On a related note, I was trying to read a book about chess written in Spanish and I noticed that knights were referred to as caballos, which is the word for horse.
However, I've often noticed English speakers look at you as if you're a moron if you call a chess knight a horse.
Your thoughts?
On a related note, I was trying to read a book about chess written in Spanish and I noticed that knights were referred to as caballos, which is the word for horse.
However, I've often noticed English speakers look at you as if you're a moron if you call a chess knight a horse.
Your thoughts?
Slightly of topic but a saying ever chess player should know.
If you are in America and ask a person if they can play chess, they say "no" if they don't know how the horsey moves. If you are in Russia and ask a person if they can play chess and they say "no", they aren't above 1800.
On topic
I am suprized that chess language is so different for languages since the game and meanings haven't changed much in 500 years?
Thanks for that joke. It's hilarious.
I don't know. Maybe the chess language isn't that different.
But that's why I asked the question. I'm curious.
Chess seems like it must be related to the word check.
And check seems to be related to the word shah which is still used in some parts of the world to refer to kings, right.
And Mat or Mate must mean kill or capture. You can see the relation to the Spanish verb matar which means to kill. And there's the word matador who kills the bull in bullfighting.
So perhaps mat- or matar goes way back in Indo-European languages to mean kill or something like it.
And I'm only an amateur linguist, but perhaps this mat- root is also the origin or are English word murder.
I'm curious about the name of this game in your language.
I'm fascinated with languages and I've studied a few, but I'm really only fluent in English.
I know some Russian and Kyrgyz where I believe the game is called шахмат - which is pronounced something like Shackmat. (I'm certain that's the name of the game in Kyrgyz, it may be a little different in Russian, although I'm happy to be corrected.)
To my ear, that sounds a lot like checkmate.
How many other names exist for chess in other languages?
I know in Spanish, the game is called el ajedrez. I assume that like many other Spanish words, ajedrez is a loan word that came into the Spanish language from Arabic during the time when the Moors ruled Spain.
What could ajedrez mean in Arabic? Does anyone know?
And what is chess called in your language? And in other languages that you know?