Luxury Twelve-Sided Russian Chess Set with Coat of Arms

Luxury Twelve-Sided Russian Chess Set with Coat of Arms

The first thing you notice is the shape. This board is not a square — it is cut with twelve sides, so the corners come off at angles and the whole thing reads as an object rather than a playing surface. The wide borders are carved in a fine lattice, and at each end the double-headed eagle of Russia is inlaid into the wood. It is a carved chess set that announces itself before a single piece is placed.

The army is bronze, thirty-two ornate figures standing on pale bases, one side left bright and one darkened, framed by bronze coordinate markers along the field. At 9 kg this luxury chess set is genuinely heavy — pieces land with a sound, the board does not shift when somebody leans on the table, and nothing about it feels like an ornament that happens to have squares on it. And it still folds to 23.6 x 11.8" / 60 x 30 cm when the game is over.

What's Included

• Twelve-sided folding chess board with brass fittings
• 32 ornate bronze chess pieces on pale bases
• Carrying bag

Specifications

• Open board: 23.6 x 23.6" / 60 x 60 cm
• Folded: 23.6 x 11.8" / 60 x 30 cm
• Weight: 9 kg / 19.8 lb
• Material: solid beech and walnut wood with bronze pieces
• Bronze coordinate markers
• Entirely handmade

Why You'll Love It

• A twelve-sided board — nothing else in the range is cut this way
• The Russian double-headed eagle inlaid at both ends of the field
• Fine lattice carving across the full width of the borders
• 9 kg of board and a complete cast bronze army

The Double-Headed Eagle

Two heads, looking east and west at once — an emblem that came to Russia in the fifteenth century and has outlasted every government since. On a chess board it fits almost too neatly: a game about seeing both sides of the position at the same time, under a bird that does exactly that.

A Gift Worth Giving

This is a statement gift and it should be given as one — a retirement, a milestone birthday, an office that needs something on the table people will actually stop at. Nobody receives this and puts it in a cupboard.