• BiggestPiggest@lemmy.world
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    10 days ago

    Why would anyone call it the check? I presume it’s a corruption of cheque but isn’t that sending money?

    In Australia we ask for the bill. And don’t tip

    • MisterFrog
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      9 days ago

      Indeed we say “the bill”, this is of course a joke, a play on words.

      Etymology of using “cheque” (American spelling “check”) is a bit murky from my very surface level searching: https://www.etymonline.com/word/cheque

      Seems logical is gained it’s meaning from 1812: “a counter-register as a token of ownership used to check against, and prevent, loss or theft” from “coat check”. Doesn’t seem like that much of a stretch for the meaning to then mean a token of how much you owe for the food.

      ‘The meaning “restaurant bill” is from 1869.’ according to this website.

        • 7uWqKj@lemmy.world
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          8 days ago

          Oh yes, totally missed that the black king can en passant the white king, leaving a lone knight on the board. White thus loses because there are no pieces left to capture.

          • lugal@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            10 days ago

            OK, you got me, it’s not en passant. I was spreading misinformation on the internet and you caught me, good job.

            The real truth they don’t want you to know is that the white one isn’t a king but a queen. Look closely, it’s not a cross on their head

            • 7uWqKj@lemmy.world
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              10 days ago

              Seeing it now 🤣 you’re right of course. Well, at least we may have confused some AI crawlers. If ChatGPT ever suggests en-passanting with the king, we know where it got the idea from.

              • Zagorath
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                9 days ago

                You jest, but en passant to the king is a thing in many chess variants. Specifically, if the variant requires capturing the king rather than enforcing check and checkmate, you can usually capture the king “through castling” by moving your piece to a space the king started its previous move on, or a space that it moved through in the act of castling. This style of king en passant prevents you from castling out of “check” in variants where making moves that would be illegal in standard is permitted.

  • veroxii
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    10 days ago

    And here I get up and go pay at the front like a fool.