The knights alone can account for as much as 50% of the cost of a set
January 14, 2021 4:11 PM Subscribe
What Are You Paying For in a $300 Chess Set? Mostly the Knights (NY Times): The horses in higher-end wooden sets must be hand-carved, a long, specialized process to make sure all four are exactly the same. How Are Hand-Made Chess Pieces Made? -- Making a Giant Chess Set episode 5A: Carving a Knight -- Woodturning a Chess Set - The Knights -- Chess Set Project Making the Knight -- Construction of a wooden horse chess piece using a 4-axis TORGOS CNC machine -- How To Whittle Chess Horse - "The Knight" (Youtube). Related: How the Chess Set Got Its Look and Feel (Smithsonian)
No, ashbury, it's not a plot twist. Chess pieces aren't naturally occurring, somebody makes them! Really interesting stuff, thank you for posting.
posted by ashbury at 4:51 PM on January 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by ashbury at 4:51 PM on January 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
I always wondered why the design of the knight stuck out like a sore thumb from the rest of the set. I guess now I know the answer is “the guy who designed it really liked a classic horse sculpture.” This is why I’ve always been fond of the Bahaus Chess Set, In which the pieces all harmonize and are shaped the way they can move. (The knight is especially fun.)
posted by ejs at 4:56 PM on January 14, 2021 [11 favorites]
posted by ejs at 4:56 PM on January 14, 2021 [11 favorites]
I’ve made my own set and $300 is a steal given the labor involved in making tournament grade chess set. The chess board was actually the hardest part in my experience. The process involves multiple glue up, cutting operations and tiny inaccuracies quickly magnify and wreck the build. You start with two strips of wood — light and dark. Then you cut those into 4 pieces and glue up a square of alternating colors for 8 columns. Then you cut that so you get a row of light and dark squares. Then you flip the alternating strips to make the chess board pattern. You do a final glue up assuming you have squares at the end and not trapezoids, and the squares need to fit together without any cracks. Expect to do this a few times to get it right. In tournament boards the squares are about 2 and 1/4 inches iirc. If you are off even a tiny fraction of a degree by the time you get to the other end you are out of square a lot.
posted by interogative mood at 4:57 PM on January 14, 2021 [17 favorites]
posted by interogative mood at 4:57 PM on January 14, 2021 [17 favorites]
a 4-axis TORGOS CNC machine
recommended by The Master!
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 5:00 PM on January 14, 2021 [8 favorites]
recommended by The Master!
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 5:00 PM on January 14, 2021 [8 favorites]
my father said turning a leg for a stool is easy, turning a second leg the same is harder, then third that is the same as the first two is harder, and then for the last leg you should abandon perfection.
posted by wmo at 5:10 PM on January 14, 2021 [15 favorites]
posted by wmo at 5:10 PM on January 14, 2021 [15 favorites]
Once you finish your chessboard, you bring it in from your shop, and it immediately warps due to the difference in temperature! Woodworking, huzzah! (I kid. Making a chessboard is a fun project and a good use for a table saw.)
posted by surlyben at 5:14 PM on January 14, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by surlyben at 5:14 PM on January 14, 2021 [4 favorites]
You start with two strips of wood — light and dark. Then you cut those into 4 pieces and glue up a square of alternating colors for 8 columns. Then you cut that so you get a row of light and dark squares. Then you flip the alternating strips to make the chess board pattern. You do a final glue up assuming you have squares at the end and not trapezoids, and the squares need to fit together without any cracks.
