This name seems to have its roots in Courier Chess, which included both the Alfil and the modern Bishop. Germans gave the piece entirely new names, such as der Alte, which means sage, and the current name, Laufer, which means courier or runner. Icelandic, which calls it a biskup, and Portugese (bispo) are other languages whose name for this piece means Bishop. The English interpreted this as a Bishop's mitre and began to call the piece a Bishop, which fit in with the English idea that Chess was a court game rather than a war game. The Alfil piece had two projections at the top, which were supposed to be elephant tusks. Instead of playing on the piece's Arabic name, the English gave it a new name that seemed to fit the design of the piece used at the time. So it seems, contrary to Murray, that the current French name of the piece does have its roots in the Arabic name. Just drop the second l, and it may seem to a French speaker that the piece is a Fil, not an Alfil. Besides this, the French normally contract the definite article before words beginning with a vowal.

So it wouldn't be out of the question for the French to interpret the first syllable of Alfil as a definite article. Le, the French masculine definite article, is just el spelled backwards. Being neighbors with Spain, the French would already be familiar with another definite article that had the backwards spelling of one of theirs. Its feminine form, la, is just al spelled backwards. The French definite articles are very similar to the Arabic definite article.

Even if Murray is right about the name of Fil not being current in France, he overlooks some important facts. In contrast, Davidson says that the French did know of it as a Fil. His main reason is that the French knew the piece only as an Alfil, not as a Fil. It should be noted that Murray rejects this etymology of the name fou, but his reasons don't stand up well. This led to the current French name for the piece, which is fou, meaning jester or fool. The French also played on the similarity in sound between fil and the French word fol, which is related to the English word fool. The French began calling it delfino, which suggested 'dauphin,' the French crown prince. Italians started calling it Alfiere, which meant flag-bearer. In trying to find some meaning in the name, Europeans often used similar sounding words in their own languages. When the names of Fil and Alfil reached Europe, they were meaningless to the Europeans. At some point, the Arabic definite article got prepended, giving the name Alfil, meaning the elephant. Persians called it Pil, the Persian word for elephant, and the Arabs modified this to Fil. The Bishop has its roots in an Indian piece called a Hasty or Gaja, which were both Indian words for elephant. This was part of an overall reform of the rules of Chess, making the game much faster. In the end of the middle ages, the slow Alfil was replaced in the game of chess by the Bishop. But it is not a set of standards concerning what you must call pieces in newly invented games. The Piececlopedia is intended as a scholarly reference concerning the history and naming conventions of pieces used in Chess variants.

Rules of Training Chess: Rook, Bishop, Queen moves.

Rules of Rookheavy Chess and Bishopheavy Chess.

Alternate names for chess pieces