Chess symbols in Unicode

For the Unicode block with heterodox chess symbols, see Chess Symbols.

Unicode has text representations of chess pieces. These allow to produce the symbols using plain text without the need of a graphics interface. The inclusion of the chess symbols 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. This also allows the play of chess games in text-only environments, such as the terminal.

Font depictions of Unicode chess symbols (in the same order as the table): DejaVu Sans, FreeSerif, Quivira, Pecita.

GNU Chess using Unicode chess characters to display a chess board in the terminal.

Unicode blocks

Unicode 15.1 specifies a total of 110 spread across two blocks. The standard set of chess pieces—king, queen, rook, bishop, knight, or pawn, with white and black variants—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 fairy chess pieces, such as rotated pieces, neutral (neither white nor black) pieces, knighted pieces, equihoppers, as well as xiangqi pieces.^[1]

In 2024, four shatranj pieces have been provisionally assigned for a future version in the range U+1FA54–U+1FA57.^[2][3]

v t e List of Unicode chess symbols[1][2]
	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	A	B	C	D	E	F
U+265x					♔	♕	♖	♗	♘	♙	♚	♛	♜	♝	♞	♟
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-chess symbols or non-assigned code points

Emoji

In Unicode 11.0, an emojified representation of the character U+265F ♟ BLACK CHESS PAWN was added.^[4] As of Unicode 15.1, only this character has an emoji version. In 2024, a proposal was submitted to include emoji versions of the other standard chess symbols.^[5]

Emoji variation sequences

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