Monday, 6 October 2014

Eat, kill, cut or ... take

Two Spanish children at the Bury Knights don't 'take' pieces, they 'eat' them!   It seems that in Spain the commonly used word for capturing a piece is 'comer', which means 'eat'.   'Comer' can also be used figuratively to refer to corrosion, erosion or the 'eating up' of something by natural processes.

In France, the colloquial, but accepted, term is 'manger'. which of course has the same meaning: to eat.   An example could be, "Désormais perdre une pièce, je pouvais manger tous ces pions" (Despite losing a piece, I managed to take all his pawns).

Some other children at the club use 'kill'.   I wonder where that comes from?   It's not Malayalam, the language spoken by many of the Indian children at the club.   Their word, 'vetti', means 'cut'.

Does anyone know of any other words that are used for capturing a piece, and what language they originate from?

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A couple of days ago, a position from an Adam Taylor game was featured.   Adam played 1. Rh5, when his opponent replied with the tempting ... Rf6?!, forcing the White queen away from the g-file and the protection of g4.   2. Qe8+   Bf8 (Rf8 is no better:   Qe6+   Rf7;   Rxf5)   3. Kg5!   1 - 0


2 comments:

  1. Ian Wallis6 October 2014 at 22:18

    How about chop or chopped - no idea of origin

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous6 October 2014 at 22:44

    Maybe from Chopping wood?
    TL

    ReplyDelete
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