着 (zhāo): a move (in chess or weiqi)

Meanings

1 a move (in chess or weiqi)
2 a trick; a tactic; a clever scheme
3 okay; all right (dialectal response)

Characters

着

zhāo

a move (in chess or weiqi)

Examples

这一着下得妙。

Zhè yī zhāo xià de miào.

That move was brilliantly played.

他还有几着厉害的。

Tā hái yǒu jǐ zhāo lìhai de.

He's still got a few tough tricks up his sleeve.

Tips

history

The chess-move sense dates to the Song dynasty, when 着 began to count moves in 围棋 and 象棋. From the literal board move it extended to mean a tactical step in any contest — 'a clever play'. The strategem 三十六计·走为上 'of the thirty-six moves, fleeing is best' uses this sense, with 着 (a move) interchangeable with 计 (a scheme) across editions.

register

zhāo (level tone) is the rarest of the four readings. You meet it mostly in board-game contexts (高招 — a high-level move, a clever trick) or in set phrases. The 'okay, fine' interjection use is dialectal Beijing colloquial and largely confined to older literature.

Components

radical

目 mù

eye

The eye radical (Kangxi 109) is the indexing component. On the zhāo reading, the eye-on-the-board image fits 'a calculated move, a play one has sized up'. The same character 着 also reads 着 (aspect particle), 着 ('to catch') and 着 ('to wear').

semantic

羊 yáng

sheep (graphic only)

Looks like 羊 but is the cursive residue of 艹 over 者 from the original 著. Graphic placeholder; no meaning contribution.