This article presents words for chess, six chess pieces and check in 79 languages in the table. This article is originally written in Finnish. If you know more languages to be added to the table, please send me e-mail. Your feedback is welcome to my e-mail .

Some chess pieces have interesting secondary meanings. The king in chess is usually the same word as the ordinary king in many languages around Europe and Asia (eg. Catalan rei, Finnish kuningas, Polish król, Chinese wang). Sometimes a language uses a loan word, which does not necessarily mean the ordinary king, eg. the Japanese kingu is a loan word from English king.

As far as is known king's basic move has not changed. In the 13th century the king was permitted once in a game to make a leap, and from this the move of castling was developed. King is a translation of shah, the Persian word for king.

The rook has many meanings in different languages. The rook is a tower in many European languages (eg. 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).

Until the new queen's move was introduced in the 15th century the rook was the most powerful piece. Except for the castling the powers of the rook have been unchanged throughout the known history of chess.

Words for chess queen in European languages are generally feminine, with a few exception. But outside Europe the chess queens usually don't have gender or the piece is masculine. The Arabic firz or firzān (counsellor) was never translated into a European language although it was adopted. For example the Italians call the queen as donna ('woman') or more common regina (queen in Italian). A Latin manuscript preserved in the Einsiedeln Monastery in Switzerland (997 AD) contains the first recorded mention of the chess queen (regina). 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.

In the Middle Ages the queen or firz was the third weakest piece after the pawn and the fil. However the queen became the mightiest piece in the middle of the 15th century.

Chess players may have borrowed the word dame from the game of draughts. The transition from dame to queen would be natural, a desire to pair the central pieces. A recent theory explains that the cult of the Virgin Mary, the ordinary medieval queens and the cult of romantic love would have the transformed the firz into the feminine queen and finally elevated the chess queen into the game's mightiest figure.

The queen in Estonian (lipp) is a flag. 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.

Usually words for chess knight mean a horse (eg Azerbaijani at, Chinese ma, Dutch paard, Javanese jaran) or a rider (French cavalier, Czech jezdec) or a horse with rider (Finnish ratsu) or a kind of rider (English knight, Irish ridire 'knight', Breton marc'heg 'knight'). In many countries knight's name is linked with the cavalry which it originally represented, but the German Springer means leaper or jumper which is a kind of horse in the sports.

There are many ways in different languages to call a bishop. The bishop can be a messenger (Finnish lähetti and Polish goniec), a clergyman (English bishop and Irish easpag 'bishop' both from Latin episcopus 'bishop'), a rifleman (Czech střelec), a runner (German läufer, Romansh currider, Latin cursor), an elephant (Indonesian gajah) or a crazy (French fou, also a jester or a fool). Romanian nebun and Greek trelós mean fool or crazy.

Dutch loper means 'runner' or 'key'. Dutch has earlier used raadsheer for the bishop, actually there has been a Dutch chess club named Raadsheer. One source mentions raadsman ('adviser') used for bishop, which practise is nowadays unknown. Frisian fjildhear is the leader on the battlefield. Javanese cucut means 'squid'. Italian alfiere is a flagbearer. Spanish alfil has no other meanings.

The fil 'elephant' was the weakest piece in the old game and placed in the array where the bishop now stands. It could be moved to only eight squares by jumping to any of the squares diagonally two squares away. The word fil is derived from the Persian pil 'a chess piece or an elephant'. Because Arabic lacks p, the pil became fil. The prefix al- is definite article, so the Europeans called this piece as fil or alfil (> aufin). Spanish alfil is in fact from Arabic al-fil (= the elephant). It is one of the many Spanish words from Arabic, several of which have been borrowed without removing the Arabic definite article al- (= the).
In French usage fou replaced aufil during the 16th century. The weird semantics (meanings) of this French word ('chess bishop' vs. 'fool' and 'crazy') has been transferred to Romanian and Greek.

The name bishop has been used in English-speaking countries since the end of the 15th century when this piece took the place of the aufin used in the old game. The move of the bishop, so different from that of the aufin, is the same as the move of the courier in the German game of that name introduced long before modern chess.

