How many chess pieces are in a chess set?
There are 32 pieces. 1 king, 1 queen, 2 bishops, 2 nights, 2
rooks and 8 pawns on each side (or color). == There are 12 pieces
on a chess board, according to those who play. The kings, the
queens and the pawns are not technically pieces. That leaves the 4
rooks, the 4 knights and the 4 bishops. Technically there are
several definitions of the word piece depending on context and it
could include the pawns, king and queen. But players during a game
will not refer to pawns as pieces. Some definitions say a piece is
anything other than a pawn. That would include the King and Queen
and is my personal choice. I believe most everyone would include at
least the Queen as a piece, since the Queen and Rook are considered
major pieces while the Bishop and Knight are referred to as minor
pieces and a piece by any other name is still a piece. I like to
show off by telling new players that pawns are not pieces. I just
hope that that new player does not tell me to read the World
Federation of Chess Handbook, Section E. I. 01A Laws of Chess where
in Section 2.2 it says this: 2.2 At the beginning of the game one
player has 16 light-coloured pieces (the `white` pieces); the other
has 16 dark-coloured pieces (the `black` pieces):
So who am I to argue wth the World Federation of Chess. But
still, I am going to tell new players that pieces are anything but
pawns, and take the risk that some newbie is going to tell me I am
wrong and I should read the Rules. Besides real players really do
not call pawns pieces, no matter what the Handbook says.