Chess Piece Symbols

Unicode provides a complete set of chess piece symbols -- six piece types in both white and black variants -- that allow chess positions, moves, and diagrams to be represented in plain text without images or special fonts. These 12 characters live in the Miscellaneous Symbols block and have been part of Unicode since version 1.0. This guide covers every chess symbol, explains how they are used in text-based chess notation, and demonstrates how to build simple chess displays with code.

The 12 Chess Piece Characters

All chess symbols reside in the Miscellaneous Symbols block (U+2600--U+26FF):

White Pieces

Black Pieces

The naming follows Unicode convention: "white" means the outline (hollow) version, and "black" means the filled (solid) version. On most fonts, white pieces render as outlines and black pieces as filled shapes, though the exact appearance depends on the font.

Encoding Structure

The chess pieces occupy a contiguous range with a logical ordering:

U+2654  ♔  White King
U+2655  ♕  White Queen
U+2656  ♖  White Rook
U+2657  ♗  White Bishop
U+2658  ♘  White Knight
U+2659  ♙  White Pawn
U+265A  ♚  Black King
U+265B  ♛  Black Queen
U+265C  ♜  Black Rook
U+265D  ♝  Black Bishop
U+265E  ♞  Black Knight
U+265F  ♟  Black Pawn

The offset between white and black versions of the same piece is always 6 code points: White King (U+2654) + 6 = Black King (U+265A). This regularity makes it easy to convert between colors programmatically.

Chess Notation Systems

Standard Algebraic Notation (SAN)

Standard Algebraic Notation -- the official notation used by FIDE (the World Chess Federation) -- uses ASCII letters for pieces: K (King), Q (Queen), R (Rook), B (Bishop), N (Knight). Pawns have no letter prefix. Moves are written as the piece letter followed by the destination square:

1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. Bb5 a6

Unicode chess symbols can replace or supplement the ASCII letters in annotated games:

1. e4 e5
2. ♘f3 ♞c6
3. ♗b5 a6

This makes the notation more visually distinctive and easier to scan, especially in digital publications.

Figurine Algebraic Notation (FAN)

Figurine Algebraic Notation replaces the ASCII piece letters with Unicode chess symbols. It is the preferred notation in most modern chess publications because it is language-independent -- unlike "K" for King in English, "D" for Dame in German, or "R" for Rey in Spanish, the symbols ♔ and ♚ are universal:

Most chess databases (including ChessBase and Lichess) support FAN notation.

Building Text-Based Chess Boards

ASCII + Unicode Board

A simple approach combines Unicode pieces with ASCII borders:

  a b c d e f g h
8 ♜ ♞ ♝ ♛ ♚ ♝ ♞ ♜ 8
7 ♟ ♟ ♟ ♟ ♟ ♟ ♟ ♟ 7
6 . . . . . . . . 6
5 . . . . . . . . 5
4 . . . . ♙ . . . 4
3 . . . . . . . . 3
2 ♙ ♙ ♙ ♙ . ♙ ♙ ♙ 2
1 ♖ ♘ ♗ ♕ ♔ ♗ ♘ ♖ 1
  a b c d e f g h

This represents the position after 1. e4.

Python: Board Representation

PIECES = {
    "K": "\u2654", "Q": "\u2655", "R": "\u2656",
    "B": "\u2657", "N": "\u2658", "P": "\u2659",
    "k": "\u265A", "q": "\u265B", "r": "\u265C",
    "b": "\u265D", "n": "\u265E", "p": "\u265F",
}

def fen_to_board(fen):
    # Parse a FEN string into a printable board
    rows = fen.split(" ")[0].split("/")
    board = []
    for row in rows:
        line = []
        for ch in row:
            if ch.isdigit():
                line.extend(["."] * int(ch))
            else:
                line.append(PIECES.get(ch, ch))
        board.append(line)
    return board

def print_board(board):
    print("  a b c d e f g h")
    for i, row in enumerate(board):
        rank = 8 - i
        print(f"{rank} {' '.join(row)} {rank}")
    print("  a b c d e f g h")

# Starting position FEN
fen = "rnbqkbnr/pppppppp/8/8/4P3/8/PPPP1PPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq e3 0 1"
print_board(fen_to_board(fen))

JavaScript: Interactive Board

const PIECE_MAP = {
    K: '\u2654', Q: '\u2655', R: '\u2656',
    B: '\u2657', N: '\u2658', P: '\u2659',
    k: '\u265A', q: '\u265B', r: '\u265C',
    b: '\u265D', n: '\u265E', p: '\u265F',
};

function fenToHTML(fen) {
    const rows = fen.split(' ')[0].split('/');
    let html = '<table class="chess-board">';
    rows.forEach((row, ri) => {
        html += '<tr>';
        let col = 0;
        for (const ch of row) {
            if (ch >= '1' && ch <= '8') {
                for (let i = 0; i < parseInt(ch); i++) {
                    const dark = (ri + col) % 2 === 1;
                    html += `<td class="${dark ? 'dark' : 'light'}"></td>`;
                    col++;
                }
            } else {
                const dark = (ri + col) % 2 === 1;
                html += `<td class="${dark ? 'dark' : 'light'}">${PIECE_MAP[ch]}</td>`;
                col++;
            }
        }
        html += '</tr>';
    });
    return html + '</table>';
}

Chess Symbols in Extended Unicode

Beyond the 12 basic pieces, Unicode 12.0 (2019) added chess symbols to the Chess Symbols block (U+1FA00--U+1FA6F) for use in chess problem composition:

These extended symbols are used by chess problem composers for "fairy chess" -- chess variants with non-standard pieces and rules. They have very limited font support and are not needed for standard chess.

Font Compatibility

The basic 12 chess pieces have excellent cross-platform support:

For chess diagrams on the web where pixel-perfect rendering matters, many chess sites use dedicated chess fonts like Chess Merida, Chess Alpha, or Noto Chess which provide perfectly aligned pieces on a grid.

Practical Tips

1. Copy-paste: Chess symbols work in any application that supports Unicode -- emails, documents, social media, and messaging apps.

2. Monospace alignment: For text-based boards, use a monospace font so pieces align on the grid. Not all monospace fonts render chess symbols at the same width.

3. Color vs. fill: "White" and "black" in Unicode refer to fill style (outline vs. solid), not the piece color in a game. You may need CSS styling to color pieces appropriately.

4. FEN integration: The mapping between FEN piece letters (KQRBNPkqrbnp) and Unicode code points is trivially implemented as a dictionary lookup, as shown above.

5. Accessibility: When presenting chess positions to screen readers, always include text alternatives (e.g., "White King on e1") since screen readers may not announce Unicode chess symbols meaningfully.

Unicode chess symbols transform plain text into a medium capable of representing the world's most popular board game without any images, special software, or proprietary formats. From casual game annotations to published chess books, these 12 characters serve millions of chess players and enthusiasts worldwide.