What are the words in Russian chess jargon for “Rated” and also the equivalent of “Patzer” and/or “Woodpusher”?
(Contemplating my signature change at end-of-month… )
What are the words in Russian chess jargon for “Rated” and also the equivalent of “Patzer” and/or “Woodpusher”?
(Contemplating my signature change at end-of-month… )
The Russian term for “rating” is рейтинг – a straight transliteration, pronounced the same. If you’re talking about a game, your closest equivalent might be турнирная партия (“tournament game”) or матчевая партия (“match game”), as opposed to a лёгкая партия (“light game” – played for fun). If you’re talking about a player, maybe с рейтингом (“with rating”) or без рейтинга (“without rating”). (Actually, рейтинг being a loan word, I’m not 100 percent sure it would even be inflected – it might be simply с рейтинг and без рейтинг. A native speaker would know better.)
Since Russian, like English, borrows a number of chess terms from German, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find that the Russian equivalent of “patzer” was пацер.
I was able to find the Spanish equivalent, however, which is pichón (“sweetheart” or “pigeon”). And the French term is mazette (comparable to “duffer”).
Thank you for the information!
It looks like the inflected form с рейтингом is used – see this page as an example.
I honestly do not recall ever hearing word “пацер” while leaving in Russia. I also found no mentioning of it in the Dal’s dictionary.
Another word : amature → “любитель” have been used to characterise someone not that good in chess.
Like “одноглазый любитель” should ring some bells for those who ever read “Twelve chairs”.
In other words : любитель is someone who loves the game, without necessary being good at it.
In modern Russian to can be used to carry negative meaning - weak player, but also positive one, like someone who cares about the game, visits tournaments, sponsors tournaments, chess teams etc.
I asked a Russian about the word for “Patzer”, and received the following response:
which I believe translates roughly to:
With thanks to all who contributed… now I have edited my signature.
Has Russian, like English, borrowed the terms “zugzwang” and “zwischenzug”?
Bill Smythe
“Zugzwang,” yes (цугцванг).