Chess Symbols
Click any symbol to copy it. 12 characters, each labelled with its Unicode code point.
The twelve chess pieces run consecutively from U+2654 to U+265F: six white pieces, then six black. They are one of the few symbol sets where the encoding order maps exactly onto how you would list them. This collection holds 12 chess symbols drawn from 1 Unicode block — mainly Miscellaneous Symbols. Code points run from U+2654 to U+265F. All of them sit in the Basic Multilingual Plane, which means broad font support and very few encoding surprises.
White then black
U+2654 to U+2659 are the white king, queen, rook, bishop, knight and pawn. U+265A to U+265F repeat the sequence in black. "White" and "black" refer to the glyph being outlined or filled, not to any colour information in the character.
Outline versus fill is font-dependent
On a dark background the white pieces can become nearly invisible and the black pieces hard to read, because the fill is drawn in your text colour. Chess interfaces generally use images rather than characters for this reason.
Notation uses letters
Standard algebraic notation writes moves with Latin letters (K, Q, R, B, N) rather than these characters. Figurine notation does use them, but it is a presentation choice layered on top of the letter-based standard.
Unicode blocks in this collection
| Unicode block | Characters | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Miscellaneous Symbols | 12 | 100% |
Sample characters and their code points
♔
♖
♘
♚
♜
♞
Frequently asked questions
Why do the white chess pieces disappear in dark mode?
The outlined pieces are drawn as strokes in your text colour with no fill. On a dark background with light text you get a light outline around dark space, which reads poorly. The filled pieces have the opposite problem.