Chess symbols in Unicode

File:Chess symbols.PNG

Font depictions of Unicode chess symbols (in the same order as the table). Top: Arial Unicode MS font. Bottom: Tahoma font.

Chess symbols are part of Unicode. Instead of using images, one can represent chess pieces by symbols that are defined in the Unicode character set. This makes it possible to:

• Use figurine algebraic notation, which replaces the letter that stands for a piece by its symbol, e.g. ♘c6 instead of Nc6. This enables the moves to be read independent of language (algebraic notation lists the different names and letter abbreviations of pieces in several languages).
• Produce the symbols using a text editor or word processor rather than a graphics editor.

In order to display or print these symbols, one has to have one or more fonts with good Unicode support installed on the computer, and the document (Web page, word processor document, etc.) must use one of these fonts.

Unicode codepoints and HTML

Chess symbols are part of the Miscellaneous Symbols block.

Chess Symbols
Unicode.org chart (PDF)

Name	Symbol	Codepoint	HTML
white chess king	♔	U+2654	♔
white chess queen	♕	U+2655	♕
white chess rook	♖	U+2656	♖
white chess bishop	♗	U+2657	♗
white chess knight	♘	U+2658	♘
white chess pawn	♙	U+2659	♙
black chess king	♚	U+265A	♚
black chess queen	♛	U+265B	♛
black chess rook	♜	U+265C	♜
black chess bishop	♝	U+265D	♝
black chess knight	♞	U+265E	♞
black chess pawn	♟	U+265F	♟

Chessboard

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

External links

• http://js1k.com/2010-first/demo/750 Playable chess in 1024 bytes of javascript. Entry in JS1k competition by Óscar Toledo G. Usage of Unicode Chess symbols enables a playable design and keep the code less than 1024 bytes.