Chess Piece - Terminology

Terminology

In chess, the word "piece" has three meanings, depending on the context.

1. 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).
2. 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).
3. 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).