Star Trek Chess Set

[spoonunseptium]

I am making a star trek chess set and need help assigning characters to pieces.


The sets I want to make are:


Voyager
TNG
TOS
DS9
ENT
Kazons
Klingons
Borg
Dominion or Cardassians


I was wondering:

should I make the captain as the king or the queen?

At first I thought the King should be the captain, but then I thought that since the death of the Queen is what ends the game...

The pawns would all be ensigns/redshirts.

Any suggestions on which crew members to assign to which rank(rookie, bishop, etc.)?

 

[Starseeker]

Personally, I'd make the ship the King and the captain the Queen. The captain will do anything to save the ship, so having the extra skills of the Queen seems thematically fitting. Also, the captain can be lost in battle (the Queen is taken), but as long as the ship (the King) is still in play, the rest of the crew has a shot.

 

[Haytil]

Personally, I'd make the ship the King and the captain the Queen. The captain will do anything to save the ship, so having the extra skills of the Queen seems thematically fitting. Also, the captain can be lost in battle (the Queen is taken), but as long as the ship (the King) is still in play, the rest of the crew has a shot.

I don't know - typically in themed chess sets (not just Star Trek), the vehicles are the Rooks and Knights. It goes well with how they move (and the original pieces - movable siege towers and galloping knights both imply large-scale vehicles or fast-moving pieces).

Additionally, if the ship is extremely powerful or mobile, doesn't it make sense for it to be the queen?

And I think the King is not only traditionally the "One in charge," but it also represents the player - and most people would probably rather embody/act as the captain of the starship, rather than the literal ship itself.

Personally, I'd keep the King as the Captain of whatever theme you're playing - except with the Borg, I'd make the "Borg Queen" the King of the chess pieces, and "Locutus" as the Queen. I think that would be neat.

 

[RobertVA]

Better read those chess rules again. While losing the queen would usually be quite a handicap, the king's capture or threat of the kings capture is what ends the game.

Obviously any star fleet captain should be seated in the bridge center chair from the corresponding ship.

Ironicaly, the Borg queen would be the "king". Nomination for Locutius (sp) and Data with skin graft on his face (from first Contact) as other major Borg pieces. For a Borg set the drones aren't all that distingishable, there just might have to be different complexities of arm attachment for the various pieces.

Obviously for a TOS set the pawns would have to be wearing red shirts.

For the Voyager set Kes and Seven should be the same rank (bishops or rooks). I'm thinking Paris and Kim should be a similar pair.

 

[Vanyel]

Klingons:

Emperor Khaless: King
Chancellor Martok: Queen
Worf: Queen's Bishop
K'Ehleyr or Kurn: King's Bishop
Bird of Prey: Knights
Vor'cha Class: Rooks
Klingon Warriors: Pawns

Hows that?

 

[JustKate]

My older brother had a Star Trek 3-D chess set back in the day. I just wanted to share that little tidbit. I wonder if it's still tucked away in my parents' house somewhere?

Anyway, I have to disagree somewhat with "The death of the Queen is what ends the game," Spoonunseptium. Losing your queen in chess is very bad, but losing your king costs you the game.

And besides, you can't be literal with chess pieces anyway -- any chess pieces (except those based on, say, Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass). Kings were almost always more powerful than queens in real life, yet that's not how it works on the chess board.

So if it were me trying to do this, I'd just go with my gut, and in my gut, a king is a man and a queen is a woman (which would be a big problem in Voyager, I realize). But I could also see making the ship the queen -- ooh, or how about the castle?

 

[TigerOfDarkness]

Making the ships the queens sounds good for TOS, TNG etc. where the captain is male. Not so sure for Voyager.

My (probably obvious and unimaginative) suggestions for the TOS set:

King: Kirk
Queen: NCC 1701
King's Bishop: McCoy
Queen's Bishop: Spock
King's Knight: Sulu
Queen's Knight: Scotty
Queen's Rook: Uhura

But should it be:
King's Rook: Rand
with Chekov in the pawns or King's Rook: Chekov with Rand in the pawns?

