[HN Gopher] A Visual History of Chessmen
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A Visual History of Chessmen
Author : alberto-m
Score : 99 points
Date : 2025-05-25 14:00 UTC (4 days ago)
(HTM) web link (chesshistory.github.io)
(TXT) w3m dump (chesshistory.github.io)
| iamwil wrote:
| Neat. This would be fun to model for 3D printing. I once did a
| chess set in OpenSCAD. https://github.com/iamwilhelm/kings_gambit
| rubit_xxx16 wrote:
| This is very nice. The full list however would be much too large,
| however, e.g.
|
| - Louis Vuitton is included and Super Mario was not, even though
| it has been very popular.
|
| - Wartime travel set pieces are included which are arguably
| tokens representing chess pieces and not formal chess pieces, and
| that is well and good, but even more cheap stone sets were sold
| to tourists in Mexico that had a distinctive look which are not
| mentioned here.
|
| - No mention of other variations of chess and how those pieces
| evolved.
|
| - Many online stores sell chess pieces in variations unmentioned.
| growlNark wrote:
| Equally, I would argue the Louis Vuitton set is not worth
| mentioning. One of the benefits of living in modern society is
| not having to look to the rich for signals of taste.
| mock-possum wrote:
| The iconography used on the wartime tokens seem like they merit
| their own article even - are piece glyphs always 'just' a 2D
| translation of the 3D piece, or is there more you can do with a
| 2D printed or illustrated mark, that would be prohibitive to
| sculpt/mold/turn/3D print?
| zabzonk wrote:
| My ex-wife (long ago) made me a set of chess pieces in resin as a
| birthday present, in a kind of Norse style, which were quite
| nice. And my dad had a set of plastic ones in a sort of Gothic
| style. Bothe were good, but I still think Staunton is the best.
| arh68 wrote:
| What do I picture? 2D pieces, to be honest. Computer chess is
| just so prevalent. I picture what I'd call "USCF style" [1]
| because that's what they'd use in the Chess Life magazine to
| annotate games. I also picture the "old style" pieces [2], used
| in other periodicals & some books (especially puzzles).
|
| I bet a lot of people picture the default set on Chess dot com. I
| find it very hard to adjust to new sets, for whatever reason.
|
| As far as real pieces, I picture plastic pieces & vinyl board.
| Either what I'd call the "triple-weighted set" [3] (my favorite),
| the plastic "Dreuke set" [4], or the "basic USCF set" [5].
|
| I had no idea there were so many variations, especially in the
| last 100 years. Most I've never seen before. I still dislike the
| real abstract/bauhaus style but there's a lot of artistry in the
| sets.
|
| [1] on lichess, it's called "companion"
|
| [2] on lichess, it's called "leipzig"
|
| [3] https://www.chessset.com/collections/weighted-chess-
| pieces-h...
|
| [4] Player's Choice, like
| https://www.wholesalechess.com/reproduction-of-the-drueke-pl...
|
| [5] https://www.uscfsales.com/single-weighted-regulation-
| plastic...
| helloplanets wrote:
| A spinoff piece on the visual evolution of illustrated and
| digital chess pieces would be interesting. How they relate to
| specific physical designs, and the limitations of the format
| they're bound to.
| abetaha wrote:
| An amazing page with a lot of chess designs, definitely did not
| expect that many, and was surprised that the beloved Staunton
| chess set was designed by someone else.
| mdaniel wrote:
| relevant? _GenChess_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42248630 - Nov, 2024 (238
| comments)
| jsmo wrote:
| Thanks for sharing!
| keyle wrote:
| Very impressive work. It must have taken ages to get this page
| together and be so factually full. Love the evolution of the
| pieces design over time.
| ggm wrote:
| Re: the Norse Chessmen,
|
| My mother told me the gnawing-the-shield image is said to be how
| the norsemen were said to psych themselves up before battle. She
| said the hemp rope around the shield was meant to be impregnated
| by drugs, or be psychoactive otherwise. This was said back in the
| 70s mind you..
