chess problem
- noun
- /tʃɛs ˈprɒbləm/
:
problema de ajedrez
- The teacher assigned a difficult chess problem that required checkmating the opponent in just three moves.
Examples
-
In prison, he told me, when they weren't taken out to work and boredom threatened his sanity, he would make up detective stories or solve chess problems in his head.
Fiction book (1993) -
A chess problem was used as an experimental task to be solved by students keen on chess.
Academic text (1994) -
And this gets us back again to that image of the chess problem that I was talking about in my first lecture.
-
I mean, did we ever get past the chess problem, as you phrased it?
-
The chess problem.
-
In one of the versions, the basic task is a graphic one, and the auxiliary task is a chess problem.
Academic text (1994) -
In the solution of the chess problem, the hand of the subject followed a trajectory that was also necessary for the solution of the graphic task.
Academic text (1994) -
When the subject begins to work first on the auxiliary task, for example, a chess problem, an information complex for solving tasks in this field comes to the follow-up level.
Academic text (1994) -
The auxiliary tasks used were problems from the Halma game (Chinese chess), chess problems, assembling bars in a specified manner, and so forth.
Academic text (1994) -
He spent hours trying to solve the challenging chess problem presented in the magazine this month.
Synonyms
A puzzle with chess pieces that asks you to find the right move
How Difficult
- Jargon
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a puzzle involving chess pieces' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'chess' (the game) with 'problem' (a question or exercise requiring a solution). This straightforward noun–noun composition is common and predictable in English (and in many other languages), so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
The noun chess problem comes from chess players who set up pieces on the board on purpose as a problem, a small 'puzzle' to solve. They arranged the pieces so you must find the right moves to 'checkmate' or reach a specific goal, so today chess problem means a chess puzzle with a clear objective.
