The English Language

A section to discuss matters not related to Chess in particular.
Barry Sandercock
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Re: The English Language

Post by Barry Sandercock » Wed Feb 22, 2017 11:01 am

Soheil hooshdaran wrote:
What`s the difference between "or shall I say" and "or let me say" ?

No real difference in the meaning of the sentence given.

Matt Fletcher
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Re: The English Language

Post by Matt Fletcher » Wed Feb 22, 2017 8:19 pm

Jon Tait wrote:
soheil_hooshdaran wrote:What's the difference between
'Black has played quite well'
and
'Black has played very well'?
it's a matter of *how* well, with "very" being more well than "quite"
so if you think of "well-ness" as being on a sliding scale from 0-10, with extremely badly = 0 and brilliantly = 10
then "quite well" might be 7/10 and "very well" 9/10
That's a good answer.

I suspect the confusion has occurred because "quite" is a strange word - it can mean both completely ("he was quite dead" / "it's quite out of the question") and to a reasonable extent ("it was quite warm outside").

As Jon's explained, this is the second sense!

EDIT: not wanting to confuse the issue, but just thought - if the sentence said "Black has played quite brilliantly" then we'd definitely be talking about the first sense of the word... English is quite bizarre sometimes! :)

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Jon Tait
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Re: The English Language

Post by Jon Tait » Thu Feb 23, 2017 8:14 am

Matt Fletcher wrote:EDIT: not wanting to confuse the issue, but just thought - if the sentence said "Black has played quite brilliantly" then we'd definitely be talking about the first sense of the word... English is quite bizarre sometimes! :)
good point, yes :)
blog inspired by Bronstein's book, but using my own games: http://200opengames.blogspot.co.uk/

soheil_hooshdaran
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Re: The English Language

Post by soheil_hooshdaran » Thu Mar 02, 2017 6:23 pm

in
White has no choice but to give back the full piece when Black's initiative rages on.
What does
"when Black's initiative rages on"
mean?
White gives back the piece because the initiative rages on, or after he gave back the piece, the initiative rages on?

Barry Sandercock
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Re: The English Language

Post by Barry Sandercock » Thu Mar 02, 2017 7:02 pm

I think the sentence is slightly incorrect and means because Black's initiative rages on. So "when" should really be "now" (or "as").

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Jon Tait
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Post by Jon Tait » Fri Mar 03, 2017 8:19 am

Barry Sandercock wrote:I think the sentence is slightly incorrect and means because Black's initiative rages on.
It does mean that as written, but more likely it's just badly punctuated. I'm guessing there should be a comma after "piece"; i.e. what is really meant is that White has no choice other than to give the piece back, and Black's initiative rages on even so. Obviously we'd need the context to be certain of that.
blog inspired by Bronstein's book, but using my own games: http://200opengames.blogspot.co.uk/

soheil_hooshdaran
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Re: The English Language

Post by soheil_hooshdaran » Sat Mar 04, 2017 1:03 pm

What does 'to the good' mean in:
Black will win the d-pawn leaving him a pawn to the good

soheil_hooshdaran
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Re: The English Language

Post by soheil_hooshdaran » Sat Mar 04, 2017 1:07 pm

Here is what I am translating:
https://www.chess.com/article/view/the- ... l-detector
The two texts are from the game Baron-Mindlin

Barry Sandercock
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Re: The English Language

Post by Barry Sandercock » Sat Mar 04, 2017 1:20 pm

It means Black will win the d pawn and then have an extra pawn. That is, have a pawn more than White.

soheil_hooshdaran
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Re: The English Language

Post by soheil_hooshdaran » Sat Mar 04, 2017 8:03 pm

So the same as be a pawn ahead?
So why saying it that way?

Barry Sandercock
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Re: The English Language

Post by Barry Sandercock » Sat Mar 04, 2017 8:28 pm

It's a phrase that means to have a specified net profit or advantage. English can be confusing, especially if you haven't known it all your life !

soheil_hooshdaran
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Re: The English Language

Post by soheil_hooshdaran » Tue Mar 07, 2017 7:16 am

Does spotting a move, just mean seeing it?

MartinCarpenter
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Re: The English Language

Post by MartinCarpenter » Tue Mar 07, 2017 9:29 am

Yes.

soheil_hooshdaran
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Re: The English Language

Post by soheil_hooshdaran » Wed Mar 08, 2017 6:30 am

What does as it is mean in:
it is hard to imagine that such a move can occur in this position, devoid as it is of any tactical flavor

soheil_hooshdaran
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Re: The English Language

Post by soheil_hooshdaran » Wed Mar 08, 2017 6:39 am

Barry Sandercock wrote:It's a phrase that means to have a specified net profit or advantage. English can be confusing, especially if you haven't known it all your life !
I knew it the wrong way.
Thanks to translating Play Winning Chess and many articles, I understood maany differences between words which I thought were synonymous all along.