Tag Archives: chess set

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.

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Arena Chess Game

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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.

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.

This origami engineered chess board unfolds in the most oddly-satisfying way. Watch the video!

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We can’t stop watching the magnetic and compact chess board’s video. It has self-centering and stores all the pieces securely. The chess pieces are as custom as well functionally tactile just like the board’s clever underlying mechanism. You can “feel” the center of each square on the solid walnut playing surface. Most importantly, the pieces remain arranged while the set pivots into its playing configuration.

The designers explain, “Weighing in at almost eight pounds, the LE1 set carries a solid walnut playing surface in a precision-machined, black-anodized aluminum chassis. Four integrated panels are joined using brushed stainless steel hardware in an origami-inspired mechanism that can dynamically transition between storage, setup, and playing states. Self-centering on the playing surface and securely stored piece trays, our custom magnetic chess pieces are CNC machined from solid blocks of Dymalux, a resin-infused birch laminate normally reserved for high-touch objects like knife handles, jewelry, and pistol grips. The force of their magnetic base is subtle, leaving play uninterrupted and feeling more like additional piece weighting. Thanks to the set’s single degree of freedom playing configuration which is constrained by its planar resting surface, even with its cantilevered corners, it feels as solid and square as the surface below it.”

“I’ve heard that the Knight is a good measure of the quality of a chess set. Having acquired an impractical number of wooden chess pieces over the last two years, I can confidently say that the level of detail we’ve managed to achieve with our CNC-machined Dymalux Knights is unparalleled amongst other wood pieces. Muscle tone, eyebrows, nostrils, a flowing mane, you can even look this gift horse in its tiny little mouth. Not to be outdone, the Kings are topped off with polished stainless steel crosses. All of these features withstand handling thanks to the impressive durability of Dymalux’s resin-infused birch laminate. No wonder it’s normally used for knife handles, pistol grips, and wood jewelry.”

 Each piece is CNC machined from a solid block of Dymalux, a resin-infused birch laminate normally reserved for high-touch objects like knife handles, jewelry, and pistol grips for maximum shelf life and durability. The force of the magnetic base is subtle, leaving play uninterrupted and feeling more like additional piece weighting. It must literally be therapeutic for Monica Geller, a Virgo, or someone who loves staying organized to pack this set up after a match!

Designer: Degrees of Freedom

Click Here to Buy Now!









The post This origami engineered chess board unfolds in the most oddly-satisfying way. Watch the video! 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 Minimalist Chess + Checkers Set Will Be the Centerpiece of Your Board-Game Collection

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With such a classic — instantly recognizable design – how does one reimagine the visual aesthetic of a chessboard? There are chess piece sets modeled after skyscrapers, popular TV characters, mythical creatures, abstract shapes, etc. Many board game creators have experimented with new chess board designs, but this chess + checkers set stands out from the crowd, despite the competition in its arena.

What makes the Origins Check – Chess Set different from other interpretations of this classic game design? The set as a whole encapsulates an elegant, minimalistic aesthetic, but the pièce(s) de résistance are the chess figurines themselves. The characters take on simplistic, abstract profiles that represent each piece’s role or how they would move across the board. For instance, the knights are cut into L shapes to indicate their directional movements. The pawns’ roles are reflected in the simplicity of their shape: just rectangular blocks – which can also double as checkers pieces. The abstract nature of this design may alienate beginners, who might not be as familiar with the pieces. However, one could argue that a novice chess player may not want this particular board set in the first place due to the price tag.

From a craftsmanship perspective, the Origins chess set is a beautiful example of woodworking. The box and boards are available in four species of wood, Eastern Maple, White Ash, White Oak, and Black Walnut. It is a stripped-down, simple design, but unique among existing chess sets … one that would be a subtle eye-catcher in a chess lover’s collection.

Designer: Origins

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Ingeniously portable full-size chess set features nesting pieces that compactly fit into each other

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The Crownes is really just redemption for all those horrid travel-friendly portable chess sets we’ve been subjected to with the ridiculously tiny plastic pieces and the magnetic chessboard. The way Crownes approaches portability is uniquely clever, and it still maintains the footprint of a full-size chessboard… thanks to one smart detail – nesting chess pieces.

Perhaps the Crownes chess set’s most defining detail is the way the chess pieces are designed. Individually CNC machined from solid blocks of metal, each piece nests into one another, becoming compact during storage. Designed with this Matryoshka-doll-inspired feature, the chess pieces are sized chronologically, or based on their importance. Pawns are the smallest, and pieces subsequently get bigger, with the king and queen being the largest. The pieces stack up to become two towers (a ‘king’ tower featuring 8 pieces and a ‘queen’ tower featuring the other eight) that then snap together using a magnetic platform. All 16 pieces (per player) fit neatly into this magnetically bound ‘baton’ of sorts, which slides right into a cylindrical case that’s long enough to house both players’ pieces. The chessboard, made from leather, rolls around the cylindrical case like a scroll, giving you a complete full-size chess set that’s roughly 75% smaller when packed up.

The Crownes chess set’s build quality doesn’t really cut corners either. The premium variant comes with machined stainless steel pieces (anodized in bronze and black) with a pure leather board and a wooden casing. The regular version comes in the same size, but with zinc alloy pieces, a PU leather board, and a recycled plastic casing. If you’re looking for a lower tier, the basic chess set comes in a full size too, but with injection-molded plastic pieces and a flexible silicone board.

Ultimately, the Crownes is just a well-designed chess set that’s also designed to be ultra-portable and slim enough to fit into the bottle holder on your backpack. It opens up to a full-size gaming experience that’s uniquely fun, especially when you make your king or queen ‘swallow up’ your opponent’s pieces by covering them entirely. It’s overall pretty neat too, thanks to the magnetic base-platform that lets you organize your inactive pieces on the side.

