three-dimensional chess

three-dimensional chess

1. Literally, a variation on traditional chess that involves multiple boards positioned at different heights. Also known as "3D chess." No, I'm not playing three-dimensional chess with you—I can barely play regular chess!
2. By extension, a very complicated or complex game, system, or strategy involving a deep understanding of the situation that one's opponents or adversaries lack. Everyone thinks he messed up by leaking that information, but he's just playing three-dimensional chess. He's eight moves ahead of all of us. Coaching against him is like trying to play three-dimensional chess.
See also: chess
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • play 3D chess
  • 3D
  • 3D chess
  • chess
  • dimensional
  • play three-dimensional chess
  • end game
  • in the zone
  • never hear the end of
  • never hear the end of it
References in periodicals archive
All indications are that the President's tactics are best viewed through the prism of one-dimensional rather than three-dimensional chess.
Independent central banks are under threat once more
He said Russian President Vladimir Putin was "very calculating" and he "plays three-dimensional chess".
Tillerson: I had to tell Trump what he wanted was not legal
Newsgathering now can seem like three-dimensional chess at warp speed.
Welcome to the here and now
More "three-dimensional chess" being played by gamesmen setting up a scenario, they think they can win in a legal challenge, or a dumb, wholly unnecessary and craven cave-in?
WHERE IS PRESIDENT TRUMP: AS SOME STATES REDUCE RKBA TO SUB-FOREIGN LEVELS? The Relationship Between Gun Owners and President Trump Must Be More Than One of Political Convenience
I look at trying cases as a three-dimensional chess game or a live play with real people where I'm the director and a supporting actor.
Breaking the Ice: Ex-boxer turned attorney left ring for courtroom
To respond effectively, its leaders will need to master a "strategic concept at least as complex as three-dimensional chess" (p.
By More Than Providence: Grand Strategy and American Power in the Asia-Pacific Since 1783
International relations are three-dimensional chess and the SNP leader has played a 2D game this week.
Sturgeon May have met her match in new PM
It also shone a light on a complex, three-dimensional chess game the IMF is playing to try to make Greece accept painful reforms of pensions, taxation and bad loans while pressuring Germany and its allies to grant Athens substantial debt relief.
Tsipras demonises IMF to rally troops for bailout sacrifices
Dennis Bolling: I use the analogy of a three-dimensional chess board--you always have to be looking down the road and in multiple directions, all at the same time.
Dennis Bolling: President & CEO (retired) United Producers Inc
What's the next move in this international game of three-dimensional chess? Ask Obama, or Hollande.
Putin's Politics Of Crisis
"This isn't three-dimensional chess; it's like four-or-five-dimensional chess."
Flotsam & jetsam
But, he said, "One of the problems is that we keep trying to describe this as if it were black and white, and what you're really watching is three-dimensional chess with something like nine players and no rules."
Analysis: US-Turkey deal on Syria a big gamble
has become a "three-dimensional chess game." Patent litigators now need to evaluate district courts, PTAB and the International Trade Commission (ITC) when choosing how and where to resolve disputes.
Lex Machina launches legal analytics for PTAB trials data
"It's become more of a three-dimensional chess game than it appeared at first."
How will Murdoch stock Fox's arsenal?