One of the many wonderful things about Spanish is that its dictionary is twice the size of the French one, because Spanish, in addition to Latin, taps into an equally vast lexicon of Arab origin. Ajedrez, derived from Arabic alshatranj, means chess. Natalia Outeda, Frassaï’s art director, intended it to “transport us to a 1960s chess players’ dimly lit room, where the air gently exudes the elegant fragrance of a well-dressed gentleman.”
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