are there any good programs (mp3, docs, etc.) to learn the basics of
spoken Russian - so as to understand the names for the pieces,
letters, numbers, chess terms, slang, etc.? Thank you.

-Scott

"Scott" wrote in message
m...
are there any good programs (mp3, docs, etc.) to learn the basics of
spoken Russian - so as to understand the names for the pieces,
letters, numbers, chess terms, slang, etc.? Thank you.

-Scott

Don't know about a program, but there is a book called "Russian for
Chessplayers" by Hanon Russell.

In article , ASCACHESS wrote:
are there any good programs (mp3, docs, etc.) to learn the basics of
spoken Russian - so as to understand the names for the pieces,
letters, numbers, chess terms, slang, etc.? Thank you.

-Scott

Hanon Russell wrote a book with a name like "Russian for Chess Players". This
was printed back in the 1970s. I don't know where you would get a copy today.

It was excellent for being able to translate Russian language chess magazines
without having to learn all the Russian idioms.

Rp


Hanon Russell's book was ... not the best.

One might do better by relying on any of the usual self-study or touristy
grammars (+audio) that one may easily get from, say, Amazon. (E.g.
"Berlitz Basic Russian" or similar, with both some grammar and some
audio.)

When one has gone through this, carefully, the next step might be to crack
open some issue of the Informant, and see what the little annotation
symbols come out to be in Russian rather than English. Play through some
games and practice doing the annotations over into Russian rather than
English.

Buy some standard Russian pocket dictionary (Langensheidt's or similar.)
Find a small Russian games collection of a player that interests you or
even an little anthology of standard "greatest" games. This book (and any
other little Russian games collections that you may buy at this juncture)
you'll read through in three stages as you become increasingly proficient:
1) Play through the naked game scores, until you're comfortable with that
--knowing the Russian names for the pieces, the words for White and Black,
and can decipher the names of the players and the location and occasion of
the games. 2) The second stage, sometime later, you begin reading through
the prose annotations for the games. This is the meat of what you actually
want to do, where you'll learn most of your actual chess-related
vocabulary and jargon (plus you'll actually be studying the games! The
Russian in annotations tends to be simpler and more formulaic, and just
comes along for the ride while you study.) 3) Finally, as you gain
additional proficiency (and if you are interested), you can begin to read
through the longer prose passages --introductions to the games,
biographical information, etc.

As a supplement, while doing the above, go to your local club from time to
time, hang around and listen (without being rude, of course) while your
friendly neighborhood Russian chessplayers are playing each other and
start arguing with each other in analysis. Which they invariably do every
five minutes or so.


It's not as good as actually studying the language seriously, of course,
but the above program should accomplish what you want, particularly if you
put some effort in the early stages.

--Kevin

(Scott) wrote in message om...
are there any good programs (mp3, docs, etc.) to learn the basics of
spoken Russian - so as to understand the names for the pieces,
letters, numbers, chess terms, slang, etc.? Thank you.

-Scott


"Russian for Chessplayers" by Hanon Russell for #9.50.
You can buy it on this link:

http://www.bcmchess.co.uk/chessbooks/booksbypubqz.html

Kevin Croxen wrote:

Hanon Russell's book was ... not the best.

One might do better by relying on any of the usual self-study
or touristy grammars (+audio) that one may easily get from,
say, Amazon. (E.g. "Berlitz Basic Russian" or similar, with
both some grammar and some audio.)

_
I think there was once a Russian for Chessplayers audiotape,
but it would probably be hard to get now.

Scott wrote:

are there any good programs (mp3, docs, etc.) to learn the basics of
spoken Russian - so as to understand the names for the pieces,
letters, numbers, chess terms, slang, etc.? Thank you.

-Scott

There's also the Small Chess Dictionary by Averbakh containing all the
FIDE languages. You'll find it at the sahovski.com site (other books).

Tapio

Subject: where to learn basic Russian for chess?

Hanon Russell wrote a book with a name like "Russian for Chess Players".
This
was printed back in the 1970s. I don't know where you would get a copy
today.

It was excellent for being able to translate Russian language chess
magazines
without having to learn all the Russian idioms.

Richard Peterson


Hanon Russell's book was ... not the best.

-snip-

K. Croxen


Eric Schiller also bad-mouthed Hanon Russell's "Russian for Chessplayers."
Here's what he said about the book, which was reprinted by Thinker's Press in
August 1995:

"You would do better to buy a cheap dictionary with a small grammatical sketch.
Basically, this is just a sketchy work which suggests you can guess the rest.
In fact, the vocabulary is so inadequate that you will need a dictionary
anyway."

As you can see, this differs sharply from R. Peterson's assessment of the book
as being "excellent for being able to translate Russian language chess
magazines . . ."

George Mirijanian

Subject: where to learn basic Russian for chess?

On 29 July 2003 (Kevin Croxen) replied in
Message-id:


Oh c'mon George. I'd hardly call what I said "bad-mouthing". It's just
that I think more (and more accurate) grammar, syntax, and vocabulary are
required for an English-speaker learning Russian, even for something as
pitiful as chess literature. I admit I could be hampered in this regard by
my Slavistics doctorate.

Cheers,

--Kevin

My apologies, Kevin. I should not have said that you "bad-mouthed" Russell's
book. You didn't, unlike Schiller. You are absolutely correct in stating that
more grammar, vocabulary, syntax are required for English speakers to learn
Russian, even if it's reading Russian chess literature.

S privetom,

George Mirijanian

"You would do better to buy a cheap dictionary with a small grammatical
sketch.
Basically, this is just a sketchy work which suggests you can guess the rest.
In fact, the vocabulary is so inadequate that you will need a dictionary
anyway."

As you can see, this differs sharply from R. Peterson's assessment of the
book
as being "excellent for being able to translate Russian language chess
magazines . . ."

George Mirijanian

One could hardly translate War and Peace with Russell's work, but for
translating games and anotations, it worked quite well for me and for my son as
well.

Somehow, without "a cheap dictionary with a small grammatical sketch." I went
from new player to expert and my son went from new player to master by the time
he was twelve.
Since we had no other source of translation for 64 and the various shahmaty
magazines, you might say opinions vary as I am sure will results.

Rp