The pawn is usually a soldier, more precisely an infantry in Latin pedes. An original secondary meaning is collateral in English pawn. The name pawn derives from the Anglo-French word poun and ultimately from a direct translation of the Arabic word baidaq, a foot soldier. Javanese wong cilik means 'little person' (the final k is a glottal stop).

Both German Bauer and Spanish peon mean peasant or agricultural worker. This meaning has been borrowed in many Germanic and Slavonic languages, eg. Frisian boer and Ukrainian pishak both mean farmer. The French pion and the Spanish peón are both derived from the latin pes : pedis 'foot'.

The French pion has spread in many languages. In this case the pion does not have another meaning. In Dutch, however, there are some colloquial expressions which refer to the pion and its minor importance.

Checkmate in different languages

The term for the end of the game is checkmate, which is derived from the Persian words shah ('king') and mat ('defeated'), the expression "the king is defeated".
In most languages mate is mat like in Dutch, French, Polish, Bulgarian, Russian, Czech, Turkish, Greek, Farsi (Persian) and Hindi. Sometimes term for checkmate can precede (or alternatively not) word for check, for example Azeri (şah ve) mat, Albanian (shah)-mat, Basque xake mate, English (check)mate, Latvian (šahs un) mats, Lithuanian (šachas ir) matas, Romanian şah-mat, Croatian šah-mat, Chinese jiāngsi, Japanese oote-(tsumi), Indonesian (skak-mati), German (Schach) matt and Italian scacco-matto.

In some languages there is a free variation, mate or checkmate. In these languages chess players tend to use shorter expression (eg. German matt) while non-players tend to use longer expression (eg. German Schach matt), since matt has another meaning in German, 'tired'.
In Finnish checkmate is matti but Matti with capital initial is a male name. For chess players the context of mate is clear, even if the players are Finnish and player's name is Matti.

The Spanish and Portuguese word for checkmate is mate, Mongolian mad, Vietnamese hết nước and Korean chekeumeiteu. The Irish marbhsháinn meaning 'checkmate' is a compound of marbh 'dead' and sáinn 'check'. The verb to make checkmate is in Irish marbhsháinnigh and in Finnish matittaa.

Miscellaneous

The words for chess pieces of languages with non-Latin writing system need to be transcribed, for example the Greek word purgoV is transcribed in Latin letters as pyrgos 'rook'. I have followed the Finnish transcription traditions with a few exceptions, for example š instead of the regularly used sh, the š however being in scientific use in Finland. So the š is usually written as sh in the English transcription, eg the Bulgarian peška 'pawn' can be transcribed as peshka too.

The j means in most cases the semivowel (as y in yet, in IPA j), the only exceptions are when the language has its own standard transcriptions with regular domestic use, eg Hindi and Chinese. In Bulgarian and Macedonian words ts can be transcribed as c too, which should be pronounced as [ts], eg carica or tsaritsa 'queen'. Note that in all Slavic languages and Hungarian the letter c is pronounced as [ts]. The letter č is always pronounced as ch in check.

Artificial languages are not included, the only exception is Esperanto because of its extensive use. All the Tatar words for chess pieces are borrowed from Russian except at 'knight', which means literally 'horse' just like in many other Turkic languages.

I have used h for the velar fricative (e g German ch), which is usually transcribed as kh in English and French and x in international phonetics. In the Cyrillic and the Greek alphabet this phoneme is written with the letter X, but since the 2nd century BC Latin has used this letter to indicate the consonantal sequence ks. In the table the Greek x means ks, while in Farsi x means the velar fricative.

I hereby thank all the people who have given me feedback from different European, North American, South American, African and Asian countries.

