How to tell Giant knight from Tacked knight

The cap is 15-25 cm across (exceptionally up to 30 cm), very meaty and firm. Young caps are convex to almost globular with an inrolled margin, becoming cushion-shaped with a slightly wavy margin with age. The skin is smooth, matte and dry when young, slightly shiny when mature. The colour runs from flesh-pink to brownish-pink or brown-pink, darker ochre-chestnut in the centre and paler toward the margin. Old fruit bodies turn brown-chestnut.

The cap is 5–15 cm across. Young caps are hemispherical to convex with an inrolled margin, then flatten out, sometimes with a shallow dip in the centre when old, and the edge can be wavy. The surface is smooth, without obvious radial fibres, slimy and shiny when wet and tacky when dry.

The colour is reddish brown, chestnut or yellowish brown, paler and greyish pink towards the margin, which isn't grooved. The cap often has small dark yellowish brown spots that look like dried drops, but some caps have none.

The gills are notched where they meet the stem, crowded and fleshy. They start whitish and turn cream-pink to flesh-pink with age. The spore print is white.

The gills are white or cream, later pale brownish, crowded and notched or attached by a tooth at the stem. On old fruit bodies, and where they've been knocked, they develop rusty brown spots.

The spore print is white.

The stem is 8-15 cm tall and 3-5 cm thick, very sturdy, meaty and cylindrical, thickening toward the base; older ones have a small bulbous swelling at the base. It is whitish at the top and brownish-pink lower down, matching the cap. The surface is smooth, with lengthwise fibres. There is no ring.

The stem is 3–8 cm tall and 1–2.5 cm thick, cylindrical, sometimes slightly wider at the base, firm, and may become hollow with age. It's white, smooth or faintly fibrous, slowly browns with handling and age, and is rusty brown at the base.

There is no ring, no ring zone and no volva. Nor is there a sharply defined white band at the top of the stem; that's more typical of Tricholoma albobrunneum.

The flesh is firm, meaty and white, and in some fruit bodies it slowly turns pinkish where cut, a weak reaction. The smell is pronounced, pleasant and mushroomy with a note of flour, and the taste is mild and pleasant, with no bitterness.

The flesh is white and firm, sometimes brownish under the cap skin and at the stem base. It doesn't change colour noticeably when cut but slowly browns after long handling. The taste is mealy with a slight bitterness.

A pronounced, pleasant mushroomy-mealy smell, like many good-quality knights.

The smell is mealy, like fresh flour; some authors describe it as stale, sourish flour. It doesn't help with identification, because the edible poplar and matt knights smell of meal too.