Chess

I like chess. I like building things. Naturally I have built a chess board or four.

All of the chess boards I have made so far have been laser cut, which is great for simple and portable designs. But I would like to try learning how to lathe chess pieces to make a really nice set.

Chess board

Chess board

The first chess board I made was a full chess set with slots in the board for pieces and a draw to hold all the pieces. I decided to make simple and elegant pieces and I had a lot of fun designing them in Rhino.

Chess board Pieces Chess board

Wall chess

chess board

I had a full set of 2D pieces left over from making my first chess board, and one day they were just sitting on my desk and I thought "what can I do with a full set of 2D wooden chess pieces?". So I decided to make a wall chess board for people to play on as they walk past each day. I added a turn counter and some string for a board and put it all up with blu tack, super simple.

Then I decided to make another two because the concept was cool and playing chess against unknown opponents with an unknown team was super fun. This time I went all out on the pieces design and used a lot more laser cutting technique I had been learning. I added thick and thin score lines to give detail on the pieces, such as the knight's jaw shape, 3D effect on the pawns and bishops and even abs for the king!

chess pieces chess board

With this board I tried a new method of holding the pieces with a grid of supports that have slits in the horizontal beams that the pieces slot into.

chess board

This is definitely the best of my wall chess boards because I made a really nice backboard. It also used my fancy acrylic pieces.