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When explaining chess to beginners, I often use the famous rhyme, “a knight on the rim is dim”. Is there any equivalent (rhyming) phrase in other languages?

I will accept any answer which shows at least one equivalent phrase in another language.

For those who aren’t familiar with it, “a knight on the rim is dim” means that a knight, which is placed on the edge of the board, is weak.

When a knight is placed on the edge of the board, is has influence over, or attacks, only 4 squares. However, if it is placed more centrally, it controls 8 squares, which is double the amount.

Diagram showing knight placement

hb20007
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14 Answers14

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German

Ein Springer am Rand bringt Kummer und Schand.

= (lit.): A knight on the rim brings sorrow and shame.

starrin
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    This answer made my realize why the [Springer](https://www.springer.com/) logo is a knight. So it's the knight in German. – hb20007 Feb 12 '22 at 13:29
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    The saying is from Dr. Siegbert Tarrasch who was german. I believe this is the original phrase and the English is the "foreign" one. – Michael West Feb 12 '22 at 14:07
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    Sounds *very* Tarrasch but /needs citation/ ;-) Note that the phrase had several "mutations" (not surprising for a successful meme), right down to the mocking "Springer am Rand, Sieges Garant" (knight on the rim guarantess win). – Hauke Reddmann Feb 12 '22 at 16:10
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    @hb20007 In German, the word for knight is "Ritter", the word "Springer" means jumper (someone who jumps, not the garment) but is used for the piece in Chess we call a knight. – Jack Aidley Feb 14 '22 at 09:23
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    ''Ritter'' is ''knight'', so the chocolate brand ''Ritter Sport'' means ''knight sport''. Amusingly, the knight and rook are called ''caballo'' and ''torre'' in Spanish, although it's wrong to call them horse and castle in English. – Tom Feb 14 '22 at 21:32
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Russian

Конь на краю — позор на голову твою.

Literally, "a knight on the rim is a shame onto your head".

Transliterated: "kon' na krayu — pozor na golovu tvoyu".

The Russian version is just a translation of the phrase by Siegbert Tarrasch. The "на голову твою" part is unnecessary for the meaning (it's just an intensifier), but added for the rhyme.

Ruslan
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16

In French, I have heard "Cavalier au bord, cavalier mort" ("a knight on the rim is a dead knight").

Ilia Smilga
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15

The Spanish version is not the most elegant one, but there it goes:

"Con los caballos por los rincones

vas a ganar por los cojones"

Perfect consonant rhyme, which can be (liberally) translated as "placing your knights int he dims, you won't win at all".

The thing is that "por los cojones" refers in a very colloquial way to human male gonads. Also, "cojones" is used in a lot of Spanish idioms.

Here you have an article (most probably by Leontxo García) using a variant of the sentence in a 2001 game between Shirov and Anand.

emdio
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    So roughly, *Knight by the walls / Got you by the balls!* – Peter LeFanu Lumsdaine Feb 13 '22 at 19:25
  • Wouldn't it be better to clarify whose knights you are talking about? Like "Con _sus_ caballos por los rincones"? Otherwise, this can be read as "Con (tus) caballos por los rincones" meaning that you _want_ to keep the knights on the rims. – terdon Feb 14 '22 at 13:35
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    @terdon "vas a ganar por los cojones" means "you are not going to win at all" or something similar. I could write "con tus caballos por los rincones", but it'd sound a bit like translated from English. – emdio Feb 14 '22 at 13:47
  • Ah, right, sorry. I read that as _vas a ganar por cojones_ (o sea, que vas a ganar por cierto) instead of _por los cojones_ (ni de coña). You can imagine how confusing such similar yet diferent expressions are to non-native speakers like myself :) Either way though, I was a bit confused as to whose knights were being referred to here, but if it's clear to you and you're a native speaker, then I'm sure you know better. – terdon Feb 14 '22 at 14:00
  • @terdon It's funny I hadn't realized that those so similar idioms mean the opposite; "por cojones" and "por los cojones". Again, I could write "con tus caballos por los rincones", but that sounds a bit forced. In the same way we say "mueve la dama" instead of "mueve tu dama". You _can_ say "mueve tu dama", but it sounds a little bit odd. – emdio Feb 14 '22 at 14:25
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    @terdon In Spanish, it's generally avoided to directly use possessives when possible as it can sound strange, for example ''lavate las manos por favor'', as ''lavate tus manos'' would sound unnatural. – Tom Feb 14 '22 at 21:39
  • @tom I assume you mean pronouns not possesives but thank you, I am well aware of that. I spent several years living and working in Spain and am quite comfortable in Spanish. – terdon Feb 15 '22 at 08:16
  • @terdon yeah your use of "ni de coña" was very idiomatic, I'm guessing "quite comfortable" is a polite understatement :) – bob esponja Feb 15 '22 at 16:29
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Italian

