Worst chess set design ever?

I personally love the Ambasador set, seeing it in this topic was a hard blow for me.

Polish chess sets seem to be the ugliest. 

Ah yes... the 'Prince Albert' Bishop

(Sorry... couldn't resist)

This one... this one just makes me angry

I agree. I looked at that and started chuckling. It is mind numbingly and needlessly complicated. When into the game I'd be spending as much time figuring our who's who as where to play my next piece. Looks pretty though.

My art career needed attention. I figured out how to beat my computer on level 3. Play wildly making big sacrifices. Haha!

As my mother often said: "Some people have taste only in their mouth." I offer up my collection of the most mind-numbingly bad, tasteless, confusing, and/or impractical designs I've come across recently:

And for those who prefer their pawns to be the largest pieces:

I only have a link to the listing on 1stdibs, where you can see more photos: https://www.1stdibs.com/furniture/tables/coffee-tables-cocktail-tables/mid-century-modern-chess-cocktail-table-hand-carved-polychrome-figures-1965/id-f_23373082/

If we exclude what I like to call the 'gift shop' sets (because among them it's easy to find ugly fekkers), and only focus on genuine tournament sets, for me the one set which wins 1st prize in the 'Ugly, Disharmonious Sets' category hands down, is the Piatogorsky Cup set (also used in the Fischer v Reshevsky match). The pieces look like toys. It looks even worse than the official Fide set, which really does take some doing.

You people are amateurs!

This topic should only allow chess sets actually owned.

Just came across this set in a cupboard getting cleaned out. Don't even know where it came from.

infinitefrustration-

"Don't even know where it came from."

Maybe the trauma has caused you to suppress the memory... 😆

imma buy this

My top entries would be

#1 the taxidermy chess set

and #2 the dentist chess set

My vote goes to ANY of the movie or TV-themed figurative sets, except the Star Trek TOS set, which looks rather neat.

As for The Simpsons, Star Wars, Harry Potter, The Smurfs, Medieval, ANY such set: Demonstrably ugly and useless for playing.

I have numerous sets that, at the very least, are not functional as chess sets in the context of easy play … and … would divide opinion between beauty and ugliness. They are a Mexican papier mache set, a Balinese tourist set, a Philippines tribal set - perhaps I would add to that a Ganine set of plastic pieces … and my nephew now has a set of metal pieces that could be best described as medieval gothic horror… but he loves them. In a very modern way - when I asked if he was happy - have gave me a thumbs up accompanied by #chesssetenvy! Each to their own. 😏 (PS - it’s also interesting that some of these pieces stand alone as conversation pieces - for example, if I leave a Mexican knight, accompanied by a king and pawn in the buffet, or a few Ganine pieces on my desk… guests are attracted to them and they so start conversations …).

Omg…..

DGT German knight set. I hate it with a passion.

Horrific on so many levels. My wife is not a big fan of mice and the dentist is not my favourite place to visit.. albeit the dentists that I know are fine folk indeed.