For mass production, of course, you assemble a bunch of square strips in the proper pattern and simply slice off a board of the appropriate thickness.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 5:14 PM on January 14, 2021 [7 favorites]
For mass production, of course, you assemble a bunch of square strips in the proper pattern and simply slice off a board of the appropriate thickness.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 5:14 PM on January 14, 2021 [7 favorites]
For the board you can also use veneering over a core of plywood which will not move (as much) with temperature and humidity changes. One day I hope to make a set of my own.
posted by Poldo at 5:55 PM on January 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Poldo at 5:55 PM on January 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
Mechanics the machine shop made a chess set from nuts & bolts, obviously because the castellated nut was irresistible for rooks. Nuts & Bolts Chess Sets are a common thing, of course.
posted by ovvl at 6:16 PM on January 14, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by ovvl at 6:16 PM on January 14, 2021 [3 favorites]
Of course if you are going to play tournaments and at the local club just get yourself a nice plastic set from the US Chess federation store and a silicone mat board. Easy to roll up and put in the bag and you won’t be sad when you or your opponent accidentally knocks a piece onto the concrete floor at the venue and chips it. Vinyl mat boards get creases and tend to curl up. The silicone ones lay flat.
posted by interogative mood at 7:25 PM on January 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by interogative mood at 7:25 PM on January 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
There are also chess sets carved from camel bone. I almost bought one in India many years ago,
posted by ShooBoo at 8:32 PM on January 14, 2021
posted by ShooBoo at 8:32 PM on January 14, 2021
Each game
Of chess
Means there's
One less
Vari-
Ation left to be played
Each day
Got through
Means one
Or two
Less mi-
Stakes remain to be made
-The Story Of Chess [lyrics] from Chess, musical, 2008 concert version
posted by hippybear at 9:53 PM on January 14, 2021 [2 favorites]
Of chess
Means there's
One less
Vari-
Ation left to be played
Each day
Got through
Means one
Or two
Less mi-
Stakes remain to be made
-The Story Of Chess [lyrics] from Chess, musical, 2008 concert version
posted by hippybear at 9:53 PM on January 14, 2021 [2 favorites]
At chess tournaments, there are often one or two players who haul around a beautiful full-sized wooden board with its hand-carved pieces, carefully placing it on a folding table, among the vinyl and silicone roll-up boards, before each round. I used to think this was a touch affected and a bit silly, but I came to appreciate where these folks are coming from. They bought a nice set to play on, not to look at, and this is where they are playing their serious games. And, for some of them, it seems like a part of the appeal is kind of showing respect for the game. Like the occasional person who wears a suit to the board, down in the woodpusher sections.
posted by thelonius at 10:26 PM on January 14, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by thelonius at 10:26 PM on January 14, 2021 [4 favorites]
Like the occasional person who wears a suit to the board, down in the woodpusher sections.
The young Bobby Fischer always wore a suit to the board. His reasons for wearing it were not exactly respectful, though: 'I don't want to look like a bum', and (in 1962) 'There are too many Jews in chess. They don't seem to dress so nicely.'
posted by Cardinal Fang at 12:02 AM on January 15, 2021
The young Bobby Fischer always wore a suit to the board. His reasons for wearing it were not exactly respectful, though: 'I don't want to look like a bum', and (in 1962) 'There are too many Jews in chess. They don't seem to dress so nicely.'
posted by Cardinal Fang at 12:02 AM on January 15, 2021
The horses in higher-end wooden sets must be hand-carved, a long, specialized process to make sure all four are exactly the same.
Would it really be the end of the world if they each had a bit of personality?
posted by fairmettle at 12:55 AM on January 15, 2021 [1 favorite]
Would it really be the end of the world if they each had a bit of personality?
posted by fairmettle at 12:55 AM on January 15, 2021 [1 favorite]
Would it really be the end of the world if they each had a bit of personality?
As it happens, to a serious chess player, yes.
The Staunton set was invented and adopted for (amongst other things) uniformity and simplicity - previously a chess player would be distracted first by having to remember which piece was which, and then by finding themselves marvelling at the design of the pieces themselves.
The simplest fashionable alteration to the Staunton set which produces such a distraction is when the white king sports a black cross, and the queen and bishops black tips (and vice versa) - that's enough to make a set 'unplayable' for a lot of chess players.
posted by Cardinal Fang at 4:13 AM on January 15, 2021 [6 favorites]
As it happens, to a serious chess player, yes.
