This fun chess set ostensibly can be printed by a 3D printer, though there seem to be a lot of overhangs to me. Nevertheless it’s a fun idea. Basically, creator laird designed each piece to display what moves it can make in order to “make Chess approachable for kids.”

The king has the tallest ‘body’ and has its name printed in large type to indicate its importance. The circle represents the king’s ability to move one space in any direction.

The queen is about as tall as the king, with the ‘head’ indicating that the Queen can move any distance in the eight directions.

The knight is shorter, with cubes arranged around a central diamond indicating the eight squares that the knight can jump to. The arrangement of the cubes on the top and the back, and the angle of the supporting head, are intended to evoke a horse’s head.

The bishop and rook are the same height, with ‘heads’ indicating their ability to move any distance in either the diagonals or horizontal and vertical.

Finally the pawns are the shortest. The ‘head’ indicates the ability to move forward one square, or capture diagonally. I couldn’t think of a way to indicate moving forward two spaces, or capturing en-passent.

The 3Ds are available for download on Thingiverse.