The
pawn (
♙♟) is the most numerous
piece in the game of
chess, and in most circumstances, also the weakest. It historically represents
infantry, or more particularly, armed
peasants or
pikemen.Each player begins a game of chess with eight pawns, one on each square of the
rank immediately in front of the other pieces. (In
algebraic notation, the white pawns start on a2, b2, c2, ..., h2, while black pawns start on a7, b7, c7, ..., h7.)