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, so I contacted a Japanese wood craftsman to hand-make three light and durable wooden rings. The technique of bending wood and connecting 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 in the original prototype ”Globe Chess”. This significantly reduces the overall weight of the model and makes it much easier to position all the magnets correctly.

Since the board has no boundary and pieces on the Dot can move an unlimited number of steps, players will find that playing “Dot” is an entirely different experience from any traditional 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 to every possible route on a spherical surface, which makes full-angle observation a critical skill for this game.

This new model provides an excellent gaming experience, especially when players easily rotate the light wooden rings to roll the Dot. The magnetic force is superior to the original prototype ”Globe Chess”, being strong enough to hold the pieces securely on the Dot's surface, yet gentle enough to allow smooth movement when players move the pieces.