paulgottlieb wrote:
In French chess books the move Bc4 is written Fc4, where the F stands for "Fou" or fool.
I somehow find the idea of the Bishop being a fool, highly entertaining! :D
Horse or Knight? What are the pieces called in YOUR country? :D
Sort:
Turkish:
King -> Shah
Queen -> Vizier
Rook -> Castle
Bishop -> Elephant
Knight -> Horse
Pawn -> Pawn
Slightly influenced by the Arabic names I guess :)
Coder_On_Ster01ds wrote:
Turkish:
King -> Shah
Queen -> Vizier
The "Vizier" - the Shah's right hand advisor! This is becoming quite interesting!
Norwegian:
King -> King (konge)
Queen -> Queen (dronning)
Rook -> Castle (tårn)
Bishop -> Sprinter (løper)
Knight -> Springer (hest)
Pawn -> Farmer (bonde)
In Slovenian:
King - King (kralj)
Queen - Queen (kraljica)
Rook - Fortress (trdnjava)
Bishop - Runner (tekač)
Knight - Jumper (skakač)
Pawn - Farmer (kmet)
In albanian
King-King(Mbret)
Queen-Queen(Mbretereshe)
Rook-Tower(Torre)
Bishop-Officer(Oficer or Fil)
Knight-Horse(Kal)
Pawn-Soldier(Ushtar)
Jun 21, 2013
0
#8
These are great! Let's keep it going!
Interesting ones in English:
Rook = Crow
Pawn = Hostage. Or (alternativly) someone who is used or manipulated to further another person's purposes.
Complete French :
King -> King (roi)
Queen -> Lady (dame) (the word goes it is due to the Revolution, but it doesn't explain why the king is not a "gentleman")
Rook -> Tower (tour)
Bishop -> Fool (fou) (old joke : "Two fools can mate, but not three" - Alekhine). Again, possibly the (extremely anticlerical) Revolution.
Knight -> Knight or more precisely Rider (cavalier)
Pawn -> Pawn (pion)
This forum is a repetition of a nice forum on the same subject, some time ago, with dozens of languages in it ( more than now hereabove ).
So have a look !
Polish:
King -> King (Król)
Queen -> Commander (Hetman) - in history, hetman was the main commander of Polish army just after the king
Rook -> Tower (Wieża)
Bishop -> Runner (Goniec)
Knight -> Jumper (Skoczek)
Pawn -> Pawn (Pionek)
In Russian:
King -> King (Король)
Queen -> Vizier (Ферзь) - this is similar to Polish hetman but comes from Persian language
Rook -> Boat/Ship (Ладья) - meaning a battle boat/ship used in historic times
Bishop -> Elephant (Слон)
Knight -> Horse (Конь)
Pawn -> Footman/Walker (Пешка)
Jun 21, 2013
0
#12
Hebrew:
King - King(Melech)[מלך]
Queen - Queen(Malka)[מלכה]
Rook - Rook(Tura / Tzariah)[צריח\תורה]
Bishop - Runner (Ratz)[רץ]
Knight - Knight/Horse(Sos\Parash)[סוס\פרש]
Pawn - Pawn (Ragly)[רגלי]
Jun 21, 2013
0
#13
I happen to be an expert in the Lower Slobbovian language which is no longer spoken due to the last last inhabitant of Lower Slobbovia having frozen to death in the winter of 1531. The only reason why we still have knowledge of the language is because it had gotten so cold that the very words themselves were frozen. The words were discovered recently and carefully thawed out by scientists. The Slobbovian words for the chess pieces are listed below with the English word given first and the Slobbovian word translated into English is given next. Since the Slobbovians were too retarded to have a written language no written Slobbovian word is provided. Readers may be interested in knowing what actually happened to the Slobbovians. They were sun worshippers and one day the King decided to create a national holiday in which everyone was required to walk around entirely nude all day. Since the hottest it ever got in the Land of Lower Slobbovia was -50 degrees Farenheit they all died.
King--The Man
Queen--Rich Bitch
Bishop--Sayer Of The Law
Knight--One Who Has Saddle Sores
Rook--The Shootist
Pawn--One Who Gets No Respect
Jun 21, 2013
0
#15
The piece that appears to have the greater variance for how it is named is the piece that in English is called the Bishop.
