Chess on the Dot

Chess on the Dot (Wooden Game Set)

Four years after my digital board game “Dot” was awarded by the Red Dot Award (Germany), I created a “Mark II” for its wooden prototype “Globe Chess”. This time, I set two goals before everything starts: First, make the model as light as possible. Second, give the model an all-wood appearance.

In order to reduce as much weight as possible, the three metal rings of the original prototype “Globe Chess” must be replaced by wooden rings, therefore I reached a Japanese wood craftsman to hand-make three light and endurable wooden rings. The technique of bending the wood and connect it into a ring without any crack or seam is absolutely incredible.

The color of “Chess on the Dot” is much better than the original prototype “Globe Chess” because this time I use the brighter wood called Fraxinus americana—a.k.a. white ash or American ash—and it provides stronger contrast after the black dye is painted on the Dot and the pieces.

Thanks to the thinner “crust” of the Dot, the magnets inside the sphere and the bottom of the pieces can be smaller than the original prototype “Globe Chess”, this enormously reduces the weight of the whole model, and makes it a lot easier to glue all magnets in position.

Since the board has no boundary and all pieces on the Dot can move without limit of steps, players will find that the experience of playing “Dot” is totally different from any other board game.

Although the Dot is a 3-dimensional object, the surface of the Dot is just a 2-dimensional manifold, which makes the strategy of winning this game not much different from the original chess or other board games. However, it requires players to pay attention on every possible routes on a spherical surface, that makes the full-angle observation a critical skill for this game.

This new model brings players wonderful game experiences especially when they can easily rotate the very light wooden rings to roll the Dot. The magnetic force is more suitable than the original prototype “Globe Chess”, which is strong enough to keep the pieces attached on the surface of Dot, yet weak enough to create the best gaming experience when players move the pieces.