The Patron Saint of Chess

Chess has always been huge, but strangely underdressed. For all its history and drama, the game never built itself an iconography — no saints, no relics, no shared visual code you could point to and say: this is chess.

We wanted to change that. In 2025, with the Catholic Church’s blessing, World Chess re-recognized Saint Teresa of Ávila as the patron saint of the game. Teresa, the 16th-century mystic who once likened the spiritual struggle to a chess match, now appears in an icon we created: standing beside the board, children holding the king, with the commandment etched below — “Thou shall not castle into ruin.”

It’s playful and serious at once. A piece of iconography the game has been missing, a way to upgrade chess’s battered visual language, and a reminder that the board has always carried more weight than sixty-four squares.

You don’t need to believe. But if you love chess, you’ll want her watching over your next game.