Chess and foreign languages

En passant, en prise (French)

Zugzwang, Zwischenzug (German)

Fianchetto, Giuoco Piano (Italian)

Check, checkmate, rook (from Persian)

Any others?

Who here has learnt a foreign language in order to read chess publications? I read Bent Larsen's works in Danish, although I didn't learn Danish for that reason.

I understand Bobby Fischer taught himself Russian so he could read Soviet chess publications.

Do Russian players still read a lot of their material in Russian, or has English become the chess lingua franca even for them?

Hmm .....

German: Luft, Blitz, Patzer, Zeitnot

French: J'adoube, Trébuchet

Jewish: Kibitz

Latin: Post Mortem

I find that it is difficult to use a book meant to teach you something else as a way to learn the language. It is much easier to pick up another language by reading something that is just for fun, like rosequeen said. (I know one woman from Russia who read romance novels in English to learn!)

Excellent, thank you!