The piece originally started off as an elephant (if it's agreed that what we call modern chess originated from a military board game out of India) and as the game made its way westward into Europe, the abstract piece representation probably wasn't easily identifiable as elephants, particularly as the game spread to northern game - as most people weren't familiar the beasts. So it was open to interpretation what to call the piece if the local culture wasn't wanting to retain the arab or persian name of the piece.
One abstract form of the piece was two stylized tusks with knobs on the points which was commonly done with war elephants in Persia and India. Cultures not as familiar with the use of war elephants certainly would put their own spin on how to interpret what that piece is.
Some have said that in England it reminded folks of a Bishop's miter, hence why it took on the name "Bishop".
It's interesting that in English the piece was renamed the Bishop as those who promoted the game in England encountered resistance from the Church. The game was frowned upon as an evil game by rigid clerics in the Medieval Church in spite of the game's popularity among the nobility and landed aristocracy. Perhaps it might have been a "sell-job" with clerics to gain more approval of the game.
Here's a wikipedia link on the early history of chess: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_chess#Early_history
In Slovene, addition term (almost kind of slang):
to take - to eat
Jun 21, 2013
0
#17
MSC157 wrote:
In Slovene, addition term (almost kind of slang):
to take - to eat
In Dutch "to take" is "nemen" which also is the literal translation, but also very common is to say "slaan" (not sure which term is more popular).
to take - beat or hit (slaan)
Jun 21, 2013
0
#18
In Latin-American Spanish it is common to say "to eat" (comer) than "to take/capture" piece.
El alfil come el caballo.
literally: the bishop eats the horse.
Alfil is the Arabic word for elephant. And the arabic word was retained in Spanish for this piece.
Thanks, BhomasTrown, chess in 74 languages answers all questions !
And DrFrank124c : Thanks for giving this thread another direction ! But in that case we have to add the language from Spocania as well, chess = sek or sekmerre, the board = seknregta or sek-solg, chesspiece = sektyin, rook = taris, pawn = ebirr and knight = cablan.
For info : Spocania has her own website.
In Polish, there are also alternative spellings for the Knight and Bishop
Knight = Horse (koń) - amateurs and beginners often use this name
Bishop = Runner (laufer) - this is the German name for this piece, commonly used in Silesia (the region of Poland which was part of Germany before the world wars).
In casual games, amateurs (especially those 70+ years old) commonly announce a threat against the Queen by saying garde and announce checks. They cannot understand how tournament players can live without warning about a check ;)
Historically (16th century and earlier) the Bishops were called Bishops (biskup) or Priests (pop, ksiądz), the Knights were Knights (rycerz) or Horses (koń) and the Queen was a Queen (królowa).
Some more terms:
capture = beat, hit (bić, zbić) or even kill (zabić)
castling = roszada (queenside -> long (długa), kingside -> short (krótka))
file = column (kolumna)
rank = line (linia)
kingside = king's wing (skrzydło królewskie)
queenside = queen's wing (skrzydło hetmańskie)
checkmate = mat
check = szach
stalemate = pat
move = ruch, posunięcie
en passant = bicie w przelocie
flag (in the chess clock) = flag (chorągiewka)
time pressure, time trouble, low on time = niedoczas
blunder = podstawka (when you drop a piece or a pawn) or blunder (szachowa ślepota)
perpetual check = wieczny szach
pin = tie, bind (związanie)
discovered check = szach z odsłony
double check = szach podwójny
minor pieces = lekkie figury
major pieces = ciężkie figury
isolated pawn = izolak (slang but very common among club players), pionek izolowany (more official form)
doubled pawns = zdwojone pionki, zdublowane pionki, or more slang: dwojaczki, dublaki
sacrifice = ofiara, poświęcenie
combination = kombinacja
passed pawn = pionek przechodni, pionek dochodzący
mate in 2 (as a puzzle) = dwuchodówka
smothered mate = mat Beniowskiego or (not so popular - a literal translation from English) mat zduszony
fool's mate = scholar's mate (mat szkolny)
scholar's mate = shoemaker's mate (mat szewski)
What would the chess pieces be called if you translated their names from your language to English?
Translated from Swedish - English:
So what are the pieces called where you live?