Chess symbols in Unicode

This article contains special characters. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols.

Unicode has text representations of chess pieces. These allow to produce the symbols using plain text without the need of a graphics interface. It enables the use of figurine algebraic notation, which replaces the letter that stands for a piece by its symbol, e.g. ♘c6 instead of Nc6.

Unicode blocks

Unicode 15.1 specifies a total of 110 spread across two blocks. The standard set of chess pieces were included in the block Miscellaneous Symbols. In Unicode 12.0, the Chess Symbols block (U+1FA00–U+1FA6F) was allocated for inclusion of extra chess piece representations. This includes rotated pieces, neutral (neither white nor black) pieces, knighted pieces, equihoppers, and xiangqi pieces.^[1]

Miscellaneous symbols

**Chess Symbols**
Unicode.org chart (PDF)
Name	Symbol	Code point	HTML (decimal)	HTML (hex)
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	♟	♟

Chess symbols

Chess Symbols^[1]^[2] Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)
	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	A	B	C	D	E	F
U+1FA0x	🨀	🨁	🨂	🨃	🨄	🨅	🨆	🨇	🨈	🨉	🨊	🨋	🨌	🨍	🨎	🨏
U+1FA1x	🨐	🨑	🨒	🨓	🨔	🨕	🨖	🨗	🨘	🨙	🨚	🨛	🨜	🨝	🨞	🨟
U+1FA2x	🨠	🨡	🨢	🨣	🨤	🨥	🨦	🨧	🨨	🨩	🨪	🨫	🨬	🨭	🨮	🨯
U+1FA3x	🨰	🨱	🨲	🨳	🨴	🨵	🨶	🨷	🨸	🨹	🨺	🨻	🨼	🨽	🨾	🨿
U+1FA4x	🩀	🩁	🩂	🩃	🩄	🩅	🩆	🩇	🩈	🩉	🩊	🩋	🩌	🩍	🩎	🩏
U+1FA5x	🩐	🩑	🩒	🩓
U+1FA6x	🩠	🩡	🩢	🩣	🩤	🩥	🩦	🩧	🩨	🩩	🩪	🩫	🩬	🩭
Notes 1.^ As of Unicode version 15.1 2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

Emoji

This section contains Unicode emoticons or emojis. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of the intended characters.

In Unicode 11.0, an emojified representation of the character U+265F ♟ BLACK CHESS PAWN was added.^[2] As of Unicode 15.1, only this character has a emoji version. In 2024, a proposal was submitted to include emoji versions of the other standard chess symbols.^[3]

Emoji variation sequences
U+	265F
default presentation	text
base code point	♟
base+VS15 (text)	♟︎
base+VS16 (emoji)	♟️

References

^ "Chess Symbols" (PDF). unicode.org. Unicode Consortium. Retrieved 21 August 2023.
^ Abdu, Juber Moulvi (2017-10-04). "Chess Emoji Submission" (PDF). unicode.org. Unicode Consortium. Retrieved 2024-08-12.
^ Daniel, Jeniffer (2024-04-15). "Emoji Standard & Research Working Group Report for UTC #179 (2024Q2)" (URL). unicode.org. Unicode Consortium. Retrieved 2024-08-12.

[1] "Chess Symbols" (PDF). unicode.org. Unicode Consortium. Retrieved 21 August 2023.

[2] Abdu, Juber Moulvi (2017-10-04). "Chess Emoji Submission" (PDF). unicode.org. Unicode Consortium. Retrieved 2024-08-12.

[3] Daniel, Jeniffer (2024-04-15). "Emoji Standard & Research Working Group Report for UTC #179 (2024Q2)" (URL). unicode.org. Unicode Consortium. Retrieved 2024-08-12.

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