Spear's set

You probably wouldn't think 'vintage' when you see a plastic chess set, but I consider this Spear's set to be close to vintage. Not sure when it was made and sold, but I reckon it's 40-50 years old (someone correct me if I'm wrong!).

The set doesn't come with a board, but I felt the pieces would nicely match the board that came with my pseudo-Italfama set.

The design of the pieces is more interesting than the bog-standard plastic pieces you can get everywhere for almost nothing. So a nice addition to the collection, I think.

Dollhouse xiangqi set

I saw this 'dollhouse' xiangqi set on eBay and I just had to get it!

Inside the little plastic box is a folded-up paper 'board', and the pieces, still connected. They needed separating, and some TLC to file away the rough edges as much as possible.

And to give you a sense of scale, a pound coin in-between ..

I wanted to have a board which was a bit nicer than the folded-up piece of paper, and decided on getting two semi-translucent Perspex discs. The idea was to have the paper board in-between those discs.

And this is then what the full set looks like:

The smallest set in the collection! Just had to take a picture of this dollhouse xiangqi set together with the 'generals' of my largest xiangqi set ...

Beach xiangqi set

A year ago to the day, we went out to collect flat round stones from a pebble beach nearby.

The idea was to create a xiangqi set for 'outdoor use', and flat round stones would be perfect for that. For all kinds of reasons, the idea remained just that, an idea, and the stones were patiently waiting in a bag in the shed .... Until earlier this week!

Chinese symbols duly painted on the stones ...

... and, with the pieces done, where better to create an outdoor board than on a beach? So down to Wittering beach on a cold but beautiful day. First measured out and drew the board ...

... and then added the pieces to it. 

Rather than set up the board and pieces for modern xiangqi, I decided to do so for a reconstruction of xiangqi as it is thought to have been played during the Tang and Song dynasties. This reconstruction is by Himly, and dates to 1870.

In terms of the board and initial set-up of the pieces, the main differences with xiangqi as it is played nowadays are the absence of the river (like in modern Janggi), six pawns rather than five, the cannons starting on the back row, a single guard rather than two, and the kings starting in the centre of the palace (like in modern Janggi). There are also differences in the moves of the pieces (e.g. the chariot only moves forward, like the 'lance' in modern Shogi). 

By the way, I did paint the symbol of the guard on the reverse of the 'extra' pawns, so the set can be used for modern xiangqi just as well.

Laser Chess

When is a board game a chess variant? Guess we can discuss this until the cows come home, and there are different opinions on the matter. Even so, no matter where you draw the line, there will always be a grey area ...

Enter Laser Chess. To me, this is still a chess variant, because (1) it has a number of different pieces, with different moves and/or powers, and (2) the capture of a single piece (the 'king') decides the game. Laser Chess fulfils those criteria, so ...

Besides a king, Laser Chess has 'switches', 'deflectors' and 'defenders', which can all move. Plus a 'laser', which is stationary. The 'switches', 'deflectors' and 'defenders' have different reflective (mirrors), blocking, and vulnerable surfaces, whereas the king only has vulnerable surfaces.

The stationary 'lasers' can be fired at the end of every move, with the aim of hitting the king, making use of the mirrors on its own pieces. The opposing pieces are moved such that they screen the king from being hit, but if they have vulnerable surfaces, they can be hit as well, and are then removed from play. Essentially capturing from a distance.

In case all this sounds a bit familiar to anyone, in the 1980s there was a computer game called 'Laser Chess', which worked on the same concept. It had that annoying video voice saying "You can't do that!" if you tried to make an illegal move ...

Disney 'Mickey & Friends' set

Another addition to my 'fictional' chess sets. I already had a Disney 'Heroes & Villains' set, and this Disney set is referred to as 'Mickey & Friends'.

Like the other Disney chess set, and like other 'fictional' chess sets in the collection (Smurfs, Simpsons, Flintstones, Batman and Shrek), the pieces are made from plastoy. The board is the usual fold-up cardboard.

On 'Mickey's side, we have Mickey and Minnie as king and queen, Pluto as rook, Pete as knight, and Horace Horsecollar as bishop. 

On the 'Friends' side, we have Donald and Daisy as king and queen, Grandma Duck as rook, Scrooge McDuck as knight, and Goofy as bishop.

Plus a set of eight mice and ducks acting as pawns for 'Mickey' and 'Friends', respectively!

Ebony xiangqi set

Look for xiangi sets on eBay, and you come across some really expensive set, made from oxhorn, bronze, or copper; the most expensive one I saw was £899, but I'm sure there must be even more expensive sets around.

Seeing these sets really did make me want to add a more high end set to my collection, but without paying silly money, of course. Searching around, I came across this set made from ebony, and felt that would be a nice birthday present!

Definitely the nicest of my xiangqi sets!

Spartan Chess set

Spartan Chess is a chess variant which emerged from the idea that if two armies meet for a battle in real life, those armies aren't necessarily equal in terms of their divisions, strength, etc. In Spartan Chess, one side (the Persian army) has the traditional pieces, whereas the other side (the Spartan army) has different pieces, with different movements, plus two kings.

I'm sure there was a lot of play-testing to arrive at a balanced game!

When I ordered the pieces for my 'Alien' set, something went wrong with the initial order, and, once all was resolved, I ended up with two sets. And that gave me the impetus to use that other set for creating my own Spartan Chess set.

I already had a board I got off eBay some time ago, and felt that would serve well as a board for my Spartan Chess set. 

So I ordered a cheap set of plastic Staunton pieces, of the same size as the 'alien' pieces. In keeping with the colours of the board, I painted the Staunton pieces gold, and the 'alien' pieces metallic green.

Of course, that only used up half of the two sets; I still had one Staunton side and one 'alien' side. Of the four colours present on the board, I used up the colours of the squares (gold and metallic green); the edges of the board provide me with two more colours .... Of course, you see where this is going, right? So I pained the two remaining sets metallic grey and metallic red, thereby creating a second set of Spartan Chess pieces.

And that means I could play Spartan Chess with 'white' or 'black' for either the Persian or the Spartan army!