Back in April, Anne and I rode Trailnet’s first annual Art and Tweed ride. Cyclists were encouraged to dress up in garb of old, lots of wool please, but no spandex thank you very much. Our costumes made up the tweed part of this ride, while the five art museums that we toured contributed the art. One of the five was the World Chess Hall of Fame. One of the exhibits there was an eclectic collection of chess sets. I’d like to share a few of them with you. Here are three of the ones that I thought were the most fun.
First up is Hollywood vs. Broadway. This Doug Anderson creation is fun to look at, but I would find it difficult to keep track of these pieces in a game. Up front are Cabaret, a Hollywood pawn and Dream Girls and Little Shop of Horrors, Broadway pawns. Fiddler on the Roof is a Hollywood rook, while Phantom is the Broadway king All of these pieces could go either way, if you ask me, so go figure?
“Pooh had forgotten how
to play chess and the more
he thought about it, the more
muddled he got in his mind”
– A. A. Milne
The above A. A. Milne quote adorns the four sides of the board, of this Winnie the Pooh chess set, but other than this quote, this is a Disney Pooh set. Both sides have the same pieces, differentiated by color. Pooh is rightfully the king. Kangaroo is the queen. Both bishops are Owl, both knights are Eeyore and both rooks are Tigger. All of the pawns are somehow fittingly Piglet.
The Barack Obama vs. John McCain chess set is from the 2008 presidential election. This was the latest of a series of presidential race inspired chess sets that were on hand. Some of the chess sets in this presidential collection dated back to the 19th century. Maybe next time we visit the World Chess Hall of Fame, Mitt Romney will be there too?
PS – Checkout my brother’s new video, Where We Live, it is fantastic!
