Стоит обратить внимание, что в даже в описании эндшпилей Ломоносова (которое по ссылке на английском языке) они сначала называются "7-man tablebases", но потом идёт упоминание "7 pieces".
По-видимому, раньше в английском языке различались "men/chessmen" (фигуры, считая пешки) и "pieces" (фигуры, не считая пешек). А потом слово "men" перестало употребляться, а "pieces" расползлось. Значений даже не два, а три.
Цитата:
Each player begins with a total of sixteen pieces. The pieces that belong to each player are distinguished by color. The lighter colored pieces are referred to as "white," and the player that owns them, "White". The darker colored pieces are referred to as "black", and the player that owns them, "Black". The word "piece" has three meanings, depending on the context. The context should make the intended meaning clear (Burgess 2009:523) (Hooper & Whyld 1992:307).
It may mean any of the physical pieces of the set, including the pawns. When used this way, "piece" is synonymous with "chessman" (Hooper & Whyld 1992:307) or simply "man" (Hooper & Whyld 1987:200).
In play, the term is usually used to exclude pawns, referring only to a queen, rook, bishop, knight, or king. In this context, the pieces can be broken down into three groups: major pieces (queen and rook), minor pieces (bishop and knight), and the king (Brace 1977:220).
In phrases such as "winning a piece", "losing a piece" or "sacrificing a piece", it refers only to a bishop or knight. The queen, rook, and pawn are specified by name in these cases, for example, "winning a queen", "losing a rook", or "sacrificing a pawn" (Just & Burg 2003:5).
https://chess.stackexchange.com/questio ... d-chessmenhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_piece