Chess piece Chess piece A chess piece, or chessman, is any of the six different movable objects used on a chessboard to play the game of chess. Each player begins with a total of sixteen pieces. The pieces that belong to each player are distinguished by color. The lighter colored pieces are referred to as "white," and the player that owns them, "White". The darker colored pieces are referred to as "black", and the player that owns them, "Black". The word "piece" has three meanings, depending on the context. The context should make the intended meaning clear . In the first context,
Lasker's Manual of Chess the relative values of the pieces. Lasker quickly moves on to the fundamentals of chess strategy and tactics, and ends the section with examples of some of the basic mates. He also explains how to read descriptive chess notation, which is used throughout the book. "The Theory of the Openings" begins with an explanation of the general principles of opening play and how openings affect the course of the middlegame and endgame. The rest of the section attempts to cover many of the major openings, providing example games and analyses of each. This section ends by detailing the increasing value