Star Wars Chess
Mirthe Luria
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Dejarik, also known as holochess,[3] was a popular two-player game in which teams of holographic creatures battled each other on a holochess table. A variant of the more ancient Shah-tezh, dejarik was commonly played on starships and in homes throughout the galaxy from well before the time of the Clone Wars and long through the reign of the Galactic Empire.
At the beginning of the game, both players arranged four pieces each, with pieces on the second, third, fourth, and fifth spaces of their respective half-boards.[4] There existed a version where there were not eight, but ten pieces on the board, however.[5]
There existed a number of pieces from which the players could choose their four monsters, all of which were full-color holographic projections of creatures both real and mythological from across the galaxy.[6] Available pieces included the Ghhhk, Grimtaash the Molator, the Houjix, the Kintan strider, the K'lor'slug, the Mantellian Savrip, the Monnok, the Ng'ok,[7] the Bulbous, the Scrimp,[8] and the karkath.[2]
Each holomonster had specific Attack, Health, Range, and Movement ratings. A piece's Attack (ATK) rating represented the damage it could deal when attacking; its Health (HP) rating represented the amount of damage it could sustain before being removed from the board; its Range (RNG) rating indicated how far away it could attack; finally, its Movement rating (MOV) represented the number of spaces it could cover in one single move. Some creatures also had "special abilities."[4]
A piece could be moved across the board up to the full amount of spaces indicated by its movement rating, to any space adjacent to its own (either around the orbit or along the ray, but not diagonally, or into a space occupied by another piece). A piece could not move into a space, then immediately retreat back into the space it just left.[4]
Once a player had positioned one of their pieces in range adjacent (on an orbit or ray, not diagonally) to an opposing piece, they could declare an attack on that piece. Range 1 pieces were immediately adjacent, while greater Range pieces were farther apart.[4]
When attacking, the attacking player took the attack rating of his piece and dealt that many Health damage to the defending piece. When a defending piece lost all its Health points, it was defeated and thus removed from the board.[4]
Invented long before the Clone Wars,[6] dejarik was in fact, like chess and Moebius, a variant of the even more ancient game of Shah-tezh.[10] The same person who created dejarik also created the game saigok, which Kaasha Bateen regarded as a more "badass" version of dejarik.[2]
In 20 BBY,[11] the planet Abafar hosted the Abafar Junior Dejarik Club in the city of Pons Ora. Advertisements for the club strictly prohibited Wookiees from participating,[12] because members of that species were notorious for becoming rather upset upon losing.[6]
Dejarik was portrayed in the first Star Wars film and The Force Awakens with stop-motion animation directed by Phil Tippett. New digitally printed models of the dejarik figures were created for The Force Awakens by scanning the originals.[13]
We're going to take a look at some of the best sets and where one might buy them. Since the first Star Wars film was released in 1977, there has been a sensation for anything and everything Star Wars. Chess sets, of course, are no exception.
In partnership with Royal Selangor, Disney has product a beautiful set. It is made of pewter, and the craftsmanship looks superb. The availability is hit and miss, but last time we checked this Disney Star Wars Chess Set was available on Amazon.
Our favorite in this search for the best official Star Wars chess sets is this pewter version by Danbury Mint. Not only does it look great, but the difficulty in purchasing this set when it was released in 1993 makes us want it that much more! (Don't we usually want what we can't have?)
If you wanted this Star Wars set, it was only available through mail-order (note the ad to the left). Pieces would be delivered two-at-a-time, every other month, meaning it would take almost three years for a complete set!
If you saw this set in person, you might be so impressed, you'd wonder why it's not in the number one spot? Honestly, it was a tough call. The aesthetics and excellent build of this Star Wars Chess Set by Gentle Giant, a company known for its collectibles from movies and comics.
This set is going to take a much bigger chunk of change than the previously reviewed set, but for good reason! For starters, these figures are made of pewter. They are built to last and feel solid in your hands.
