Help me choose a colour scheme for a chess set.
September 23, 2024 3:30 PM Subscribe
I want to make a glass chess set. If these are the colour choices for the pawns, what black and white ones would you pair together?
If you have reasons why you think one pairing is better than other possible pairings, I'd like to hear them, most especially if you play chess and think any of them would be problematic for some reason in actual gameplay.
For example, my feeling is that 1 and 4, although a natural pairing might be hard to tell apart when looking down at them from above while playing.
If you have reasons why you think one pairing is better than other possible pairings, I'd like to hear them, most especially if you play chess and think any of them would be problematic for some reason in actual gameplay.
For example, my feeling is that 1 and 4, although a natural pairing might be hard to tell apart when looking down at them from above while playing.
Either 2 and 3, or 1 and 4.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 3:50 PM on September 23, 2024
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 3:50 PM on September 23, 2024
Of these, I agree that 2 and 3 would be clearest when looking down at the board. You definitely want the top to be the player color. I was thinking that having a red base for both, but the middle and top being both the player color might be even clearer since the middle piece is much larger and could add to visual confusion with them all being the same color, but still look cool: top to bottom, BBR and WWR. But neat idea: please post pics in Projects when you have the set complete--I'm curious how this will end up looking!
posted by indexy at 3:58 PM on September 23, 2024 [3 favorites]
posted by indexy at 3:58 PM on September 23, 2024 [3 favorites]
Just my obligatory caution to remind folks that 8% of the male population are red/green color blind (including me). If this is a gift for someone you probably would know that. Of course the two chess "sides" are often white and black, and the nature of the piece (which dictates allowed modes of movement) can be determined by height and ornamentation cues. So I do not usually have problems playing.
posted by forthright at 4:00 PM on September 23, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by forthright at 4:00 PM on September 23, 2024 [1 favorite]
Definitely 2+3 is better than 1+4, because you look at chess from above so the top colour matters. But honestly I wouldn't do either.... I do play chess for fun, and for me, this would be a visually confusing chess set and I would find it frustrating to play with:
1. The black-red-black colour pattern is breaking up the silhouette of each piece with an unrelated colour, so I'm now tracking "two black things" not "one black pawn" if that makes sense. So it would make it harder to "scan" the board and see patterns. I need to imagine my pieces moving around in diagonal lines, jumping, etc. which are already partially broken because they're made of barely-touching squares. Sometimes I have a bad perspective to see along that line already- making the chess pieces multicoloured means now my perspective might be putting the red part of a piece on the line not the black part, so it's further breaking the lines I need to imagine. If you need to use red, I would find it easier if you made all the bases red instead of the middles.
2. The red part also makes my pieces look more like my opponent's pieces.
3. I would miss things and make errors because the design is changing what I'm used to "reading".
4. Bi-colour pieces are adding a level of extra information to the board that makes the game way harder (for me anyway) and would really frustrate me. As a casual chess player I would MUCH prefer standard all-dark and all-light pieces.
5. The colour you use for the "black" side can be anything as long as it's very different from the white side. I would enjoy a fully Red chess piece.
Of all the boards I've played with, my fave colourway is when the pieces are clearly white/dark, and the board is white/dark but the board is in a different colour than the pieces, so the pieces "stand out" from the board. I don't like playing with black pieces on a black board.
I also do NOT like transparent chess pieces, strongly prefer opaque. Again I need to quickly scan so many silhouettes, I need to see them clearly.
- My childhood set, the pieces were pearly white and pearly brown, with a beige and black board, it was great. My current set is opaque black and beige pieces on a green and white board, also great.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 4:03 PM on September 23, 2024 [10 favorites]
1. The black-red-black colour pattern is breaking up the silhouette of each piece with an unrelated colour, so I'm now tracking "two black things" not "one black pawn" if that makes sense. So it would make it harder to "scan" the board and see patterns. I need to imagine my pieces moving around in diagonal lines, jumping, etc. which are already partially broken because they're made of barely-touching squares. Sometimes I have a bad perspective to see along that line already- making the chess pieces multicoloured means now my perspective might be putting the red part of a piece on the line not the black part, so it's further breaking the lines I need to imagine. If you need to use red, I would find it easier if you made all the bases red instead of the middles.
2. The red part also makes my pieces look more like my opponent's pieces.
3. I would miss things and make errors because the design is changing what I'm used to "reading".
4. Bi-colour pieces are adding a level of extra information to the board that makes the game way harder (for me anyway) and would really frustrate me. As a casual chess player I would MUCH prefer standard all-dark and all-light pieces.
5. The colour you use for the "black" side can be anything as long as it's very different from the white side. I would enjoy a fully Red chess piece.
Of all the boards I've played with, my fave colourway is when the pieces are clearly white/dark, and the board is white/dark but the board is in a different colour than the pieces, so the pieces "stand out" from the board. I don't like playing with black pieces on a black board.
