English Chess Forum

George, like just, whatever.

John, Paul, George, thanks for your informative answers which put a fascinating historical context around the language of chess.

Discussion here has been wide of the mark at times but due to the difficulty finding what was being sought that's no great surprise.
Best I came up with is
priem (from Russian priyome, common in Russian chess lit.) used directly and generically in English to represent a typical technique/device/method. Has anyone come across it, I haven't.
Any way of confirming Paul's idea that 'candidate master' may have crossed to English from Russian?
Always enjoy George's US posts, now I'll use 'kremlin' for fortress!

priem (from Russian priyome, common in Russian chess lit.) used directly and generically in English to represent a typical technique/device/method. Has anyone come across it, I haven't.

Soltis uses it in his book "What it Takes to Become a Chess Master". He says: "The Russians gave us a word - priyome - to describe the technique that is appropriate for a particular pawn structure." He gives various examples in Chapter 9.

John McKenna wrote:Best I came up with is priem (from Russian priyome, common in Russian chess lit.) used directly and generically in English to represent a typical technique/device/method. Has anyone come across it, I haven't.

Careful, John, Mike, someone might take umbrage at such hi-falutin fancy-pants words!

According to the Pocket Oxford:

приём, -а receiving; reception; surgery; welcome; admittance; dose; go; motion, movement; method, way, mode; device, trick; hold, grip

So, John's suggestion of "to represent a typical technique/device/method" seems about right. Never seen it used in English, but Mike can quote chapter and verse with Soltis and, furthermore, Wikipedia has an entry for priyome. Good stuff!

Is it relevant to the discussion that the Russian upper classes (at least as I understood it from the TV version of Tolstoy's War and Peace!) would often have spoken primarily French, rather than Russian, and that both French and German served as languages of 'intellectual discourse' in Russia in the 18th and 19th centuries? So perhaps when a lot of the chess terminology was being laid down educated Russians would have been speaking French or German.

Edit: I see Paul McK noted near the start of the thread that Russians in the professional classes in the 19th often learned their trade in the French or German systems. One might also recall that a decent chunk of what we now think of as Eastern Europe, and also 'European Russia", including the Western Ukraine, was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and used German as a language of bureaucracy, education and commerce in rather the way India used (and still uses) English.

Talking of (non chessical) words borrowed from Russian, has anyone mentioned Nomenklatura yet? Certainly a word I've heard used quite a bit in English. Indeed, it makes quite a neat descriptor for the UK 'political-banking-business' elite.

And apparatchik, of course, which Paul McK listed early on, must be one of the most prevalent Russian borrowings in English.

Finally, Gulag even made it into a Mad Max movie. Now, if that isn't a sign of major assimilation, then I don't know what is.

Austin, indeed so. George just has gotten his knickers rather in a twist about the matter. In a political context, one could also suggest commissar, samizdat, glasnost, perestroika or soviet without exceeding the vocabulary of any educated English speaker. All these words are assimilated, as are many others in fields outside of the practise of communist government. One amusing one is bistro which we have taken from French usage, but is probably originally from the Russian for "quick".

And remember the recent fashion (notably under the last Govt), a borrowing from the US (!) if memory serves, for appointing 'Czars', like the "Drugs Czar', or the "Childrens' Czar'.. ...?

Mike Truran wrote:

priem (from Russian priyome, common in Russian chess lit.) used directly and generically in English to represent a typical technique/device/method. Has anyone come across it, I haven't.

Soltis uses it in his book "What it Takes to Become a Chess Master". He says: "The Russians gave us a word - priyome - to describe the technique that is appropriate for a particular pawn structure." He gives various examples in Chapter 9.

Good one. Was it Soltis himself who started this usage of priyome as a chess loan word, or someone else? It seems something of a list might be starting up, even if just a very short one to begin with, and it is discussions just like this one that can actually create usage. Here we are people, on the threshold of a new adventure, iinnnntroducingggg... Russian loan words into the English Chess Vernacular. What a great way to pay homage to the huge Russian chess legacy!

AustinElliott wrote:And remember the recent fashion (notably under the last Govt), a borrowing from the US (!) if memory serves, for appointing 'Czars', like the "Drugs Czar', or the "Childrens' Czar'.. ...?

Not so very recent ..... The term "soccer Czar" was well established in the UK by at least the early 1950s (it was used in a history of Arsenal FC) and probably for some time before then.

John Clarke wrote:

AustinElliott wrote:And remember the recent fashion (notably under the last Govt), a borrowing from the US (!) if memory serves, for appointing 'Czars', like the "Drugs Czar', or the "Childrens' Czar'.. ...?

