Our often comical misconceptions of chess opening names...

I never received chess coaching when young. I'm old enough to remember when libraries had books. If I recall, the Dewey Decimal number for chess books was some like 794.xx. My local library was a magnificent cathedral of high book shelves. There were probably around 15 titles or so on chess at any one time. There was also a catalogue system of books stored in the basement. You could ask the librarian to bring the book up for you. I recall taking out what was possibly a Edwardian copy of Spielman's "Art of Sacrifice" with that yellow paged gloriously old musty smell.

I recall reading through the likes of the pocket guide to chess opening and for some reason, always thinking the Sicilian defence was the "Silicon defence". It never occurred to me to attempt a syllable by syllable reading of it.

I recall being impressed by the name "The Stonewall Attack". How could one fail when playing such a tough sounding system? I also recall thinking the Kings Indian Defence was so called because the fianchettoed position resembled a tepee within which the king "lived". That was the story I told myself anyway.

Before videos and the "politically correct" pronunciations of the "The Pirc" and "fianchetto" that have created a schizophrenia among English speakers, the Pirc caused a chuckle at my club, obviously from someone who read it in a book rather than heard it spoken of. The guy in question is remembered saying of 1e4 d6, something like, "I don't think you can beat the Prick."