See http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail... :<He had hardly been seated at the Ciudad Feliz when Yuri Vasilyev, a Russian reporter who covers every tournament with Kasparov among the competitors, came in after him with a prying look on his face. He wanted to know what Ivanchuk was having for lunch. Ivanchuk told him that he had ordered mushroom soup – a dish of which the Russian name sounds like the French ‘champignon.’ It seemed the right choice, he said, because within a few hours he would be playing against the champion – which in Russian is pronounced as ‘shampion.’ These ‘champignons,’ Ivanchuk went on, were after all the only mushrooms that could be cultivated. The same went for world champions. That was why, he explained to the baffled Vasilyev, he was having ‘champignon’ soup now. The ‘shampion’ himself he would have for dessert. Rarely did a prediction prove to be more correct. Kasparov won the tournament that year, but that afternoon he suffered his only defeat.>

Kasparov ran from the board without a handshake and when passing by a group of journalists he said very audible: "F**k Ivanchuk".

<Whitehat1963: O.K., perhaps I'm blind, what happens if white takes the queen with 26. Nxa2?

ConLaMismaMano: Then 26...Ne2+ winning back the Queen.>

Ivanchuk: I felt well and was ready for an intense fight. Some days later, Kasparov said he did not shake hands with me, when he lost on time because of my impolite behaviour during the game. He mentioned that, at the beginning he said "j'adoube" and my answer was "s'il vous plait". So, what's wrong?

when Kasparov was asked why he didn't shake hands with Ivanchuk when he lost on time..

Kasparov: Well, he irritated me a lot when I said, before the game: "J'adoube", and with a smile he said to me: "S'il vous plait". He was also hitting the clock sometime. And the worse thing is to see how badly he was playing here almost every day and how well he played against me.

1) I don't know why two Russians would be speaking French to one another in Chile. "J'adoube" is international chess jargon but "s'il vous plaît" certainly isn't, so maybe there was some kind of irony in that. I just noticed the quote from "British Chess Magazine" a couple posts up, according to which Ivanchuk said it with a smile, so he probably (incorrectly) thought "s'il vous plaît" meant "go right ahead", the way Russians use "pozhalsta", which can either mean "please" or "after you/please go ahead" when they hold the door for you. The mere fact that he was smiling was probably perceived as mockery by the somewhat paranoid K (a disorder he shares with Kafka's K, whose paranoia is usually justified by the circumstances).

2) <JoergWalter: <VaselineTopLove: And then Kasparov didn't shake hands with him at the end.>

Kasparov ran from the board without a handshake and when passing by a group of journalists he said very audible: "F**k Ivanchuk">

"Si vous plait"

"F@#$ you!"

I like these puns referring to an anecdote. Kasparov was somewhat careless in this game. At that stage he was dominating the tournament with +4 -0 =3 and forgot Chucky can be dangerous. After this game he avenged himself on his remaining opponents, scoring 3 points in the last three rounds.

Following Check It Out's post, I was wondering what other French terms are used in Chess. There's en passant, en prise and Fédération Internationale des Échecs of course, but also two less well known:

"remis: [from French] A draw. It literally means "reset" and is somewhat archaic (the usual word for a draw in modern French is nulle), but is internationally understood and may be used between players without a common language." Really? Doesn't ring a bell, anyhow in my playing days I never offered or was offered a draw, I generally lost before that point.

"trébuchet: [from French, a type of siege engine] A theoretical position of mutual zugzwang in which either player would lose if it were their turn to move." The term sometimes appears in studies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloss...