Chess piece

Original Staunton chess pieces, left to right: pawn, rook, knight, bishop, queen, and king

A chess piece, or chessman, is any of the six different movable objects used on a chessboard to play the game of chess.

Number of pieces

Chess pieces

	King
	Queen
	Rook
	Bishop
	Knight
	Pawn

Each player begins with a total of sixteen pieces. The pieces that belong to each player are distinguished by color. The lighter colored pieces are referred to as "white," and the player that owns them, "White". The darker colored pieces are referred to as "black", and the player that owns them, "Black". The word "piece" has three meanings, depending on the context. The context should make the intended meaning clear (Burgess 2009:523) (Hooper & Whyld 1992:307).

1. It may mean any of the physical pieces of the set, including the pawns. When used this way, "piece" is synonymous with "chessman" (Hooper & Whyld 1992:307) or simply "man" (Hooper & Whyld 1987:200).
2. In play, the term is usually used to exclude pawns, referring only to a queen, rook, bishop, knight, or king. In this context, the pieces can be broken down into three groups: major pieces (queen and rook), minor pieces (bishop and knight), and the king (Brace 1977:220).
3. In phrases such as "winning a piece", "losing a piece" or "sacrificing a piece", it refers only to a bishop or knight. The queen, rook, and pawn are specified by name in these cases, for example, "winning a queen", "losing a rook", or "sacrificing a pawn" (Just & Burg 2003:5).

In the first context, each of the two players begins with the following sixteen pieces in a standard game:

• 1 king
• 1 queen
• 2 rooks
• 2 bishops
• 2 knights
• 8 pawns

Moves of the pieces

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

Chess starting position. Squares are referenced using algebraic notation.

The rules of chess prescribe the types of move a player can make with each type of chess piece. Each piece type moves in a different way. During play, the players take turns moving one of their own chess pieces.

• The rook moves any number of vacant squares forwards, backwards, left, or right in a straight line. It also takes part, along with the king, in a special move called castling.
• The bishop moves any number of vacant squares diagonally in a straight line. Consequently, a bishop stays on squares of the same color throughout a game. The two bishops each player starts with move on squares of opposite colors.
• The queen moves any number of vacant squares in any direction: forwards, backwards, left, right, or diagonally, in a straight line.
• The king moves exactly one vacant square in any direction: forwards, backwards, left, right, or diagonally; however, it cannot move to a square that is under attack by an opponent, nor can a player make a move with another piece if it will leave the king in check. It can also castle in conjunction with a rook.
• The knight moves on an extended diagonal from one corner of any 2×3 rectangle of squares to the furthest opposite corner. Consequently, the knight alternates its square color each time it moves. The knight is the only piece that jumps over any intervening piece(s) when moving (castling being the only special instance in which pieces jump over one another).
• The pawn moves forward exactly one space, or optionally, two spaces when on its starting square, toward the opponent's side of the board. When there is an enemy piece one square diagonally ahead of the pawn, either left or right, then the pawn may capture that piece. A pawn can perform a special type of capture of an enemy pawn called en passant. If the pawn reaches a square on the back rank of the opponent, it promotes to the player's choice of a queen, rook, bishop, or knight (Just & Burg 2003:13–16).

Pieces other than pawns capture in the same way that they move. A capturing piece replaces the opponent piece on its square, except for an en passant capture. Captured pieces are immediately removed from the game. A square may hold only one piece at any given time. Except for castling and the knight's move, no piece may jump over another piece (Just & Burg 2003:13–16).

Chess sets

• 
  A St. George style set
• 
  Staunton pieces made of rosewood
• 
  Staunton pieces made of plastic
• 
  Staunton chess pieces on chess board with chess clock

Relative value

The value assigned to a piece attempts to represent the potential strength of the piece in the game. As the game develops, the relative values of the pieces will also change. A bishop positioned to control long, open diagonal spaces is usually more valuable than a knight stuck in a corner. Similar ideas apply to placing rooks on open files and knights on active, central squares. The standard valuation is one point for a pawn, three points for a knight or bishop, five points for a rook, and nine points for a queen (Hooper & Whyld 1992:438–39). These values are reliable in endgames, particularly with a limited number of pieces. But these values can change dramatically depending on the position, the phase of the game (opening, middle game, endings). A bishop pair for example, is worth half a pawn. In specific circumstances, the values may be quite different: A knight can be more valuable than a queen in a particular decisive attack.

Historical illustration

Courier Chess, a predecessor of modern chess, used all six chess pieces plus a courier, man (or rath or sage), and jester.

Illustration of chess pieces used in Courier chess by Gustav Selenus from the book "Das Schach-Oder Königs-Spiel" (1616). Depicted are the king, queen, rook, archer (or bishop), knight, pawn (or soldier), courier, man (or rath or sage), and jester.

Piece names

Although the symbols for pieces have international standards, the characters implied by pieces' names vary between languages. For example, in many languages, the piece known in English as the "knight" is named a term that translates to "horse".

(Luiro 2009)

See also

Lewis chessmen

• Staunton chess set
• Lewis chessmen
• Chess piece relative value
• Chessboard
• Rules of chess
• Outline of chess
• Fairy chess piece
• Chess box, container for chess pieces.

Notes

References

• Brace, Edward (1977), An Illustrated Dictionary of Chess, Craftwell, ISBN 1-55521-394-4
• Burgess, Graham (2009), The Mammoth Book of Chess (3rd ed.), Running Press, ISBN 978-0-7624-3726-9
• Evans, Larry (1973), Evans on Chess, Conerstone Library, ISBN 0-87749-699-4
• Hooper, David; Whyld, Kenneth (1992), "Value of pieces", The Oxford Companion to Chess (2nd ed.), Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-280049-3
• Just, Tim; Burg, Daniel S. (2003), U.S. Chess Federation's Official Rules of Chess (5th ed.), McKay, ISBN 0-8129-3559-4
• Luiro, Ari (2009), Chess pieces in different languages, archived from the original on October 25, 2009, retrieved 2011-11-04

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chess pieces.

• FIDE on chess equipment
• History of Staunton Chess Pieces
• Chess pieces in different languages
• Online "Chess Museum" with many historic examples
• How chess pieces are made
• How to select chess pieces and about chess pieces