I also do NOT like transparent chess pieces, strongly prefer opaque. Again I need to quickly scan so many silhouettes, I need to see them clearly.
- My childhood set, the pieces were pearly white and pearly brown, with a beige and black board, it was great. My current set is opaque black and beige pieces on a green and white board, also great.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 4:03 PM on September 23, 2024 [10 favorites]
2 and 3
posted by seemoorglass at 4:03 PM on September 23, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by seemoorglass at 4:03 PM on September 23, 2024 [1 favorite]
If you yourself don't play chess, maybe try playing a few games to see how you feel. Caveats:
- Play in person with another human - NOT with a computer - so you see the angles / perspective thing I mean. Computer play is WAY easier because there's no perspective issue so you miss fewer things.... in-person play requires more visual "decoding" so that's what you should try to experience.
- You'll also realize why, for instance, a bishop and a pawn, or a rook and a pawn, need to look really different. One issue with a lot of nonstandard sets is that they don't clearly differentiate those two key pieces from the pawns.
- Try playing with the standard tournament set (this is my set which I mentioned above - and the colours, sizes, and design are fantastic, it's not the prettiest but it just makes it the most fun to play because it doesn't cause frustrating errors).
Just from a practical perspective, I think this set is a perfect design:
- super easy to differentiate the pieces from each other and from the board
- board colours are nice and bright so it feels cheery
- big generous board squares so you don't knock things down accidentally
- the pieces are large enough and also slim enough that you can comfortably grab a piece without being dainty - when pieces are too thick, or the board squares are too small, you have to really manouevre to avoid knocking other pieces down
- bases are wide and weighted well so the pieces don't tip
- pieces are very sturdy, no worries about breaking them
It's the classic set for a reason!
Anyway I think making a glass chess set is a lovely idea and don't want to dissuade you! Just want to emphasize that the design of chess pieces does impact the fun of playing in these specific ways, at least for me.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 4:20 PM on September 23, 2024
- Play in person with another human - NOT with a computer - so you see the angles / perspective thing I mean. Computer play is WAY easier because there's no perspective issue so you miss fewer things.... in-person play requires more visual "decoding" so that's what you should try to experience.
- You'll also realize why, for instance, a bishop and a pawn, or a rook and a pawn, need to look really different. One issue with a lot of nonstandard sets is that they don't clearly differentiate those two key pieces from the pawns.
- Try playing with the standard tournament set (this is my set which I mentioned above - and the colours, sizes, and design are fantastic, it's not the prettiest but it just makes it the most fun to play because it doesn't cause frustrating errors).
Just from a practical perspective, I think this set is a perfect design:
- super easy to differentiate the pieces from each other and from the board
- board colours are nice and bright so it feels cheery
- big generous board squares so you don't knock things down accidentally
- the pieces are large enough and also slim enough that you can comfortably grab a piece without being dainty - when pieces are too thick, or the board squares are too small, you have to really manouevre to avoid knocking other pieces down
- bases are wide and weighted well so the pieces don't tip
- pieces are very sturdy, no worries about breaking them
It's the classic set for a reason!
Anyway I think making a glass chess set is a lovely idea and don't want to dissuade you! Just want to emphasize that the design of chess pieces does impact the fun of playing in these specific ways, at least for me.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 4:20 PM on September 23, 2024
Another vote for 2 + 3.
posted by coffeecat at 4:27 PM on September 23, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by coffeecat at 4:27 PM on September 23, 2024 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: I can't do all white pieces, because white glass is much more difficult to work with and my heat control just isn't that good. I mean, I could probably do these pawns all in white, but the more complicated pieces, no.
Black is easier to work with, but all black pieces would just suck in all the light, I think, and be aggressively uninteresting to look at which kind of defeats the purpose of handmaking them myself.
I could avoid using the same alternate colour on both sets. I chose red because the intended recipient likes red and because I thought it would create cohesion to use the same colour on both sides but maybe different colours would be better.
posted by jacquilynne at 4:31 PM on September 23, 2024
Black is easier to work with, but all black pieces would just suck in all the light, I think, and be aggressively uninteresting to look at which kind of defeats the purpose of handmaking them myself.
I could avoid using the same alternate colour on both sets. I chose red because the intended recipient likes red and because I thought it would create cohesion to use the same colour on both sides but maybe different colours would be better.
posted by jacquilynne at 4:31 PM on September 23, 2024
How about a more unusual colour combination, but keeping each side monotone - a red side and a yellow side, or red and whatever other colour is manageable for you to work with and provides a good contrast to red (but not green for the colourblindness reason noted above! Even if the recipient isn’t colour blind they might want to play someone who is).
posted by penguin pie at 5:03 PM on September 23, 2024
posted by penguin pie at 5:03 PM on September 23, 2024
Could you use clear glass for the alternate color? I think that would be much less visually confusing, and also look lovely.
