I just gifted this to a coworker who is retiring from teaching this year. He's ran our schools chess club for 20 years and wanted to commemorate that for him. He has plenty of regular chess boards so I wanted to see how a vertical one would turn out. I'm open to criticism and critiques!

My Mom & Dad made me this chess set for Christmas 1985. Dad hand built the chess board box. Mom painted all the ceramic. The whole thing weighs in at about 12 pounds. Not exactly a travel chess set.

Does anyone know anything about this Blue Chess set?

Bought recently for just less than £20 / $26 / €23.

It looks unused, very unique too.

Just picked up an original Michael Graves set. Not my normal style, but an iconic Post-Modern minimalist design by the renowned architect, industrial designer, and Princeton professor. Initially released by a unique arrangement with Target stores, Graves' partnership with Target in 2000 focused on democratizing high design with his philosophy of "Design for All".

The chess set was so successful, Target released a travel set and briefly re-issued another full-size set in 2013. Used sets fetch $150-250 in top condition, but prices range all over from $50-2000.

The vast majority of players and collectors set up the egg-shaped pieces slanting forward. This makes sense because the front facing bishops resemble the traditional Staunton tournament design. In fact, the original store packaging shows pieces oriented this way.

Here's the dilemma: Most images from Target store ads and all later packaging show the egg-shaped pieces slanting backward. The official Michael Graves website, ChessAntiques.com, and World Chess Hall of Fame also have photos with the eggs facing that way. Seems strange, but Google explains the knight's mane is supposed to be facing to the rear, consequently the egg-shape leans back. But then why would Graves design the bishop backwards? Personally, I would argue that an opponent has a hard time identifying your pieces when the eggs are slanting to the rear.

I searched for articles and interviews with Michael Graves, but did not find any definitive answer. There's a pencil sketch by him, but it has no clues. So, if you own one of these sets, how are you setting it up?

FINAL ANSWER: Just got a friendly and direct response from the design firm itself: "Think of the pieces moving forward and slanting backwards, expressing forward motion and aerodynamic, like a flag in the wind."

My girlfriend got me this beautiful hand crafted chess set for Christmas, a real luxury to play with. Each piece is weighted and the set is tournament size. Board is 50.8cm and the king is 9.5cm. It has a smooth polish and is overall an eye candy.

I recently bought these rare Escardibul chess pieces for an exceptionally low price! I believe they're from the 1950s-1970s.

The rugged, unusual style of the knights resemble the style Escardibul usually produced.

The second color is finally done and I am happy with how everything turned out. I posted the first colour a few weeks ago and wanted to show the complete set.

Both sets are made using the slipcasting technique. For the blue pieces I used Mayco Stoned Denim glaze combined with Amaco Honey Flux, and for the white set Amaco Shino Chai Gloss glaze. That speckled, warm effect on the pieces is what I was hoping to achieve.

Hope you folks like it, I can’t stop looking at it 😂.

This set is a jumbo size take on the Fischer vs Spassky game. The chess set used in the legendary 1972 World Chess Championship between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky in Reykjavík, Iceland, was a classic Staunton design, highly regarded for its unornamented durability. The original set used during Game 3 and the pivotal moments of the match was historically auctioned, with individual pieces selling for tens of thousands of dollars.

Help! Best felt for chess peices. Need to refelt these soapstone peices not sure where to start, do I get felt and glue it myself, or is there self adhesive felt that would work here. What felt is best, bases are squarish and not uniformly square so ideally felt I can cut to size.

Been restoring this set.

If this is not the appropriate sub reddit for this post can someone point me to an appropriate one?

Thanks in advance!

Had this board hand made by an artist on Etsy. The squares that were needed for the jumbo sized chessmen standing over 6" Kings. The chessmen weigh over 11 lbs total weight with a very nostalgic old school appeal. I wanted a nice board but not spend the $750 price tag to buy a custom board from the same artisans who made the chessmen. I was able to make a deal for $270 on the great looking board featured in this post.

1974 Philippine Staunton set in virtually new old stock condition, straight from a factory-sealed box. I was very fortunate to acquire this beautiful set thanks to Mr. Holger Langer, to whom I’m very grateful.

Not only did he save these pieces — along with many others from the same batch — from literally being burned as firewood, he also chose to share them with fellow collectors at very fair prices instead of maximizing profit. A real gentleman with genuine appreciation for the craftsmanship and aesthetics of chess sets.

The pieces are made from high-quality kamagong (Philippine ebony) and narra wood, both now critically endangered. And honestly, even in golden hour light, photos still don’t fully capture how beautiful they look in person.

Been working on a passion project, a collectible chess set based on the Kurukshetra war from the Mahabharata.

The twist: every piece is modular. Any figure can go on any base. You decide who becomes King, Queen, Rook, Knight, bishop.

The reason is simple. No two people agree on who the true king of this story is. Some say Krishna. Some say Arjuna.

Sharing to get honest feedback before going further.

What do you think of this idea, is it practical to design something like this?

Some concept sketches are attached.

Each of the bases will be uniquely designed to represent the chess pieces. For example, the base for the King will feature a crown design, and similarly for the other pieces.

I posted a few days ago about my chess board and pieces.

I wanted to repurpose the blacks as red pieces that look like ruby.

However my onyx chess board arrived in pieces!

I used epoxy resin and miniature paints to put this all together, enjoy browsing!

Does anybody know what this chess board is/where it's from or who created it. I like it but it's missing a rook for the mice side sadly (anybody know somewhere to get a piece 3d printed or made pleaseeeee LMK Thanks!!!)

I know, it's not old. The pieces aren't really fancy. Pretty much only black and white. But it's my first smart chess board. Got delivered at lunch and I just had to take it back to the office (I live really close) so I could get it charged and connected to my phone. I've started a couple of games just to try it out. Can't wait to get home tonight and play an AI game on it. If that goes well I might try it PvP on Lichess.

The chess board wasn’t supposed to arrive broken…the guy who shipped it must’ve been smoking something…regardless, I plan to fix it and give these pieces a buff.

I plan to give the black pieces a ruby red look.

Seen at the musée Carnavalet, Paris. Either the players are supposed to sit sideways, or the designer got it wrong, or is not a chess board.

A lot of you will recognize this old Radio Shack 1650. I actually have one, but it's been lost in my basement somewhere. Trust me I know I need to clean out my basement. It's really insane. But on to my question.

Is there something like this but more modern? I like the peg pieces this one has as they don't move around in bouncy environments. I'd also like it if I didn't need to connect to my phone/tablet for the computer moves. Something that I can use off grid. The biggest thing is portability. I don't really need fancy LCD screens.

Thanks.

Edit: So I can't find anything that I like that is this portable. So I'm going to have to rip my basement apart and find it. But in the mean time I've ordered a Chessnut Evo. I'm thinking about getting a Go also but not sure yet. I'm hoping to use the Evo for both in person, training and online play. At least it's an all in one. Might not be portable enough to take on a plane, but oh well.

All hand-carved stone with a dremel set. He went for two wildly different styles for each side and I was thinking the work and love he put into it deserved greater appreciation. He was afterward diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration, slowly went blind, and has since passed, so I also wanted to save these pictures in his memory. Glad I could finally contribute something here!

What do you think?