You can find modern sets with 32 unique pieces, which sometimes makes it difficult to keep track of who’s who. Traditional sets have simple pieces - after all, the first chess sets were hand carved. Pawns are the foot soldiers of the game with the smallest pieces. The Bishop can look a lot like a king or queen, but is a bit smaller.
The King and Queen dominate the other pieces and are often taller. If you’re not familiar with chess, the Rook is a piece that generally looks like a castle, while the Knight is traditionally depicted by his horse. The Rook, Bishop and Knight come in pairs and there are eight Pawns to a side. To make your own set you’ll only need SIX unique designs: King, Queen, Bishop, Rook, Knight and Pawn. Traditionally these are made in black and white, but with a 3D printer you can use any color you like. There are 32 pieces in a standard chess set, divided into two sets of 16.
How Many Pieces are in a Complete Chess Set? NOTE: You are purchasing STL files for 3D printing, not a physical chess set. I’ve found a number of really good chess sets to 3D print on free file sites like Thingiverse and MyMiniFactory.īut if you want to make a truly unique set, you can design your own pieces in Tinkercad or any other 3D design software. When printed at 100 your pieces are ideal for tournament size chess boards.