Cavallo sul bordo,

Spettacolo balordo

Literally, “a knight on the rim is an awkward spectacle”

Maiaux
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10

Dutch

It's similar to the German version (not a surprise given the familiarity between both languages) but the Dutch version, which made Wikipedia, is:

Een paard aan de rand is een schand

which literally translated is

A knight on the edge is a shame

Glorfindel
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    My grandfather told me "Een paard aan de rand stelt de schaker ten schand", attributing to Euwe. It translates to: "A knight on the rim brings shame to the chess player". – Bob Jansen Feb 14 '22 at 12:33
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    [Elsewhere on Wikipedia](https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lijst_van_Nederlandse_spreekwoorden_P-U) we get a similar phrase more like @BobJansen's suggestion: "Paard aan de rand is schakers schand." – Discrete lizard Feb 14 '22 at 14:13
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    I also found a longer version: "Een paard aan de rand is een schande voor het hele land" - Patriek Vleming – hb20007 Jul 01 '22 at 10:23
  • I have always heard "Een paard aan de rand klopt van geen kant". Although the letters don't rhyme, the sounds do – Irsu85 Aug 15 '22 at 17:59
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In Swedish, there is En springare på randen är en springare på stranden. — A knight on the edge is a knight on the beach. It seems real but not very common: searching, I find one usage in print, in the Tidskrift för Shack (Journal of Chess), 1990, issue 9, p. 404.

It’s interesting that the Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish versions all use different nouns at the end (strand, sand, spand), even though they could have used the same — at least strand and sand are the same in all three languages. From this, together with the rarity of the Swedish and Danish versions, I guess they arose independently as ad hoc translations of the more well-established German version — translating it requires changing the noun, since the direct cognate of Schand in all the Scandinavian languages is skam, which wouldn’t rhyme.

Peter LeFanu Lumsdaine
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Norwegian

"En springer på randen er en springer i sanden."
A Knight on the edge is a Knight in the sand.

One source claims this is a (bad) translation of the Dr. Siegbert Tarrasch's German version.

Stig Hemmer
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Danish

"En springer på randen er en springer på spanden"

This literally translates to "A knight on the rim is a knight on the bucket". Here, "on the bucket" is an idiom meaning "in trouble" in Danish.

Alice Ryhl
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A rhyming version in Chinese is:

马跳边，易被歼 (ma tiao bian, yi bei jian)

Which roughly translates as "A horse that jumps to the edge is easily destroyed", where horse is the Chinese name for the knight in chess.

Bobgom
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  • Searching for "马跳边易被歼" on Google returns many results, so this seems to be a well-established one. – hb20007 Feb 16 '22 at 17:03
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Japanese?

ナイトの価値は縁の内。(Naito no kachi wa fuchi no uchi.)

The knight's worth is (as a topic, somehow related to) the inside of the border.

Kaz
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I mean "边缘的骑士是暗淡的" -< this doesn't really rhyme, but it sounds catchy when you say it in Chinese! :)

Basically a translation of "a knight on the rim is dim"

The pinyin is "Biān yuán de qí shì shì àn dàn de"

Glorfindel
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DialFrost
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    I don't think this is an actual phrase. Google has [literally 1 result](https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=%22%E8%BE%B9%E7%BC%98%E7%9A%84%E9%AA%91%E5%A3%AB%E6%98%AF%E6%9A%97%E6%B7%A1%E7%9A%84%22) – BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft Feb 12 '22 at 23:25
  • @BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft That's a good point. I tried to search on Google Hong Kong and only got the same result. Also tried Baidu and did not get anything substantial. – hb20007 Feb 13 '22 at 07:28
  • I doubt if there is an equivalence of this phrase in Chineses, given that Chinese chess, instead of chess, is way more popular in China (and in Chinese Chess, playing Knight on the rim is completely legit: there are opening where Knight is moved to the edge in move 2, 3) – Arctic Char Feb 14 '22 at 18:54
  • @ArcticChar I see your point. Chess is less popular than Xiangqi and Go in China. However, China is massive, and even if a small % of the population plays chess, it might still be a big enough number for chess books and schools to exist. So the phrase might exist. Also, Chinese is spoken in other countries like Singapore. – hb20007 Feb 14 '22 at 22:12
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Portuguese:

"Cavalo no canto só traz desencanto."

Or

"Cavalo na beira é besteira".

They mean respectively,

A knight on a corner brings only bad news, and A Knight on the rim is foolish".

Marcelo Silva
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Turkish

"Kenar atlar sakat atlardır".

It means "Knights in the edge are crippled horses".

Erman Çetin
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