Thunderbirds are GO!

I watched Thunderbirds as a kid, basically grew up with them. A Thunderbirds 50th Anniversary chess set pops up on eBay quite regularly, and for pretty low prices usually.

I resisted the temptation for quite a long time, but deep down inside I knew it was an itch I would have to scratch eventually ....

For less than a tenner (including p&p), you can't expect too much. Indeed, it's a pretty simple set, cardboard board and plastic moulded pieces, but nicely done. The pieces, light and dark silver, include a tiny symbol at their base of the chess piece they're meant to represent.

Very little creative input from me into this set, though I do feel that Thunderbird 1 is better as knight than as rook, whereas the opposite is the case for Thunderbird 2. So I swapped those two around on my board.

And, surely, Lady Penelope ought to be the queen!

Courier chess set

In 1831, on the Isle of Lewis, a hoard of 12th century chess pieces was discovered, which have become known as the Lewis chessmen. Replicas of these are listed aplenty on eBay, and I was always keen to 'do' something with a Lewis set. Then I stumbled across an Etsy shop which offered (among many other sets) a standard set of Lewis chessmen with the option of adding a few more different pieces. This would be perfect for a set for Courier chess, which is played on a 12 x 8 board, and has several additional pieces: a man, a fool, and two couriers. So I got myself this extended set of Lewis chessmen.

Thinking about the board to create, I wanted something 'northern' given that the original chessmen were made in Scandinavia, or possibly Iceland. That spurred the idea of the fields of the board representing ice shelves, floating in water. So I ordered a box of small marble tiles.

As most of the original Lewis chessmen were carved from walrus ivory, I also got myself a pair of walrus figurines, to feature on the side of the board somewhere, as a nod to the original material and to add to the northern theme.

And then I got stuck .... I couldn't think of a way to create a water-containing board which wouldn’t be heavy and awkward to use, and wouldn’t quickly become messy ….

My set of Lewis chessmen remained boxed up for a long time until I had a brainwave one early morning: what about not having a board at all? Just the concept of a board. Just the squares, 'floating freely' on the table?

So here the 96 squares, and laid out as unconnected square 'ice shelves'.

 Time to add the Lewis chessmen to their cold and northern home!

I think it looks really great; typical example of 'less is more'!

Given that I had the two walruses, I might as well put them on the board; they'll move out of the way once play commences.

Finally, a few close-ups of the Lewis chessmen in this set.

It really is nice to see an idea come to life, especially one I was stuck on for so long.

Taliesin set

Taliesin is a board game which was first marketed in the early 1980s, and I got one, in a rather tatty box, off eBay.

Taliesin came in different versions. The simplest version was played on a single board, whereas the 'Master Game' version (the version I got my hands on) is played across three boards on top of each other.

The various pieces ('King Arthur', 'Goddess', 'Henge', 'Wizard', 'Warlord' and 'Centurion', to name a few), differ in their movement on the board, and ability to move between boards.

Although superficially similar to Star Trek Tridimensional chess, in terms of play occurring on several boards above each other, it is hardly recognisable as chess. Still, Taliesin is arguably a chess variant, as it has the key characteristics of the family of chess games: a game purely based on skill, having equal armies with differentiated pieces, and the capture of a single piece (not 'King Arthur', as you might expect, but the 'Life Force') wins the game.

Star Trek Tridimensional set

If you're interested in chess variants, you will probably have heard of Tridimensional chess as repeatedly portrayed in the Star Trek series. Complete sets go on eBay for ridiculous amounts, but I did get my hands on a board with very minor damage for a reasonable price.

No pieces, though, but shortly after I got the board, I saw a listing on eBay of a small chess set with 'classical' style metal pieces, so I got that one, with the aim of using those pieces on the Star Trek board.

And I think it actually looks pretty good, better in my opinion than the original rather stylised pieces. There is something inherently pleasing in combining a futuristic chess board with pieces in a classical style (so there's my creative input into this one!).

We tried to get a feel for the game by replaying a few complete recorded games. Not only do you have to start thinking in three dimensions, you also have the movable 'attack boards' to take into account. 

The result of that exercise? A pretty bad headache ...

Full respect, Mr Spock!