Terminology
In chess, the word "piece" has three meanings, depending on the context.
- It may mean any of the physical pieces of the set, including the pawns. This is also referred to as "chessman" (Hooper & Whyld 1992:307).
- In play, the term is usually used to exclude pawns, referring only to a queen, rook, bishop, knight, or king. In this case, the general term for pawn is "man" or "chessman". 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).
- It may refer only to a minor piece (Just & Burg 2003:5).
The context should make the intended meaning clear (Burgess 2009:523) (Hooper & Whyld 1992:307).
Read more about this topic: Chess Piece