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Knights move?

Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2014 5:21 pm
by Joelnelsonb
Just curious, do they call it a knight's move in the east? I doubt it seeing as it refers to chess and so it seems like an American go term.

Re: Knights move?

Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2014 5:41 pm
by Unusedname
http://senseis.xmp.net/?Keima

It's called a keima. I prefer knights move. :)

Re: Knights move?

Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2014 5:44 pm
by MJK
Joelnelsonb wrote:Just curious, do they call it a knight's move in the east? I doubt it seeing as it refers to chess and so it seems like an American go term.

In Korea, it is called 날일자행마(Narilja-haengma) or just 날일자(Narilja). It means to move as the Chinese charactor 日 (see the squares as on the go board). In the same way, kosumi is called 입구자(행마) from 口, and the large knight's move is called 눈목자(행마) from 目.

Re: Knights move?

Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2014 5:45 pm
by MJK
Unusedname wrote:http://senseis.xmp.net/?Keima

It's called a keima. I prefer knights move. :)

Japan is not 'East', neither 'East Asia'

Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2014 6:06 pm
by EdLee
Joelnelsonb wrote:do they call it a knight's move in the east
Hi Joel, I believe it's keima in Japanese.
As mentioned earlier, it's also different in Chinese and Korean.

The etymologies may be related to the Chinese character ma 馬 (horse),
but I'm not sure. ( The ma part in keima...? )

In xiangqi Chinese chess, the 馬 piece is the equivalent to
the knight in chess, and also moves in the same shape.

Re: Knights move?

Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2014 7:58 pm
by oren
It is very similar. It is called keima in Japan which is the Japanese chess piece that moves most similarly to a knight in chess.

Re: Knights move?

Posted: Thu Jun 19, 2014 10:27 pm
by paK0
MJK wrote:
Unusedname wrote:http://senseis.xmp.net/?Keima

It's called a keima. I prefer knights move. :)

Japan is not 'East', neither 'East Asia'


What? When Europeans say (far) east they usually refer to the Asian countries.

Re: Knights move?

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2014 1:46 am
by Unusedname
MJK wrote:
Unusedname wrote:http://senseis.xmp.net/?Keima

It's called a keima. I prefer knights move. :)

Japan is not 'East', neither 'East Asia'


Ah fair enough.
I figured it was east of me.
Forgive my ignorance.

Re: Knights move?

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2014 3:52 am
by Abyssinica
Unusedname wrote:
MJK wrote:
Unusedname wrote:http://senseis.xmp.net/?Keima

It's called a keima. I prefer knights move. :)

Japan is not 'East', neither 'East Asia'


Ah fair enough.
I figured it was east of me.
Forgive my ignorance.


I live in Texas. If I go east enough, even California is east of me.

Re: Knights move?

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2014 4:45 am
by MJK
Japan is sure part of the (far) east. It is located in the east of Eurasia; the American continent was unknown in the mainstream history for a very long time.

The original question was, how the knight's move is called in the 'east', not in Japan.

Your answer 'It is called keima (in the east)' was interpreted as wrong by me since I live(ed) in the 'east', in which no one ever say the word keima.

Re: Knights move?

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2014 5:26 am
by DrStraw
No way the Japanese could call it the knight's move. The samurai's move, perhaps.

Re: Knights move?

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2014 11:23 am
by gowan
桂馬 are the kanji for keima, which is almost always spelled with kana in Japanese go books. An interesting thing is that, as Ed Lee suggested, the "ma" part of keima is the character for horse, but the "kei" part is the character for katsura, the wood commonly used for go boards. Whether that wood is also used for shogi pieces I don't know.

Re: Knights move?

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2014 12:03 pm
by Unusedname
Abyssinica wrote:
Unusedname wrote:
MJK wrote:Japan is not 'East', neither 'East Asia'


Ah fair enough.
I figured it was east of me.
Forgive my ignorance.


I live in Texas. If I go east enough, even California is east of me.


I actually live in California. So if I go east enough Texas is twice east of me.

Re: Knights move?

Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2014 12:32 pm
by John Fairbairn
桂馬 are the kanji for keima, which is almost always spelled with kana in Japanese go books. An interesting thing is that, as Ed Lee suggested, the "ma" part of keima is the character for horse, but the "kei" part is the character for katsura, the wood commonly used for go boards. Whether that wood is also used for shogi pieces I don't know.


Kei here refers to incense from laurel leaves. All the back-rank shogi pieces have an epithet based on precious substances, decreasing in value from king to lance. Katsura is not normally used for shogi pieces. Boxwood is usual.

The go term comes from the shogi "knight" (laurel horse), but is not the original term, which was 斜走. Dosaku probably said "shasou" but this term has long been glossed as keima and for a long term was written 桂走. The old Chinese term 飛 was also in occasional use.

No influence from western chess.

Re: Knights move?

Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2014 1:35 am
by tapir
Joelnelsonb wrote:Just curious, do they call it a knight's move in the east? I doubt it seeing as it refers to chess and so it seems like an American go term.


I can't add to JF's explanation of the japanese terms, but it may be useful to remember that "knight" for the chess piece is mainly an English/French language phenomenon and many languages have sth. like horse instead.