main line

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See also: mainline

English

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Pronunciation

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  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

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main line (plural main lines)

  1. (chess) A standard sequence of opening moves considered to be best play.
    Meronym: book move
    • 2012 July 15, Dylan Loeb Mcclain, “Chess: Fischer and Spassky, Looking Back”, in The New York Times[1], archived from the original on 2022-06-20:
      In that game, Carlsen sidestepped the main line of the Berlin Defense with 4 d4, hoping to unsettle Karjakin. That did not work, and chances were equal for most of the game.
    • 2015 May 6, Malcolm Pein, “Chess prodigy Wei Yi, 15, tops the chart”, in The Daily Telegraph[2], archived from the original on 2020-11-08:
      8.Qd2 is the old main line of the Poisoned Pawn from the days of Fischer and Kasparov.
    • 2015 October 9, Leonard Barden, “Sergey Karjakin and Peter Svidler blunder through Baku World Cup final”, in The Guardian[3], archived from the original on 2016-09-11:
      Adams, the No1 seed in the Isle of Man, has always favoured 3 Nd2 against the French and, when his Polish opponent, below, followed a main line, Adams was very willing to go along.
  2. Alternative form of mainline
    • (rail transport)
      2023 March 22, “Tickets now on sale as trial Swanage service finally gets green light”, in RAIL, number 979, page 25:
      Gavin Johns, chairman of the Swanage Railway Trust, said: "I would like to thank our stakeholders for their far-sighted investment of £5.5 million to re-connect Swanage and Corfe Castle with the main line, which included £1.8m from the Government's coastal communities fund, so we could restore our 1950s heritage diesel trains for running on the main line."

Adjective

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main line (not comparable)

  1. (chess) Alternative form of mainline
    • 2018 January 19, Leonard Barden, “Chess: Magnus Carlsen falls away from leading pack at Wijk aan Zee”, in The Guardian[4], archived from the original on 2022-11-29:
      Caruana chose the Petroff 2 Nf3 Nf6, which used to be the weapon of choice for players aiming for a half point as Black, was relegated for some years due to the popularity of the Berlin 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 Nf6, but has returned to favour as the main line Berlin with an early queen swap has been outmoded by 4 d3.