# Chess



## Kraus

Hello!

In *Italian *Chess is "*Scacchi*"... And in your language?

Thanks in advance!

Kraus


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## marcoszorrilla

Ajedrez en español.

Échecs en francés

Das Schach en alemán.

Un Saludo.


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## Chazzwozzer

*Turkish:* satranç


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## Outsider

Português: *xadrez*


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## übermönch

Russian: Shakhmaty


Chazzwozzer said:


> *Turkish:* satranç


 How do you call Shatranj then?


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## Cecilio

Hello. In Catalan it is "escacs".


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## Kraus

Good night and thanks to everybody!

Bye

Kraus


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## Heba

In Arabic: *شطرنج* - shatarang (Egyptian pronounciation) and shataranj (pronounciation in other Arabic countries) (شطرنج )


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## Maja

In Serbian:
šah / шах


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## Josh_

You may want to check out my "All Languages: Chess Peices" thread.


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## macta123

In Hindi : Shatranj
OR Chess


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## robbie_SWE

In Romanian it's "*şah*" and in Swedish it's "*schack*". 

 robbie


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## Abu Bishr

übermönch said:


> Russian: Shakhmaty


 
This is interesting because it is said that the English "checkmate" comes from the Arabic شاه مات (shaah maat) with "shaah" being Persian for "king" like in the "Shah of Iran" and "maat" Arabic for "died" so the complete meaning is "the king died". So it appears to me that the Russian "Shakhmaty" comes from the Arabic "shaah maat" or just simply "shah mat".

In Afrikaans we say: "skaak" which is similar to Swedish "schack", German "Schach" , Italian "Schacci", and so on, all which - it seems to me - have their origin in the first part of "shaah maat" (the king died).


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## Kraus

Thank you Josh for your hint!


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## Gavin

In Chinese (象棋)Xiangqi


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## Hakro

In Finnish: šakki
This is the official writing form. In practice it's generally written shakki or sakki.


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## avalon2004

In Greek the word is *σκάκι *[skáki]
There is also the word *ζατρίκιο* [zatríkio] but I think this may be somewhat different to normal chess...


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## Chazzwozzer

übermönch said:


> How do you call Shatranj then?



Şatranji
Şitranj
Şatranj
These three is used in Turkish, my research tells me.


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## ALOV

In dutch it's:

'Schaak' and 'Schaakmat' (end of the game)


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## Frank06

Hi,


Abu Bishr said:


> This is interesting because it is said that the English "checkmate" comes from the Arabic شاه مات (shaah maat) with "shaah" being Persian for "king" like in the "Shah of Iran" and "maat" Arabic for "died" so the complete meaning is "the king died".



Not everybody seems to agree with this, see here and here. Though not everybody seems to agree with that either (see here and here) .

Groetjes,

Frank


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## cutu

Hebrew - שח-מט (_ shach-mat )_.


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## stargazer

Hello

In Slovenia we say ŠAH


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## Josh_

Abu Bishr said:


> This is interesting because it is said that the English "checkmate" comes from the Arabic شاه مات (shaah maat) with "shaah" being Persian for "king" like in the "Shah of Iran" and "maat" Arabic for "died" so the complete meaning is "the king died". So it appears to me that the Russian "Shakhmaty" comes from the Arabic "shaah maat" or just simply "shah mat".
> 
> In Afrikaans we say: "skaak" which is similar to Swedish "schack", German "Schach" , Italian "Schacci", and so on, all which - it seems to me - have their origin in the first part of "shaah maat" (the king died).



There was an interesting discussion about the origin or the term here (posts 45-48, and 57-61, and maybe a few other scattered posts.)  That thread (and that particular sub-discussion) was actually the first thread I ever read here on the forum and my impetus for joining.  

I agree that since the name for the game in so many languages is very similar that they all have the same root, with the most likely candidate being Persian.


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## Abu Bishr

Thanks for the link Josh.


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## Tantrum

In Polish: szachy. 
Checkmate is "szach-mat" or simply "mat". 
Stalemate is "pat".
Chessboard is "szachownica".
King - król
Queen - hetman (hetman was an army leader in Poland, queen is "królowa")
Rook - wieża ("tower")
Bishop - goniec (bishop in Polish is "biskup", "goniec" is "runner" Germ. "Laufer")
Knight -  skoczek ("skoczek" means "jumper")
pawn - pion


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## Tantrum

In German

Chess - Schach
King - König
Queen - Dame
Rook - Turm
Bishop - Laufer
Knight - Springer
Pawn - Bauer

So, the Polish names of the pieces have mostly the same meaning as the German names. We sometimes call "Queen" "Dama" although the oficial name of the piece is "hetman". Knight (skoczek) is sometimes called "koń" (horse).


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## Claire Steiner

The words Shah mat are indeed now written in Arabic script, but they are Persian vocbulary. Mat is not "died", but "dies." Some say that "die" is a later interpretation of an older meaning of this word meaning "confused" i.e. has no place to go.


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## gigi1

In greek:

Chess - Σκάκι
King - Βασιλιάς
Queen - Βασίλισσα / Ντάμα
Rook - Πύργος
Bishop - Αξιωματικός / Τρελός
Knight - Άλογο / Ίππος
Pawn - Πιόνι

Ζατρίκιο is an Ancient Greek kind of chess but not exactly chess


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## zaigucis

Latvian: šahs


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## midismilex

1. chess (*not* from ancient China, a western style game), we call it "西洋棋"。
2. chess (from ancient China), we call it "象棋"。

Same roles but different checkers.


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## Rango

Croatian:
*šah*


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## Nizo

In *Esperanto* the game is called *ŝako*.


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## Maroseika

Russian: шахматы - lit. checkmates, like in many other languages (loaned from German). The only difference is that the word has a Plural form.

King - король (king) 
Queen - ферзь (<military commander (from Turkish färz < Persian ferz)), королева (queen)
Rook - ладья (boat), тура (tower (from Fr. tour))
Bishop - слон (elephant), офицер (officer) 
Knight - конь (horse)
Pawn - пешка (<private soldier)


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## Mahaodeh

Claire Steiner said:


> The words Shah mat are indeed now written in Arabic script, but they are Persian vocbulary. Mat is not "died", but "dies." Some say that "die" is a later interpretation of an older meaning of this word meaning "confused" i.e. has no place to go.


 
This discussion about checkmate and where it came from is very interesting to me, since Arabs generally do not say "shaah maat" at all, but say "kish malik", where "kish" is a word/sound used to say "go" (sort of like the English "shoo") and "malik" is Arabic for king. So it can be literally translated to "shoo the king".


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## XiaoRoel

En galego:
_xogo:_* xadrez*
_pezas_: *rei, raíña/dama, alfil, cabalo, torre, peón*
xógase nun *taboleiro*
xogadas: *saída, enroque, xaque, xaque mate, celada, peza cravada, cambio/troco de peón por…*, *táboas, afogado, abandono *


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