A chess piece, or chessman, is a game piece that is placed on a
chessboard
A chessboard is a used to play chess. It consists of 64 squares, 8 rows by 8 columns, on which the chess pieces are placed. It is square in shape and uses two colours of squares, one light and one dark, in a chequered pattern. During play, the bo ...
to play the game of
chess
Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...
. It can be either
white or black, and it can be one of six types:
king
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
,
queen
Queen or QUEEN may refer to:
Monarchy
* Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom
** List of queens regnant
* Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king
* Queen dowager, the widow of a king
* Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...
,
rook
Rook (''Corvus frugilegus'') is a bird of the corvid family. Rook or rooks may also refer to:
Games
*Rook (chess), a piece in chess
*Rook (card game), a trick-taking card game
Military
*Sukhoi Su-25 or Rook, a close air support aircraft
* USS ' ...
,
bishop
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
,
knight
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...
, or
pawn
Pawn most often refers to:
* Pawn (chess), the weakest and most numerous piece in the game
* Pawnbroker or pawnshop, a business that provides loans by taking personal property as collateral
Pawn may also refer to:
Places
* Pawn, Oregon, an his ...
.
Chess set
A chess set consists of a chessboard and white and black chess pieces for playing chess. There are sixteen pieces of each color: one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns. Extra pieces may be provided for use in ...
s generally come with sixteen pieces of each color. Additional pieces, usually an extra queen per color, may be provided for use in
promotion
Promotion may refer to:
Marketing
* Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...
.
Number of pieces
Each player begins with sixteen pieces (but see the
subsection below for other usage of the term ''piece''). 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 as "White", whereas the darker colored pieces are referred to as "black" and the player that owns them as "Black".
In a standard game, each of the two players begins with the following sixteen pieces:
* 1
king
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
* 1
queen
Queen or QUEEN may refer to:
Monarchy
* Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom
** List of queens regnant
* Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king
* Queen dowager, the widow of a king
* Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...
* 2
rooks
Rook (''Corvus frugilegus'') is a bird of the corvid family. Rook or rooks may also refer to:
Games
*Rook (chess), a piece in chess
*Rook (card game), a trick-taking card game
Military
*Sukhoi Su-25 or Rook, a close air support aircraft
* USS ...
* 2
bishops
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
* 2
knights
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...
* 8
pawns
Usage of the term ''piece''
The word "piece" has three meanings, depending on the context.
# It may mean any of the physical pieces of the set, including the pawns. When used this way, "piece" is synonymous with "chessman" or simply "man".
Chess set
A chess set consists of a chessboard and white and black chess pieces for playing chess. There are sixteen pieces of each color: one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns. Extra pieces may be provided for use in ...
s have been made in a variety of styles, sometimes for decorative or artistic purposes rather than practical play, but the
Staunton pattern is standard for competition.
# 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 rooks),
minor pieces (bishops and knights), and the king.
# In phrases such as "winning a piece", "losing a piece" or "sacrificing a piece" and other related contexts, it refers only to minor pieces (bishops or knights). By convention, the queen, rooks, and pawns are specified by name in these cases – for example, "winning a queen", "losing a rook", or "sacrificing a pawn".
Moves of the pieces
The
rules of chess prescribe the moves each type of chess piece can make. During play, the players take turns moving their own chess pieces.
* The rook may move any number of squares vertically or horizontally without jumping. It also takes part, along with the king, in
castling
Castling is a move in chess. It consists of moving the king two squares toward a rook on the same and then moving the rook to the square that the king passed over. Castling is permitted only if neither the king nor the rook has previously moved ...
.
* The bishop may move any number of squares diagonally without jumping. Consequently, a bishop stays on squares of the same color throughout the game.
* The queen may move any number of squares vertically, horizontally, or diagonally without jumping.
* The king may move to any adjoining square. No move may be made such that the king is placed or left in
check
Check or cheque, may refer to:
Places
* Check, Virginia
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Check'' (film), a 2021 Indian Telugu-language film
* ''The Checks'' (episode), a 1996 TV episode of ''Seinfeld''
Games and sports
* Check (chess), a thr ...
. The king may participate in castling, which is a move consisting of the king moving two squares toward a same-colored rook on the same rank and the rook moving to the square crossed by the king. Castling may only be performed if the king and rook involved are unmoved, if the king is not in check, if the king would not travel through or into check, and if there are no pieces between the rook and the king.
