| 释义 |
▪ I. stalemate, n. Chess.|ˈsteɪlmeɪt|
[f. stale n.6 + mate n.1
Strictly a misnomer, as the ‘stale’ (so called until 18th c.) is not really a mate.]
A position in which the player whose turn it is to move has no allowable move open to him, but has not his king in check.
According to modern rules, the game which ends in stalemate is drawn. In England from the 17th c. to the beginning of the 19th c. the player who received stalemate won the game. Various other rules have been in vogue at different times; sometimes the player giving stalemate won, either wholly or to the extent of half the stake; sometimes the last few moves had to be played over again until a mate resulted; sometimes the piece causing the obstruction was removed.
1765Lambe Hist. Chess 91 When the King has no man whom he can play, and is not in check, yet is so blocked up, that he cannot move without going into check, this position is called a stale-mate, or Pat, in this case the King who is stale-mated wins the game. 1847Staunton Chess-Player's Handbk. 33 He places the adverse King in the position..of stalemate.
b. fig.
1885Times 15 Dec. 5 The Prince..will not..consent to the stalemate of mutual evacuation proposed by Servia. 1912Standard 20 Sept. 6/4 So far as the public can see the match [between the two armies] ended in stalemate.
c. attrib.
1886Contemp. Rev. Sept. 444 It would be disgraceful indeed if a great country like Russia should have run herself into such a stale-mate position. 1903H. J. R. Murray in Brit. Chess Mag. 285 Several mediæval problems involve the condition that the one player forfeits his power of moving when his King is in a stalemate position.
▪ II. stalemate, v. Chess.|ˈsteɪlmeɪt|
[f. stalemate n.]
trans. To subject to a stalemate.
1765Lambe Hist. Chess 91 In this case the King who is stalemated wins the game. 1813Sarratt Wks. Damiano etc. 235 White cannot take the Rook without stalemating his adversary. 1879Meredith Egoist xlvii, At the game of Chess it is the dishonour of our adversary when we are stale-mated.
fig.1861Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. xli, You never saw a fellow look more puzzled, I had regularly stale-mated him. 1872Geo. Eliot Middlem. i. xii, He spoke rather sulkily, feeling himself stalemated. 1910Edin. Rev. Jan. 65 Pitt undertook to stalemate the French fleet.
Hence stalemated ppl. a. Also fig.
1903H. J. R. Murray in Brit. Chess Mag. 282 Here [in Indian Rule] then we have the earliest convention: the stalemated King wins. 1952D. Macarthur Reminiscences (1964) x. 409 The terrible blood tribute exacted by this type of stalemated attrition. 1965Economist 9 Jan. 104/1 The United States accepted a stalemated substitute for victory in Korea. 1977Time 31 Jan. 7/3 The Vice President also wants to know just what allied or U.S. initiatives Europeans would welcome to get the stalemated talks..going once again. |