The pawns should include:

Rand or Chekov (whichever isn't a rook), Nurse Chapel, Lt Riley, Mr. Leslie, Mr. Kyle, Lt. M'Ress, Lt. Arex, Dr. M'Benga, the communications officer in The Doomsday machine (sorry - forgot her name) and some of the yeomen, e.g. Helen Noel.


Should there be a Captain Pike set?

 

[Octavia]

My older brother had a Star Trek 3-D chess set back in the day. I just wanted to share that little tidbit. I wonder if it's still tucked away in my parents' house somewhere?

Hee! I've got one of those.

 

[jgdst]

With the Voyager chess set, I'd break with the notion of having the captain as the King, and use Chakotay in that position. It's a bit more true to the characters too - Janeway does all the running around and dispatching enemies, while Chakotay (finely crafted from rich mahogany), moves one square at a time, being completely at the mercy of how good Janeway is at fighting

So... the pieces:

King: Chakotay
Queen: Janeway
Knight: Tuvok
Bishop: The Doctor
Rook: Neelix
Pawns: The thousands upon thousands of random goldshirts that graced engineering over the years. Hmm... or maybe Ayala?

Or going with the idea of King's and Queen's henchmen being different:
Queen's Knight: Tuvok
Queen's Bishop: Seven of Nine
Queen's Rook: Neelix
King's Knight: Torres
King's Bishop: The Doctor
King's Rook: Paris

Pawns, I suppose would have to be an army of Kims, but I'd definitely want to see an Ayala in there too

Enterprise Chess is a bit easier:

King: Archer
Queen: T'Pol
King's Knight: Reed
Queen's Knight: Trip
King's Bishop: Mayweather
Queen's Bishop; Hoshi
King's Rook: Shran
Queen's Rook: Phlox
Pawns: MACOs

Just my thoughts

 

[JustKate]

My older brother had a Star Trek 3-D chess set back in the day. I just wanted to share that little tidbit. I wonder if it's still tucked away in my parents' house somewhere?

Hee! I've got one of those.

I'm going to have to try to look around next time I go home for a visit...

 

[nx1701g]

These were actually made a few years ago by a company and sold at Star Trek: The Experience and on StarTrek.Com

TOS version:
King: Kirk
Queen: Uhura
Bishop: Spock
Knight: McCoy
Rook: USS Enterprise
Pawn: Red Shirt

King: Khan
Queen: Romulan Commander (The Enterprise Incident)
Bishop: Klingon Commander
Knight: Gorn
Rook: Klingon Battlecruiser
Pawn: Klingon Warrior

TNG version:
(White = TNG Show; Black = TNG Movies)
King: Picard
Queen: Crusher
Bishop: Data
Knight: Riker
Rook: Worf
Pawn: USS Enterprise

 

[spoonunseptium]

These were actually made a few years ago by a company and sold at Star Trek: The Experience and on StarTrek.Com

shh, it's just a fun project I and my one trekkie friend are doing with Sculpty clay, just for the heck of it.

As for which death ends the game, I always get them confused. I don't play chess very often.


Thanks for the suggestions! They helped alot.

 

[trilbymonkey]

I want a ST chess set...

 

[Shawnster]

Here's the piece layout/designation for a Star Trek Commemorative Chess Set:

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Star_Trek_Commemorative_Chess_Set
Gold Pieces

• King: Captain James T. Kirk
• Queen: Lt. Uhura
• Bishops: Commander Spock and Dr. Leonard McCoy
• Knights: Lt. Cmdr. Montgomery Scott and Lt. Hikaru Sulu
• Rooks: The USS Enterprise
• Pawns: Starfleet Security Officers

Silver Pieces

• King: Khan Noonien Singh
• Queen: The Romulan Commander From "The Enterprise Incident"
• Bishops: A Vian and the Gorgan
• Knights: Romulan Officer and Gorn Commander
• Rooks: Klingon D7-class Cruiser
• Pawns: Klingon Foot Soldiers