Horse or Knight? What are the pieces called in YOUR country? :D

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Avatar of Rational_Optimist
Dragonbice wrote:

What would the chess pieces be called if you translated their names from your language to English?

Translated from Swedish - English:

Farmer - Pawn Tower - Rook Horse or Steed - Knight Runner or Courier - Bishop Lady orQueen - Queen King - King

So what are the pieces called where you live?

queen is called vizier

knight is called horse

king is called shah 

pawn is called walker,someone who is on foot not riding anything

bishop is called elephant 

the story behind rook is interesting.it is pronounced rokh in farsi and to be honest i didnt know the meaning i had to look into the best and detailed dictionary to find the meaning since the word is very old.

it actually means a giant and legendary hen who is capable of killing horses and elephants.over centuries it is combined with other words and made interesting expressions.

Avatar of Dragonbice
tesla1 wrote:

the story behind rook is interesting.it is pronounced rokh in farsi and to be honest i didnt know the meaning i had to look into the best and detailed dictionary to find the meaning since the word is very old.

it actually means a giant and legendary hen who is capable of killing horses and elephants.over centuries it is combined with other words and made interesting expressions.

That's interesting! There haven't been any Japanese names yet, right? I was also thinking about African languages, but maybe the different African piece names are the same as their former colonizers' piece names, like the Spanish and Portugese names in Latin America?..

Avatar of varelse1
Dragonbice wrote:
tesla1 wrote:

the story behind rook is interesting.it is pronounced rokh in farsi and to be honest i didnt know the meaning i had to look into the best and detailed dictionary to find the meaning since the word is very old.

it actually means a giant and legendary hen who is capable of killing horses and elephants.over centuries it is combined with other words and made interesting expressions.

That's interesting! There haven't been any Japanese names yet, right? I was also thinking about African languages, but maybe the different African piece names are the same as their former colonizers' piece names, like the Spanish and Portugese names in Latin America?..

Very fascinating.

In english that bird is known as a "Roc."

Of course there is no evidence of such a bird in the fossil record. But many native American tribes have tales of the sightings of such a bird.

Avatar of falcogrine

Like Bigfoot.

Avatar of Looking4WayOut

In INDONESIA!

Pawn - Pion

Rook - Benteng

Knight - Kuda

Bishop - Menteri

Queen - Ratu (personaly i call her 'darling') ;)

King - Raja.

Avatar of aln67
Irontiger a écrit :

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)

I'm surprised by the refernce to the French revolution when commenting "Dame".
This word sounds rather aristocratic when talking of history : the wife or girlfriend of medieval knights was called their "Dame".
And, BTW, the corresponding word for "Sir", when talking today of an aristocratic lady in England, is the French "Dame" !

Avatar of DoOrDie71

for me, it is classic ol' Knight

Avatar of Irontiger
aln67 wrote:
Irontiger a écrit :

Queen -> Lady (dame) (the word goes it is due to the Revolution, but it doesn't explain why the king is not a "gentleman")

I'm surprised by the refernce to the French revolution when commenting "Dame".
This word sounds rather aristocratic when talking of history : the wife or girlfriend of medieval knights was called their "Dame".
And, BTW, the corresponding word for "Sir", when talking today of an aristocratic lady in England, is the French "Dame" !

"Dame" still means "lady" in the meaning of "respectable woman".

Did a bit more research and I couldn't trace the dame/reine decision to confirm or infirm that stuff (which I did hear somewhere). What is generally accepted is that the Persan for counsellor ("vizir") was distorted into vierge (virgin) hence the feminine figure.

I found this text from 1834 which says "...the piece we call dame or reine..." as if the terms were equally valid at the time.

Avatar of Iluvmarlies

springer

Avatar of varelse1

cannon-fodder

Avatar of Lenoard

Esperanto:

Reĝo = King

Damo = Lady (Queen)

 

Ĉevalo = Horse(Knight)

 

Kuriero = Courrier(Bishop)

Piono = Pion(Pawn)

Avatar of stadj

Pawn - Piyon Rook - Tore Knight - Kabayo Bishop - Obispo Queen - Reyna King - Hari

Avatar of Hengky_1981

In Indonesia:

King - King (Raja)

Queen - Minister (Menteri)

Rook - Fortress (Benteng)

Bishop - Elephant (Gajah)

Knight - Horse (Kuda)

Pawn - Pawn (Pion)

Avatar of meggie_cz

In czech:

 

Rook => věž (tower), věžka (informal, little tower)

Knight => jezdec (rider), kůň (informal, horse), koňík (informal, little horse)

Bishop => střelec (shooter)

Queen => dáma (lady), královna (queen, informal)

King => král (king)

Pawn => pěšec (chess word, no translation), pěšák (informal, infantryman)

 

Avatar of Pulpofeira

Sounds Byzantine to me.

Avatar of stanny_xu
Dutch!

King - king (koning)
Queen - queen or lady (koningin or dame)
Rook - tower (toren)
Bishop - walker (loper)
Knight - horse (paard)
Pawn - pawn (pion)
Avatar of Taskinen

Finnish:

King - King (Kuningas)
Queen - Dame (Daami) - some people call her Queen (Kuningatar) too
Rook - Tower (Torni)
Bishop - Courier (Lähetti)
Knight - Steed (Ratsu)
Pawn - Soldier (Sotilas)

Avatar of IcyAvaleigh
English:

King - King
Queen - Queen
Rook - Rook
Bishop - Bishop
Knight - Knight
Pawn - Pawn
Avatar of ilikewindmills
Thank you for your contribution. Could you also provide what it would roughly translate to in English?
Avatar of Anonymous_Combinator

Ukraine -

King - King (король)

Queen - another word (ферзь)

Rook - Castle (ладья)

Bishop - Elephant (слон)

Pawn - Pawn (пешка)