|
| The description of the bishops as other roles is very confusing
| given the crozier. The article surely must mean that taking the
| norse chessmen as holotypes, the variants found in russia, baltic
| states.. &c made similar changes?
|
| The set is split between The BM in London, and the Royal Scottish
| Museum, and sometimes a piece or two is on display elsewhere. the
| Museum shop sells really exceptionally well made casts, we also
| had the resin kit with rubber moulds which made significantly
| less well made, bubble ridden, smelly versions.
|
| They are said to be the property of a trader in Walrus Ivory,
| being mixed parts of more than one set when found.
| Daisywh wrote:
| Yeah, I always think of the old beat up plastic set at the park
| near my house. Some of the pieces were scratched up, a few were
| kinda melted probably left in the sun too long. But that's what I
| learned on, so it still feels like "real" chess to me.
|
| It's weird how no matter how fancy the sets get, that scruffy one
| is still the one I picture first.
| FinnLobsien wrote:
| I think that's the beauty of chess as well. You can play in the
| street with a molten plastic set and a missing pawn replaced
| with a coin or in a mansion with ivory-carved pieces.
|
| And it's still the same game, nobody can buy an advantage or
| get a lucky win.
| somishere wrote:
| Lanier Graham is my pick of the bunch. Finally a set that doesn't
| require a lathe or a chisel!
| mock-possum wrote:
| Yeah that was the one I was delighted by too! I'm not always
| into the more cubist takes on pieces, but this one feels right.
| paulddraper wrote:
| > As shatranj, new rules are introduced that cause the game to
| begin to resemble modern chess, including the rule that the King
| cannot be captured but must be rendered helpless: shah mat, the
| King is helpless, gives us the word checkmate.
|
| Checkmate is by far the weirdest rule in chess, as capturing the
| king would lead to an essentially identical strategy and game,
| but without all the extra rule complexity of checks and
| checkmates.
|
| (The exceptions are castling details and the stalemate rule. If
| kings could be captured, stalemates would not exist. But I argue
| that's a feature not a bug. Stalemates do little to enhance
| fundamental strategy, their primarily use being hail mary gotchas
| for low level plays. In any case, kings-cannot-captured exists to
| make stalemates possible.)
| tzs wrote:
| Public service announcement: if you want to give a gift to a
| semi-serious or serious chess player don't give them a
| reproduction of an historical set such as those in the article
| and don't give them a modern themed set such as an Alice in
| Wonderland set or a Civil War set or a Sherlock Holmes set or a
| Lord of the Rings set no matter how much they are fans of the
| subject of the set's theme unless you have very good reason to
| believe they actually will want the specific set you want to give
| them.
|
| To a majority of semi-serious or serious players those sets are
| only interesting as art objects. They will almost never actually
| use them to play chess. When they actually want to play a game
| they usually want a set that meets FIDE or their local
| federation's tournament standards, and is sturdy enough that it
| won't be damaged in a mad rush to beat the clock in an endgame.
|
| Even if they personally are OK with playing on an historical or
| themed set they might have trouble finding people to play with.
| If I come to their house and they want me to play chess with them
| I am _not_ going to play on their Sherlock Holmes themed set [1]
| where I 'll spend half my time trying to remember if Inspector
| Lestrade is a rook or a bishop.
|
| [1]
| https://www.houseofstaunton.com/catalog/product/view/id/3658...
| QuantumGood wrote:
| Agree. I have strong negative emotional reactions to poor
| lighting and non-standard pieces; it feels like being forced to
| look at a spreadsheet with a background of a trash heap--a
| continual assault on my senses when I'm focusing on data.
|
| (I played in the U.S. Open, World Open, and New York Open in
| the '80's, when time controls were longer in general than
| today. Lots of hours staring at sets.)
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(page generated 2025-05-29 23:02 UTC)