History
The most basic piece in the game, the pawn has its origins in the oldest version of chess, Chaturanga. It is present in all other significant versions of the game, around the world. This piece only moved directly forward, capturing to the sides(one square forward diagonal to the left or right). These pieces were used as a metaphor for common men directly in the game, rather than the piece being applied to life's perspective the other way around.
In medieval chess, an attempt was made to make the pieces more interesting, each file's pawn being given the name of a commoner's occupation, from left to right:
- Gambler and other "lowlifes", also messengers (in the left-most file, that direction being literally sinister)
- City guard or policeman (in front of a knight, as they trained city guards in real life)
- Innkeeper (bishop)
- Merchant/Moneychanger (always before the king, whether or not he is to the left or right of the Queen, which depends on the colour of the pieces)
- Doctor (always the queen's pawn)
- Weaver/Clerk (in front of the bishop, for whom they wove or clericked)
- Blacksmith (in front of a knight, as they care for the horses)
- Worker/Farmer (in front of a castle, for which they worked)
The most famous example of this is the second book ever printed in English, The Game and Playe of the Chesse, which indeed was seen as much as a political commentary on society as a chess book, and was printed second by William Caxton because it was, like the Bible, among the most popular books of its day.
The ability to move two spaces, and the resulting ability to have an en passant capture, were only introduced in 15th century Europe (see En passant#Historical context). The rule for promotion has changed through history, see promotion (chess)#History of the rule.
Read more about this topic: Pawn (chess)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon than the Word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind.”
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809)
“Throughout the history of commercial life nobody has ever quite liked the commission man. His function is too vague, his presence always seems one too many, his profit looks too easy, and even when you admit that he has a necessary function, you feel that this function is, as it were, a personification of something that in an ethical society would not need to exist. If people could deal with one another honestly, they would not need agents.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
“He wrote in prison, not a History of the World, like Raleigh, but an American book which I think will live longer than that. I do not know of such words, uttered under such circumstances, and so copiously withal, in Roman or English or any history.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)