As mentioned before, the aesthetics are absolutely stunning. If it weren't for the sheer challenge involved in obtaining the set that made it to the number one spot, this Gentle Giant collectible might've at least tied for number one.
The pieces in this chess set are incredibly endearing. There are stories of people getting it to teach their kids chess, but the youngsters get so swept up in the characters themselves, they forget to play the game!
In a perfect world, these pieces would be made of a strong metal, but then again, that would bump up the price and make it less attainable. If fun to look at and attractive chess pieces is your top goal in a Star Wars set, and being low on the durability spectrum is okay, this could be the set for you.
Kids wanting to "play" with these pieces when not playing the game of chess itself? That could be a good thing. Especially if your child shows little or no interest in chess, but is an avid fan of Hollywood's most epic space-opera. This could be the gateway to get them acquainted and versed in the game of chess, and hooked!
Considering the availability and popularity of LEGO Minifugures, one could get their hands on the appropriate Star Wars figures, and build a chess board out of LEGO too. In fact, what kid in America wouldn't want to help with such a project?
Pictured is a board built by a woman for her husband and submitted to the LEGO Ideas website. Her husband is a huge fan of Star Wars, LEGO and chess, so this was a birthday he probably had no problem remembering.
Why didn't it make it higher in the list? We were not impressed with the overall quality. Like they always say, you get what you pay for. It's a great "budget" set for those who love Star Wars and want to play chess; however, beware that the pieces are built of plastic and some complain that they tip over easily. This is not a set we carry, so one would need to get this Star Wars Chess Set at Amazon or a local toy store.
So I was looking for a first project to use my new A250 rotary module. I decided to make some stars wars themed chess pieces. I used the following slt files from Thingiverse Star Wars Chess Set Revised by Anubis_ - Thingiverse.
Carving took ca 2hr40mins and the results are very good. I recommend an enclosure as the epoxy tooling board produces a lot of dust. Also wear a face mask when cleaning the SM2 afterwards, one surgical mask provided with the rotary module.
Very cool-might be interesting to see how the same model turns out in both the hardwood and resin? The left stormtrooper arm is a little ugly, although the curves on the helmet and base are really good.
So I've decided to build my own Lego Star Wars chess set after being inspired by a few different versions I've seen online. I want a neat way to display my SW minifig collection and to expand into some of the figs I don't have.
Good luck on the project Grolin! Couple of yrs ago when I started this Lego hobby I wanted to do the same using those polybag chrome Silver CP-03s as pawns since I had enough...but unfortunately slowly sold them off one by one. Mandalorian troops were easy/cheap to get also. I'm not a hardcore SW fan but obviously there's so many variations of chess pieces/characters you can chose from. Queen Amidala? If you had the funds/time, would be cool to do a custom chess board from each episode
I think you could do any number of variations based on settings from the movie - Hoth chess, Tatooine chess, Endor Chess, Death Star chess, etc. The first should probably be an Ep. 4 Death Star set, so the Rebel Pilots would make for great pawns, with Luke and (smooth hair!) Leia, as King and Queen, Han as bishop, R2 as the knight and 3P0 as the rook. On the other side, Vader would have to be King, with his officers his bishops, mouse droid his Knights (okay, maybe a little small - perhaps another droid with a little screen time?). Don't have any idea about Empire Rooks or the queen off the top of my head. Storm troopers would have to be the pawns.
If you don't intend to use the pilots as something else than pawns (maybe together with the microfighter?) you could also mix hoth rebles with pilots, their is no harm in having different pawns. Also personally I think I would prefer variants, as it is more interesting (and give every figure something unique).
I was thinking of doing a strict Ep 5 theme or similar, or even multiple sets like Quacs mentioned. but I've settled on a ep 1-6 range and using the best characters across all 6 movies. I'm going to stick to characters/droids/minifigs, so mini build vehicles like AT-AT are out.
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