The pawn (♙♟) is the weakest and most numerous piece in the game
of chess, representing infantry, or more particularly armed
peasants or pikemen. Each player begins the game with eight
pawns, one on each square of the second rank from the view of
the player. In algebraic notation the white pawns start on a2,
b2, c2, ..., h2, while the black pawns start on a7, b7, c7, ...,
h7. Pawns are differentiated by the files on which they
currently stand. For example, one speaks of "White's f-pawn" or
"Black's b-pawn"or, less commonly, "White's king's bishop's
pawn" or "Black's queen's knight's pawn" (using descriptive
notation). It is also common to refer to a rook pawn, meaning
any pawn on the a-file or h-file, a knight pawn (on the b- or
g-file), a bishop pawn (on the c- or f-file), a queens pawn (on
the d-file), a kings pawn (on the e-file), and a central pawn
(on either the d- or e-file). As pawns differ so much from other
pieces, the usage of the word pieces in chess literature usually
excludes the pawns, although