Tag Archives: chess

Dogs vs. Cats Chess Set: The Battle for Pet Supremacy

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Dogs or cats – which makes the best pet? Depends on who and when you ask, but if you ask me on a day my dog pooped on the living room carpet, I’d probably say cats. Ask me on a day that my cat knocked a picture of my wife and me on our wedding day off a shelf and shattered the glass, I’d probably say dogs. But here to settle the debate once and for all comes this Dogs Vs Cats Chess Set available from Uncommon Goods.

The $179 set includes a folding wooden game board that doubles as a storage case for the pieces, and two sets of resin figures: one of dogs, the other of cats. Which would you choose to play as? I always choose the top hat, but that’s just me and chess makes my brain hurt; I’m more of a Monopoly kind of guy. Especially if I can be banker and steal money without getting caught.

I set up a chess board and tried to get my dog and cat to play a game to decide who was the better pet but my cat just swatted the pieces off the board, and my dog started chewing on them once they hit the floor. So who won? Definitely not me, that’s for sure. Maybe my fish will actually take the game seriously…

[via DudeIWantThat]

Arena’s concrete chess set can start one heavy battle of wits and courage

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Arena Chess Set Design

They say a chess game improves a person’s cognitive skills, but if the chess set is heavy, will you be more intelligent? Maybe you will in terms of knowledge about ancient Rome. This particular chess set is a new interpretation of the old game but still gives the same excitement, especially if you’re into chess.

The Arena is a different version of chess based on the Roman amphitheater. This recreates the ancient times when gladiators would fight under the watchful eyes of the spectators. The Arena is a version of chess where every position in the army is represented by the chessmen wearing different architectural armor.

Designer: MIM Studio

Arena Chess Set Pieces

All the chessmen from both mighty armies enter the battle with the determination to win. However, victory will depend on who is controlling them—you and your opponent. So go on, start preparing to defend your kingdom. Once ready, take the positions and begin the battle of wits and strategy.

Arena Chess Board

Arena – The Game of Chess is one expensive chess set made from concrete. It’s heavy so you may want to decide where to place the board. We suggest you set it by the window as every position offers a beautiful play of shadow depending on the time of day. The Arena is where two opponents will fight and hold ground. It is one intriguing version of chess where strength, courage, and fearless are required.

The Arena chess set weighs 2770 grams and the board itself measures 304mm x 304mm x 40mm. It is made of concrete so it took some time to create a whole set. There are 32 chessmen (chess pieces)—16 pieces each in Dark Grey and Light Grey.

Arena Chess Set Details

Chess is already centuries-old but it continues to be one rewarding and fascinating game for people of all ages. Others may find it boring, but we understand the game’s thrill, especially when a King is checked mate unexpectedly. We don’t claim to be champions, but this particular set evokes a feeling of bravery—the kind you should feel when you’re about to get into an arena to fight for your life.

The amphitheater is a famous symbol of Roman architecture. It is an ideal battlefield for even as simple as a chess match, at least, on your tabletop. Designed by Material Immaterial Studio (MIM Studio), this $400 Arena chess set defines strong aesthetics and magnificent details. Every piece is made of concrete, so be careful that you don’t break them.

Arena Chessmen

This Arena Chess Set will become more than just a conversation starter. It will make you play a game or two just for the sake of playing. Every corner of your house must have something unique, quirky, or interesting. The Arena Chess Set is one to capture any guest’s attention. Just make sure you really know how to play chess in case somebody challenges you to a game.

Arena Chess Set 3

Arena Chess Game

Arena Chess Set 2

Arena Chess Set Price

The post Arena’s concrete chess set can start one heavy battle of wits and courage first appeared on Yanko Design.

A minimal wooden chess board inspired by the Yoruba game Ayo merges two games in one

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African designer Philion has designed a chess board that’s inspired by the rules of chess and takes on the layout of the Yoruba game, Ayo.

Chessboards have seen some pretty creative designs in recent years. The pandemic and Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit have put the game of chess back on the board again and people of all ages are trying their hand at the game. Similar to the game of chess, Ayo is a traditional board game that’s played by the Yoruba people where two players attempt to “capture” their opponent’s seeds.

