Checkmate 將（軍）！
A game of chess can be a challenging for your brain
今日小常識
The pattern of black and white squares on a chessboard is described as being 'chequered' in British English and 'checkered' in American English. The squares themselves are known as 'cheques' or 'checks' respectively. But the verb 'to check' is spelled the same in both places.
棋盤上的黑白格子在英式英語中被描述為 chequered。 在美式英語中則是 checkered（注意兩種不同的單詞拼寫）。在英語中，方形的格子叫 cheques（英）或 checks（美）。不過在使用動詞 to check 的時候拼寫是統一的。
今日短語
Checkmate 出自國際象棋，等同于漢語里的“將！”。在一方把關鍵的一個棋子放到致對方于死地的時候說一聲“將軍！”。不過現在這個短語也用來表達“一次徹底的勝利”。
例句
The rebels surrounded the president's palace. He had no option but to agree to their demands: it was checkmate.
Unless we make some serious changes to this business, the competition will catch up and it will be checkmate.
'Checkmate' 也可以做為動詞:
Garry Kasparov had the chess computer in checkmate after a fine series of moves.
請注意
Stalemate “僵局”和 checkmate 的意思正好相反，stalemate 表示一種雙方僵持不下的局面。
例句
I could only afford ￡150,000 for the house but the seller would go no lower than ￡155,000. We reached a stalemate and called the deal off.
