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hello Kevin. I have the chance to have access to a fablab where they have 3D-printers that I can use. Around me (I live in France) I see many announcements by small companies and also by individuals who offer to print anything for you at a given price. Not very expensive. One of my contacts on Thingiverse is using such a service. All what you need is to provide .stl file of the piece(s) you want to print. You can download the .stl I have designed, and also Bob's ones and more on Thingiverse.

So, economically-wise, it is a very good solution. Also, it is very easy to transform the .stl you get, for changing the size (if you want smaller or larger pieces), or even to create yourself your own pieces. Bob is showing examples every day.

I believe that this has changed everything. Before that, I knew a sold set named Faery Chess (https://www.amazon.com/Faerie-Chess-Classic-Traditional-Beginners/dp/B07YPZG5TY) but the pieces are really cheap low-quality; and of course Musketeer Chess. I have a true friendship with their creator but that product is not exactly fitting my own desire. Somehow I would say those pieces are too luxury. Much too big (it takes a lot of room in my drawers). They are coming in pair association which doesn't correspond to what I need, which increases the problem. Often you need 2 of each and at the end it costs a fortune if you want a set, let's say for Metamachy for instance. Finally, too many are too similar as it was pointed out by Fergus in this thread. So I consider it has been a very nice initiative but with 3D-printing, I've found now a much better solution.

If someone is looking for Musketeer pieces, I can be contacted, I will be happy to sell them because I have no use of them anymore.

There is a drawback with 3D-printing: it is very slow to print. For example, to print 1 side (color) of the Metamachy set (30 pieces), it took 24 hours. It is not a solution for massive production. That will progress with time, however it will remain a personal solution in my opinion.

Hi Bob

As a boy I was aware of some chess variants that used regular 8x8 chess sets, via my school chess club, notably Losing Chess (though I didn't much like that one). Later at the U of Toronto friends introduced me to other variants that used 1 or more sets (e.g. Replacement chess, Rifle Chess, Bughouse and Alice Chess), and Bombalot and a version of Kriegspiel were even published in some Chess Federation of Canada print magazine issues.

I also eventually found the odd book on or including certain chess variants (my own back then, or at a public library). However Ottawa and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) are cities of considerable size, more likely to have such resources to a budding chess player potentially interested in CVs (many are not, and even see them as drawing resources like people and money away from chess). These days chess competes with many activities, but oddly over the board chess play has got a boon from Netflix' Queen's Gambit as well as many people being cooped up due to covid. Before covid people were often just busy, too, with little choice but to work at an office for long hours.

One chess book I had as a lad showed a diagram of 4 player Chaturanga, the first time I had an inkling that chess variants that used pieces beyond the orthodox chess ones existed. Also, chess variants may have it worse than chess, because all people need to do is Google 'Chess Canada' and they'll discover there is organized chess play in Canada (sadly, I think many do not even take this leap of thought). I recall hearing of fairy chess, but not of 'variants' when I was a lad, so how to find it unless by accident (or helpful web search result)?

At the moment I have no thought of organizing CV tournaments or a club (I do have friends that play some Oriental ones with me over the board now and then, at least before covid). However I'd like to think the groundwork for a list of many, many commonly existing figurines may prove useful to people some day. I also use LinkedIn, and have connected with many chess players/organizers/company personnel and even the odd variantist; perhaps down the road I can use those connections to advance the cause of CVs somehow.

A lot of the issue, I think, is lack of information and awareness. I never knew any variants (other than Strato Chess and Star Trek's 3D Chess) existed until a few months ago.

Your (Kevin's) chess variant tournaments can help somewhat. I'm hoping to start taking one or two of my variants (at a time) to game and comic conventions here in the northwestern US late next year. These sorts of things, focused where people would gather who would (or might) be interested in these things, would be most helpful.

That, and after seeing the most recent photos that Jean-Louis posted of his own designs, he could start selling those on Etsy (and I'd likely buy a few myself if they're not too much).

Hi Jean-Louis.

