Pawn (chess)

"The Pawn before the King is peace, Which he desires to keep at home; Practice, the Queen’s, which doth not cease Amid the world abroad to roam, To find and fall upon each foe Whereas his mistress means to go.Before the Knight is peril placed, Which he, by skipping, overgoes, And yet that Pawn can work a cast To overthrow his greatest foes; The Bishop’s, prudence, prying still Which way to work his master’s will.The Rooks’ poor Pawns are silly swains, Which seldom serve, except by hap, And yet those Pawns can lay their trains To catch a great man in a trap: So that I see sometime a groom May not be spared from his room."

"The Pawns are the soul of Chess; upon their good or bad arrangement depends the gain or loss of the game."