Defined by two of six pockets, the board game is rectangular by design and features a similar premise to the game of chess. Inspired by the games’ similarities, African designer @philion.cgi merged the two by abstracting the shapes of conventional chess pieces into rounded forms and incorporating pockets into the chessboard. While the game of chess is being played, using the layout and look of Ayo gives the board a unique personality. The chessboard takes on a minimalist profile, with natural wooden elements and a free-flowing design.

Since Ayo is traditionally played with seeds, Philion adapted their chess pieces to more closely resemble seeds. Rounding out each piece’s edges and fitting them into the board’s pockets, each one fits snugly into its pocket as if it was scooped out. The pockets also give the chess pieces a fastened grip to the board to ensure a balanced, sturdy game. `

Designer: @philion.cgi

The post A minimal wooden chess board inspired by the Yoruba game Ayo merges two games in one first appeared on Yanko Design.

Marble meets stainless steel in this chessboard for a minimalist and artful take on the timeless chess game!

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Tarek Elkassouf’s chess set is comprised of a Carrara marble board and sixteen brushed stainless steel pieces capped with gunmetal reflective tops.

Some of the most artistic designs are born out of the timeless and elusive charm of chessboards. From chessboards inspired by ‘Queen’s Gambit’ to chess pieces that form architectural city maps, designers have the opportunity to get their most creative when creating new chess boards.

Speaking to that, designer Tarek Elkassouf explains, “They say that all artists are not chess players but all chess players are artists.” Citing the chessboard as “an altar of concentration,” Elkassouf hopes his chessboard will help players focus on the game, their strategy, and most importantly, the moment.

Giving the traditional wooden chessboard a modern, artistic upgrade, Elkassouf designed a stylistic chessboard that takes on notes of midcentury design and with a sleek futuristic edge. Stripping the chessboard down to its bare essentials, Elkassouf’s chessboard found refinement in minimalism and artful craftwork.

Finding beauty in the changeability of chess, Elkassouf hoped to create a chessboard that speaks for itself, with a sophisticated heavy-duty board carved from marble and sleek, minimalist chess pieces.

Mounted atop a polished Carrara marble board, the rectangular chess pieces are made from brushed stainless steel with gunmetal reflective tops. Sticking to his minimalist approach, Elkassouf etched small icons of each piece on the top of each rectangular piece for players to decipher between the sixteen pieces.

In designing his chessboard, Elkassouf embraced the accessibility and intersectionality of chess, going on to describe how the game “transcends language, age, race, religion, politics, gender, and socioeconomic background. Whatever your circumstances, anyone can enjoy a good fight over the chessboard.” And it’s true, the game of chess is for everyone so long as you know the rules.

Designer: Tarek Elkassouf

With a simplistic, velvet case, Elkassouf’s chessboard is minimalist by design and refined by effect.

The Carrara marble chess board comes with alternating diagonal etches that delineate all of the available squares.

Coming in an array of different-colored marble, each chessboard from Elkassouf’s collection is unique in its own design.

From the side, Elkassouf’s chessboard maintains clean, geometric lines and silhouettes. 

 

The post Marble meets stainless steel in this chessboard for a minimalist and artful take on the timeless chess game! first appeared on Yanko Design.

The Skyline Chess Set lets you play a game of chess with your favorite city’s iconic buildings!

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Imagine the Harry Potter chess set… but with Muggle Architecture.

With 6 cities to choose from, scattered across North America, Europe, and Asia, the Skyline Chess set makes the game of chess a tad bit grander and classier than you’d expect. The board comes with its patent checkered design, but ditches the conventional army-inspired chess pieces for scaled-down replicas of iconic landmarks like the Burj, Eiffel, London Eye, and the Empire State Building.

Designer: Skyline Chess

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The chess set converts city skylines into chess players, with entire sets dedicated to the iconic buildings of New York, San Francisco, Chicago, London, Paris, and Dubai. Skyline Chess Sets let you play either as a singular city (with the board effectively being a visual representation of the city’s map) or battle it out between two cities, finally settling the debate of which one’s better – New York or London!

Each Skyline Chess Set comes in a variety of materials, featuring pieces made from acrylic, stainless steel, or even luxurious bronze, and the boards made out of card, wood, or marble. True-blue architecture enthusiasts can even grab brutalist editions of the game with die-cast resin pieces painted the signature concrete gray!

