history. The en passant capture intends to prevent a pawn on its initial square from safely bypassing a square controlled by an enemy pawn. The rule for promotion has changed throughout its history. Etymology and word usage The term pawn is derived from the Old French word paon, which comes from the Medieval Latin term for "foot soldier" and is cognate with peon. In most other languages, the word for pawn is similarly derived from paon, its Latin ancestor or some other word for foot soldier. In some languages the pawn is named after a term for "peasant" or "farmer", reflecting how the lower orders were conscripted as footsoldiers in wartime: Hungarian paraszt, Slovene kmet, German Bauer, Danish/Norwegian/Swedish bonde, Latvian bandinieks. In Irish, the term fichillín, a diminutive of ficheall ("chess") is sometimes used, though the term "ceithearnach" ("foot soldier") is also used. In Thai the pawn is called เบี้ย (bîia), which signifies a cowrie shell or a coin of little value. In Turkish the pawn is called piyon, borrowed from the French word Pion in the 19th century. Outside of the game of chess, "pawn" is often taken to mean "one who is manipulated to serve another's purpose". Because the pawn is the weakest piece, it is often used metaphorically to indicate unimportance or outright disposability, only having utility in the ability to be controlled; for example, "She's only a pawn in their game." Quotations "The pawn is the soul of chess. ... the Pawns. They are the very Life of the Game. They alone form the Attack and the Defense; on their good or bad Situation depends the Gain or Loss of the Party." François-André Danican Philidor, 1749. Unicode Unicode defines two codepoints for a pawn: ♙ U+2659 White Chess Pawn (HTML &#9817;) ♟ U+265F Black Chess Pawn (HTML &#9823;) See also Notes References External links Piececlopedia: Pawn by Hans Bodlaender and Fergus Duniho, The Chess Variant Pages Chess pieces