The Staunton set was invented and adopted for (amongst other things) uniformity and simplicity - previously a chess player would be distracted first by having to remember which piece was which, and then by finding themselves marvelling at the design of the pieces themselves.
The simplest fashionable alteration to the Staunton set which produces such a distraction is when the white king sports a black cross, and the queen and bishops black tips (and vice versa) - that's enough to make a set 'unplayable' for a lot of chess players.
posted by Cardinal Fang at 4:13 AM on January 15, 2021 [6 favorites]
I have made a board, a box-type board with room to store the pieces, and as surlyben said, it warped on me after it was finished. This may be because I applied felt to one side though. And as interogative mood mentioned, getting the whole thing square was difficult. I found this out after my first attempt, a board that is now use to keep my printer level. The second attempt was successful and the warping seems to have calmed down over the years.
Now that I have a lathe I have considered making the pieces but I can hardly think of anything more tedious. Cutting 16 pawns, trying to get them all to look the same. No way. And then, as the post talks about, how would I even do the knights?
I don't play over the board much, as nobody in my family plays, but I can't stand using anything other than a standard Staunton set.
posted by bondcliff at 7:30 AM on January 15, 2021 [1 favorite]
Now that I have a lathe I have considered making the pieces but I can hardly think of anything more tedious. Cutting 16 pawns, trying to get them all to look the same. No way. And then, as the post talks about, how would I even do the knights?
I don't play over the board much, as nobody in my family plays, but I can't stand using anything other than a standard Staunton set.
posted by bondcliff at 7:30 AM on January 15, 2021 [1 favorite]
I loathe and detest chi-chi chess sets with fancy schmancy artsy fartsy pieces. Sure they look nice as coffee table accessories but they're a total pain to play chess with; for me, it's always been Staunton Pattern or gtfo.
My favourite chess set is the one I bought for twenty bucks from the Fitzroy Chess Club some time in the mid-Eighties. The tournament-size board is a flexible chocolate brown vinyl sheet with the light squares silk-screened in waterproof paint, and the tournament-size pieces are Staunton Pattern in hard moulded plastic. Plain polystyrene, I think - they chip more easily than I would expect ABS to do.
In all the years I've had this set, I've kept the board rolled up playing side inward (so the edges want to curl downward, not upward, when it's unrolled) in an Australia Post 90mm Extra Tough cardboard mailing tube with the pieces rattling around loose inside. The board would of course easily roll up into the smaller, tougher 60mm tube but the pieces don't all fit in one of those.
Accidentally ran over the tube with a back wheel of my Mini once, with the board and pieces inside. Tube got a bit elliptical but nothing inside took damage. Bit of gaffa tape around the worst-squashed section and it's good as new. Australia Post knows a thing or two about robust packaging.
When I first got this set, all the pieces had dark green flock paper glued underneath to stop them scratching up boards when enthusiastically slammed down. Those are long gone, so now the whole set is waterproof. I have played many happy games in our back yard paddling pool with the board laid out on a big styrofoam TV packaging slab floating between the players.
As you'd expect from cheap plastic pieces that just rattle around in a tube, there's a lot of wear on them 35 years on. None of the knights have much left in the way of ears, and the battlements on the castles look authentically blasted and ruined. But their essential Staunton nature remains indomitable. The board itself is still in great nick.
I love this set the way a mechanic would love a similarly old and well-used collection of German chrome vanadium ring spanners. It's so good owning something uncompromisingly full-sized that still fits easily in a cycle pannier or backpack and whose purpose is so clearly the playing of the game and nothing else.
posted by flabdablet at 7:56 AM on January 15, 2021 [13 favorites]
My favourite chess set is the one I bought for twenty bucks from the Fitzroy Chess Club some time in the mid-Eighties. The tournament-size board is a flexible chocolate brown vinyl sheet with the light squares silk-screened in waterproof paint, and the tournament-size pieces are Staunton Pattern in hard moulded plastic. Plain polystyrene, I think - they chip more easily than I would expect ABS to do.