Combining the age-old popular strategy game with the undying beauty of architecture, the Skyline Chess Set’s appeal lies not just in the gameplay, but also in the fact that it makes a beautiful piece of tabletop decor. While the chess sets only come in 6 cities for now, the folks at Skyline Chess are actively expanding their collections with upcoming editions featuring Tokyo, LA, Hong Kong, and Shanghai!

Click Here to Buy Now

Click Here to Buy Now

The post The Skyline Chess Set lets you play a game of chess with your favorite city’s iconic buildings! first appeared on Yanko Design.

This wooden chess board inspired by ‘Queen’s Gambit’ features pieces modeled after the architecture of Bangkok!

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Dubbed (Archi)TECT’S GAMBIT, the chess pieces from Carpenter boast a conceptual take on the high-rises and suspension bridges that make up the bulk of Bangkok’s cityscape.

‘Queen’s Gambit’ turned the world into chess players. Soon after bingeing the hit Netflix series, we were buying the coolest chessboard we could find and maybe a couple of guidebooks too. Whether you’re new to the original board game or you’ve been playing it as long as Beth Harmon, the game of chess has a beloved board design that’s been host to an endless array of stylistic variations throughout the game’s rich history. Carpenter Design, a carpentry company devoted to repurposing wood waste, went further than only learning how to play chess after finishing ‘Queen’s Gambit,’ designing and carving their own chess board modeled after the architecture of Bangkok, the company’s home city.

Dubbed (Archi)TECT’S GAMBIT, the chess pieces from Carpenter boast a conceptual take on the high-rises and suspension bridges that make up the bulk of Bangkok’s cityscape. Starting out as a chess player in secondary school, Carpenter designer Vrada Siripong felt inspired to take up the game once more after finishing ‘Queen’s Gambit.’ (Archi)TECT’S GAMBIT was created by Siripong and her fellow Carpenter co-designer, Sirincha Sathume who both played in the same chess club. Speaking on the board’s conception, Siripong notes, “It was fun and purely out of my personal fascination. As soon as I finished the series, my brain immediately started working on ideas for the project.”

When set against the backdrop of Bangkok’s skyline, players can recognize all of the city structures that inspired Siripong’s and Sathume chess boards and pieces. For example, the board’s King and Queen pieces resemble the form and general framework of high-rise buildings in Bangkok’s city proper, whereas the Rook mimics a simpler micro-model of both ends of a suspension bridge in Bangkok. The board’s black wood gives the game a mature, refined finish and stenciled embroidery adornments fill each square. The delicate stencil work was initially programmed using AutoCAD, a software familiar to most architects.

Designer: Carpenter

Intricate stencil work remains unpainted to give the board a natural and elegant black-and-gold feel.

Pull-out drawers fill out both ends of (Archi)TECT’S GAMBIT, where players can store their pieces after gameplay.

Brass handles offer a refined touch to the chessboard.

Each piece of (Archi)TECT’S GAMBIT was modeled after the form of significant buildings and structures through Bangkok.

The pull-out drawer dislodges from the chessboard to reveal storage space.

(Archi)TECT’S GAMBIT looks right at home in the modern living room.

This chess board uses visual projectors to help you learn the game and learn creating strategies!

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Like many, chess was one of the hobbies I took up mid-pandemic. Half the battle of chess is learning and remembering the directions and formations each piece is allowed to move, once that’s squared away, strategy can be weaved into your game. I never got that far, but the new chess set Illuminis designed by Bülent Ünal might do the trick. It’s a chess set that enacts visual pointers on the actual board for kids new to the game who want to learn the rules, but it’s tailored for anyone who’s taking up the new hobby.

Familiarly decorated almost like miniature orange and black minions, the chess pieces look inviting for kids, with a gleaming outer coat and round bodies and heads. Setting his chessboard apart from the rest, Ünal’s chess pieces’ faces have been replaced with protruding circular projectors that look similar to antique scuba diving helmets. The minuscule projectors work by illuminating the squares on the chessboard where each piece is allowed to move, allowing kids and learners of chess alike to understand the rules of chess accurately and quickly. The visual indicators that come equipped with Ünal’s pieces merge technology with the antique chess board to give the game a modern edge, fit for today’s younger, more technologically perceptive generations. The bottom of each chess piece also comes outfitted with battery slots for fast and accessible charging and longer game time.

