Two Kings

This project was inspired by a profound encounter with a distant cousin in India. Our attempts at conversation—my rudimentary Telugu and his fragmented English—were comical. Fortunately, chess stepped in. The game proved more eloquent than either of us, transforming our linguistic fumbles into a silent but intense dialogue of moves and countermoves.

Final Board Unfolding

In the ideation phase, I was greatly inspired by New York City’s outdoor chess scene, and how it brought a variety of different people together, just like me and my cousin in India. Portability became a priority, which is why I started experimenting with ways to design a foldable chess board which also included storage for the pieces. The ritual of unfolding the board and setting up the pieces is part of the game.

Initial hinge prototype - issue with gap when closed

Elbow hinge design solves problem - both positions are flush

Final prototype unfolding

Strips of wood for the board itself

Clamping

Clamping both halves of the board

Clamping vertically as well

Full scale below, 2/3 scale prototype above

Clamping on the borders

The board and the pieces are made of mahogany and maple. Cuts were made on table saw and bandsaw, and it took a lot of sanding to get the playing surface to be flat. The small scale prototype I made was crucial to practice the cuts and the glue-up technique.

Boards post-clamping; visible gaps, especially with border

Collected sawdust to fill in the gaps

Gaps filled with matching sawdust + wood glue

Detail shot

Now that the board was complete, I needed to embed magnets under each square so the pieces would center themselves automatically, improving the final playing experience. This took a lot of precision, especially with the drill press.

Scoring the center of each square

Both halves of the board + prototype (again) + magnets

Drilled the holes, matching the diameter of the magnets

Work station, ft. prototype (again)

Detail shot of holes, each one had to be the same diameter and depth

Magnets in place!

Successful magnet testing before gluing it back together

After the 2 parts of the board were complete, I began work on the chess pieces themselves. Since the CNC was the most efficient way to make the pieces, I designed the pieces with it’s limitations in mind, especially regarding undercuts and small details. I soon realized that the knight would be (by far) the most complicated piece to model.

Midjourney knight concept

Fusion 360 surface modeling

Two Knights

Piece storage with 3D printed pieces

Fresh off the CNC

Final piece storage with magnetic strips and felt inlay

Final Chessboard

Final Chessboard: Magnetics