Designers: ETHO & DesignNest

Click Here to Buy Now: $35 $50 (29% off). Hurry, only 24/570 left! Raised over $200,000.

Crownes Chess – Compact, Portable Nesting Chess Set

Crownes is a modern approach to a timeless game. Each piece is precisely designed to fit one over the other in sequential order, creating a uniformly compact stack.

A full size set awaits within an efficiently sized solution. Set up, stow away and bring along without compromise.

Crownes provides a simplified way of organizing your pieces. Remove and place or stack and go. It is perfectly nested together for your convenience.

In the Palm of your Hand

16 pieces, an entire team, is nested together and magnetically drawn to the centralized base, creating a handheld barrel for each opponent.

The two teams can be stored in a cylindrical, compact carrying case for you to bring pieces anywhere with style, while minimizing mass.

Play Anywhere, With Anyone

Play the classic game wherever you please with this space-saving and portable design.

Simply unroll the board to reveal both teams. Remove each team from their storage cases to sequentially unstack the nested pieces in perfect order.

When you are done, go on your way by rolling up the carrying case of both teams into the board, becoming an easy-to-carry ensemble.

Product Details

The centralized bases split open providing a stable platform for each piece to rest on.

Crownes Chess Options: Basic, Original and Premium

Basic is made from Recycled Plastic, available in blue & white.

Original is made from zinc alloy, available in black & silver.

Premium is made from stainless steel, available in black & bronze.

Click Here to Buy Now: $35 $50 (29% off). Hurry, only 24/570 left! Raised over $200,000.

The Felt+Pin chess set is basically a large, playful pincushion!

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Just don’t play it with the board on your lap.

The Felt+Pin Chess set’s unique design comes from Swedish studio Induku and features a thick felt-fabric playing surface (similar to the kind of surface you’d see on pin-boards), and laser-cut wooden chess pieces with pin-shaped bases. Just place the board on a flat surface (ideally a lawn works best) and go ahead and play your game of chess by pushing the thumbtack-ish pieces into the felt base. The game works horizontally on the grass as well as tables (preferably glass ones, so you don’t damage wood), but the best way to play it is hang it up on a wall and play a game of vertical chess, sort of like how it looks when you’re playing it on a computer screen. Should make a great addition to offices that want to have games lying around in their recreation zones, but aren’t particularly enthused with the idea of setting up dartboards.

Designer: Induku

Nesting chess pieces that create the illusion of ‘consuming’ defeated players!

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While in theory, this attribute doesn’t extend to smaller players defeating larger ones, the Crownes Chess Set’s nesting ability is more a portability feature. Made from 3D printed metal, the chess pieces nest within one another, like a Russian Matryoshka doll. After nesting the pieces within one another, the two largest pieces (the king and queen) snap together magnetically, forming a compact collection of same-colored chess players. The player-groups come in a rather delightful matte anodized aluminum finish too, giving the chess set a premium look.

The Crownes Chess set’s approach to gameplay sort of gets influenced by its nesting ability too. Given that pawns are fairly often the first to lose their lives in games of chess, their small design lets them easily nest within other players. The chess set comes with a checkered board, as customary, but also features a magnetic platform for the king and queen pieces that hold discarded players. Each platform can hold as many as 4 pawns stacked on top of each other, followed by 4 other larger pieces (the elephant, horse, knight, and then the royalty). During gameplay, discarded or defeated players can just be snapped magnetically onto these platforms for convenient side-storage, or for dramatic effect, can be ‘absorbed’ by the opponent! When the game’s over, the 32 total pieces on both sides get docked into 4 groups of 8, which you then snap together and roll up into the flexible board!

Designer: Etho LLC.

This Credit Card Sized Chess Set Fits in Your Wallet

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You have to really love chess if you need to keep a spare chess board and all of its pieces in your back pocket. And it turns out you can do just that with this teensy Credit Card Chess Set designed by Innovo and available via 3D printing service Shapeways. Now you can have a chess game no matter where you are.


It comes in ten different colors and is the size of a credit card. Should you have a chess emergency, just detach the chessmen and get playing. You can tell the players apart because one set of men has holes in the middle, while the others are solid.

So you play your game and then you have all of these lose pieces that you have to shove in your pocket. And guess what? Now it’s no longer a convenient credit card sized thing. Now it’s a real pain in the butt. You can stick it all in a sandwich bag or an Altoids tin or something, but what the hell? Thanks for a product that sucks after the first use. Really appreciate that. This is like paying someone to play chess one time.

But if you have a chess emergency, you do what you have to do.

[via TheAwesomer via Geekologie]

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Chess is now a “card” game!

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Never thought you could put a chess set in your back-pocket, right? I mean, sure you could download a chess app, but where’s the fun in tapping at a screen as opposed to actually moving chess pieces? Innovo’s card chess set was literally designed to fit a game of tactile chess into your wallet! The 3D printed card-shaped, card-sized design comes with everything you need, from a board to all 32 chess pieces. Just snap the pieces right off their support structures (you differentiate the black and white players by the holed and non-holed pieces) and plug them right into the board. The board doesn’t come with the checkered pattern but it does have a grid made on it, so your gameplay won’t really get affected. It even comes with additional slots outside the board to dock pieces that have been eliminated from the game.

The Card Chess Set is great for carrying around and using in what I can only assume is an unexpected chess-based-emergency… or just showing off, to be honest! My only gripe is that you don’t really have any place to keep the chess pieces after your first game, since you’ve snapped them off their support structures. Anyone got any solutions?? Let us know!

Designer: Kiriakos Christodoulou (Innovo Design)

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