involves some personal loss.

Translations

• Chinese 將死 , 将死 (qiang-si)
• Czech: mat or šach mat (1,2), matová situace (3)
• Dutch: schaakmat (1, 2)
• Finnish: shakkimatti , šakkimatti
• French: échec et mat
• German: Niederlage
• Italian: scacco matto
• Japanese: チェックメイト (chekkumeito)
• Korean: 외통 장군
• Latin: latrunculusque matum
• Persian: شاه مات
• Polish: szach-mat m
• Romanian: şah-mat n
• Slovak: mat m (1), šach-mat (2)
• Spanish: jaque mate
• Swedish: schackmatt n

Verb

to checkmate

1. To put (an opponent's king) into checkmate.
2. To lead (someone) to a situation that has no obvious escape with involvement of giving some personal loss.

Translations

• French: faire échec et mat
• Slovak: dať šach mat (1)
• Swedish: schackmatta (1), sätta matt (1), göra matt (1), sätta schackmatt (1), göra schackmatt (1)

Related Terms

• stalemate

See also

• Daily Times article on the etymology of the word