Although the game is the same, the chess pieces do not have the same names in all countries. We can call them "King", "Bishop" or "Rook", to know what we 're talking about, but in each country the names may not be exactly the same.

For example, in Greece we have the following:

K: "King"
Q: "Queen"
B: "Officer" (!) - some call it also "Crazy"
N: "Horse" - yes, just the animal :)
R: "Tower"
P: "Pawn" or "Soldier"

What about your country?

We got

K: King

Q: Queen or Lady

B: Walker

N: Horse

R: Tower

P: Pawn

Lol, now i think about it, in the Netherlands the bisshop is actually quite awkward:P

The bisshop is actually called: a "walker", funny actually now I think about it...

the piece can walk long distances.., ehm, I guess longer then our "horse", wich can make only weird horse-jumps.

(edit: sorry niels: didn't see ur post :})

Ok, so far we have the following names: Bishop, Crazy, Officer, Walker 
  for a piece that, I think, its original name was "Elephant" !...

Cmon people, fill the list please...

Well, this is what I was taught (I am avoiding the local-language names because those can lead to huge variety, with less fun) :

1. K: King

2. Q: Minister

3. B: Camel

4. N: Horse

5. R: Elephant (there you go, three animals in a row )

6. P: Soldier

The pieces in Spanish

King:  Rey (same as in English)

Queen:  Reina (same as in English)

Bishop:  Alfil.  It is a word of arab origin "al-fil" which means "the elephant"

Knight: Caballo (which means "horse")

Rook: Torre (tower)

Pawn: Peón (same as in English)

capture: eat

It's fun !  Chess in India is lovely - it's more like a zoo!

Notice that the Elephant is the Bishop in Mexico(and Spain???) and the Rook in India.

Thank you all! What about the other countries?

Thank you Ben_Palko!

it's more fun that I though it would be...

In french:

K: roi (king)

Q: dame (lady)

B: fou (crazy) (or jester maybe)

N : cavalier (horse-rider)

R: tour (tower)

P: pion (pawn)

In greece we usually call the bishop "fou" which means crazy(in french)

Hi chessthebest, we also say in Greece eat instead of capture ... we also say "cut"! (like with a sword, an axe, or something)

What about the chess pieces' names?

In German:

King: König

Queen: Dame (lady)

Bishop: Läufer (the walker)

Knight: Springer (the jumper)

Rook: Turm (tower)

Pawn: Bauer (peasant

In Greece chess is "skaki"

check is "rouah" or "sach"
checkmate is "rouah mat" or "sach mat"
and ... stalemate is "pat"

What about the piece names in other countries?
Feed the list plz!

Finnish:

K: Kuningas (King)

Q: Kuningatar (Queen)

B: Lähetti (Courier/Messenger)

K: Ratsu (Horse)

R: Torni (Tower)

P: Sotilas (Soldier)

In french, "fou" has two meanings :

either crazy,

or like in "fou du roi" which is king buffoon.

In chess, it would be more the 2nd one, as bishops are near the king.

(by the way, I'm french, just having a spanish flag because I live there at the moment)

in israel the direct translation is:

K: king

Q:queen

B:runner

R:castle

N:cavalier or horseman and the beginners call it horse

P: soldier

i can also write how it pronounced but its silly

In Hebrew:

K: Melech' (king)

Q: Malka (queen)

B: Ratz (runner or messanger)

N: Soos (horse)

R: Tzariach' (tower or castle)

P: Ch'ayal (soldier)

In Italian:

K: Re (King)

Q: Regina/Donna (Queen/Woman)

B: Alfiere (Bishop)

N: Cavallo (Horse)

R: Torre (Tower)

P: Pedone (Pawn)

In Romanian:

K: Rege (King)

Q: Regina/Dama (Queen/Lady)

B: Nebun (Crazy)

N: Cal (Horse)

R: Turn/Tura (Tower)

P: Pion (Pawn)

Russian, translated into English (since I'm posting from an E-cafe and don't have Russian letters there)

K: Korol'   (King)

Q: Ferz'    (original arabic term)

B: Slon      (Elephant)

R: Ladyia   (Ancient war boat)

N: Kon'      (Horse)

P: Peshka  (from "peshiy" - which means "on foot").