Rolls-Royce’s Chess Set Is As Beautiful And Over-Engineered As Its Cars

High-end luxury car companies sell all kinds of random overdesigned stuff, and I’m not even talking about accessories for the cars themselves. Mercedes-Maybach will sell you branded horse saddles, Porsche Design will build you a custom kitchen, and Bugatti has a $300,000 pool table that has gyroscopic self-leveling so you can play on your yacht. As you might expect, Rolls-Royce has a massive accessory catalog that includes everything from picnic sets and cigar humidors to camping gear and fountain pens. Rolls-Royce’s latest creation is simply called the Chess Set, and it’s described by accessories designer Nick Abrams as being “a contemporary work of art in its own right, as well as a practical, playable game.”

Abrams says many Rolls-Royce customers enjoy chess “often at an extremely high level,” so this chess set was “a natural evolution of the sense of hosting and occasion that defines the Rolls-Royce experience. While some of the most extravagant Rolls-Royce accessories are meant to be put in your car’s trunk, like the champagne chest, the chess set is meant to be placed in your home so you can play with your friends and family — after all, Rolls-Royce says this set is “a contemporary expression of one of the world’s most revered games of strategy that transcends cultures and generations, echoing the spirit of hosting and shared experience that defines the marque’s other lifestyle offerings.”

At first look the chess set is already a cool shape, somewhat of an inverted trapezoid that appears floating. Rolls-Royce says the leather base is reminiscent of the waft line details on its cars. The board itself is split in half; when you slide the two sections away, hidden compartments for the game pieces rise up in a seamless transformation. There’s also a “discreet drawer” on each side of the board that has an additional queen, in case one is promoted during the game. The board and chess piece holders are framed with polished aluminum, and there’s a polished aluminum Spirit of Ecstasy badge on the front and back of the set.

Like its cars and other accessories, Rolls-Royce’s chess set is hand-crafted. The board’s aluminum grid is machine-milled and then delicately refined by hand to get the corners perfected, which is tough as the metal is easy to bend. The squares for the board, which are made from a wood veneer, are laser-cut and then placed by hand, and they’re all made from the same log of wood to have a consistent grain pattern and so they’ll age the same. A phenomenal chevron-like look is created by the placement of the squares on the game board, much more interesting than a traditional checker pattern, while the border uses a longitudinal grain.

For the pieces, Rolls-Royce says its designers “studied the profile of traditional chess pieces, electing to extrude them downward into square bases,” and I have to say they look very slick. The faceted forms are simple, but there’s just enough detail to be really beautiful and distinct. Each one is made from ceramic-coated aluminum with a jewel-like polished stainless-steel head, and Rolls says the “weight, solidity and cool-to-the-touch tactility” is meant to evoke the metal organ stops in its cars. The white pieces have a subtle iridescent paint, while the black pieces are satin.

I think the coolest part about the chess set is something you can’t see. There are magnets hidden under the game board and inside the pieces, so they are always perfectly aligned on the board while also “lending each move a sense of precision and decisiveness.” The design team tried out six different types of magnets to find the right mix of secure strength and effortlessness in movement. The storage compartments are also magnetized, so the pieces won’t shift around inside.

This is a Rolls-Royce after all, so the chess set will be pretty customizable, and as it uses the same materials as the brand’s cars, you can order one to match your car. There are four different veneer combinations that all make the same diamond pattern — you can get high-gloss Blackwood with Ceramic White or Macassar Ebony with Royal Walnut, or if you want an open-pore finish there’s Smoked Eucalyptus with Paldao or Obsidian Ayous with Blackwood. Thirteen different leather colors are offered: Arctic White, Black, Cashmere Grey, Charles Blue, Forge Yellow, Havana, Iceland Moss, Lime Green, Mandarin, Peony Pink, Phoenix Red, Sciavaro Grey and Tailored Purple.

The chess set is now available for commission at Rolls-Royce dealerships and Private Office boutiques. The brand hasn’t put a pricetag on it yet, but I’m guessing you probably just don’t want to know. I hope Rolls-Royce does a Monopoly board next and really leans into it.

Rolls-Royce

Rolls-Royce