A beautiful move is a beautiful move: and it doesn't matter whether it is played on a glittering, giant board with human pieces dressed perfectly in character, horses et al, golden banners shimmering above, or on a battered travel set in the middle of a crowded tube with a sachet of salt standing in for the white king. As an aesthetic experience chess is a pristinely mental thing; the where, the how, the with what - uninteresting, irrelevant, beside the point. In some ways, then, the website Etsy is the complete opposite of chess: Etsy is a website whose users directly sell their home-made, one-off arts and crafts; all things individual, unique, unreproducible.
But you know what they say about opposites attracting. And lo, there's rather a lot of chess stuff on Etsy. Here are some of my favourites:
A snip at $6500:
a steampunk chess set, apparently.
Much more affordable. A $1 badge.
Splash out another 50 cents, and they'll magnetize it.
Aw. Could you ever sacrifice such a soft, sad thing?
This knight's name is Arnold.
Subtle, non-embarrassing, and chess - but $250.
Where's the IKEA version?
So. Perfect presents for the chess player who has everything? Or is all such stuff that is not the moves, mere unmattering nothings?
4 comments:
If you don't fancy splurging $6,500 on a steampunk chess set you could always make your own
I like the badge though.
Those lampstands look rather octopus-friendly.
The link to the steampunk set has lapsed. Maybe she sold it somewhere other than Etsy? Anyway for future reference the lady who made it has her homepage here.
Post a Comment