If someone ever wants to start up an over-the-board multiple chess variants club or tournament (especially if desiring eye-pleasing fairy piece figurines), they may not have access to (or have any necessary skills with?) a 3D printer - I don't know how widespread those devices are or have been already.

I was wondering most of all about the sheer number of figurines of fairy piece types that already are widely out there in the real world - I don't know how many HG is aware of. Popular regional CV piece types can be counted, and the Musketeer sets are now on the market (I'm especially curious about figurines that are or have been widely sold). [edit: note that Musketeer sets currently could prove a bit expensive for many folks, especially if building a CV club/tournament - it would be nice if cheap yet eye-pleasing figurines are/will be available]

P.S.: From Chess.com 30 April 2017, posted by HG Muller:

Chess Variant will become more popular if pieces are available (in case new pieces are used),

That is nothing but wishful thinking, and it is contradicted by the evidence. Pieces have been available for ages. Dedicated pieces for certain variants have been for sale commercially as well (Omega Chess, Gothic Chess.) As have been Chess sets in outlandish styles, which can be combined with standard Staunton pieces to have more different piece types, as was shown here in this forum in connection with an OTB version of Alpha-Omega Chess. And there are also lots of variants that can be played with just an orthodox Chess set.

We sometimes do have OTB tourneys for Chess variants here, providing the necessary equipment, but usually only 8 to 10 people show up for such events.

P.P.S: Here's the wiki re: 3D Printing:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing

I had started to collect photos of Staunton-like CV pieces, plastic or wood. I have many of them. Now, we are at the age of 3D-printers and this is a real game changer.

Doing a web search I came across an old comment in a forum by Dr. Muller partly to the effect that fairy chess pieces have been available (i.e. sold/made) for ages.

Aside from the Musketeer Chess series of figurines combined with regional CV figurine pieces (e.g. for shogi, Chinese Chess...), I wonder if anyone has compiled an extensive list of fairy piece figurines that are widely available (sold/made) to date (whether relatively recently, or for ages), perhaps including photos.

It's worth pointing out that House of Staunton no longer sells these, either directly or through Amazon. The Chess Shop of North Carolina, care of eBay, does still have them, including some newer sets (among them, much to my delight, a few packages of 16 alternative pawns).

I'm glad you will be making more figurine pieces, including a figurine dragon. With that, and substituting cougars for lions, I'll be able to set up Caïssa Britannia. Many of the other pieces you mention will probably fit with various variants, though I'm not sure how distinct the eagle and mammoth will be from the hawk and elephant you already have. A lion piece would probably be popular, because many variants include lions, and the lion can be easily distinguished from the cougar by including the mane.

Since the main designer of the pieces is also the founder of the House of Staunton, I'm under the impression that the House of Staunton has more to do with these pieces than just selling them. Anyway, I put the emphasis on the House of Staunton, because this site is an affiliate of the House of Staunton, and I earn money for the site when people go through my affiliate links to the House of Staunton to buy these pieces. Also, I want to enourage people to buy them through the House of Staunton over Amazon, because they are cheaper that way, and the House of Staunton pays its affiliates better than Amazon does.

Hi

Thanks for all these pictures and comments. Let's share more about the kits. House of Staunton is a partner who only sells the kits. I'm the inventor, manufacturer etc. of the kits. The main designer is Mr Frank Camaratta. This is for the available kits. I tend to call them Musketeer Chess Series1, because there is going to be a series2 (14 newly designed and unique pieces) and NextGen Pawns (7 different designs).

Let me explain some of the names of the pieces: Dragon = Amazon. The name Dragon was suggested by Mr Camaratta. I accepted. I must say that it wasn't a good idea. When you see my website and the page where i give links to European Customers to buy the kits i talk about Dragon or Amazone.

The name Spider was influenced by the moves of the pieces. It looks like a net made by a spider. When manufacturing the pieces, the manufacturer made a mistake and interverted the Diagrams between Fortress and Spider. Fortunately, both pieces have a lot of common moves and the Current Spider rules fit well with the name.

