My Favourite Piece
The most common question chess players get is "What is your favourite piece?" I watched a documentary about chess engines and one of the programmer's reply was "the queen" and his rationale was "I don't know". That is a valid although prosaic answer. People do not need to justify their preferences. However, the most thought-provoking and poetic answer is "the pawn".
The term piece is very ambiguous among chess players and is usually reserved for everything except the pawn. The knights and bishops are sub-classed as minor pieces because they are not of the same caliber as rooks and queens and are unworthy of being called a true piece. Chess is a game of war and the king's foot soldiers are half of his kingdom. The pawn is just as much a piece as any other.
As the expendable frontline on the battlefield, the pawn is the most numerous and worthless piece, but that is exactly its source of power. Every other piece will cower and flee when attacked by a pawn, and no royalty, knight or clergy dares to challenge a pawn at hand-to-hand combat. The pawn is the one who controls the king's elite warriors and keeps them at bay. The cost of being down a pawn is not only a worse endgame but a possible invasion from the opponent's stronger pieces. That is why pawns are "the soul of chess."
The value of a piece is based on its scope and mobility. The queen can travel up to an astonishing 27 squares. The king and knight can both travel to up 8 squares but the knight is faster and has greater reach. The pawn is then the weakest piece, moving only one square forward and attacking two squares with its short arms that can't even reach in front of it. However, something magical happens when the pawn gets to the end of its journey. It inches forward one step at a time like a caterpillar and turns into a monarch butterfly or a horsefly if you wish.
The pawn is the most feared piece and the only piece with magical transformation abilities. That is the best and most poetic way to answer the question. If you ever feel worthless, just think of the pawn and how it rose through the ranks to become one of the king's wives.
