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A crowned figure topped with a cross, standing for the king.
The chess king is drawn as a crown surmounted by a cross. It is the piece the whole game is about: it is never captured, and the game ends when it cannot escape attack. Written K in algebraic notation.
Denotes the king, written K in the algebraic notation FIDE prescribes. The king moves one square in any direction and may castle once.
Encoded at U+2654 in the Unicode Miscellaneous Symbols block, alongside the other five pieces in both colours.
Contexts: Software
The cross on the crown is a convention of the Staunton pattern, standard in competition since the mid-nineteenth century. It distinguishes the king from the queen at a glance across a board.
A tapering figure topped by a crown, with a small cross rising from its centre.
The king's crown carries a cross; the queen's carries a ring of points. On a small board diagram the two are the pieces most often mistaken for each other.
Both belong to the six-piece set defined by the Laws of Chess.