Word.ws English Dictionary

Arabian mate

Arabian mate noun: a checkmate pattern in which a rook provides the checkmate to the cornered king while being protected by a knight that also covers the only would-be escape square.

Noun

Arabian mate (plural Arabian mates)

  1. A checkmate pattern in which a rook provides the checkmate to the cornered king while being protected by a knight that also covers the only would-be escape square.

Forms of Arabian mate

pluralArabian mates

Origin of Arabian mate

Possibly named such because the pattern was also possible in shatranj, the Middle Eastern predecessor to chess which included rooks and knights but had many other differences. According to various sources, the mate is described in an eighth century Arabic manuscript, but this claim could not be substantiated. The pattern, however, does appear as a solution to a position presented in an anonymous Arabic-language manuscript that was copied in 1257 (original source of material unknown).

Questions about Arabian mate

What does Arabian mate mean?
Arabian mate means a checkmate pattern in which a rook provides the checkmate to the cornered king while being protected by a knight that also covers the only would-be escape square.
What part of speech is Arabian mate?
Arabian mate is a noun.
What is the plural of Arabian mate?
The plural of Arabian mate is Arabian mates.

Words near Arabian mate in the dictionary

  1. Arabian Iraq
  2. Arabian jasmine
  3. Arabian jasmines
  4. Arabian leopard
  5. Arabian leopards
  6. Arabian mate
  7. Arabian mates
  8. Arabian Mau
  9. Arabian Maus
  10. Arabian oryx
  11. Arabian oryxes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Arabian mate (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.

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