Confirming your suspicions about the intelligence of pawns: They are dumb in chess, dumb in life, and dumb in Dragon's Dogma
In certain movies and other creative media, diabolical villains call other characters (their henchmen, maybe, or even the protagonist) their pawns, implying that those to whom they're referring are weak-minded troglodytes who are under the constant control of the bad guy. In chess, you get a whole row of pawns that are more or less expendable - unskilled troops only there to protect your more specialized and valuable soldiers. In Dragon's Dogma (reviewed on Xbox 360), an action-RPG developed by the same dudes at Capcom who did Resident Evil 5 and Devil May Cry 4 (which, presumably, are well-received titles), pawns are your NPC companions, and they certainly fit the descriptions above.
