Cube-Based Chess Set Adds Modern Confusion To Timeless Difficulty

My chess strategy doesn’t extend too far beyond pulling my knights out first, because that’s what the computer games always do against me. But with this cube-based set, I’d probably need a strategy just to remember which piece is which.

Chess has been reimagined more times than anyone cares to count. But Scott Cruz’s chess set, designed around a cubic pawn, makes the game even more difficult to master, rendering all the pieces as rectangular towers of different heights.

Thankfully, Cruz has included a built-in cheat sheet for the easily confused; each piece is indented with tiny squares showing its possible moves.

Still, my go-to set-up mnemonic – “the Queen always starts on her own colour” – won’t work too well on the grey scale board. [The Design Blog]