Post pictures of your chess pieces/boards that you made yourself

@BH4WK, cool! What platform do you use?

@Aida_Amin I designed them with Blender and am printing them out with my Ender 3. Here's the Black pieces so far! Should take me a few days to get the white pieces done! I'm on the hunt for a chessboard to pair with this. 

When chess pieces barely look like chess pieces, they'll never get used, and if they do get used, the quality of the games will be rudimentary at best.

Ever play a game with strange looking pieces?

Didn't seem to bother Kirk and Spock...

Thanks for sharing your thoughts! This is not a standard chess set. That has been done already - over and over and over again. I wanted to make something visually different and fun yet still playable - You don't need a reference guide or label to tell what the chess pieces are. This isn't a tournament set - though it is sized for it. It follows the standard FIDE ratios and dimensions and is rooted in the staunton style.  

This is a centerpiece for the home and is sextuple weighted (6lbs for the set). I realize it's not for everyone - it's for me and that's why I made it. 

The pieces make for interesting photographs, and they're "art."

When growing up, a friend's parents came back from a vacation to Spain, and they had bought a chess set there, as a keepsake.  My friend and I would play using the pieces and the board, and when we'd go to make a move, before finishing the move, we'd often turn the piece around in our hand and admire its detail — the craftsmanship that must have gone into creating it.  They were nice pieces — interesting,  but we had several games where we'd get tripped up — both of us — by making poor moves, where we would lose a piece because we overlooked tactics familiar to us when using more familiar Staunton style pieces.

Years later, that chess set never got used.  We'd always play at my house, where my father's chess set was more in line with what we liked, and were accustomed to.

Even now, on chess dot com, if I attempt someone's submitted puzzle, and they're using a "3-D graphic" on their post, the puzzle always seems more difficult.  Sure, they maybe get more interest from the curious, because they get noticed for their different looking diagram, but most players prefer analyzing tactics without an extra layer of complexity.

It's funny you should mention this, because I once asked Spock…

"Hey, Spock… 'yes' or 'no' … do you like that three dimensional chess set that you're always playing chess on?"

Guess what his answer was?

"Negative."

Typical Vulcan!  

By that standard- I make more mistakes in person than on chess.com- which has the simplest symbols for each piece. I'd argue all of the classic designs with extra chamfers and fillets are unplayable. Mostly I take issue with the fact that this has tons of posts of interesting chess sets that people have made and you have to call mine out. This is supposed to be a space to share what we've made. take your comment and feel free to make a post in a different thread like : "throw your non-standard chess sets in the garbage and here's why"

A "do what you want" design that's what it is, so do it as you want, all that is important is if you like your design so..nothing to say apart of well done, I personally like it very much, very good blender job.

@BH4WK Don't let it bother you. I agree that unconventional pieces can make play more difficult but viewing everything through a pure playability lens is rarely going to lead to any really inspiring chess sets and very little exciting innovation. I think you've done a great job with that design.

What are you thinking in terms of a board? You'll presumably need a fairly sizeable one given the size of the pieces...

Definitely don't let my comments bother you.  Incidentally, I haven't played chess over a real board since I joined chess dot com in April 2019.  I now only play chess on chess dot com, and it is only occasionally that I play a game.  I spend almost all of my time, here, doing the Daily Puzzle.

It is comical on this thread, however, that some of the sets seem inspired by Easter Island.  

I have that same mousepad camphor board.  I bought it from Shelby.  I can say this...black pieces play very nicely on it.  What's nice is - like you are planning - until you decide on a wood board, these mousepad boards offer a nice low-priced option.

Since my first post on this thread back in July 2020 (comment #36), I have been working on producing a vertical chess-set to as high a standard as I am able to achieve. I have been working with a laser-cutting company and a printing company here in Manchester, UK to bring a product together.

I am very pleased with the results, and have a very small handful available via Etsy.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/989224823/davenport-vertical-chess-set-ideal-gift

Chess and developing this chess-set has kept me sane during the difficult lockdown periods here in the UK. Many thanks to those on this thread who have provided feedback and encouragement.

Wow really nice work! I've been thinking of producing a set of a similar design for the past couple of years but never did anything with the idea. I was just cruising this thread and loved your prototype posted earlier, and then saw you have posted this just now! Good luck with the product!

Very very nice. Actually the nicest vertical chessboard I've seen. I have to say though the 'dots' between the notation is rather disorienting/distracting. For me it creates an 'optical illusion' of asymmetry in the lettering. What is their purpose?

 Thanks for your kind words.

The 'dots' on the co-ordinate bars are small magnets which hold them to the board.

Thanks Babbling_Rook

Nice job everyone

Very nice vertical product! GL on Etsy! 👍🏽