In all the years I've had this set, I've kept the board rolled up playing side inward (so the edges want to curl downward, not upward, when it's unrolled) in an Australia Post 90mm Extra Tough cardboard mailing tube with the pieces rattling around loose inside. The board would of course easily roll up into the smaller, tougher 60mm tube but the pieces don't all fit in one of those.
Accidentally ran over the tube with a back wheel of my Mini once, with the board and pieces inside. Tube got a bit elliptical but nothing inside took damage. Bit of gaffa tape around the worst-squashed section and it's good as new. Australia Post knows a thing or two about robust packaging.
When I first got this set, all the pieces had dark green flock paper glued underneath to stop them scratching up boards when enthusiastically slammed down. Those are long gone, so now the whole set is waterproof. I have played many happy games in our back yard paddling pool with the board laid out on a big styrofoam TV packaging slab floating between the players.
As you'd expect from cheap plastic pieces that just rattle around in a tube, there's a lot of wear on them 35 years on. None of the knights have much left in the way of ears, and the battlements on the castles look authentically blasted and ruined. But their essential Staunton nature remains indomitable. The board itself is still in great nick.
I love this set the way a mechanic would love a similarly old and well-used collection of German chrome vanadium ring spanners. It's so good owning something uncompromisingly full-sized that still fits easily in a cycle pannier or backpack and whose purpose is so clearly the playing of the game and nothing else.
posted by flabdablet at 7:56 AM on January 15, 2021 [13 favorites]
I don't have any craft skills to speak of, but I keep getting tempted to try writing my own chess engine. Maybe that'll be my next lockdown project.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 8:47 AM on January 15, 2021
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 8:47 AM on January 15, 2021
I could really use a longer edit window.
Melbourne Chess Club, not Fitzroy Chess Club (the club rooms are in Fitzroy). And I obviously need to roll the board with the playing side outward, not inward, to get the unrolled curve to be downward. So the pieces rattle around against the back side of the board, not the playing side, which probably explains why the paint still has so few chips and scratches.
The curve on unrolling has never been troublesome because I roll it along the ranks, not along the files, so that as soon as the pieces are set up in the starting position their weight flattens the board completely.
Silicone boards were not a thing when I bought my vinyl one, and thanks to Australia Post it's not had a single crease in 35 years.
posted by flabdablet at 9:08 AM on January 15, 2021 [1 favorite]
Melbourne Chess Club, not Fitzroy Chess Club (the club rooms are in Fitzroy). And I obviously need to roll the board with the playing side outward, not inward, to get the unrolled curve to be downward. So the pieces rattle around against the back side of the board, not the playing side, which probably explains why the paint still has so few chips and scratches.
The curve on unrolling has never been troublesome because I roll it along the ranks, not along the files, so that as soon as the pieces are set up in the starting position their weight flattens the board completely.
Silicone boards were not a thing when I bought my vinyl one, and thanks to Australia Post it's not had a single crease in 35 years.
posted by flabdablet at 9:08 AM on January 15, 2021 [1 favorite]
tempted to try writing my own chess engine
That would be a fun project! There is some good information about how to get started here.
posted by thelonius at 9:20 AM on January 15, 2021 [1 favorite]
That would be a fun project! There is some good information about how to get started here.
posted by thelonius at 9:20 AM on January 15, 2021 [1 favorite]
I alternate rolling by file and next time, rolling by rank.
(I also have a vinyl board that doesn't have the notation- that seems to upset some players as well, like 'How can I tell if I moved to c5 or c6 without it written on the board?'??)
The NYT piece links to the set used in World Chess Championship matches ($510 for set and [folding] board) , while showing a picture from the 2016 championship clearly showing a [non-folding] DGT board, which uses special pieces to communicate with the board. And costs twice that.
