In Hebrew check-mate is also referred to as "Shah-mat." Shah has no real meaning in Hebrew that I've come across and logically should just mean "shah", but "mat" is extremely close to "met" - dead.

In the British television series Dr. Who, towards the end of the last episode of Marco Polo, Kublai Kahn tells the Doctor (William Hartnell) that shah-mat means "the king is dead." I can only assume the BBC did their research before writing this into the script given that they tried to remain as true to history as possible with the Marco Polo story.

Hebrew names for the chess pieces vary only slightly from the Western format.

• Pawn -- hayal, meaning soldier (or peon - meaning peasant or common soldier*).
• Rook -- tzariah, meaning turret.
• Knight -- soos, meaning horse in colloquial Hebrew, more correctly parash, meaning horseman*.
• Bishop -- ratz, meaning runner for whatever obscure reason.
• Queen -- malka, meaning queen.
• King -- melech, meaning king.

There are two possible explanations for the similarities between the Hebrew and the Russian. One is that the huge Russian immigrations of chessmasters to Israel have influenced the game terminology. Another is that Jews in the diaspora borrowed terminology from Persian. Probably the final answer is a little of both.

The word "check" is probably used in English as a sign the other player should check and see he has no squares available to escape to with his king. "Mate" is an English term from shipping referring to a sailor, which has passed from this profession into the common tongue as a word for friend or common man.

* Thanks go to DejaMorgana for pointing this out.