Chess piece middle game, endings). A for example, is worth half a pawn. In specific circumstances, the values may be quite different: A knight can be more valuable than a queen in a particular decisive attack. Courier Chess, a predecessor of modern chess, used all six chess pieces plus a courier, man (or rath or sage), and jester. Although the symbols for pieces have international standards, the characters implied by pieces' names vary between languages. For example, in many languages, the piece known in English as the "knight" is named a term that translates to "horse". Chess piece A chess piece, or
History of chess by the common public, and even the courtly society, which continued to enjoy the now-prohibited chess tournaments uninterrupted. The pieces, which had been nonrepresentational in Islamic countries (see piece values in shantranj), changed shape in Christian cultures. Carved images of men and animals reappeared. The shape of the rook, originally a rectangular block with a V-shaped cut in the top, changed; the two top parts separated by the split tended to get long and hang over, and in some old pictures look like horses' heads. The split top of the piece now called the bishop was interpreted as a bishop's