Renaming the Chessmen...er, Chess Pieces.

Submitted by RobertABrown on Thu, 11/15/2007 at 8:55pm.

It's time to rename the chess pieces. Let's stop calling the horse's head a knight, dump the medieval associations, and adopt the sensible German appellation, Springer, which is an adequte descriptor of how the horse moves in both languages.

As for the bishop, I vote we bid adieu to the religious designation, give an nod to the utilitarian Germans, call runner, or maybe a slider, and tell those who ask that the the slit in its head isn't a stylized mitre but rather a reminder of the piece's diagonal motion.

Something about the way the rooks behave suggests to me that the might be renamed tractors, or possibly, hummers. Pawns are well named so their designation can be retained, but King and Queen are silly and archaic, like their real life counterparts, and should be replaced with CEO and Woman ( as in "I am woman!") to more ably reflect where the power resides in modern times.

What do you think?

» posted in Robb's Blog

| 241 reads | 6 comments

Comments:

by uritbon - 4 months ago
tel aviv Israel

Member Since: Apr 2008
Member Points: 396

i would like to call the knight the net, for it's # shaped walking.

by rinz - 7 months ago
Pärnu Estonia

Member Since: Jan 2008
Member Points: 6

I would simply like to share with you the names given to chess pieces in Estonia, if you do not mind receiving this invaluable information...

Well the King, Kuningas, translates into the King, nothing new jet.

The Queen, Lipp, is the Flag.

The Bishop, Oda, (maybe the most accurate way to name it) Spear

The Knight, Ratsu, Saddlehorse, Mount, Courser, Knight, pick one

The Rook, usally called Vanker - Carriage, but sometimes also called the Kahur, the Cannon.

The pawn, ettur, well a pawn.

I guess there are many ways how to call a piece, but in the end, we all know that changing the name of a piece doesnt really change the way our beloved game is being played or why we spend hours analysing moves, trying to find the best of them. What im trying to say is hopefully we do not let the modern days get hold of chess more than it allready has.