Chess symbols in Unicode


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:
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 must use one of these fonts.
Unicode version 12.0 has allocated a whole character block at 0x1FA00 for inclusion of extra chess piece representations. This standard points to , including rotated pieces and neutral pieces.

Unicode code points and HTML

Traditional chess symbols are part of the Miscellaneous Symbols block.
Alternate symbols to support, for example, fairy chess are defined in the Chess Symbols block.
NameSymbolCode pointHTML HTML
U+2654♔♔
U+2655♕♕
U+2656♖♖
U+2657♗♗
U+2658♘♘
U+2659♙♙
U+265A♚♚
U+265B♛♛
U+265C♜♜
U+265D♝♝
U+265E♞♞
U+265F♟♟

Chessboard using Unicode symbols