Lego Kingdoms Chess Set Review

I recently picked up the LEGO Kingdoms Chess Set at the LEGO Store.  My son just finished putting it together today, after which we had a game.  So I thought I'd write a short review.


My son has been interested in building a Lego chess set for a few years now, but only recently did I notice some of the cool sets that LEGO has been putting out -- including the Pirates Chess Set, Viking Chess Set, and Giant Castle Set.  All have become collector's items and are selling for far more than their original purchase price.  So I was glad to see a new set come out that I'd actually buy.  At $49.99, the Kingdoms Chess Set is a real bargain, especially considering that LEGO mini-figures generally go for over $3 each and the set contains 28 of them, each with weapons and various other accoutrements.  You better buy it soon, though, because it has already been bid up to nearly $70 on Amazon and hasn't even been out for a month.


It is a fun set and easy to assemble, with a Medieval theme of warring feudal armies surrounded by a plastic castle shell.  The white pieces bear a lion crest, with steel weapons and helmets, looking like civilized knights in full regalia; the black pieces have a dragon coat of arms, iron gear, and more pagan appearance, with a wizard king and warrior queen (complete with dagger).  The pawns have two different types of weapons, so there is some variety there, though this does introduce some potential confusion during play ("that's a Knight?  I thought it was a pawn!")  It is easy to play with, and though you'll inevitably knock off some of the gear during battle  it snaps right back on, of course.  I especially like white's jester knights with their cross-bows and two possible faces (so you can make the king's knight wear a frown and the queen's knight a smile).  My son really loves it and it has definitely gotten him excited about playing chess, which I am always looking to encourage.  Highly recommended.

Lego Chess Set

Melanie Penola recommends you Build a Chess Set Out of LEGOs, in a way which seems more child-friendly than the Lego Star Wars chess set noted here last year.  I think my son will be inspired by this one.  (Direct link to the Instructables instructions).

Paper Chess Set

Paper Chess by Kell Black would make the perfect holiday gift for a crafty chess-playing friend or teen. There have been a couple interviews (see "APSU Artist Releases Book of Paper Chess Pieces" and "APSU Professor Engineers Paper Chess Set for Ivy Press in England") with designer Black, an art professor at Austin Peay State University in Tennessee, who talks about how he fell in love with paper foldouts when he built a paper medieval village with his father at the age of five. The difficulty with chess (as Stean and Emms will tell you) is keeping it simple:

“Any designer, any artist, any musician will tell you it’s always easy to add stuff,” [Black] said. “What’s really hard is to take away, to make it as simple as possible. That’s the challenge and that’s what made it so fun.”

For those looking for more of a challenge, there is a nice instruction set available online for making a "Birdbase Chess Set" (PDF) by Joseph Wu, who has also produced a YouTube video showing you how he can make it in 30 seconds (so long as you speed up the video tape!)

Lewis Chessmen Dispute Back in News

"Doubts cast on Chessmen origins" is the title of a BBC World News story that reports on the continuing dispute between Britain and Scotland concerning the origins and ownership of the famous Lewis Chessmen, which were found on the Isle of Lewis but are now mostly kept in the British Museum (with only a few at the National Museum of Scotland.) According to an article to appear in the journal Medieval Archaeology by Dr. David Caldwell (of the National Museum of Scotland), it is most likely that the chessmen were passed down as a family heirloom by a rich cattle owner on the Isle of Lewis itself, which would justify the Isle's and Scotland's claim to them. We previously linked to the fanciful story "Stale Mate" by Allan Burnett (Herald Scotland, Feb 2 2008) which offered an involving reconstruction of what might be called "the merchant theory of origin," in which it is suggested that the pieces were stolen from a rich Scandinavian merchant while in harbor off Lewis, which would mean that Scotland has no original claim. Hat tip: the BCC Weblog.

Chess Skill That's Stronger than Steel

According to Gareth Williams's book Master Pieces: The Architecture of Chess, in the 18th Century "the turning of a chess set was an important part of an apprentice turner's course" -- so important that "a seal of the Hanover Turners' Guild...displays a chess knight, with a double headed horse as its symbol" (65). The manufacturers of automated metal lathes are doing the same thing as lathe turners in the 18th Century: demonstrating their skills by making chess pieces. There are several videos on YouTube (especially the one above) that most chess players will find hypnotic.

• Turning a Chess Rook by Glacern Machine Tools
• SolidCAM Chess Video
• CNC Chess Piece - Queen
• CNC Lathe -- Pawn

King Kong Chess Set

You can get an impressive King Kong Deluxe Chess Set for $129.99 from Toynk. Based on the classic 1933 film, it contrasts an art deco city with a savage island (ruled by Kong as its King.) Daryl has great pictures from his collection (hope he didn't buy it at $475.) I'd be tempted to invent a special chess variation to match the set (along the lines of Dracula Chess), in which the object of the game is for black to capture Ann Darrow and white to rescue her. Oh, wait, isn't that Donkey Kong?