What Are the Pieces in Chess Called? The Six Names, the Counts, and the Nicknames That Stick
Six names cover all 32 pieces, and the nicknames trip up more beginners than the moves do.
A chess set has 32 pieces, 16 for each player, and every one of them belongs to one of six types: pawn, knight, bishop, rook, queen, king. That's the whole list, and most people can memorize it in five minutes.
The names are easy. The nicknames are what get you. Half of club night calls the rook a castle, somebody's uncle calls the knight a horse, and a kid at the next board calls the bishop "the pointy one." I've set up a lot of boards in my time, most of them with a 3.75 inch king on 2.25 inch squares, and I still hear all three nicknames every week.
The six names, and how many of each you get
| Piece | How many per side | Nickname you'll hear | Rough value in pawns |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pawn | 8 | pawn | 1 |
| Knight | 2 | horse | 3 |
| Bishop | 2 | the pointy one | 3 |
| Rook | 2 | castle | 5 |
| Queen | 1 | queen | 9 |
| King | 1 | king | the whole game |
Sixteen per side, 32 in total, and half that total is pawns. New players tend to think the queen is the entire army; she's one piece out of 16. If you want the full accounting of what leaves the board and when, how many pieces in chess breaks it down piece by piece.
What each piece does, in one line
| Piece | How it moves |
|---|---|
| Pawn | One square forward, two on its first move, captures diagonally |
| Knight | Two squares one way, then one square across; jumps over anything |
| Bishop | Diagonals, as far as the board allows |
| Rook | Straight lines, along files and ranks |
| Queen | Rook plus bishop combined |
| King | One square in any direction, plus castling once per game |
The knight is the odd one out. Two squares one direction, one square across, and it hops over anything in the way. That one rule causes more beginner confusion than the other five pieces combined. If you're starting from zero, the learn chess material here teaches the moves in the order I use at the club: pawn, rook, bishop, queen, knight, king.
Rook or castle, and the other nicknames that stick
The official name is rook. Castle describes the shape of the thing, and castling is a seperate move entirely, so the nickname muddles two ideas at once. In notation it's R, and the castling move is written O-O or O-O-O depending on which side you go. What is a rook covers the history and the movement if you want the long version.
Knight versus horse is the same story, and it matters more than you'd think, because the knight's letter is N. K belongs to the king. Write K for your horse on a scoresheet and your opponent will correct you, politely the first time.
Bishop is the one nickname that won out as the real name. The piece still carries a mitre with a slit cut into the top, and on cheap plastic sets that slit is often the only thing separating it from a pawn at arm's length. I keep two spares in my bag for exactly that reason, and bishop chess explains the diagonal rules better than I can in a paragraph.
Where the six names come from
Rook comes from rukh, the Persian word for chariot. Pawn comes from peon, a foot soldier, and you still get eight of them per side. Bishop is a church title, which tells you who was doing the naming in medieval Europe, and checkmate comes from shah mat, roughly "the king is helpless." The queen began as a vizier and got promoted once the game reached the Spanish and Italian courts. My chess pieces meaning page has the full etymology if you like that sort of thing, and I do.
Telling them apart on a real board
US Chess guidance puts king height at 3.375 to 4.5 inches, squares at 2 to 2.5 inches, and the king's base at about 75 to 80 percent of a square. Most tournament sets sit at the lower end of that: a 3.75 inch king on 2.25 inch squares.
Shape does the rest of the work. King is tallest with a cross on top, queen next with a coronet, bishop has the slit, rook has a flat crenellated top, knight is the only horse head on the board, and pawns are the small ones with a ball on top. If a set has a king under 3 inches tall, it's a travel set or a toy, and I wouldn't learn notation on it. The chess pieces section here goes through each one with the moves side by side.
If you need a set to learn on
- On paper,
Spin Master Games Cardinal Classics Chess Teacher
- Includes: Chessboard, 32 Chess Pieces, Instructions
is the one I'd hand a seven year old: each piece is printed with its own name, the direction it moves, and how many squares, so the board teaches while you play.
is the plain option, standard flat-bottomed plastic pieces and a folding cardboard board, the kind of thing I'd buy for a classroom cupboard where sets go missing.
is the club answer: 3.75 inch king, 2.25 inch squares on a 19.75 inch roll-up vinyl board, 34 pieces including two extra queens, a carry bag, and equalizer dice for badly matched players.
The printed pieces on the Chess Teacher look busy to me, and I wouldn't want one on my own table. I'd still hand it to a beginner before I'd hand them a tournament set, because the arrows answer the question before they have to ask it.
Take whatever board you've got, set it up, and say each name out loud as you put the piece down. Eight pawns, two knights, two bishops, two rooks, one queen, one king, and you're done in under two minutes.
Questions people ask me
What are all the pieces in chess called?
Pawn, knight, bishop, rook, queen, and king. Each player starts with 16 of them: eight pawns, two knights, two bishops, two rooks, one queen, one king. That makes 32 pieces on the board before anyone moves.
Is it called a rook or a castle?
The official name is rook. Castle comes from the shape of the piece, and castling is the separate move where the king and rook trade places. In chess notation the rook is written R, and castling is written O-O or O-O-O.
What is the horse piece called in chess?
The knight. It's the only piece that jumps over others, moving two squares in one direction and then one square across. Its notation letter is N, because K already belongs to the king.