I've heard it both ways:  with the 'ch' being soft like 'ch'eese or hard like 'ch'ianti???

Who knows the correct?  Or are they both?

Fee ann che toe

apparently it's FEE-AN-ket-TOE according to www.pronouncenames.com

Fee anne ch ch ch che toe

:)

It is an Italian word meaning "little flanking" and is pronounced in Italian as:

Fee-ahn-KEH-toh with the accent on the 3rd syllable.

Using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) we got  [fjan´ keto]. I think it's a better definition than just say how it's supposed to sound in English.

Check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet

As noted above fianchetto is a loan word from Italian.  The letter h in Italian is a hard sign, meaning that the letter in front of it changes to its hard form. In this case the c changes from the ch sound (like in ciao) to a k.  So the word is pronounced:

fee ahn ket toh

But unfortunately nearly 100% of none Italian speaking chess players pronounce the word with the ch sound.  I've given up politely pointing  out the correct pronunciation it just isn't worth the effort.....

it rhymes with

beyond ghetto

Silman says the same thing.  The ch is K.

you say tortila,

and i say tortilla,

you say vanilla,

and I say vaneeya

I pronounce it "awesome".

I always heard both were correct, and Dictionary.com agrees.

I pronounce it "flank"

lol

It's pronounced fee-on-ket-toe

I always thought it was pronounced "bishop to g7".

Haha, hey Fromper!  I know ya from Chessforums.org, I believe!  :)

*waves!

 i say custard

simon says patio

The problem is that many of us have been saying Fee An Cheato for years :-)

Another one is the Pirc. Apparently pronounced "purse" not "perk"

The thing is there may be be a "correct" pronunciation, but when by common custom an incorrect pronuniciation is widely used it could cause more problems than to use the correct one ! :-)

When I first started chess I used to think the Sicilian was the "Silicon" Defence