Awesome Chess

A pair of chess sets with online multiplayer. When you make a move on your set, the corresponding piece on the other set mimics the move, thanks to magnets and motors beneath the boards.

A brilliant concept chess set where a captured piece is kept underneath its captor to help players retrace their game. Made by Orr Kislev, an Industrial Design student at Holon Institute of Technology.

Nonessentials’ wooden chess set comes flat-packed. Just pop the pieces out of the laser-scored wood, slide the pieces together, and play. Available in neutral and 4 smooth colors too.

Designer Adin Mumma’s gorgeous chess set is crafted from walnut and metal, the pieces and board have curved components so they wobble like Weebles after you move them.

(NSFW: Language) BBC Comedy pokes fun at the coma-inducing gameplay of competitive chess with a newly-revamped version designed just for today’s short attention spans.

A stunning custom-made chess set, with pieces made from machined, anodized solid aluminum, and a board constructed from either etched carbon fiber or back-painted glass.

A limited edition chess set by Hat Trick Design for typography enthusiasts. The chess pieces take the form of the first letter(s) of their names. Made from laser cut acrylic. Video here.

If you still have money to burn after grabbing the 25th anniversary game collection, check out this limited edition chess set featuring miniature busts of the fighting game’s characters.

Using a special round board, this unique chess set lets you take on two opponents at once. For those of you with one more friend, there’s always the less interesting, but functional 4-player variant.

Made from everyday nuts and bolts, the pieces in this chess set perfectly capture the spirit of the game. Though you might be able to dismantle your opponent with a couple of box wrenches.

Move bishop to bathroom and checkmate dirt with these awesome set of soaps made to look like life-size chess pieces. You can customize the colors and scent of the set. Soap chessboard not included.

Tee off on a different green with this handcrafted golf-themed chess set from woodcraft company Agresti. The board is made of Canadian bird’s-eye maple while the playing pieces are made of brass.

This dude looks like a model from a 1980s Sears catalog, but we still think the wall-mounted vertical chess set is pretty cool. Making your opponent stand on his head to play would be even better.

Chess can be a slow-paced game, establish some urgency by making your pieces out of ice. And when you’re sick of playing, just use freeze some extra game pieces to chill your drinks.

Designed by Lanier Graham, this chess set is actually more intuitive than it seems. The shape of each piece indicates its movement range, while its mass and height indicates its importance.

This amazing robotic chess set took a core team of four people over a year to create, using over 100,000 LEGO parts, at a cost of appx. $30,000. Winner: the LEGO company.

Bungie’s April Fools joke this year is a doozy. Combining the Halo universe with the classic Battle Chess, they’ve put together a game concept that seems just too good to be a prank.

Beloved by bikers and a favorite of Sinatra (he was buried with a bottle), this Jack Daniel’s Chess Set celebrates its heritage; Jack serves as King while Black Label bottles are pawns.

The One Ring gets blinged with this Lord of the Ring’s Chess Set; you’ll get 32 pewter playing pieces representing every major character, a plexiglass top, and a cold-cast porcelain board.

Crafted from cold-cast marble and limited to 750 sets, the devil is really in the details with this Monster vs. Hunter chess set; our favorite piece: the chainsaw-packing Good queen.

Brandon Griffith is a god amongst Jedi: he’s built a Star Wars chess set using LEGO pieces dedicated to A New Hope (Ep. IV), with two additional sets for the Ep. V and VI on the way.

The game of kings gets a royal upgrade with Zontik’s Leather Chess & Checkers set; it includes a calf leather chess board, 32 double-sided embossed leather pieces and a carrying case.

We can almost picture a medieval battlefield with this fantastic Chain Mail Chess Set; it’s made by artisan David Austin and consists of precisely 42,256 rings.