This chess set was created by DeviantArtist Joker-laugh. While he doesn’t say much about how he made the actual chess pieces, the board measures 25 × 25 inches, so it’s quite big for a chess set. He used wood, small tiles, and stone for the board. He tried to make it match the pyramid temple in the AvP film.

On the Predator side, I like how he made the cloaked pieces, and all those tiny skulls. There’s no doubt that it must have taken Joker-laugh hours and hours of meticulous painting to get all these pieces just right.

[via Make:]

The set looks pretty cool and features those animated lenticular images which move when you tilt the pieces up and down. The set has 32 detailed characters from the series. One side is the Doctor Who heroes and the others are the villains. The bad king is the Supreme Dalek and the good king is The 11th Doctor. The bad queen is the Weeping Angel and the good queen is Amy Pond.

The chess set sells for $40 (USD) over at ThinkGeek or Amazon, and you might still be able to get one in time for the holidays if you spring for expedited shipping – or if you happen to have a TARDIS.

Designer Will Shannon’s Chalk Chess set is exactly what it sounds like. Instead of just creating an impromptu board on the sidewalk using chalk, the pieces themselves are also made from chalk. I had no idea they even made black chalk. Who knew? Pieces range from 1.5″ tall (pawns) to 3.5″ tall (kings).

And while you can use the pieces themselves to create your game board, you’re likely to wear them out pretty quickly that way. I’d go ahead and throw a couple of pieces of regular chalk in the game box to preserve the playing pieces.

Oh, and this goes without saying – you probably don’t want to play with these in the rain. While its manufacturer, Suck UK is currently sold out, you can find The Chalk Chess set over at Useful Things for $19.95 (USD).

This handmade Doctor Who chess set from deviantART user Eldalin Skywalker is just plain adorable. It has Tardis pieces, Weeping Angels, Cybermen, Cassandra the last human, Daleks, River Song, some cute little Adipose creatures, The Face of Boe, Odd and more. Oh, and David Tennant as the Doctor. And a pair of TARDIS-shaped rooks.

The pieces are between three and seven centimeters tall. It was on sale over at etsy for $535(USD) but alas, it has already been sold. Some geek out there has a great Christmas gift this year.

[via Epic Ponyz via Geekosystem]

The geeks over at LensRentals who entertained us with that lens with 50 UV filters attached last month came up with the idea for this camera lens chess set. As the story goes, a couple workers were in a new warehouse waiting for people to show up to connect some utilities and decided to use some tiles they found to kill some time.

They also had some lenses sitting in the warehouse so the thing that came to mind was a chess set. The white lenses are Canon and the black are Nikon. You can even rent the chess set if you feel the need but it’s not cheap. The lens chess set rents for $9,221 per week and the shipping runs into the thousand-dollar range. One can only imagine how much it would cost to purchase it.

The other Good Side pieces are: Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule as the King, Zoras as Bishops, Gorons as Rooks and Deku Sprites as Pawns. The rest of the Bad Side pieces are Veran as the Queen, Wizzrobes as Bishops, Moblins as Knights, Octoroks as Rooks and Chu Jellies as Pawns.

It seems like Ben had a limited run of Zelda chess sets for sale, but they’re now sold out, which should come as no surprise. But Ben also does commissioned work, so you might still be able to convince him to make another one. Check out his website for more pics of the Zelda chess set as well as his other video game character sculptures.

[via Geekologie]

This ESB chess set was built by Brandon Griffith, who’s a part of the LA LEGO user group LUGOLA. What sets this chess set apart is that Brandon even depicts some great scenes from Episode V using mini dioramas. Personal faves include the Imperial Walkers, the AT-ATs and Darth Vader of course!

[Flickr via Make:]

This Monster Chess comes courtesy of Team Hassenplug. A laptop is used to run and coordinate the robots. Otherwise, it would be complete mayhem. Actually, I wouldn’t mind seeing that, especially when one piece takes down another. Wouldn’t that be cool? One robot LEGO chess piece destroying another with a flaming blue laser? I can dream, can’t I?

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The LEGO bricks and mechanisms in this monstrosity are worth $30,000. The Monster Chess board will be on display next weekend at the Brickworld convention in Chicago.

[The NXTStep via Make:]

Each chess piece was made by hand without using any mold, ensuring the uniqueness of the set. For the black pieces, Cthulhu is the king of course, and Dagon is the queen. The green pieces have Yog-Sothoth as king and Ubbo-Sathla as queen. Not that I would recognize any of them if they were eating my organs. As for the other pieces, “the bishops of each side are mad alien priests, the knights grotesque mounts with vile curved spines, the rooks writhe horribly within their blasted towers. The black pawns are sinister, writhing spawn of dread Cthulhu, and the green pawns mocking little tentacular skulls.” Topnotch writing, I tell you.

You can order the Cthulhu Mythos Chess Set from Monsters Domesticated at Etsy for $420 (USD). Even if you’re not interested in buying the set, the product description is enough reason to check it out. H.P. Lovecraft would be so proud.

This incredibly small LEGO chess set was created by Flickr user Akunthita. It measures 12 × 12 studs, which is about a 3″ square. There are even these micro-drawers which are able to hold all of the chess pieces. Cool.

So if you love playing chess, it should be pretty easy to swipe Akunthita’s idea and make your own set (just don’t take credit for it).

[Brothers Brick via Make:]

The chess set includes 32 hand-painted figurines from the classic Nintendo video game series including Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Yoshi, Toad, 1-up mushroom, Bowser, Bowser Jr., Birdo, Goomba, Hammer Bros., and Magikoopa.

I don’t know about you guys, but I think I’d rather have Toad playing the role of the pawns instead of some lousy gold coins – but beggars can’t be choosers, I suppose. And what’s with Luigi being the Queen to Mario’s King? That’s just a little too weird for me. I know Peach is just a Princess, but still – I think that might have been a better choice. At least Magikoopa looks the part of the bishop.

The entire set should be available this Fall, and can be pre-ordered now over at First4Figures for $44.99 (USD). At least they didn’t put a crown on Luigi’s head.

[via GoNintendo]

Available for pre-order over on the Star Wars Shop for an introductory price of $539 (USD), this Gentle Giant’s detailed chess set pits Dark vs. Light. The set includes 32 collectible pewter figurines, with the Jedi wearing gold and the Empire donning a silver finish. Darth Vader, Boba Fett, C3-PO, R2-D2, and all your favorites are ready to do battle on the chess board.

The board has a glass etched surface with imagery of the Death Star in the background. Under the board, there are padded storage drawers for protecting your pieces, but why would you want to hide the best part?

If you don’t want to wait until September 2009 to get your hands on one of these, I guess you’ll just have to settle for this LEGO minifig Star Wars chess set instead.

[via The Awesomer]