Chess Pieces in 79 languages

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Finnish 3	shakki	kuningas	kuningatar	torni	ratsu	lähetti	sotilas	shakki
English	chess	king	queen	rook	knight	bishop	pawn	check
French	échecs	roi	dame	tour	cavalier	fou	pion	échec
Italian	scacchi	re	donna	torre	cavallo	alfiere	pedone	scacco
Spanish 10	ajedrez	rey	dama, reina	torre	caballo	alfil	peón	jaque
Portuguese 4	xadrez	rei	dama	torre	cavalo	bispo	peão	xeque
Catalan	escacs	rei	dama, reina	torre	cavall	alfil	peó	escac, xec
Friulian	scacs	re	regjine	roc	cjaval	alfîl	pedon	scac
Galician	xadrez	rei	raíña	torre	cabalo	bispo	peón	xaque
Occitan	échecs	rey	fenno	castel	cabal	falour	piun	echec
Romanian	şah	rege	damă, regină	turn	cal	nebun	pion	şah
Latin 2	lūsus lātrunculōrum	rēx	rēgīna	turris	eques	cursor	pedes	cavē rēgī
Basque	xake, xake-joko	errege	dama	gaztelu	zaldun	alfil	peoi	xake
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Dutch	schaken	koning	dame	toren	paard	loper	pion	schaak
Afrikaans	skaak	koning	dame	toring	perd, ruiter	loper	pion	skaak
Frisian	skake	kening	daem	stins	hynder	fjildhear	boer	skaak
German	Schach	König	Dame	Turm	Springer	Läufer	Bauer	schach
Danish	skak	konge	dronning	tårn	springer	løber	bonde	skak
Norwegian	sjakk	konge	dronning	tårn	springer	løper	bonde	sjakk
Icelandic	skák, tafl	kóngur	drottning	hrókur	riddari	biskup	peð	skák
Faroese	talv	kongur	frúgv, drotning	rókur	riddari	bispur	finna	skák
Romansh 17	schah	retg	dama	tur	chaval	currider	pur
Maltese	cess	re	regina	kastell, torri	kavallier	isqof	suldat
								+
Irish 6	ficheall	rí	banríon	caiseal	ridire	easpag	ceithearnach	sáinniú
Gaelic	tàileasg, fidhcheall	rìgh	banrìgh	caisteal	ridire	easpaig	pàn, ceatharnach
Welsh	gwyddbwyll	brenin	brenhines	castell	marchog	esgob	gwerinwr
Breton	echedoù	roue	rouanez	tour	marc'heg	furlukin	pezh-gwerin
Lithuanian	šachmatai	karalius	valdovė	bokštas	žirgas	rikis	pėstininkas	šach
Latvian	šahs	karalis	dāma	tornis	zirdziņš	laidnis	bandinieks	šahs
Estonian	male	kuningas	lipp	vanker	ratsu	oda	ettur	šahh
Hungarian 16	sakk	király	vezér	bástya	huszár	futó	gyalog, paraszt	sakk
								+
Esperanto	ŝako	reĝo	damo, reĝino	turo	ĉevalo	kuriero	peono	ŝak
Russian	шахматы šahmaty	король korol'	ферзь ferz'	ладья lad'ja	конь kon'	слон slon	пешка peška	шах šah
Belorussian	шахматы šahmaty	кароль karol'	ферзь ferz'	ладдзя laddzjá	конь kon'	слон slon	пешка peška	шах šah
Ukrainian	шахи šahy	король korol'	королева koroleva	тура tura	кінь kin'	слон slon	пішак pišak	шах šah
Polish	szachy	król	hetman, dama, królowa	wieża	skoczek, koń	goniec	pionek	szach
Czech 13	šachy	král	dáma	věž	jezdec	střelec	pěšec	šach
Slovak 14	šach	kráľ	dáma	veža	jazdec	strelec	pešiak	šach
Slovenian	šah	kralj	dama, kraljica	trdnjava	konj	lovec	kmet	šah
Croatian 15	šah	kralj	dama	top, kula	konj, skakač	lovac	pješak, pijun	šah