I got my dream set on eBay a dozen years ago from House of Staunton's store- 4" king, rosewood, triple weighted, simple design- by bidding on about a dozen sets before I won an auction at a price I could justify.
posted by MtDewd at 9:31 AM on January 15, 2021
(I also have a vinyl board that doesn't have the notation- that seems to upset some players as well, like 'How can I tell if I moved to c5 or c6 without it written on the board?'??)
The NYT piece links to the set used in World Chess Championship matches ($510 for set and [folding] board) , while showing a picture from the 2016 championship clearly showing a [non-folding] DGT board, which uses special pieces to communicate with the board. And costs twice that.
I got my dream set on eBay a dozen years ago from House of Staunton's store- 4" king, rosewood, triple weighted, simple design- by bidding on about a dozen sets before I won an auction at a price I could justify.
posted by MtDewd at 9:31 AM on January 15, 2021
No notation on mine either.
If I put it away rolled by file then the starting pieces don't weigh down the middle and it gets a tiny bit domed in the b and g files. If I roll by rank with the playing side outside it always starts dead flat once the pieces are on.
posted by flabdablet at 10:00 AM on January 15, 2021
If I put it away rolled by file then the starting pieces don't weigh down the middle and it gets a tiny bit domed in the b and g files. If I roll by rank with the playing side outside it always starts dead flat once the pieces are on.
posted by flabdablet at 10:00 AM on January 15, 2021
I made a chessboard in college out of aluminum while I was TA'ing the metal shop, and the knights were definitely the hardest challenge. The other parts were all mostly round cuts, so I had a lot of fun learning how to use a radius cutter on a lathe. My knights have flat faces and angular cuts on round stock, which required jigging the blanks in a round stock holder that would then be clamped on the mill. Getting those angles right was a huge challenge. (The other hard part was cutting the cross at the top of the kings - same issue.)
The board itself was actually pretty easy - cover a flat aluminum plate in masking tape, cut out squares in the chessboard pattern (so now you have alternating covered and uncovered squares), and then sandblast it. Now you have dull and shiny instead of black and white.
posted by backseatpilot at 10:28 AM on January 15, 2021 [2 favorites]
The board itself was actually pretty easy - cover a flat aluminum plate in masking tape, cut out squares in the chessboard pattern (so now you have alternating covered and uncovered squares), and then sandblast it. Now you have dull and shiny instead of black and white.
posted by backseatpilot at 10:28 AM on January 15, 2021 [2 favorites]
I sat down to a pairing at a USCF tournament once, and the opponent had his no-notation board all set up. He seemed disappointed that I did not complain.
posted by thelonius at 10:53 AM on January 15, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by thelonius at 10:53 AM on January 15, 2021 [1 favorite]
Probably wasn't me. :) -(USCF 12459386)
I think I got that board at least in part because of the apparent movement to stamp out descriptive notation.
I had read somewhere (years back) that CCA, for instance, required participants to record games in algebraic, which confused and annoyed me. What business is it of the tournament director to tell me how to record my games. I decided if I had to do that, I would record in Spanish or German: C-f3 or L-c4 instead of N-f3 or B-c4.
I think Chess Life had at least a justifiable reason for getting rid of the descriptive in their publication, but I still think the movement was based on selling books. To say that it's confusing implies that chess players aren't smart enough to handle more than one system. It reminds me of 'English Only' or 'No Metric System' complaints.
I started out in tournaments in the 70's using descriptive, then switched to algebraic in the 80's. Somewhere in the 90's I switched back, probably in resistance to Chess Life & CCA. I had also noticed that I couldn't play blindfold after going to algebraic, but that easily could have been due to age.
But I can't deny that I wouldn't mind if my board gave me any advantage over an opponent.
If they need to spend extra time thinking about what square they're moving to, maybe that's something they should work on.
posted by MtDewd at 8:45 AM on January 16, 2021 [2 favorites]
I think I got that board at least in part because of the apparent movement to stamp out descriptive notation.
