Arabic ( wäziir, firzān), Russian ( ferz’), Farsi ( vazir, farzin), Uzbek ( farzin), Hindi ( farzī, wazīr) and Turkish ( vezir) among others still use the ancient word of no gender firz for today’s chess queen. In French usage reine ‘queen’ replaced fierce or fierge (from the Arabic fers) during the 14th century during the next century reine was replaced by the word dame. A Latin manuscript preserved in the Einsiedeln Monastery in Switzerland (997 AD) contains the first recorded mention of the chess queen ( regina). For example the Italians call the queen as donna (‘woman’) or more common regina (queen in Italian). The Arabic firz or firzān (counsellor) was never translated into a European language although it was adopted. But outside Europe the chess queens usually don’t have gender or the piece is masculine. Words for chess queen in European languages are generally feminine, with a few exception. Spanish and Portuguese torre, Finnish torni, French tour, Dutch toren), sometimes a large farm (Frisian stins), a ship (Russian lad’ja, transcribed also as ladya), a fortress or castle (Indonesian benteng) or a wagon (Chinese ju, Estonian vanker). The rook is a tower in many European languages (eg. The rook has many meanings in different languages. If you know more languages to be added to the table, please send me e-mail. This article is originally written in Finnish. This article presents words for chess, six chess pieces and check in 78 languages in the table. If you want to get a game going, there is a chessboard already set up for you at Chess.Ari Luiro has created a classic webpage, Chess Pieces in Different Languages: Still have doubts? Check out this video by IM Danny Rensch. One way is to hide a white pawn in one hand behind your back and have your opponent choose. You can decide who plays White and who plays Black through any method of chance. In chess, the player with the white pieces always moves first. Step 7: Place your king on the last square.Īt this point there will be only one vacant square, so your king should naturally take his place. It should go on the same color square as her army: white queen on the light square and black queen on the dark square. It does matter which square your queen goes on. Step 6: Your queen goes on her own color. The bishops stand in between the stinky knights and the royal king and queen. Imagine that you are putting some smelly horses on the board and you want them far away from the king and queen. Step 4: Place your knights next to your rooks. It’s easy to remember to set your rooks in the corners, just like the towers in a real castle. Putting all of your pawns on first helps to clear the pile of pieces next to the board so that the rest of your pieces will go on more quickly. Step 2: Set up the pawns on the second ranks (or rows). An easy way to remember this is “white on the right.” It’s important to orient the board in the right direction so that each side will be set up correctly. Step 1: Lay out t he board with the light square in the bottom-right corner. Place your king in the last square available.

Lay out the light square in the bottom-right corner.If you have a chess set and want to start a game, the first thing you need to do is get the board set up correctly.

Names for chess pieces