Not so very recent ..... The term "soccer Czar" was well established in the UK by at least the early 1950s (it was used in a history of Arsenal FC) and probably for some time before then.

Is that right? I didn't know. I wonder where they got the idea? It seems an odd choice for English. Though it does show that Russian borrowings are not a recent things.

PS Just in case it hasn't been linked before, Wikipedia has a long-ish list of English words of Russian origin.

The absence of Russian loanwords in the language of chess may be viewed in a positive way. In the spirit of international co-operation, we could formally adopt a Russian word. It could be selected by a suitable body (e.g. Russian Chess Federation) following a strict filtering process with the final decision being made in consultation with a suitable chess body (e.g. ECF). The word would have to be in common use in the Russian chess world. Furthermore, the Russians could be invited to borrow an English word. The exchanged words would be independent of each other.

I envisage a formal ceremony at which the two words would be exchanged. This could take place at the London Chess Classic or other suitable venue. The loan would initially last one year during which the words and their definition would be featured on the respective websites. Subsequently the words would have to rely upon their usefulness in order to survive within the alternate chess world. One advantage of this exercise is that the “word adoption” process and exchange ceremony would generate some much-needed publicity for chess. It would bring a consciousness to loanword adoption which has never happened in any other domain. The broader advantage is that it would enrich the chess culture of both language worlds by highlighting a concept through the import of a word.

If this is accepted as a worthwhile project, then we need to find a suitable English chess word that would be well received by the Russians. It would have to be one that they do not use already. At the risk of demeaning the process from the outset through the choice of an informal word, it has been suggested to me that the word "cheapo" is distinctively English and conveys a clear chess concept. Although the cheapo concept does not apply at the highest competitive levels, it is recognised at the club level. Readers may have some better suggestions.

AustinElliott wrote:PS Just in case it hasn't been linked before, Wikipedia has a long-ish list of English words of Russian origin.

Interesting list. It includes the -nik suffix that I suggested earlier, but strangely omits the -vitch and -ov suffixes found in Russian names and often used in English to invent Russian sounding names, "General Sodoff" or such like.

John Foley wrote:The absence of Russian loanwords in the language of chess may be viewed in a positive way. In the spirit of international co-operation, we could formally adopt a Russian word. It could be selected by a suitable body (e.g. Russian Chess Federation) following a strict filtering process with the final decision being made in consultation with a suitable chess body (e.g. ECF). The word would have to be in common use in the Russian chess world. Furthermore, the Russians could be invited to borrow an English word. The exchanged words would be independent of each other.

I envisage a formal ceremony at which the two words would be exchanged. This could take place at the London Chess Classic or other suitable venue. The loan would initially last one year during which the words and their definition would be featured on the respective websites. Subsequently the words would have to rely upon their usefulness in order to survive within the alternate chess world. One advantage of this exercise is that the “word adoption” process and exchange ceremony would generate some much-needed publicity for chess. It would bring a consciousness to loanword adoption which has never happened in any other domain. The broader advantage is that it would enrich the chess culture of both language worlds by highlighting a concept through the import of a word.

If this is accepted as a worthwhile project, then we need to find a suitable English chess word that would be well received by the Russians. It would have to be one that they do not use already. At the risk of demeaning the process from the outset through the choice of an informal word, it has been suggested to me that the word "cheapo" is distinctively English and conveys a clear chess concept. Although the cheapo concept does not apply at the highest competitive levels, it is recognised at the club level. Readers may have some better suggestions.

Interesting and positive idea, John, worthy of following up. Wouldn't this really be the domain of chessplayers fluent in both languages? It strikes me, offhand, that the simplest way to popularize a loan word would be for any interested chess authors to examine the possibilities and gradually introduce their suggestions over a period of time into the literature of the game, just as Soltis did in the above example. Someone like Jon Speelman might take interest, but I'd suggest a rather casual and relaxed exploratory approach be taken, rather than frightening anyone off with ideas of "formalizing" the project (unless they are the ones who decide what goes into the OED,) certainly to start with.

Was the "cheapo" suggestion serious, or done with a laugh while downing a beer? I'd be surprised if there is not already a popular term for "cheapo" or "swindle" in current Russian usage, and just how widespread is "cheapo" throughout the English speaking chess world? I used to think of it as common vernacular amongst younger players in SE England, but perhaps it has gained more widespread currency since. Wouldn't you also prefer to start out with something more positive, or am I just old fashioned?

I don't have time to read this entire thread this morning but perhaps we all need to grow up a little and move onto matters new rather than what seems like a general argument?

I will have to come back and look at his one