Check
/tʃɛk/A direct attack on the opposing king that must be addressed on the very next move.
A king in check must move out of attack, block the attacking line, or capture the attacker; if none is possible, the result is checkmate. The word check gave English the name of the entire game.
Etymology
The word "check" traces directly to shah, the Persian word for "king" used in shatranj, chess's medieval Persian ancestor. Announcing that the opposing king was under attack — warning of an imminent, accidental capture of the king that would end the game too abruptly — was already part of the earliest known chess rules in Persian and Arabic manuscripts. The Persians later added the further refinement that a king could never be moved into check or left in check, meaning the king itself could never actually be captured in play. The word shah passed through Arabic and Old French échec (plural échecs) into English, splitting into two related words: "check," the attack warning, and "chess," the name of the whole game — making chess, unusually, a game named after one specific move against one specific piece.
Translations
| Language | Term | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Arabic | كش (kash) | Modern colloquial Arabic term; historically shah was also used directly. |
| Dutch | schaak loanword | Also the Dutch name for the game (schaken). |
| French | échec loanword | Also the French name for the game (échecs, plural). |
| German | Schach loanword | Also the German name for the entire game itself, like English "chess." |
| Italian | scacco loanword | Also the root of Italian scacchi, "chess." |
| Polish | szach loanword | |
| Portuguese | xeque loanword | Same Persian-via-Arabic root as Spanish jaque. |
| Russian | шах (shakh) loanword | Direct descendant of Persian shah. |
| Spanish | jaque loanword | Loanword chain from Persian shah via Arabic and Old Spanish. |
| Turkish | şah loanword | Same word used for both "check" and "king" in Turkish. |