Alfonso X Chess Set 1283
Description
This is a set of 3-D printing programs for a chess set based on illustrations in the Book of Games of Alfonso X ("El Sabio"/ The Wise) of Castile, Leon, and Galicia, completed in 1283. At the end of his life, King Alfonso X of Castile and Leon, an avid gamer himself, commissioned a book of the games played in his court. The result is a detailed snapshot of games and gamers in 13th-century Iberia, copiously and beautifully illustrated. This set is based on the chess pieces shown in this book. These designs, with different options for the Rooks and Knights, offer characteristic chess pieces of the High Middle Ages. Printed at 100%, these chess pieces will suit a chessboard with cells 1-1/2 inches/ 38 mm to 2 inches /52mm square. You can size these down (or up) to suit whatever size chessboard you choose. The voids in the bases can be filled with lead to weight your chess set, or with rare earth to make your chess set magnetic. If you are going to stain, paint, and/or varnish your chess pieces, leaving the support material in the voids allows you to hold the chess pieces on skewers or toothpicks. In Medieval Europe, chess pieces were usually white and black, while chessboards were checkered red-and-white, black-and-white, or dark and light wood. In the game book of Alfonso X, the chess pieces are white and black. The pieces were shaped primarily on small lathes. Prior to c.1490, chess was played by different rules than those familiar today. Kings, Knights, and Rooks had their modern moves. Queens had a move of a single space diagonally. Bishops made a diagonal short leap of two spaces (not more or less), and could leap over a piece in their way without disturbing it. Pawns could move only one space, even on their first move, capturing diagonally as they do today. Pawns usually promoted to Queens (pre-1490 Queens, that is), on reaching the opposite end of the board. Queens and Bishops got their modern moves, and Pawns their option for a two-space initial move, around 1490 in southern Europe. The new "Reine Enragee/ Mad Queen" chess spread rapidly throughout the known world. Castling and en passant Pawn captures followed soon thereafter. Alfils / Bishops still show their original derivation from Elephants by having two "tusks" pointed forward. Later in the Middle Ages, they became vertically bifurcated like a bishop's miter. Two different designs of Knight are available. Type A is a charmingly modeled horse with caparison, as shown in Alfonso X's book. Type B models only the head and neck of the horse, as found in other medieval Knights. The two Rook designs are based on different illustrations within the book. If you wish to use these pieces for Decimal Chess, choose Type A for your Rooks, and print up Type B Rooks to use as Jamals or Dabbabas. These designs can also be used for Chess of the Four Seasons, printing a King, Bishop, Knight, Rook, and four Pawns for each of the four sides; White, Black, Red, and Green. Pawns can be printed for playing Alquerque/al-Kirkat and Three- or Nine-Men's Morris, as shown in Alfonso X's book. Simon Spalding fullersteaching@yahoo.com ***** This is yet another collaboration with Simon Spalding, continuing on with modelling in OnShape. The "A" Knight was giving me trouble until I reverse engineered some concepts others had used in OnShape, specifically a knight by Landon Peckham (I am not sure how else to give credit, but the extruded profile plus fillets was such a helpful way to go about shaping the head). This all keeps building up to more ambitious plans for complex pieces, looking forward to the next set. Any questions about the historical nature of this set can be addressed to Simon at the email address above, and I will try to answer anything on modelling or future edits here in comments. -Ian R.
Statistics
Likes
0
Downloads
0