Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Don't panic

macrumors 603
Original poster
Jan 30, 2004
5,541
697
having a drink at Milliways
hi there,
I am toying with the idea of "themed" chess sets, and one that i was thinking about was a science/scientists-based one.
there are a myriad of ways to do chess sets,
- a basic set of just 6 pieces (K, Q, B, K, R, P) in two colors (6 indiv. pieces)
- 2 sets of 6 different pieces (6 for each 'team') (12 indiv. pieces)
- a more complex sets of 8 different pieces (e.g. the two black bishops are different from each other) + 8 common pawns for each color (18 indiv pieces)
- each piece is different, but designed so it is recognizable (32 indiv. pieces).

I wanted to use scientists as chess pieces, and had divided the two sets by an arbitrary ancient vs modern, with the line approximately traced around 1800

there are no 'rules' obviously but i tried to put them in a way that makes some sort of sense (in my mind) both hierarchical (K,Q>B,K,R>P) and thematic and with some sort of symmetry between sets

here is my first draft of a set (with a couple of indecisions):

white (classic)

K - Leonardo da Vinci
Q - Newton
B - Hippocrates, Avicenna (Imhotep)
K - Levoisier, Boyle (Paracelsus)
R - Galileo, Copernicus
P - Archimedes, Pythagoras, Euclid, Aristotle, Democritus, Linnaeus, Pascal, Descartes

black (modern)

K - Darwin
Q - Einstein
B - Pasteur, Fleming
K - Bohr, Faraday (Maxwell)
R - Tesla, Volta (Edison)
P - M. Curie, Mendel, Mendeleev, Fermi, Hawkings, Turing, Freud, Watson/Crick

it was quite difficult, as there are so many others who could have been included instead
others i considered:
(white: Bacon, Brahe, Cavendish, Celsius, Epicurus, Euler, Fermat, Fibonacci, Franklyn, Galen, Galvani, Hooke, Kepler, Van Leewenhoek, Vesalius)
(black: Avogadro, Carnot, Dalton, Gauss, Haber, Jenner, laplace, Marconi, Planck, Virchow, Watt)

I am sure i am missing someone essential :)

i would love to hear your suggestions on how to modify/improve my set

i'll expound on my reasoning for the selection in a following post, not to get this too massive

so, here is the little game I propose;
how would you make your set? why? (you don't have to follow my criteria, except for it being based on scientists)
or what changes would you suggest to the set above?
 
Last edited:
Cool idea don't panic! I'd be more inclined to include a few more great female scientists such as Rosalind Franklin but your list is pretty good :)
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.