Wood is undoubtably the most common material used for physical chess pieces - but there must be at least 100 other materials in use? It should be fairly easy to determine the top 10!
NOW THE HARD PART - ordering by 'the most common, PHYSICAL material'. This is a fairly vague requirement. I have in mind: popularity in terms of number of chess sets manufactured worldwide.
Assuming WOOD is #1, and that electromagnetic forms are excluded. Which material is in number #2 position?
uh, plastic?
stone (marble, alabaster), and maybe metal??? If we're going to group materials this generally, there probably won't be more than 10.
METAL is a bit too generic.
Wood, plastic, stone (marble, alabaster), which metal(s)?, ...
(Incidentally, which type of wood is commonly used?)
glass, i guess you can make some sort of weird chocolate chess, and ice sculptors... and if ice, why not liquid nitrogin... i think my friend has a bronze chess set, but naybe it only looks like bronze...
glass, i guess you can make some sort of weird chocolate chess, and ice sculptures... and if ice, why not liquid nitrogin... i think my friend has a bronze chess set, but maybe it only looks like bronze...
If the pieces are going to be made out out of glass, you might as well fill them with alcohol/liqueurs and go in for 'drinking chess' (where you have to drink the contents of a piece after you've captured it).
So we're up to ...
Wood, plastic, stone (marble, alabaster), metal (brass, ...), glass, ...
boxwood, rosewood, ebony?
Don't forget crystal.
I've seen a chess set made out of ivory, forgot how much it was, but it cost a pretty penny.
Metals: Gold, Silver, Brass, Bronze.
how about paper?!? ....machet that is...!
Thought about another one: bones! I actually saw a set made of bones!!!
The list is becoming more comprehensive ...
wood
boxwood, (bud) rosewood, ebony, walnut, maple, sheesham
Good chess sets have weighting added to the bottom of the pieces. The base is hollowed out, lead poured in, and the base sealed and capped with a leather or felt disc to hide any imperfections.
plastic
metal
steel, brass, pewter, copper
glass
stone
marble, onyx (crystal), alabaster (mineral), jade,
Naturally occurring stone is carved, turned or machined. Often each half of the set is made of a distinctively contrasting coloured material e.g. jet & alabaster
composite stone
technically Resinous Agglomerate (‘Marble Resin’) the natural aggregate stone is either Marble, Granite or Quartz base.
paper
paper machee, cardboard
bone
bone (particularly camel bone), ivory, tooth
http://www.thechesszone.com/chess_pieces_materials_manufacture
We must have missed a few ...
dude? Photons! think of all the sets that are recreated over and over just on Chess.com
Photons. PHOtons. PHOTONS? Yes, and we could also say that all sets have electrons and protons and neutrons and quarks and bosons and neutrinos and gravitons and... or we could just stick to normal materials. Speaking of which, I think Ive seen a ruby vs. emerald set. Now THAT ain't cheap!
The list of PHYSICAL materials (The_Pitts, please note ;) is becoming more comprehensive ...
gemstones
ruby vs. emerald
edible
chocolate, sugar (marzipan), ...
We're getting closer ...
well I was refering to the computer screen's photons, the chess set de rigeur of chess.com
Humans
yes pixels, all games on Chess.com are played on a board of pixels
Are you Borg or Ferengi?
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