I love the way these pieces fit together for storage. This is a simplistic pattern that could easily be repeated. I did not “get” the symbolic shapes for the bishops & knights at first, and then… the slanted bishop wasn’t symbolic of their hats, but are diagonals, symbolic of the way they move on the board. And, the knight is an “L” symbolic of the knight’s movement on the board.

Below is a set I am making from the small, square wooden blocks, glued together and the painted. The colored thumb tacks are not “noses” but rather symbolic of shields. I bought the colored map flags to top the rooks (castles). I also bought a bunch of “small, plastic googly eyes.” Each pawn has a pair of googly eyes, and a colored shield (thumb tack). I placed a pair of googly eyes on all four sides of the rooks, symbolic of watchers upon a castle tower, defending against attack. I am thinking the King should have three googly eyes, with the third eye symbolizing his “wisdom.” The knights may just have one googly eye, opposite, symbolic of a horses eyes. There might also be something symbolizing a horses “mane.” A cross or crozier (cup holder) might work symbolically for bishops.

Still my favorite is the tubular metal set.

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This is my favorite minimalist chess set. The pieces are easily recognizable. The king & the queen are easily distinguishable. The bishops have a recognizable shape as do the rooks (castles). I especially like the knights, with the two sides having different helmet shapes. *I have started making a version of this set using PVC tubing. I have cut the individual pieces but have not started shaping the distinctive elements.

Not sure, but I must have seen a “pregnant” queen sitting on a throne some time ago, and then thought what Queen would be more viscous than if she were pregnant, so from then on, I wanted a chess set that had an obviously pregnant queen. Having said this, when I saw the tubular chess set, I imagined that you could symbolically create a pregnant queen by drilling a larger hole in the side of the queen and then gluing a marble to the piece thereby making a pregnant queen.

I’ve also seen a minimalist set that has a small protruding pipe, symbolizing a knight’s lance. You might use this piping in various ways to accent the other pieces. Maybe a cross on a pole being held by the bishop. Perhaps even a flag pole for the rook.

I was in a local antiques store and happened to see a package of wine bottle corks, and then I saw the above, both black & light corks, all about the same size. I realized that I could use these to create a similar set to the metal set above.

THEMED SETS I LIKE

ISLE OF LEWIS

I like this small Isle of Lewis Chess Set for two main reasons: The pawns are in the image of little warriors and the rooks look like castle turrets. Many other sets have a rook that looks like a large rune stone or a large warrior figure. In other sets, the pawns are small rune stones. I have seen something labeled “Berserker” that gives the figures a more warrior-like look.