welcome to my channel and this is a podcast speak English hello everyone welcome to English pod my name is Marco hi guys my name is Katherine and today we're going to be looking at another lesson as part of our Sports series and this time well it's a debate is it a game or is it a sport oh it's a sport you have to work your mind yeah so we're looking at chess a very old very popular sport very difficult to play as well it takes a lot of practice and believe me it's frustrating at the
beginning and I'm still kind of in the beginning intermediate stages but yeah it takes a lot of practice and it takes a well it takes a lot of time to familiarize yourself with the rules right so we're going to be learning a little bit more about the pieces and the rules today okay perfect so we're not going to preview anything let's listen to the dialogue for the first time and then we'll come back and talk about this sport Bobby come here look what I got you what is that a chessboard Daddy's going to teach you
how to play cool okay each player gets 16 pieces you can be the white ones and I'll play with the black pieces now in the front you set up the pawns those are the least viable pieces and can only move one space forward when you're about to capture another piece it can move one space diagonally what about all these other pieces see this one looks like a tower it's called The Rook the one with the tall hat is called the bishop see this little horsey this is called the Knight it's a very important piece so
it's best not to let your opponent capture it and these two they are husband and wife that's right that's the queen and that's the king if the other player captures your king he will say Checkmate and the game is over doesn't this sound fun nah this sounds boring I'm going to go play killer zombies on my Playstation All right so um the kid is obviously not very interested in learning how to play chess not at all you know the art of these kind of slower games might be replaced very soon by video games yeah I
guess uh it doesn't really appeal to a little 9-year-old or 10year old instead of you know playing something like this versus yeah shooting yeah exactly but it's a very great game it's very difficult like we mentioned so we're going to look at the name of the pieces and the rules that are related to these pieces in language takeaway language takeaway well the first one you might have heard before because this is a word that is often used in strategy in general so um the word Pawn a pawn a pawn usually means uh something that is
not very important that you can use to distract an opponent mhm all right so on the chest where you have eight pawns so these are the ones that you have the most but their movement is very limited so can only move twoes forward on the first move right right or one space after that one space forward and only when it's going to capture another piece can it move diagonally all right so you can't just go diagonally you have to go forward until you're going to take another person's piece to capture it and to go diagonally
all right but uh pawns is funny you can also use this word when you're talking about other things like he used her as a pawn in his little game you know so you want to make an analogy you want to make a comparison from life to these games you can you can use the word pawn pawn very good now moving on to the other pieces on the chess board on the very far ends of the board you have the Rook okay you got two of these and they kind of look like Towers from a castle
mhm and uh it's a very well they're very important pieces and actually my favorite pieces because they're not very important at the beginning of a game but at the end of a game boom boom boom you can do a lot of damage cuz they can go anywhere in straight lines right so they can go forward backwards and to the sides as many spaces as they want the whole board if they want the whole board yeah so easy easy pieces to forget about at the beginning but they're very important and now uh next to the Rook
we have the bishop okay this is very different from the Rook because the bishop can also go anywhere but they can only go diagonally right so only diagonally they can also move for directions but diagonally right exactly so you can go forward and backward but it has to be in the at a diagonal slanted line okay and now next to the bishop we have the Knight ooh the Knight so he's the one Galloping on the horse like those old stories of King Arthur we used to hear but uh the Knight can go in an L
shape and I I've never understood this but it's weird so it can move two spaces forward and then one to the right or one to the left or it can move two spaces to the right and then one forward so it's very strange but it always has to move Mo three spaces and in the shape of an lelf so I thought maybe he was the drunken piece he can go forward a little bit then he kind the side right so that's the night it's actually a very very important piece as well and uh now the
two main pieces maybe of the chessboard the the queen and king so the king is kind of sad he can only move one space but the queen is really the killer cuz she can do any she wants this is uh interesting right why do they make it like that the queen can move as many spaces as as she wants in any direction mhm well the king can do the same any direction he wants but only one space I don't know I think there's some similarity between real life now is like the queen can do anything
she wants and the King can kind of do whatever he wants well maybe it has to do with he has the fact that he has to stay put and represent the country and she can move around and move behind the scenes and has a little bit more Mobility maybe who knows so uh but in the end the most important piece is the King right once the king is captured the game is over exactly so let's listen to today's dialogue one more time and slow it down a bit and find out if the boy understood any
of these rules Bobby come here look what I got you what is that a chessboard Daddy's going to teach you how to play cool okay each player gets 16 pieces you can be the white ones and I'll play with the black pieces now in the front you set up the ponds those are the least viable pieces and can only move one space forward when you're about to capture another piece it can move one space diagonally what about all these other pieces see this one that looks like a tower it's called The Rook the one with
the tall hat is called the bishop see this little horsey this is called the Knight it's a very important piece so it's best not to let your opponent capture it and these two they are husband and wife that's right that's the queen and that's the king if the other player captures your king he will say Checkmate and the game is over doesn't this sound fun nah this sounds boring I'm going to go play killer zombies on my PlayStation all right we're back and uh now why don't we explain a couple of these phrases that we
also use to explain the pieces but let's look at at some of the these more in depth now in fluency Builder fluency Builder so Marco one of the first phrases that we uh that we heard was the word uh was the phrase to move diagonally or a diagonal line and so the pawns can sometimes do this and the bishop can do this but what does it mean to move diagonally okay so basically a diagonal line is not a line that goes straight up right straight up to the sky for example or to the side m
