4D chess
4D chess noun: a sophisticated strategy that is far beyond the comprehension of others, especially one in which apparent blunders are simply indicators of yet-to-be-understood brilliance.
Noun
4D chess (uncountable)
- A sophisticated strategy that is far beyond the comprehension of others, especially one in which apparent blunders are simply indicators of yet-to-be-understood brilliance.
- Mr. STRATTON. Now, with respect to that theory - and all I have is the newspaper articles to go on, to attribute it to you and the Air Force - how can you build missiles to knock out Soviet sites if we don't know where the sites are?
General WHITE. A very good question. [Laughter.] This whole...1962, Hearings Before Committee of Armed Services of the House of Representatives on Sundry Legislation Affecting the Naval and Military Establishments, Washington: US Government Printing Office... - Steve Bannon, who once referred to Trump as a “blunt instrument” for his ideology, risks 4-D-chess-playing his way straight out of his position of influence, as his president has reportedly become either annoyed or threatened by his attempts to cast himself as the real grandmaster.2017 May 31, “The Enduring Appeal of Seeing Trump as Chess Master in Chief”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 27 Apr 2025
- Mr. STRATTON. Now, with respect to that theory - and all I have is the newspaper articles to go on, to attribute it to you and the Air Force - how can you build missiles to knock out Soviet sites if we don't know where the sites are?
Examples of 4D chess in a sentence
- These are the actions of a club flailing around to make things work, not the 4D chess moves of some Machiavellian puppet master.2021 August 5, “Messi’s Departure Is a Mess Everyone Could See Coming”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 05 Aug 2021:
- While everyone else had been playing checkers, Pannenkoek busted out the 4D chess.2021 September 19, Bismuth [pseudonym; Gabriel Girard], 2:06 from the start, in The History of the A Button Challenge - Part 2: The...
Forms of 4D chess
| alternative form | 4-D chess |
|---|---|
| alternative form | four-dimensional chess |
Origin of 4D chess
An extension of 3D chess, an actual chess variant seen as being very complex, and long used as a simile ("like a game of 3-D chess") in reference to geopolitics. The term 4D chess ("four-dimensional chess") became popular around 2017, in the context of US politics.
Questions about 4D chess
- What does 4D chess mean?
- 4D chess means a sophisticated strategy that is far beyond the comprehension of others, especially one in which apparent blunders are simply indicators of yet-to-be-understood brilliance.
- How do you use 4D chess in a sentence?
- These are the actions of a club flailing around to make things work, not the 4D chess moves of some Machiavellian puppet master.
- What part of speech is 4D chess?
- 4D chess is a noun.
Words near 4D chess in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: 4D chess (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “4D chess.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/4d_chess. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.