My vote would be for 2 & 3, but with clear glass instead of red.
posted by mekily at 5:18 PM on September 23, 2024 [4 favorites]
My vote would be for 2 & 3, but with clear glass instead of red.
posted by mekily at 5:18 PM on September 23, 2024 [4 favorites]
You definitely want as little confusion as you can on which piece belongs to who. Chess pieces tend to be monochrome for a reason. Fancy sets where the pieces are painted are a pain in the arse to play with.
There is no reason why you couldn't do monochrome pieces in all black for one side and all red for the other. I personally would be all over that like an itchy rash, it would be so lush. They just need to be two colours that are distinct from one another.
On the subject of black glass being a light sink, remember these will be sitting on a board next to the 'white' ones. Many glass sets use black/transparent to good effect, opaque or transparent dark glass. The board has a part to play in your design schema too.
posted by Jilder at 6:36 PM on September 23, 2024 [4 favorites]
There is no reason why you couldn't do monochrome pieces in all black for one side and all red for the other. I personally would be all over that like an itchy rash, it would be so lush. They just need to be two colours that are distinct from one another.
On the subject of black glass being a light sink, remember these will be sitting on a board next to the 'white' ones. Many glass sets use black/transparent to good effect, opaque or transparent dark glass. The board has a part to play in your design schema too.
posted by Jilder at 6:36 PM on September 23, 2024 [4 favorites]
a) 2 and 3. The "red football jersey" look is a bit overwhelming.
b) white plus accents in pale blue or pale gray or pale beige, versus black plus accents in flame red or true red or garnet red.
c) 2 and 3, with red bases. This seems easier with pieces like the knights.
posted by TrishaU at 7:34 PM on September 23, 2024
b) white plus accents in pale blue or pale gray or pale beige, versus black plus accents in flame red or true red or garnet red.
c) 2 and 3, with red bases. This seems easier with pieces like the knights.
posted by TrishaU at 7:34 PM on September 23, 2024
Is this chess set for playing chess? Or is it for decoration on a coffee table?
If the former, do the players play lightning chess, or speed chess? If it’s for any kind of even remotely serious chess, the white pieces need to be white, and the black pieces need to be black. And the pawns need to be instantly definitively distinguishable from a bishop. And the king from a queen.
If the latter, then 1&4, or 2&3.
posted by at at 8:51 PM on September 23, 2024
If the former, do the players play lightning chess, or speed chess? If it’s for any kind of even remotely serious chess, the white pieces need to be white, and the black pieces need to be black. And the pawns need to be instantly definitively distinguishable from a bishop. And the king from a queen.
If the latter, then 1&4, or 2&3.
posted by at at 8:51 PM on September 23, 2024
Response by poster: It's for a child who is learning to play chess and thinks it is neat when auntie makes him stuff. I recently made him a big pendant because he saw someone hypnotize someone in a cartoon with the whole ”you're getting sleepy" routine and wants to try it on all his friends.
He will probably not use it too often because he mostly plays chess at school with their chess sets. I would like him to be able to play chess with it with his dad at home, but I don't anticipate it will become his primary chess set or anything.
My skills at both getting things to be the same size and sculpting off mandrel leave something to be desired and a chess set seems like it would be good practice.
posted by jacquilynne at 5:08 AM on September 24, 2024 [1 favorite]
He will probably not use it too often because he mostly plays chess at school with their chess sets. I would like him to be able to play chess with it with his dad at home, but I don't anticipate it will become his primary chess set or anything.
My skills at both getting things to be the same size and sculpting off mandrel leave something to be desired and a chess set seems like it would be good practice.
posted by jacquilynne at 5:08 AM on September 24, 2024 [1 favorite]
As a chess player, the further any set deviates from Staunton tournament pattern in plain black and white, the less my eyes and hands want anything to do with it - be that by size, colour, shape, weight or anything else.
If I got a beautiful glass set from you, I'd thank you effusively and with genuine appreciation for the effort and care you'd clearly put into making it, and then I'd put it away in a cupboard and keep on using my ancient $5 plastic set with the ears worn off the horses and the castle crenellations in ruins from years of banging around in the bag. Sorry, Auntie.
I guess what I'm saying here is: you're the artist, so please yourself.
posted by flabdablet at 5:32 AM on September 24, 2024 [2 favorites]
If I got a beautiful glass set from you, I'd thank you effusively and with genuine appreciation for the effort and care you'd clearly put into making it, and then I'd put it away in a cupboard and keep on using my ancient $5 plastic set with the ears worn off the horses and the castle crenellations in ruins from years of banging around in the bag. Sorry, Auntie.
I guess what I'm saying here is: you're the artist, so please yourself.
posted by flabdablet at 5:32 AM on September 24, 2024 [2 favorites]
There is no reason why you couldn't do monochrome pieces in all black for one side and all red for the other. I personally would be all over that like an itchy rash, it would be so lush.
Me too!
posted by Omnomnom at 5:08 AM on September 25, 2024
Me too!
posted by Omnomnom at 5:08 AM on September 25, 2024
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