What Are the Chess Pieces Called?

What is each of the six chess pieces?

There are six distinct types of chess pieces, each with its own name, shape, and way of moving. The king is the most important piece and the one you must protect, since the game ends when he is checkmated. The queen is the most powerful, moving freely in any straight direction. The rook, often called the castle, is the tower-shaped piece that moves in straight lines. The bishop moves diagonally and is named for the mitre-shaped notch on its head. The knight, the only piece that can jump over others, is carved as a horse's head. The pawn is the smallest and most numerous piece, forming the front line of each army. Together these six form every chess army in the world.

How many of each piece does a player have?

Every player starts with exactly 16 pieces, set out on the two ranks nearest them. You have one king and one queen, placed side by side in the centre. You have two rooks, one in each corner. Beside the rooks sit two knights, and beside those two bishops. Across your entire second rank stand eight pawns, one in front of every piece behind them. Both armies are identical in number and type, so the only difference at the start is colour: one side is light and one is dark. This perfect symmetry, with 32 pieces filling the first two of the board's eight ranks, is what makes chess a game of pure skill rather than chance. Learning the basics of how to play chess begins with knowing where each of these pieces stands.

Why is the rook also called a castle?

The rook is the piece carved to look like a fortified tower, which is why it is so often called a castle in everyday play. Its proper name, rook, comes from the Persian word rukh, generally understood to mean chariot, a relic of the game's origins in the history of chess. When chess travelled west through Persia and the Arab world into Europe, craftsmen reimagined the chariot as a battlement, and the tower shape stuck. There is a practical reason chess writers prefer the word rook: the move called castling involves the king and a rook moving together, so saying castle for the piece would cause confusion. In casual conversation, though, castle and rook mean exactly the same thing, and either is perfectly correct.

Which piece is the most and least powerful?

The queen is by far the most powerful piece. She can travel any number of empty squares in a straight line in any direction, horizontal, vertical, or diagonal, combining the reach of both the rook and the bishop. Players use rough point values to compare pieces: the queen is worth about nine, a rook five, a bishop or knight around three, and a pawn one. The king is given no point value at all, because his loss ends the game, so his safety outweighs every other piece. The pawn is the weakest individually, moving only one square forward, yet it carries a remarkable secret: a pawn that reaches the far end of the board is promoted, almost always to a queen. Understanding this hierarchy is the first step in chess tactics.

Why do Staunton pieces look the way they do?

Before 1849 chess pieces varied wildly in design, and players at tournaments often struggled to tell one ornate set apart from another. The solution was the Staunton chess set, designed and made by Jaques of London and created in 1849. It gave each piece a clear, distinct silhouette: a cross for the king, a coronet for the queen, a mitre for the bishop, a horse's head for the knight, a tower for the rook, and a simple round head for the pawn. The set was registered on 1 March 1849 and first advertised on 8 September that year, endorsed by the leading player Howard Staunton. The light pieces were turned from boxwood and the dark from ebony. Today FIDE mandates this pattern for official play, and you can read more in our guide to choosing a chess set.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How many chess pieces are there in total?

A full chess set has 32 pieces, 16 for each player. Every side begins with one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns. One army is light, traditionally called White, and the other is dark, traditionally called Black. On a standard Staunton set the light pieces were historically turned from boxwood and the dark pieces from ebony. The board itself has 64 squares arranged in an 8 by 8 grid, so the 32 starting pieces fill the first two ranks on each side.

Q: Why is the rook also called a castle?

The rook is the piece shaped like a fortified tower, which is why many people call it a castle. The official name is rook, from the Persian word rukh, thought to mean chariot. The tower shape arrived later as European craftsmen reinterpreted the piece. Confusingly, the word castling describes a special move involving the king and the rook, so chess literature always uses rook to avoid ambiguity. In casual play, castle and rook are understood to mean the same piece.

Q: Which chess piece is the most powerful?

The queen is the most powerful piece. She can move any number of empty squares in a straight line horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, combining the powers of the rook and the bishop. In rough material terms the queen is valued at about nine points, the rook at five, the bishop and knight at about three each, and the pawn at one. The king is not given a point value because the game ends if he is checkmated, so protecting him outranks every other consideration.

Q: What is the tallest piece on a Staunton chess set?

The king is the tallest piece, topped by a small cross. FIDE, the international chess federation, recommends a king height of around 95mm for tournament play, with the range commonly falling between 85mm and 105mm. The queen stands a little shorter and is crowned with a coronet. This clear hierarchy of height and crowns was a defining feature of the Staunton chess set created by Jaques of London in 1849, which made the pieces instantly recognisable at a glance and remains the world standard today. See our guide to chess set sizes for more.