translation of 2 chess references
Krystyna and Nory Steiger
steiger at CAN.ROGERS.COM
Thu Jul 31 22:20:32 UTC 2008
Dear Paul, Alina, Kenneth and Deborah,
thanks so much for your help regarding my queries yesterday and this
morning. At the risk of coming across as slow, I just would like to know if
anyone knows whether the phrase договориться до пешки, которая метит в ферзи
(dogovorit'sia do peshki, kotoraia metit v ferzi) is an idiom, possibly
meaning 'a nobody who wants to be somebody' or hoping to acquire something?
Thanks again in advance for any suggestions, and sorry for any
repetetiveness .
Sincerely,
Krystyna S.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul B. Gallagher" <paulbg at PBG-TRANSLATIONS.COM>
To: <SEELANGS at BAMA.UA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2008 7:09 PM
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] translation of 2 chess references
> Krystyna and Nory Steiger wrote:
>
> Sorry, can't address your first question except to say that a pawn that
> reaches the opposite end of the board may be replaced with any piece of
> the owner's choice (except of course a king; there can only be one king).
> Under normal circumstances, the queen being the most powerful piece, the
> player chooses a queen. But very rarely, if his position would be aided
> more by a different choice, such as a knight, he's entitled to make that
> choice.
>
> It generally wouldn't make sense to sell it short for a bishop or rook
> because neither of these offers anything that the queen does not also
> offer. However, I could construct a position where queening a pawn would
> create a stalemate but choosing a rook or bishop would not, and a player
> with such an overwhelming advantage would not want to settle for a draw.
>
>> A little later, Fonderviakin shows Dushkin to be a cheat, not at
>> chess, though he uses an example from chess to expose him to the
>> tenants: "То-то я гляжу, товарищи, что у него давеча пешка с b4
>> сразу перепрыгнула на b6!" In other words: "Aha, Comrades, I can see
>> his pawn's just jumped from b4 right over to b6!" ? Shaky
>> translations, but am I on the right track?
>
> A pawn is allowed to advance two rows on its first move (a White pawn from
> row 2 to 4, a Black pawn from row 7 to 5), but under all other
> circumstances it can never advance more than one row at a time. So the
> move described would be illegal, and a player who attempted it would
> either be cheating or making a mistake.
>
> I probably would avoid the word "over" because it often denotes a
> horizontal (L/R) movement; I would prefer "all the way."
>
> --
> War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
> --
> Paul B. Gallagher
> pbg translations, inc.
> "Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
> http://pbg-translations.com
>
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