English Chess Forum

Neville Twitchell wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 05, 2020 9:49 pm

Perhaps this thread ought to be called Pedants Revolt rather than Pedants United. Or Pedants Revolting or even Revolting Pedants!
Which reminds me of the joke about the leader of the Pedants Revolt who should have been called Which Tyler not Wat Tyler.

This reminds me of the episode of Dr.Who where he was identified as the Wizard "QuiQueQuod" by another character. I have just entered this in Google which asks "Do you mean QuickQuid?"

One that irritates me every time I see it, which, today, is twice. I've received two letters signed by Susan Smith (names changed to protect the guilty) in this way:

Yours sincerely

pp Susan Smith

David Jones

What about 'fun' being used as an adjective and a noun, for example it was funner (or more fun) than last week. Or the funnest time of my life was...' I've heard it enough times.

I have seen "winningest" used more than once in a chess context (one example being the "infamous" Warriors Of The Mind)

"winningest" was created by our American friends I believe.

That is about as crude as it gets.

Notice on door of gents' toilet at my local Debenham store:

'CLOSED FOR MAINTAINENCE'

In the old days you could say there was no dictionary to hand, but now just look it up on your phone or a mate's for goodness' sake!

Latest Covid-19 guidance from the Government includes (as an exception to isolation)

"for elite sportspeople and their coaches if necessary for competition and training, as well as parents or guardians if they are a child"

I realise you can be a parent if you're a child, but I don't think it's legal for a child to be a guardian...

Kevin Thurlow wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 16, 2020 1:38 pm

Latest Covid-19 guidance from the Government includes (as an exception to isolation)

"for elite sportspeople and their coaches if necessary for competition and training, as well as parents or guardians if they are a child"

I realise you can be a parent if you're a child, but I don't think it's legal for a child to be a guardian...

Kevin, at least in my previous post 'maintainence' has a clear meaning. I can't work out the intention of your Government example. Has some word like 'supervising' (a child) been omitted?

Paul Habershon wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 16, 2020 6:52 pm

I can't work out the intention of your Government example. Has some word like 'supervising' (a child) been omitted?

It's a direct quote from the ECF website.

https://www.englishchess.org.uk/covid-19-update/

In turn that links to
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/local-covid ... vel-medium
which also contains the quoted material.

I really shouldn't be pedantic about Kramnik's excellent English, but the following snippet amused me:

'Black overtakes the initiative.'

'Black overtakes the initiative.'

That is a good one - I assume he meant "takes over", but it is complicated in other languages. What he said was quite poetic though.

Another quibble - the difference between "league" and "division", particularly with regard to sporting competitions.

As far as I am concerned, a league is made up of divisions. These divisions may be based on merit or geography (and possibly other criteria that I can't think of). I was comfortable with the distinction in England between the Premiership and Championship, as these were competitions run by two different, albeit related, organisations. I am less so with the SPFL calling its second tier "the championship".

(To be fair, when one set of fans (in the old days when fans were allowed into grounds) chants "we're top of the league and you're no(t)", I'm yet to hear the reciprocal chant "technically you mean "division".)

Veering off-topic, I like to think of a chess match as a collection of games, and not as a single encounter. Is there any technical basis for this belief other than common usage?

Alistair, even before I reached your last paragraph I was thinking about the distinction between match and game.

We quite happily refer to a football match when it's a game between two teams. However, the nature of chess competition should demand a distinction between match and game. A county or a league match consists of a number of games, so we don't ask a player whether he won his match - it's his game. Similarly a chess match between two individuals implies a multi-game contest (e.g. a World Championship).

I used to tell junior beginners that if they called a rook a castle it would show they were not a proper chess player. I could almost say the same of those who misuse game/match in a chess context.

Paul Habershon wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 18, 2020 10:46 pm

I used to tell junior beginners that if they called a rook a castle it would show they were not a proper chess player.

LOL, whereas, in many European [French = tour, German = Turm] countries, it would seem odd to call a tower a black bird. Such eccentricities are, however, expected of the British.