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Icon Clearinghouse 1

What follows is (or, rather, eventually will be) a display of nearly every icon I could find on this site for use in chess variants, plus several that I created myself by one means or another. I've tended toward the Alfaerie set and icons derived from it, though a few others (such as Utrecht) seemed to be sufficiently compatible to mix in.

This listing is somewhat dynamic; while none will be deleted, more may be added at any time.

All of these are .png files, just for the sake of consistency.

Pieces

Where a piece has a "standardized," common, recommended, or original move, the XBetza notation for that move is given.

With each pair of pieces is the identifier for that pair. The actual filenames add w or b to the beginning, and .png to the end.

Orthodox Pieces

The six orthodox pieces (King, Queen, Bishop, Knight, Rook, and Pawn) have many variations. You might even find reason to use one set for the actual orthodox pieces, and select others for variant pieces.

The first two tables include not only the Alfaerie and Utrecht icons, but sets designed by Jean-Louis Cazaux and Ferbus Duniho as well.

Basic Orthodox Pieces
  King (K) Queen (Q) Bishop (B) Knight (N) Rook (R) Pawn (mfWcfFimfnD)
Alfaerie

king

queen

bishop

knight

rook

pawn

Cazaux

kingc

queenc

bishopc

knightc

rookc

pawnc

Duniho

kingd

queend

bishopd

knightd

rookd

pawnd

Utrecht

kingu

queenu

bishopu

knightu

rooku

pawnu

Inverted Orthodox Pieces

 

King Queen Bishop Knight Rook Pawn
Alfaerie

kinginv

queeninv

bishopinv

knightinv

rookinv

pawninv

Duniho

downking

downqueen

downbishop

downknight

downrook

downpawn

 

Atom Pieces

The four basic "atoms" for chess pieces are Ferz, Wazir, Alfil, and Dabbabah, all of which have histories going back centuries.

Basic Atom Pieces

 

Ferz (F) Wazir (W) Alfil (A) Dabbabah (D)
Alfaerie

ferz

wazir

elephant

warmachine

Cazaux

generalc

governor

elephant4

catapult

Common Compounds

These are compounds of two (or more) of any of the above pieces (except Pawns) that are immediately familiar to chess variant fans.

Basic Common Compounds
  Cardinal (BN) Chancellor (RN) Amazon (QN) Amazonrider (QNN) Page (KN) General (BDD) Dragon Horse (BW) Dragon King (RF) Wizard (FC) Sorcerer (WZ) High Priestess (FAN)
Alfaerie

cardinal

chancellor

amazon

amazonrider

page

general

promotedbishop

promotedrook

moon

mooninv

highpriestess

Alternates

paladin

princess

champion

angel

queenknight2

           

highpriestessg

highpriest

Some alternate names:

Uncommon Compounds

These pieces combine the above pieces in other ways.

Pawns

There are many kinds of pawns used in many chess variants, and there's no reason that all pawns in a game have to be the same.

Menn

These are icons that are based on the Mann piece.

Animals

There's a long-standing tradition of pieces being named for animals, both real and mythical.

Nobility & Clergy

Another chess tradition is pieces named for royalty, nobility, clergy, and their staff.

Military & Artillery

And another tradition is pieces named for military ranks, artillery, and similar things.

Shogi

These icons, while not specifically resembling shogi pieces, are designed specifically for use with shogi games.

Numbers & Symbols

Sometimes a simple digit or other symbol is all that's needed.

Tifinagh

On a lark, I designed several pieces based on letters of the Tifinagh (the Berber alphabet). There are several variants on that alphabet, and I didn't stick to just one, and not everyone will be interested in using them, but one or two might be interesting.

Other Stuff

These are icons that don't fit neatly into any of the other categories.

Rules

Anyone using this site may feel free to use these graphics for Interactive Diagrams, Game Courier, or other purposes. Just set the graphics directory to /membergraphics/MSiconclearinghouse/ (preceded by https://www.chessvariants.com if need be).

Notes

The pieces that are my "original" work fall into three categories: compounds (splicing two pieces, superimposing one over another, or combining them in some other way), modifications (removing and/or adding parts), and originals (created from scratch).

As for everything else, I do take requests; if you know of an icon or set of icons that I haven't added yet, please just let me know in the Comments.



This 'user submitted' page is a collaboration between the posting user and the Chess Variant Pages. Registered contributors to the Chess Variant Pages have the ability to post their own works, subject to review and editing by the Chess Variant Pages Editorial Staff.


By Bob Greenwade.

Last revised by Bob Greenwade.


Web page created: 2023-10-22. Web page last updated: 2024-01-21

Revisions of MSiconclearinghouse