Serbian 15	шах šah	краљ kralj	дама dama	топ top	коњ, скакач konj, skakač	ловац lovac	пешак, пион pešak, pion	шах šah
Macedonian	шах šah	крал kral	кралица kralitsa	топ top	коњ konj	ловец lovets	пион pion	шах šah
Bulgarian 7	шах, шахмат šah, šahmat	цар tsar	дама, царица dama, tsaritsa	топ top	кон kon	офицер ofitser 12	пешка peška	шах šah
Albanian	shah	mbret	mbretëreshë	torra	kali	oficeri	ushtar, gur	shah
Greek 20	σκάκι skáki	βασιλιάς vasiliás	βασίλισσα vasílissa	πύργος pyrgos	ίππος, άλογο íppos, álogo	τρελός, αξιωματικός trelós axiômatikós	πιόνι pióni	ρουά, σαχ rouá, sah
								+
Turkish	satranç	şah, kral	vezir	kale	at	fil	asker, piyon	şah
Azerbaijani	şahmat	şah	vezir	top	at	fil	piyada	şah
Uzbek	šatranž	šoh	farzin	ruh	ot	fil	pijoda	kišt
Turkmen	küšt	ša	perzi	ruh	at	pil	pyjada	küšt
Chuvash	šahmat	korol'	koroleva	tura	laša, ut	slon	peška	šah
Bashkir	šahmat	korol'	ferz'	tura	at	fil	peška	šah
Karachay-Balkar	šahmat (-la)	pattšah	ferz'	tura	at	slon	peška	šah
Kumyk	šahmat	patša	vazir	lad'ja	at		peška	šah
Karakalpak	šahmat	patša	koroleva	tura	at	pil	pijada	šah
Tuvin	(höl)šydyraa	nojan	merze	terge	a"t	teve	ool	ša, šah
								+
Kalmyk	šatr	han	bersn	tergn	mörn	zan	kövün	šallgn
Mongolian	šatar	nojon	bers	tereg	mor'	temee	hüü	šag
Buryat	šatar	nojon	berse	terge	morin	temeen	hübüün	šaa
Pahlavi	tšatrang	šāh	frazēn	mādajār	asp	pīl	pajādag
Farsi	šatrandž	šāh	vazir, farzin	rox	asb	fil	pijāde	kiš
Arabic	shatrang	mälik	wäziir, firzaan	tabja	hosaan, faras	fiil	äskärii, beedäq
Amharic 23	ches	nigus	nigist	ginb	feres	papas	wetader	chek
Swahili	sataranji, chesi	mfalme	malkia	ngome	jamadari	padri	kitunda
								+
Hindi	shatranj	bādšāh	farzī, wazīr	kishtī, hāthī, rukh	ghorā	ũt	pyādā, paidal	shah, kisht
Bengali	dābā	rājā	mantri	noukā	ghorā	goj	bore	kisti, check
Malay	catur	raja	menteri	tir	kuda	gajah	askar
Indonesian	catur	raja	menteri	benteng	kuda	gajah	pion	skak
Javanese	sekak	raja	ster	beteng	jaran	truncum cucut	wong cilik	sekak
Vietnamese	cờ (quốc te), cờ tướng	con tướng	con hoàng hậu	con xe, con tháp	con mã, con ngựa	con tượng, con voi	con tốt	chiếu tướng
Korean	seoyangjanggi, cheseu	king	kwin	ruk	naiteu	bisyop	pon	janggun
Georgian 8	tš'adrak'i	mepe	lazier	et'li	mxedari	k'u	p'aik'i
Armenian 9	šaxmat	arqa	t'aguhi	navak	dzi	p'il	zinvor	šax
Hebrew	shakhmat	melekh	malka	tseriakh, tirah	parash, sus	rats	ragli, khajal	shakh
Yiddish 18	shakh	meylekh	malke	turm	shpringer	loyfer	poyer	shakh
Cantonese	19	wong	hau	geoi	maa	zoeng	bing
Chinese 20	guójì xiàngqí	wáng	hòu	jū	mǎ	xiàng	bīng	jiāng
								+
Japanese	chesu	kingu	kuiin	rukku	naito	bishoppu	poon	oote
Tagalog	ahedres	hari	reyna	tore	kabalyero	obispo	kawal
Tahitian 22	échecs	arii	arii vahine	pare	faêhau puaahorofenua	ariôi	tii faehau	échec
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