Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun
- (sometimes initial capital letter) a game using small figures and counters that represent troops, ships, etc., played on a map or miniature battlefield, developed for teaching military tactics to officers.
- a form of chess in which both players see only their own pieces on a board in front of them and must remember the opponent’s moves as told to them by a referee who maintains a third board on which the play of both players is shown.
noun
- (sometimes capital) a form of war game in which symbols representing military formations are moved about on maps
- a variation of chess in which each player has his own board and men and does not see his opponent’s board and men. The moves are regulated by an umpire on a third board out of sight of both players
war games played with pieces on maps, 1811 as a German word in English, from German Kriegsspiel, literally “war game,” from Krieg “war,” from Middle High German kriec, “combat,” mostly “exertion, effort; opposition, enmity, resistance,” from Old High German chreg “stubbornness, defiance, obsinancy,” perhaps from PIE *gwere- “heavy” (see grave (adj.)) or cognate with Greek hybris “violence” (see hubris; cf. also war (n.)). For second element, see spiel (n.). Introduced 1870s as officer training in British army.