Musketeer Chess Series2 will have a Real Figural Spider, a real Figural Dragon and many many more figural pieces (Rhinoceros Wolf Bear Dog Eagle Mammoth etc.)

My latest take on why the dragon piece looks like it does is because in the Musketeer Chess variant, an amazon (the common name for the queen plus knight powers compound piece) is called a dragon, and the dragon piece figurine thus is tall like a queen, while having the face-mask used by knights in real life (much as you alluded to originally in describing the piece figurine yourself, Fergus).

As for the spider piece, I looked just now at the movement pattern of this piece type just within 1/4 (90 degrees) of all its legal moves in mid-board on an empty board, and noticed there are 6 legal moves possible within such a quadrant of all of its possible moves, and 6 is the number of prongs given to the figurine for this piece... a real stretch of the imagination I'll admit. This sort of speculation doesn't work similarly for other piece figurines though, such as the Fortress.

Maybe that price difference is one of the reasons no one ever ordered anything through my Amazon.ca affiliate links back when I had them. I tend to promote the House of Staunton affiliate links for these items over Amazon or eBay  links, because the prices for these items are lowest when ordered directly from the manufacturer, and the House of Staunton pays its affiliates a larger percentage of the sale price.

It's possible that the manufacturer goofed on the number of legs of a spider (i.e. it's not an insect, which would often have 6 legs), or perhaps for practical reasons 8 prongs instead of 6 at the top would have made the design awkward somehow.

On the dragoon, the manufacturer may have been taking some artistic license by being anacronistic with the helmet (it certainly was being so if not trying to represent a mythical beast, all the same). I might give the benefit of the doubt, instead, by suggesting such a musketeer (with such a helmet) was modelled on a brief transition period between still wearing helmets (to protect oneself in close quarters engagement) and the period after, when no helmet was worn at all.

Again, all a bit of a stretch of the imagination.

Fwiw, last night I compared the prices for the 5 kits as sold on Amazon.ca (approx. $98 Cdn per kit; I used the search words "THE HOUSE OF STAUNTON") & as sold on The House of Staunton in the US (approx. $15 per kit). Quite a shocking difference in prices, even taking into account a Cdn $ is currently worth approx. $US 0.77.

The top part of the Spider piece would look something like a spider if it had eight prongs instead of six.

I did just learn that the word "dragoon" is related to the word "dragon," but the origin of the word makes the armored helmet an anachronistic way to represent a dragoon. Dragoons were originally so called, because they carried a firearm called a dragon. Given that dragons are supposed to be dangerous, fire-breathing monsters, it's an appropriate name for a firearm. But firearms made the usual armor of knights obsolete. This armor had been designed to protect against weapons like swords and arrows, but it couldn't protect as well against firearms, and in a battle with firearms it would serve more to slow a soldier down than to protect him.

I edited my previous post slightly, with a postscript.

Hi Fergus

Nice pictures of the lovely plastic fairy chess pieces!

Regarding the mysterious representations of the Spider & Dragon pieces, I came up with possible explanations, which are a bit of a stretch of the imagination, though.

The Spider piece could be meant as an abstract representation of a spider's body, minus all 8 of its legs (perhaps for practical reasons); it looks like there may be 4 little stubs near the top of the piece, possibly representing the beginnings of a spider's front 4 legs.

The Dragon piece does look like it has an armoured face mask to me, too. I found a wikipedia illustration of the type of face mask (actually, helmet) that it might represent:

Helmet_(heraldry)

Since this (barred) type of helmet is reserved for nobility, that led me to heraldry, to verify that dragon symbols were ever used for that. ;) Sure enough, yes; see part way down from the start of this link:

Origins_of_modern_heralry

P.S.: A dragon can sometimes mean a soldier who is a musketeer (dragoon is common spelling); muskets have been around a long time, so it's possible a (nobleman) musketeer could have worn such a helmet too, I suppose.