* The knight moves from one corner of any two-by-three rectangle to the opposite corner. Consequently, the knight alternates its square color each time it moves. It is not obstructed by other pieces.
* The pawn may move forward one square, and one or two squares when on its starting square, toward the opponent's side of the board. When there is an enemy piece one square diagonally ahead of a pawn, then the pawn may capture that piece. A pawn can perform a special type of capture of an enemy pawn called ''
en passant
''En passant'' (, "in passing") is a method of capturing in chess that occurs when a pawn captures a horizontally adjacent enemy pawn that has just made an initial two-square advance. The capturing pawn moves to the square that the enemy paw ...
'' ("in passing"), wherein it captures a horizontally adjacent enemy pawn that has just advanced two squares as if that pawn had only advanced one square. If the pawn reaches a square on the of the opponent, it
promotes to the player's choice of a queen, rook, bishop, or knight of the same color.
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
''En passant'' (, "in passing") is a method of capturing in chess that occurs when a pawn captures a horizontally adjacent enemy pawn that has just made an initial two-square advance. The capturing pawn moves to the square that the enemy paw ...
'' capture by a pawn. 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.
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. For example, in an , bishops are relatively more valuable; they can be
positioned to control long, open diagonal spaces. In a with lines of protected pawns blocking bishops, however, knights usually become relatively more potent. Similar ideas apply to placing rooks on
open file
An open file in chess is a with no pawns of either color on it. In the diagram, the e-file is an open file. An open file can provide a line of attack for a rook or queen. Having rooks or queens on open files or half-open files is considered a ...
s and knights on active, . 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. These values are reliable in endgames, particularly with a limited number of pieces. But these values can change depending on the position or the phase of the game (opening, middle game, or ending). A for example, is worth an additional half-pawn on average. In specific circumstances, the values may be quite different: sometimes a knight can be more valuable than a queen if a particular angle is required for a mating attack, such as certain
smothered mate
In chess, a smothered mate is a checkmate delivered by a knight in which the mated king is unable to move because it is completely surrounded (or ''smothered'') by its own pieces.
The mate is usually seen in a corner of the board, since fewer pie ...
s. The humble pawn becomes more and more valuable the closer it is to securing a queen promotion for another example.
History
Chess evolved over time from its earliest versions in India and Persia to variants that spread both West and East. Pieces changed names and rules as well; the most notable changes was the Vizir (or Firz) becoming the Queen, and the Elephant becoming the Bishop in European versions of chess. The movement patterns for Queens and Bishops also changed, with the earliest rules restricting elephants to just two squares along a diagonal, but allowing them to "jump" (seen in the fairy chess piece the
alfil
The alfil, alpil, or elephant is a fairy chess piece that can jump two squares diagonally. It first appeared in shatranj. It is used in many historical and regional chess variants. It was used in standard chess before being replaced by the bisho ...
); and the earliest versions of queens could only move a single square diagonally (the fairy chess piece
). The modern bishop's movement was popularized in the 14th and 15th centuries, and the modern queen was popularized in the 15th and 16th centuries, with versions with the more powerful modern queen eclipsing older variants.
File:Chess Piece, Pawn or Backgammon Piece MET sf1972-9-28a.jpg, A pawn of quartz from 10th–11th century (Fatimid Egypt
The Fatimid Caliphate was an Ismaili Shi'a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD. Spanning a large area of North Africa, it ranged from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. The Fatimids, a d ...
?). Islamic chess sets favored abstract designs.
File:Chess Piece in the Form of a Knight MET sf17-190-231s5.jpg, A knight made around 1250 in London, England. The knight is battling an evil dragon.
File:Chess Piece, Bishop MET 49.36(1).jpeg, An elephant from the 11th–12th century Islamic Western Mediterranean (possibly Nasrid Granada?). It bears similarities to a Bishop's miter, perhaps explaining the eventual terminology shift.
File:Chess Piece in the Form of a Warder (Rook) or Pawn MET DP318027 (cropped).jpg, A 12th century warder (modern rook) made of whale ivory of Scandinavian origin, similar to the famous Lewis chessmen
The Lewis chessmen ( no, Lewisbrikkene; gd, Fir-Tàilisg; sco, Lewis chesmen) or Uig chessmen, named after the island or the bay where they were found, are a group of distinctive 12th-century chess pieces, along with other game pieces, most o ...
.
File:Chess Piece in the Form of a Queen MET DP285163 (cropped).jpg, A 13th century Queen astride a horse with attendants, of Scandinavian origin. The Queen replaced the Persian Vizier in European chess.