Chess is a game of skill, memory, and discipline. While it takes determination and patience to develop your own strategy, Ünal’s Illuminis chessboard might help streamline the beginner’s learning process and harness the memory and skill it takes to become tactical at the game of chess.

Designer: Bülent Ünal

Dressed in gleaming orange and black outer coats, the chess pieces have an undeniable personality that will speak to kids and beginners alike.

The pieces’ projectors indicate the different squares on the board each piece is allowed to move.

Underneath each chess piece, batteries can be inserted into slots for quick and easy charging.

Each chess piece has its own distinct personality to hone in on the character’s elements (i.e.; knight, queen, king, rook, and bishop).

This aluminum chessboard and its iconic chess pieces have been crafted for the millennial grandmasters

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The game of chess has captivated virtually everyone on the planet, even during the reign of kings and queens, who fought real battles; this game has continued to rapture its players. Such is the impact of this board game on generations after generations that chess has not lost its charm even a single bit all these centuries (the game has gained exponential popularity since the airing of Queen’s Gambit on Netflix). The mere idea of designing a chess set is the creative canvas for designers to explore and experiment with – after all, when form meets function, there’s an elevated level of gameplay that the two opponents experience when moving chess pieces in a bid to defeat the other.

For such a long time now, the chess pieces’ shape has seen countless iterations influenced by the ethnic culture or the pure imagination of creative minds. Among the sea of chessboards and chess pieces out there, industrial designer Andrea Tortone brings a very modern design aesthetic to chess while retaining the traditional representations of the game in its purest form. Dubbed the Neo aluminum chessboard, it is crafted out of a single aluminum metal tube, cut into intricate chess pieces that fuse refreshing modern take with the yesteryear’s essence.

Each of the chessmen results from thoughtfully selecting the traits drawing inspiration from the famous shapes, sizes, and icons of the European middle ages. So you’ll be able to trace the influence of a helmet in the pawn, mitre in the bishop, and merlon in the rook piece. The designer has a unique take by packaging these pieces inside a well-polished case, the top of which doubles as the chessboard itself. It has to be said, Andrea has infused a modern element into the strategy board game without going overboard.

Designer: Andrea Tortone

Researchers built an AI that plays chess like a person, not a super computer

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We mere mortals haven't truly been competitive against artificial intelligence in chess in a long time. It's been 15 years since a human has conquered a computer in a chess tournament. However, a team of researchers have developed an AI chess engine...

The world’s smartest AI powered chess board makes remote play easy with it’s new rollable design

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The Queen’s Gambit may have renewed interest in this timeless game, however, chess as a game has always intrigued the imagination of people who love devising strategy and get the grey matter between their ears going into overdrive. The board game is believed to have been an extension of the popular Indian game chaturanga sometime in the 7th century and even since the charm of spending countless hours by people of every generation has not faded even a bit. What started as a game played with simple DIY chess pieces and a very basic board has ever since seen innumerable iterations – bringing new board styles, set-piece designs, and what not!

The game has seen a drastic technological evolution in the form of the Squared Off chess set with self-moving pieces that let you play against opponents from across the world. Yes, as the remote player moves the pieces on his/her board, the pieces move on your board and vice versa. Now, the budding start-up is bringing to the fore a rollable chess set that can be stashed in your backpack or postman bag. The self-moving pieces are not a luxury in this chessboard and for obvious reasons as the technology doesn’t exist wherein you can roll up a board with all the advanced components that make the self-moving magic possible. None-the-less, this new version of Square Off’s chessboard revealed at CES 2021 retains the AI and connected tech – allowing you to play with buddies or complete strangers globally.

This makes even more sense in current unsettling times when you have to be at home most of the time. Staring all day long at the phone is not a healthy lifestyle which many of us are unconsciously doing. So, hey, a physical chessboard that lets you play against people sounds more than a novelty. Moreover, you can just roll it up and take it to your friend’s place or maybe up the short mountain hike for some solitude of play. Whatever your favorite spot, location is no longer a deterrent in getting your brain cells churning.

Designer: Square Off