right it goes at an angle so it's maybe going at 45° or 30° so that's a that's a diagonal movement or diag line exactly mhm the next phrase we have is very strange and this one you might hear from parents or children mhm he says a little horsey little horsey so uh in many languages we have ways of uh breaking down words or adding to words to make them sound cuter and this is one of those cases so for example little puppy or a little kit kitty or kitten these are words to make to make
things sound cuter so uh in this case horse becomes horsey horsey so I want to ride the horsey it's a cute way of saying I want to ride the cute horse Mommy Mommy I want to ride the horsey exactly so baby talk often involves having these rhyming words mommy horsey doggy puppy mhm a doggy exactly very good so it's a it's a cute way of saying something and uh now when we were talking about the the chest pieces uh when another piece takes or gets a piece you say it captures it okay we say capture
because well maybe it's a bit nicer than killing it but capture means taking and keeping for yourself so we have a very popular game in America called Capture the Flag right where you have to take each other's flag right you're stealing you're Ste um so yeah this is the term that is used in chess to capture another piece sometimes like for example in Spanish we actually say like to eat the other piece really yeah you eat it that's weird well we're a little bit more tame in those English speaking countries but uh to capture is
is a very important phrase and you're going to hear that in the news as well because you can capture a person you can capture a criminal mhm all right and the final word and the way that you end a game of chess you say Checkmate Checkmate Checkmate Checkmate so the game's over Checkmate well there's two things that can happen at the end of the game and uh well only one thing can happen at the very end of a game but you're going to hear these two phrases one is check and the other is Checkmate so
check means that I can take your king if I want to move right it's in danger it's in danger but Checkmate is the end all this means this is the very very last part of a game where you cannot do anything I've trapped you and I win right very good so the game is over when somebody says Checkmate uh why don't we listen to this dialogue for the last time and then we'll come back and talk a little bit more about this very interesting game Bobby come here look what I got you what is that
a chest board Daddy's going to teach you how to play cool okay each player gets 16 pieces you can be the white ones and I'll play with the black pieces now in the front you set up the pawns those are the least viable pieces and can only move one space forward when you're about to capture another piece it can move one space diagonally what about all these other pieces see this one looks like a tower it's called The Rook the one with the tall hat is called the bishop see this little horsey this is called
the Knight it's a very important piece so it's best not to let your opponent capture it and these two they are husband and wife that's right that's the queen and that's the king if the other player captures your king he will will say Checkmate and the game is over doesn't this sound fun nah this sounds boring I'm going to go play killer zombies on my PlayStation Pop Quiz Marco all right the word check and the word mate they both have they both have meanings in English but put together what is what do this where does
this phrase come from what could it possibly mean I have no idea why don't you tell us because I seriously don't know where it where it comes from okay well this is actually very interesting cuz I I looked it up and I I had no idea either because we've always just said this and it doesn't really make sense so I looked it up on the internet and I discovered that the game of chess is actually a very ancient game mhm and it did not come from England it did not come from France it actually came
from Persia and uh in Persian there are some words that kind of became the English words Checkmate that mean the king is captured or the king is defeated mhm okay so that's what it means it doesn't mean the king is dead no it doesn't mean that he's dead it means that he's been taken okay and so over time the Persian word went into Arabic and Arabic became French and English and then now we say Checkmate Checkmate okay interesting um this is a very interesting word and I'm sure everybody that's listening has a different translation for
it in their own language I know for example that in Spanish we would say hake mate hake mate right so uh I guess like hake is something's in check in danger and then M kind of like kill so maybe it's it's probably not translated properly because as as you mentioned it should mean defeated or or captured not killed so uh listeners why don't you let us know how you say Checkmate in your language come to our website english.com and also tell us if you have questions about the things we talked about today or if you
want to share some stories of your own chess victories uh please get in touch with us on our website uh otherwise you can email us at englishpod prais language.com but until then have a great day bye [Music] bye the English pod audio review listen to the meaning then say the vocabulary word on a diagonal forward and to the left or right diagonally a game in which each player moves moves 16 pieces across a board and tries to capture the opponent's king Chess the final and most important piece in chess King make ready for use set
up a very powerful piece in chess Queen very useful or helpful valuable a useful piece in chess night to take capture a piece in chest that can only move diagonally Bishop the weakest piece in chess a person or group without much power Pawn not interesting boring a piece in chest that can only Move Along straight lines Rook describe situation in which king cannot move Checkmate let's try that faster not interesting boring a useful piece in chess Knight the final and most important piece in chess King describe situation in which king cannot move Checkmate a game
in which each player moves 16 pieces across a board and tries to capture the opponent's king Chess a very powerful piece in chess Queen to take capture make ready for use set up the weakest piece in chess a person or group without much power Pawn a piece in chest that can only move diagonally Bishop on a diagonal forward and to the left or right diagonally very useful or helpful value able a piece in chest that can only Move Along straight lines Rook now say the word and hear it in a sentence diagonally Susan lives diagonally
across the street from us diagonally the bishop is a piece that can move diagonally as many spaces as it wants diagonally Diane sits diagonally from me at work set up help me set up my new home theater system set up we can't work today because the workers are setting up the network set up we are setting everything up for the party tonight it's going to be fun valuable his house was furnished with valuable antique furniture valuable the witness provided valuable information which led to the apprehension of the murderer valuable all my valuables were stolen from
my home last night capture oh no you captured my queen capture I've captured almost all your pieces you will lose capture I can't believe the police finally captured that murderer Pawn Germania was an underdeveloped nation that was a pawn in international politics Pawn the pawn is the least valuable piece on the chessboard but it is a very important piece Pawn he used Sherry as a pawn in his Evil game [Music]
