Chess piece

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

Staunton chess pieces on chess board with chess clock.

Chess pieces
	King
	Queen
	Rook
	Bishop
	Knight
	Pawn

Chess pieces vary in both value and abilities. A standard chess match consists of each player having the following equipment:

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

Additional queens, rooks, bishops or knights may be produced by promotion of the pawns (so in theory a player may have up to nine queens, ten rooks, ten bishops, or ten knights).

One side is referred to as "White" and the other as "Black" (see White and Black in chess). To distinguish between the two, the black pieces are darker than the white pieces. The Staunton chess set is the standard style for playing. Besides these standard pieces, there exists many chess variants or certain kinds of chess problems that call for non-standard fairy pieces.

The word piece has three meanings, depending on the context. First, it may mean any of the physical pieces of the set, including any of the pawns. Second, it may be used to exclude pawns, referring only to a queen, rook, bishop, or knight, and perhaps also the king. (In this case, the general term for piece or pawn is man.) Third, it may refer only to a minor piece (a bishop or knight). The context should make the intended meaning clear (Burgess 2000:478), (Hooper & Whyld 1992).

Movement of the pieces

• Main article: Rules of chess

Each piece moves in a different pattern.

• The rook moves any number of vacant squares along rows or columns (forward, backward, left or right). It also is involved when castling.
• The bishop moves any number of vacant squares diagonally. Consequently a bishop stays on squares of the same color throughout a game.
• The queen moves any number of vacant squares in any direction along a row, column, or diagonal.
• The king moves only one vacant square in any direction. It can also castle in conjunction with a rook.
• The knight moves to a vacant square in an "L"-shape (two spaces forward, backward, left, or right and one space perpendicular to it). The knight can jump over other pieces when moving.
• The pawn can only move forward one space, or optionally two spaces when on its starting square, in a straight line away from the player. When there is an enemy piece one square diagonally ahead from 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 back rank of the opposite player, it undergoes promotion to a rook, bishop, queen or knight.

Pieces capture opposing pieces by replacing them on their square, except for an en passant capture. Pieces other than the pawn capture in the same way they move. A captured piece is removed from the board. Only one piece may occupy a given square. Except for castling and the movement of the knight, a piece may not move over another piece.

Chess sets

A St. George style set.

Lewis chessmen.

The variation of designs available is broad, from small cosmetic changes to highly abstract representations to themed designs such as those which emulate the drawings from the works of Lewis Carroll or modern treatments such as Star Trek or The Simpsons. Themed designs are usually intended for display rather than for actual play (Hooper & Whyld 1992:76).

Some works of art are designs of chess sets, such as the modernist chess set by chess enthusiast and dadaist Man Ray, which is on display in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.^[1]

Chess pieces used for play are usually figurines that are taller than they are wide. For example, a set of pieces designed for a chessboard with 2¼ inch (57 mm) squares will typically have a king around 3¾ inches (95 mm) tall. They are available in a variety of designs, with the most well-known Staunton design which is named after Howard Staunton (a 19th century English chess player), which was designed by Nathaniel Cook. The first Staunton style sets were made in 1849 by Jaques of London (also known as John Jaques of London and Jaques and Son of London).

Wooden chess pieces are normally made of the light wood boxwood or sometimes maple. Black wooden pieces are either made of a dark wood such as rosewood, ebony, red sandalwood, or walnut; or they are made of boxwood and stained or painted black, brown, or red. Plastic white pieces are made of white or off-white plastic and black pieces are made of black or red plastic. Sometimes other materials are used, such as bone, ivory, or a composite material.

For actual play, pieces of the Staunton chess set design are the standard. The height of the king should be between 85 mm and 105 mm (3.35 to 4.13 inches). USCF rules call for a king height between 3⅜ and 4½ inches tall (86 to 114 mm). A height of approximately 95 to 102 mm (3¾ to 4 inches) is preferred by most players. The diameter of the king should be 40 to 50 percent of its height. The size of the other pieces should be in proportion to the king. The pieces should be well balanced. The size of the squares of the chessboard should be approximately 1.25–1.3 times the diameter of the base of the king, or 50 to 65 mm (2 to 2½ inches). Squares of size of approximately 57 mm (2¼ inches) normally are well-suited for pieces with the kings in the preferred size range. These criteria are from the United States Chess Federation's Official Rules of Chess, which is based on the Fédération Internationale des Échecs rules.

Some small magnetic sets, designed to be compact and/or for travel, have pieces more like those used in Shogi and Xiangqi — each piece being a similar flat token, with a symbol drawn on it to show which piece it is.

On computers, chess pieces are often 2-D symbols on a 2-D board, although some programs have fancier 3-D graphics engines with more traditional designs of chess pieces.

Unicode contains symbols for chess pieces in both white and black.

Grandmaster Larry Evans offers this advice on buying a set (Evans 1974:18):

"Make sure the one you buy is easy on the eye, felt-based, and heavy (weighted). The men should be constructed so they don't come apart. ... The regulation board used by the U. S. Chess Federation is green and buff — never red and black. However there are several good inlaid [wood] boards on the market. ... Avoid cheap equipment. Chess offers a lifetime of enjoyment for just a few dollars well spent at the outset."

Relative value

The value assigned to a piece attempts to represent the strength this piece potentially has in a game. With game circumstances constantly changing, so do the values assigned to the pieces. To maximize the value of your pieces you must take advantage of their special abilities. For example, a bishop positioned to control a long, open diagonal will appear much more valuable than a knight stuck in a corner. Similar idea exist with placing rooks on open files and knights on active, central squares.

Piece names

See also

• Staunton chess set
• Rules of chess
• Lewis chessmen
• Chess piece relative value
• Chessboard
• List of chess terms#Piece

Notes

References

• Burgess, Graham (2000), The Mammoth Book of Chess (second ed.), Carroll & Graf Publishers, ISBN 1841191264 
• Evans, Larry (1974), Evans on Chess, Conerstone Library, ISBN 0877496994 
• Hooper, David; Whyld, Kenneth (1992), The Oxford Companion to Chess (second ed.), Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-280049-3 
• Just, Tim; Burg, Daniel S. (2003), U.S. Chess Federation's Official Rules of Chess (fifth ed.), McKay, ISBN 0-8129-3559-4 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Chess pieces

• FIDE on chess equipment
• FIDE Laws of Chess
• History of Staunton Chess Pieces
• Chess pieces in different languages
• Online "Chess Museum" with many historic examples.