File:Chess Piece, King MET 1971.105.1(1).jpeg, An 8th–10th century King (Shah) carved of jet. In the Islamic style, it is an abstract representation, decorated with dot-and-circle devices.
Piece names
The characters implied by pieces' names vary between languages. For example, in many languages, the piece known in English as the "knight" frequently translates as "horse", and the English "bishop" frequently translates as "elephant" in language areas that adapted the modern bishop's movement pattern, but not its new name.
Variant pieces
Chess variant
A chess variant is a game related to, derived from, or inspired by chess. Such variants can differ from chess in many different ways.
"International" or "Western" chess itself is one of a family of games which have related origins and could be co ...
s sometimes include new, non-standard, or even old pieces. For example,
Courier Chess
Courier chess is a chess variant that dates from the 12th century and was popular for at least 600 years. It was a part of the slow evolution towards modern chess from Medieval Chess.
Medieval rules
Courier chess is played on an 8x12 board (i. ...
, a predecessor of modern chess dating from the 12th century, was played on an 8×12 board and used all six modern chess piece types, plus three additional types of pieces: Courier,
Mann
Mann may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media
* Mann (chess), a variant chess piece which moves as a king
* ''Mann'' (film), a 1999 Bollywood motion picture
* ''Mann'' (magazine), a Norwegian magazine
* Mann Theatres, a theatre chain corp ...
(or ''rath'' or ''sage''), and Jester. Variants of "old" chess might use the old rules for bishops/elephants with the
alfil
The alfil, alpil, or elephant is a fairy chess piece that can jump two squares diagonally. It first appeared in shatranj. It is used in many historical and regional chess variants. It was used in standard chess before being replaced by the bisho ...
piece, or old rules for Queens with the
. Many modern variants with unorthodox pieces exist, such as
Berolina chess
Berolina chess is a chess variant using a popular fairy chess piece called the Berolina pawn (also known as ''Berlin pawn'', ''Anti-pawn'', or simply ''Berolina''). The Berolina pawn was invented by Edmund Nebermann in 1926''Funkschach'', August ...
which uses custom pawns that advance diagonally and capture vertically.
See also
*
Chess set
A chess set consists of a chessboard and white and black chess pieces for playing chess. There are sixteen pieces of each color: one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns. Extra pieces may be provided for use in ...
*
Chessboard
A chessboard is a used to play chess. It consists of 64 squares, 8 rows by 8 columns, on which the chess pieces are placed. It is square in shape and uses two colours of squares, one light and one dark, in a chequered pattern. During play, the bo ...
*
Chess piece relative value
In chess, a relative value (or point value) is a standard value conventionally assigned to each piece. Piece valuations have no role in the rules of chess but are useful as an aid to assessing a position.
Valuation systems almost always assign ...
*
Chess symbols in Unicode
Chess symbols are part of Unicode. Instead of using images, one can represent chess pieces by symbols that are defined in the Unicode character set. This makes it possible to:
* Use figurine algebraic notation, which replaces the letter that st ...
*
Fairy chess piece
A fairy chess piece, variant chess piece, unorthodox chess piece, or heterodox chess piece is a chess piece not used in conventional chess but incorporated into certain chess variants and some chess problems. Compared to conventional pieces, fair ...
– a piece used only in
chess variants
A chess variant is a game related to, derived from, or inspired by chess. Such variants can differ from chess in many different ways.
"International" or "Western" chess itself is one of a family of games which have related origins and could be co ...
*
History of chess
The history of chess can be traced back nearly 1500 years to its earliest known predecessor, called chaturanga, in India; its prehistory is the subject of speculation. From India it spread to Persia. Following the Arab invasion and conquest ...
*
Lewis chessmen
The Lewis chessmen ( no, Lewisbrikkene; gd, Fir-Tàilisg; sco, Lewis chesmen) or Uig chessmen, named after the island or the bay where they were found, are a group of distinctive 12th-century chess pieces, along with other game pieces, most o ...
*
Outline of chess
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to chess:
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard (a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid). In a chess game, each player ...
*
Rules of chess
*
Staunton chess set
The Staunton chess set is the standard style of chess pieces, recommended for use in competition by FIDE, the international chess governing body.
The journalist Nathaniel Cooke is credited with the design on the patent, and they are named afte ...
Notes
References
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External links
FIDE on chess equipment
{{Authority control
Chess sets