
Irving Chernev once said, “Every chess master was once a beginner.” A game of strategy, it was known as “the royal game” from about the 15th century in Europe as it was quite popular amongst the nobility. Nowadays many from all walks of life around the world enjoy the game, including the Voyagers who have crafted their own personal chess set.

The Voyagers started by sanding down their circular wooden boards, then accurately measured out the board grid with their rulers, before painting the alternate coloured squares.

Next they had to make the chess pieces out of clay, observing the differences between each type of piece and modelling their own miniature versions. This came with its own challenges with the brittleness of the material drying too quickly. Some had to remake a few pieces, learning a bit about using the medium of clay. Afterwards an origami box was created to keep the pieces together neatly.

For an added touch, the Voyagers hammered nails on the other side of the board to help them with their times tables. Evenly spaced in a 10 pointed star formation, the string can be moved around the nails to visually see unique patterns in each times table. With the equipment all made, the next step was to understand how to play the game, so the Voyagers wrote their own instruction manual.
Finally all that was left was to enjoy playing the game with each other!