The chess 'pawn' is a foot soldier — from Latin 'pes' (foot). The expendable infantry of the board.
The smallest and most numerous chess piece, which moves forward one square at a time; figuratively, a person used by others for their own purposes, a tool or instrument of a more powerful agent.
From Anglo-French 'poun,' from Old French 'peon, paon' (a foot soldier, a pawn in chess), from Medieval Latin 'pedonem' (a foot soldier), from Late Latin 'pedem' (nominative 'pes,' a foot), from PIE *ped- (foot). The chess pawn represents the foot soldier — the lowest-ranking combatant, expendable and numerous, who advances on foot while the mounted pieces (knights) and the powerful (queens, bishops, rooks) maneuver around them. The figurative sense of a person manipulated by others dates