The printed set on a dark bench: a slate camera-shaped board with the two armies in their opening rows, and a flat tray of spare pieces on each side.

Nine
queens
a side.

Limbward is a 96-piece chess set on a camera body. Both armies set up in the usual 16 — and beside the board sit 8 more sets of queen, rook, bishop and knight, one for every pawn that might get across.

Scroll: one pawn, eight ranks.

the body

The board is shaped like a camera: a 7.7 in body, a lens boss across the front face, a shutter pad at the corner. You play on its back.

sixty-four squares

The dark half is cut, not printed — a 2 mm groove 0.6 mm deep around each bare pad, so one filament still reads as a chequerboard.

the set

Sixteen a side on a 20 mm pitch. Every piece stands on the same 16 mm square base and prints flat on the bed.

b2–b4

A pawn steps out. From here it is five moves to the far rank, if it lives through them.

b5–b6

It keeps its file, square by square. A pawn is the one piece on the board that cannot turn around.

b7–b8

One square from the last rank — and whatever it is about to become has already been printed.

b8=Q

A pawn that reaches the eighth rank leaves the board for good. Its queen comes off the tray standing beside it.

in the box

96 pieces. 32 spares a side — eight queens, eight rooks, eight bishops, eight knights, one full set of futures for each pawn.

Eight pawns, thirty-two spares

A normal set gives you one queen and hopes you never need a second. This one counts the other way: for each of the 8 pawns a side, the box holds the four pieces that pawn could turn into. Promote all eight and nothing has to be improvised with an upturned rook.

One tray of bone-coloured spares: a column of eight ring-topped queens, then eight cross-topped rooks, eight peaked bishops and eight stepped knights.
White's tray, four columns of eight. Black keeps the same tray on the other side of the board.
Queen
1 on the board + 8 in the tray
9
Rook
2 on the board + 8 in the tray
10
Bishop
2 on the board + 8 in the tray
10
Knight
2 on the board + 8 in the tray
10
Pawn
8 on the board
8
King
1 on the board, no spare
1
Every piece a side
16 in play, 32 waiting
48

Six shapes, two filaments

The armies are separate prints rather than one print in two colours: the graphite pieces stand on a notched collar, the bone ones on a plain disc, so you can tell them apart with your eyes shut. Heights below are true to each other — the rook really is nearly three times the pawn.

  1. Pawn: a low wedge on a round base, in graphite and bone.

    Pawn

    12 mm

    A wedge on a disc, and the only piece that can become another.

    1.25 g in 10 min

  2. King: a dome on a plain collar, in graphite and bone.

    King

    22 mm

    A plain dome — the only piece with no spare behind it.

    1.65 g in 13 min

  3. Knight: three stepped blocks climbing forward, in graphite and bone.

    Knight

    24 mm

    Three steps climbing forward — the only piece with a front.

    2.46 g in 21 min

  4. Bishop: twin peaks with a notch between them, in graphite and bone.

    Bishop

    26 mm

    Twin peaks with a notch cut between them.

    2.37 g in 19 min

  5. Queen: an open ring on a column, in graphite and bone.

    Queen

    28 mm

    An open ring on a column. Eight more wait on the tray.

    2.58 g in 23 min

  6. Rook: cross vanes on a square tower, in graphite and bone.

    Rook

    34 mm

    Cross vanes on a square tower, the tallest of the six.

    3.16 g in 22 min

The board is the camera

One printed part carries the whole game: the grid, the rim, the lens boss and the shutter pad. Nothing folds and nothing clips on — it is a slab you can put down on a table and leave out.

The board's front-left corner: engraved squares receding across the playfield, the raised rim, and the lens boss on the front face.
The corner the camera lens sits under. The rim stands proud of the playfield, which is what keeps a knocked piece on the board.
7.7 insquare, 1.0 in deep — a 200 mm bed takes it with 2 mm spare at each edge.
64 squareson a 20 mm pitch, 160 mm of playfield inside the rim.
9.0 ozof PETG, 16h 55m on the machine — the long print of the set.
One filamentdoes both colours of square: the dark half is a groove, not a print change.

Take the set

Parts
97 printed parts — one board and 96 pieces
Board
7.7 × 7.7 × 1.0 in
Pieces
12 to 34 mm tall, all on a 16 mm square base
Per side
48 pieces: 16 in play and 32 spares
Print
PETG at 0.2 mm layers, 15% infill, 0.4 mm nozzle
Filament
16.9 oz for the complete set, 9.0 oz of it the board
Ships
within 14 days
SKU
VB-E2RETJTX

Every figure on this page was measured off the shipped geometry, or sliced from it.