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!

Wooden modern chess set

I was looking for a simple modern wooden chess set to add to the collection. Saw this one on eBay, for not very much at all, so bought it. Turned out the light pieces did not have dark accents in the way that the dark pieces have light accents, so I added those myself (still some creative input!)

I think it is a nice-looking set, and well-made. Certainly not something I would have been able to do, not having any wood-working skills.

Klin Zha set

If you're a Trekkie, you're probably familiar with Klin Zha, the chess variant played by the Klingons in Star Trek. I did make a Klin Zha set a long time ago, using leather for a board, and leather-on-plastic-triangles for the pieces.

That set is long gone, like so many of my early sets, and it certainly wasn't my best effort, so nothing much lost ...

Inspired by some posts on the Klin Zha Facebook page, I decided I was going to have another attempt at creating a Klin Zha set. Considering options, I stumbled across Star Trek micro-machines, and managed to get my hands on a job lot of them off eBay:

Plenty of spaceships to create two sets of pieces! Actually, plenty to create three sets of pieces! One set representing the Klingon Empire, painted gold:

One set representing the Romulan Alliance, painted metallic green:

And one set representing the Federation, painted silver:

Leather is quite a Klingon material, so for the board I decided to stick to leather, in three colours: beige and black for the fields, and brown for the edge of the board.

Trying out different stitches on our new sewing machine, I found one with a clear Klingon 'feel' to it (the top one in the picture below):

First job was to cut out all the triangular fields ...

... and attach them to the back of the board.

Fields were sewn together and to the back of the board using brown thread and the 'Klingon' stitching.

To identify the starting point of each of the three fleets, I created black leather circles with the identifying logos of the three participants painted on.

And then it came down to creating the edges of the board ...

... incorporating the logos at the three points ...

... and folding over and sewing together the edges.

Board done!!

So here, on the board and in close-up, the fleets of the Klingon Empire, Romulan Alliance and the Federation.

As the board is too big to easily store (1.33m each side) it hangs on our bedroom wall when not used.

Creating this Klin Zha set took a lot of time and effort, and even though I say so myself, I'm really proud of it. Most definitely much better than my first attempt, and quite possibly my best chess set so far.

Janggi set

My 'second wave' of creating chess sets commenced in 2013, when I restored my old Xiangqi board. While doing that, I found this box with original pieces for Janggi, Korean chess, in a drawer. I don't remember now exactly when and where I got it, maybe eBay, maybe in Chinatown in London. Wherever and whenever I got it, it definitely sat in a drawer for a long time; long enough to finally give the pieces a board to sit on.

I wanted the board to match the pieces, so quickly decided on white Perspex as the material to use. And to make it look a bit better, I felt that a sheet of semi-opaque Perspex on top, through which you could see the lines, could work really nicely.

So Perspex ordered, and lines were drawn on the white sheet of Perspex (like in Xiangqi, play is on the intersections of the lines in Korean chess).

Palaces drawn on the board, and to emphasise them, I added two 'taegeuk' to the centre of the palaces.

Semi-opaque sheet of Perspex glued top of it, and the lines come through clear enough to play on.

So all that remains is to add the pieces!

Even though it's certainly not the most elaborate board I ever made, its simplicity and how well it matches the pieces make me rather pleased with this attempt.