The Queen's Gambit: Instructions to Build a LEGO Chess Set
Chess has been covered well throughout LEGO history. From official sets to MOCs, there is no shortage of results searching for “LEGO Chess.” Walk through almost any decently-sized LEGO convention hall and you will find a chess board or three. But despite the multitude of creative works, takes, and approaches, the chess set remains a classic.
To me, the regal game’s ascetic never gets “old and tired” but rather stays “tried and true.” So over a decade ago, I set out to make a clean simple chess set. This ended up becoming a surprisingly long journey that only time and parts from the future would solve.
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In the meantime, official sets like the ones above would pop up for purchase. I started my personal LEGO journey as a castle army amasser, so any time a chess set like these hit the shelves, I saw a beautiful army pack!
Outside of official sets, many people were building chess MOCs from massive models like this robotic technic monstrosity from Team Hassenplug…
To smaller elegant models, like this one done by Chris Maddison.
As appreciative as I always was for these, I have been wanting to make a pure and simple chess board scaled to the standard tournament chess set. This journey started for me with the Technic ball joint in black. So, I waited for LEGO to make a white one, which they did. But the real struggle was in the larger round pawn heads.
For a while, I was stuck. I didn’t want to use the 2x2 dome, and the best physical piece was a printed one which came on old LEGO pens. Other parts (including Scala) started messing up the scale. Then, at last… a new Star Wars movie and BB-8 Saved the day! With the new droid body, this was starting to look doable and gave me the perfect shape I needed.
I only mention this because sometimes letting a project sit is okay. Just like when Iron Man’s father, Howard Stark, left him a legacy because his world’s technology wasn’t ready yet… Our playful version of that means sometimes waiting for LEGO to make a piece… or even just an existing one in a new color. So my humble project sat for a decade, and I was re-reminded of it upon viewing Netflix’s The Queens Gambit a couple of years after it came out.
Some of the most iconic scenes are where Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy) is envisioning ethereal chess pieces move across her ceiling. The chess prodigy runs through moves and gameplay into the late hours of the night with her visual imagination and genius.
I want to pull this into a LEGO perspective briefly with you. I have found that in general, LEGO builders are uniquely good at spatial awareness. For example, if someone asks if that couch will fit between those two bookshelves, I’ll put my money on the LEGO person who says no over the non-LEGO individual who says yes. There is something about turning a 3D element over and over in your head and then needing to fit it into a rigid system that tempers the spatial awareness of one’s brain.
Via Highlights Magazine
Likewise, how many hours as a kid (or adult) did you paw through bins of pieces looking for that one element for your build? This reminds me of the Highlights magazine or Where’s Waldo? challenges. Can’t find your car keys or flip-flops? Ask a LEGO builder to scan the busy room!
Anyways, I loved the show, and it provided me with great motivation to finally get this project done. An important side goal for me was to make this chess set clean, simple, and easily converted into instructions.
Then for some reason, I made an annoyingly complex backlit translucent board that uses hundreds of ancient 1x4 transparent bricks. Long and short… it’s a horrible piece to replicate… So, apologies for that… these instructions are only for the chess pieces themselves.
When you think about a chess board, it really only has six unique pieces. Pawns, Rooks, Knights, Bishops, Kings, and Queens. So rather than present you with a set of instructions following the construction of 32 mostly repeating assemblies in varying colors, here below are the core six mini instructions.
To wrap up, in lieu of how many chess builds there already are, I still believe the LEGO chess-scape will only continue to grow—and that will be awesome. I’ll leave one of my favorite inspiring chess artworks here, with a simple closing note of “Imagine if someone built this…”
Thanks for reading and joining a quick personal MOC adventure (Wasn’t so quick for me I suppose lol). Hope the instructions are helpful, and would love to see any of your favorite chess related builds you’ve found or come across!
Do you play chess? Let us know in the comments below.
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