Palladian Chess
2024
The idea of creating chess dedicated to Andrea Palladio, one of the fundamental figures in architecture, stems from a synthesis of two concepts crucial for an architect: proportion and logic. In Andrea Palladio's architectural designs, the plans, facades, and dimensions of interior spaces were based on ratios of simple whole numbers introduced by Leon Battista Alberti.
Thus, Palladio's six most revered proportional ratios were logically interpreted into six typologies of chess pieces: Pawn 1:1, Bishop 3:4, Knight 1:√2, Rook 2:3, Queen 3:5, King 1:2.
In contrast to the classical opposition of «white» and «black» in chess, we use colour combinations typical for the master's architecture: «milky» as a base colour representing solid plaster and stone surfaces, and «graphite» as a stroke and accent architectural details.
A distinctive feature of Palladian chess is that it is played on a 9x9 board, while the dimensions of the playing board elements are multiples of three. As you know, Andrea Palladio's favourite compositional technique was a grid of 9 squares (3x3).
In addition, a new piece has been added — the «Paladin», which is to some extent an (extra) tribute to the great master. The Paladin piece combines the movements of a knight and a bishop, making it the second most powerful piece in the game after the queen.
The prototype of the object was created during a joint project between SAMPLE and the «Svody» workshops at the GES-2 Culture House. The object was exhibited at Blazar‘24 by SAMPLE Gallery.
Authors: Mikheil Mikadze, Anna Utts