Chess set

A chess set consists of a chessboard and white and black chess pieces for playing chess. There are sixteen pieces of each color: one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns. Extra pieces may be provided for use in promotion, most commonly one extra queen per color. Chess boxes, chess clocks, and chess tables are common pieces of chess equipment used alongside chess sets. Chess sets are made in a wide variety of styles, sometimes for ornamental rather than practical purposes. For tournament play, the Staunton chess set is preferred and, in some cases, required. Human chess uses people as the pieces. Blindfold chess may be played without any set at all. The oldest chess sets adopted abstract shapes following the Muslim traditional sets of the shatranj game. These pieces evolved with time, as more details were added, to a figurative design. In the abstract designs, both the king and the queen resemble a throne, with the queen being smaller; the bishop displays two small protuberances, representing elephant tusks; the knight presents a single protuberance, representing the head of a horse; the rook has a V-shaped cut on the top; and the pawn usually has a simple shape. Notable archaeological chess sets include the following: The San Genadio chess pieces, a 9th-century set of two rooks, a knight and a bishop, in abstract form. The pieces, made of Deer antler, were found in Peñalba de Santiago, in Astorga (Spain). In olden times mistaken by relics of San Genadio (hence the name), they are probably the oldest European chess pieces. The Charlemagne chessmen, an 11th-century set probably manufactured in Salerno, Italy. The set, carved from elephant ivory, was originally inventoried with a total of 30 pieces, but today only 16 are preserved in Saint Denis : 2 Kings, 2 Queens, 4 Knights, 4 Elephants, 3 Chariots and a Foot Soldier. The Lewis chessmen, a collection of 79 assorted 12th-century chess pieces and other game pieces – mostly carved from walrus ivory. Discovered in 1831 on Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.