In medieval chess, each of the eight pawns was associated with a commoner’s occupation. From king rook pawn to queen rook pawn: Laborer (farmer) Smith Notary Merchant Physician Innkeeper City watchman or guard Ribald or town courier The merchant stood before the king, the doctor before the queen. Jacopo de Cessolis used the game as the basis for a series of sermons on morality — he says that a philosopher invented the game to show his cruel king “the maners and conditicions of a kynge of the nobles and of the comun people and of theyr offices and how they...