Pawn (chess) Pawn (chess) 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 with eight pawns, one on each square of the immediately in front of the other pieces. (The white pawns start on a2, b2, c2, d2, e2, f2, g2, h2; the black pawns start on a7, b7, c7, d7. e7, f7, g7, h7.) Individual pawns are referred to by the on which they stand. For example, one speaks of "White's f-pawn" or "Black's
Chess tournament The three main types of time controls used in chess tournaments are "blitz", "standard", and "compensation". In blitz chess (also known as "sudden death" chess) each player starts with a fixed amount of time to spend on their moves of the game. The FIDE Handbook designates the following common blitz time controls: Blitz time controls increase the odds that one would "lose on time", meaning a forfeiture of the game due to the expiration of one's chess clock. Blitz tournaments are often documented with the notation "G/5" or "G/15", meaning "game in 5" and "game in 15", respectively. Standard time