I had read somewhere (years back) that CCA, for instance, required participants to record games in algebraic, which confused and annoyed me. What business is it of the tournament director to tell me how to record my games. I decided if I had to do that, I would record in Spanish or German: C-f3 or L-c4 instead of N-f3 or B-c4.
I think Chess Life had at least a justifiable reason for getting rid of the descriptive in their publication, but I still think the movement was based on selling books. To say that it's confusing implies that chess players aren't smart enough to handle more than one system. It reminds me of 'English Only' or 'No Metric System' complaints.
I started out in tournaments in the 70's using descriptive, then switched to algebraic in the 80's. Somewhere in the 90's I switched back, probably in resistance to Chess Life & CCA. I had also noticed that I couldn't play blindfold after going to algebraic, but that easily could have been due to age.
But I can't deny that I wouldn't mind if my board gave me any advantage over an opponent.
If they need to spend extra time thinking about what square they're moving to, maybe that's something they should work on.
posted by MtDewd at 8:45 AM on January 16, 2021 [2 favorites]
I accuse no one! Just thought it was mildly amusing. I have some vinyl boards of both kinds. I like the no notation better: there is the board, with a little border area, and then no distracting cruft around that.
While anyone who wants to play tournament chess really ought to know the names and colors of all the squares cold, I can see why they use the boards with notations for kids. I have some friends who teach chess in after-school programs, and learning how to write notation is really pretty challenging for the younger ones. Even in scoresheets of strong players, you will find transposition errors (writing "...Nf3" for Black's, uh, KN-B3).
What business is it of the tournament director to tell me how to record my games.
Well, the only rationale I can see is that the TD may need to be able to read both players' scoresheets in a dispute, and they decided that they can't rely on TDs knowing descriptive notation. Not saying that this is right, but it would at least be comprehensible why they would think this way.
I had also noticed that I couldn't play blindfold after going to algebraic, but that easily could have been due to age.
That is interesting. I remember that one of the main complaints from players who did not want to switch to algebraic was that it loses reference to the players' points of view. And "Q-R5" is the same attacking lunge with the Queen, no matter if White or Black plays it, never mind that "R5" is a different square for each of them.
If you learned to play blindfold with the help of visualization skills built in the context of thinking of the board in descriptive notation, I don't think it is out of the question at all that switching could monkeywrench that skill.
posted by thelonius at 12:28 PM on January 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
While anyone who wants to play tournament chess really ought to know the names and colors of all the squares cold, I can see why they use the boards with notations for kids. I have some friends who teach chess in after-school programs, and learning how to write notation is really pretty challenging for the younger ones. Even in scoresheets of strong players, you will find transposition errors (writing "...Nf3" for Black's, uh, KN-B3).
What business is it of the tournament director to tell me how to record my games.
Well, the only rationale I can see is that the TD may need to be able to read both players' scoresheets in a dispute, and they decided that they can't rely on TDs knowing descriptive notation. Not saying that this is right, but it would at least be comprehensible why they would think this way.
I had also noticed that I couldn't play blindfold after going to algebraic, but that easily could have been due to age.
That is interesting. I remember that one of the main complaints from players who did not want to switch to algebraic was that it loses reference to the players' points of view. And "Q-R5" is the same attacking lunge with the Queen, no matter if White or Black plays it, never mind that "R5" is a different square for each of them.
If you learned to play blindfold with the help of visualization skills built in the context of thinking of the board in descriptive notation, I don't think it is out of the question at all that switching could monkeywrench that skill.
posted by thelonius at 12:28 PM on January 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
There are some nice but simple knight patterns out there that can make your life a lot easier if you decide to build your own set.
posted by interogative mood at 6:32 PM on January 16, 2021
posted by interogative mood at 6:32 PM on January 16, 2021
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posted by leotrotsky at 4:30 PM on January 14, 2021