A wife, or bitter half. "Now, why is yer wife called a helpmate, Pat?" Says the priest. "Since the time 'o yer wooin' She's niver [sic] assisted in what ye were at -- For it's naught ye are ever doin'." "That's true of yer Riverence [sic]," Patrick replies, And no sign of contrition envices; "But, bedad, it's a fact which the word implies, For she helps to mate the expinses [sic]!" Marley Wottel
A helper; a companion; specifically, a wife.
A special Chess problem invented by Max Lange where both sides cooperate in mating the black King.
A helpmate is a problem where Black helps White in his mating task. In a helpmate, Black moves first and White has the task of mating in the stipulated number of moves, with Black's help at every step of the way. Black helps by making the only move that will allow White to mate in the required number of moves. See also Series Helpmate.
a composed chess problem where both sides cooperate to allow white to mate black
A word derived from a misreading of the English version of the Bible. Before the creation of Eve, Adam is shown all the animals in the Garden, but he could not find a "help meet" for him. Here "meet" means "suitable"; Adam was looking for a suitable helper. Instead, the two words were joined, and became "helpmate".
A helpmate is a kind of chess problem in which both sides cooperate in order to achieve the goal of mating black. In a helpmate in n moves, black moves first, then white, each side moving n times, to culminate in white's nth move mating black. In a helpmate in two (sometimes abbreviated to h#2), for example, the solution consists of a black move, a white move, a black move, and then another white move, giving checkmate.