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If you were counting pieces in chess, say, one, two, three pawns, how would you do that in Japanese? Would you use ほん hon, ぽん pon, ぼん bon 本?
I am not sure whether this makes a difference: by counting I mean rather the material value than the actual wooden piece. A better example would be perhaps 3 vs 2 pawns or counting pieces in computer or online chess.
The most generic つ or 個 is used to count chess pieces (e.g., 1つ/2つ/3つ... or 1個/2個/3個...). They are not "long and thin" enough to use 本.
By the way, in shogi, pieces are flat, so serious players usually count them like 1つ/2つ/3つ or 1枚/2枚/3枚, but 個 is occasionally used by laypeople, too.
The same is true for computer chess/shogi.
