Last week we published a history of the Staunton chess set, which was developed, in part, out of a need to standardize pieces for international competition.In a response on his blog, Jason Kottke ...

During the Middle Ages, chess pieces took their modern form, reflecting figures and monuments in medieval European society, like knights, bishops, and castle-like rooks.

And the knight, the most intricate and distinct piece of any chess set, is unique in that it’s the only piece that is not an abstracted representation of a designation; it’s a realistically ...

An 800-year-old chess piece was excavated at a site in Norway, covered with a unique pattern of circles. The piece depicts a horse-like figure, but in today's game it would be known as the knight.