The other day a colleague and I had been booked to give talks at the same conference. We met the night before in a hotel close to the venue, and discovered that:
1) We both liked chess
2) We both really wanted to play a game there and then
3) Neither of us had a chess set with us
4) The hotel didn’t have one either
However, about an hour later we had solved the problem. Our answer allows you to construct a chess set anywhere, anytime.
We noticed that there was a supermarket across the street, and I had an idea. How about we buy some Battenberg cake, and slice it up to make a chessboard. Then, we could invest in some cocktail sticks, marshmallows and Flumps, and use various combinations to create a confectionery chess board.
An hour later we had this….
It actually worked really well, and we got two games in before a another hotel guest scoffed my king. In addition, to solving a practical problem, it occurs to me that this could be a cost-effective birthday gift for someone who is both bright and has a sweet tooth. Anyway, what do you think? Genius lateral thinking or soooo sad? Vote now.
March 31, 2009 at 11:26 pm |
Just one quibble that is often overlooked and useful for bar bets:
On a standard chess setup, the squares a8 and h1 must be white.
So you need to rotate your delicious chessmen by 90 degrees.
March 31, 2009 at 11:46 pm |
Okay, that’s adorable. You win this time.
March 31, 2009 at 11:47 pm |
THIS TIME.
April 1, 2009 at 12:11 am |
That’s great, very creative, I want one. I love Battenberg and enjoy the odd game of chess. I could eat the opponents pieces as the game progressed, but would not like to see the results if their pawn got to the opposite side of the board.
April 1, 2009 at 12:12 am |
I’ve often thought money could be made selling chocolate chess pieces that are eaten by the capturer.
April 1, 2009 at 12:56 am |
For the Chocolate Chess Set lovers: http://tinyurl.com/cy4jrv
But my all time favourite for distracting your opponent has to be the Amorphous Organic set by Alastair Mackie.
C.
April 1, 2009 at 12:59 am |
That’s probably cheaper than buying an actual chess set.
A game of chess and a table full delectables enabling you to salivate, IN THE RECESSION!?
Oh Richard, your credit crunching schemes do amuse me so.
April 1, 2009 at 7:47 am
Yes, I would imagine so. £3.25 to be exact. I have received orders for two of them so far.
April 1, 2009 at 1:53 am |
Someone reminded me the other day of a “dalek” cake my mother made for my father in the sixties (needless to say, at the suggestion of us children. The idea was pretty basic–basically a couple of swiss rolls, some tubes of smarties and some icing.
The dalek looked good, but it was pretty useless for exterminating anything.
April 1, 2009 at 2:52 am |
Here is one web site that plays a mean chess game.
Its gamebook is quite strong, so if you want any
hope of beating it, make unexpected sacrifices.
http://www.turbulence.org/spotlight/thinking/chess.html
April 1, 2009 at 7:48 am
Yes, but the site gives no mention of Battenberg cake
April 1, 2009 at 5:47 am |
2 questions:
1. Who won?
2. I’m assuming you both had laptops, so why not just play online? I think that’s what I would have done (though I’m not so into chess, so probably won’t happen)
Pretty amusing though.
April 1, 2009 at 7:50 am
1) We stopped the match because I consumed the square that my colleague was about to move a pawn to. Actually, that could give a whole new dimension to chess – the players can remove pieces of the board!
2) Where’s the fun in that?
April 1, 2009 at 7:42 am |
BRILLIANT!
April 1, 2009 at 8:35 am |
That. Is. Brilliant. I don’t even like chess, but if somebody were to use a board like that to teach me, I might warm up to it…
April 1, 2009 at 9:36 am |
Love love love love it!
April 1, 2009 at 7:51 pm |
creative and… sweet.
Best played with an open fire to toast the defeated pieces.
April 1, 2009 at 8:34 pm |
There is an even simpler way to play chess anywhere, provided one has the mental ability and capacity.
I learned chess as a child in the 1950s. During my early teens, circa 1960, I set about improving my game by teaching myself classical chess notation and following through games of Chess Masters in books borrowed from the local library. Sicilian Defence, Dragon Variation, was my favourite.
About that time I read a story, or stories, of men who played chess on train journeys, commuters, I believe. They simply sat with their eyes closed, quoting chess notation to each other, keeping a picture of the board in their minds as the game developed. That really is a capability to play chess anywhere.
April 2, 2009 at 2:31 pm |
OH… What a brilliant way to get a chess set out of nothing…
Great improvisation and i guess you do promotion when the pawn reaches the other end of the board…
April 2, 2009 at 7:10 pm |
Richard, you are a total genius, and that is the best blog post I’ve read all week, and therefore, all month!
People like you make me happier about the world.
April 3, 2009 at 10:11 am |
Thank you for your comment, Dave, though that story about those people playing chess on the train, in that manner, is just something I remember reading about fifty years ago. I was impressed at the time but in more recent decades have come to understand the nature of mind better, so that is even more easily acceptable; mind is over, above and beyond the brain as well as the physical in general. See my commentsmy comments on the “Thoughts on the meaning of meaning” entry on the Scientific and Medical Network Blog; I am a Member of the Scientific and Medical Network.
I am aware of the limitations of science in that respect, as well as many others, though, long before my higher senses opened up, in the 1980s and 1990s, I entered a profession, engineering, in the 1960s, that is far older than and much more than science anyway; I now recognise the limitations of science from at least two different directions, though I have been well versed in science since the 1950s..
April 14, 2009 at 11:05 pm |
[...] to play Jenga anywhere By Richard Wiseman A few posts ago I described how to construct a chess set from Battenberg cake and marshmallows. Well, the other day a friend and I wanted to play Jenga, but [...]
April 17, 2009 at 7:50 am |
nice, really nice!
May 12, 2009 at 10:59 pm |
[...] will know that all of this builds on my previous work exploring how to construct a chess set from marshmallows and a Jenga set from [...]
June 14, 2009 at 2:17 pm |
YAA Adding this to my bookmarks. Thank You
July 8, 2009 at 11:53 am |
This Battenburg Chess idea was a “Top Tip” in Viz magazine many years ago ….. along with the “tip” that segs make ideal fridge magnets for wooden cupboards.
October 14, 2009 at 12:44 pm |
Now that has to be the best and most original chess set i have ever seen
fact
May 11, 2010 at 7:07 am |
Segs as fridge magnets for wooden cupboards – absolutely classic Viz!
April 5, 2011 at 2:37 pm |
Nice post, I’ve been playing chess since I was five, never get bored of it.