The Staunton Room
Before 1849 a chess set could look like almost anything: carved figures, Barleycorn and St George sets in England, tall Selenus pieces in Germany. You often had to learn a stranger’s set before you could play on it. Then one design spread until it became simply what chess pieces look like.
The set
The design was registered in London in 1849 by Nathaniel Cooke and made by the firm of John Jaques. Howard Staunton, the strongest English player of the day, lent it his name and signed the boxes, so it has been called the Staunton pattern ever since. Each piece is turned on a lathe except the knight, stands on a broad, weighted foot so it does not tip, and can be told apart at a glance by its top alone.
What follows are our words, drawn from the long-told history of the set. Where a story is only said to be true, we say so.
King
The tallest piece, topped with a small cross. Before 1849 a king could be a crowned figure, a column or a knob; the cross told you at once which piece mattered most.
Queen
A coronet of points with a ball on each, a little shorter than the king. You can tell the two royal pieces apart by the top alone, even from across a room.
Bishop
A mitre, the tall hat of a bishop, with a slanted cut in it. The cut is the part people remember: it is how a glance separates the bishop from the pawn.
Knight
A horse’s head, carved rather than turned on a lathe, so it was the hardest piece to make. The head is often said to echo the horses of the Parthenon frieze, which London had been looking at in the British Museum.
Rook
A castle tower with battlements. In older sets the rook was sometimes an elephant or a chariot; the tower shape settled it for English players.
Pawn
A plain ball on a collar. Eight of them in a row, each the same, which is the point: the pawns are the many.
Play with them
Tick “Staunton pieces” below. Every chess board on the site then draws these shapes instead of the font symbols, on this device only. Large board and High contrast work with them too.