AGH University ceramic chess – unusual set created by students

This unusual project conducted within the Rector’s Grant was aimed at developing a chess set with all the pieces being replaced by elements characteristic of the AGH University campus. In the unique set, one can find a miniature St Barbara, Stanisław Staszic, a dinosaur, a locomotive, or a hall of residence from the AGH University Student Campus. The faculties are represented by pawns, each of them holding a shield with a proper unit’s logo. 

Images from a drone, 3D scans, coffee grounds – how the ceramic chess set was made?

The final result, a set of ceramic chess pieces, is the aftermath of months of work performed by students from the Artistic Ceramics Student Research Club. The first stage was to design new pieces replacing the traditional ones. Significant support for the chess creators was also provided by a student from the Faculty of Geo-Data Science, Geodesy, and Environmental Engineering, Szymon Zimniak, who took photos of the objects using a drone and then created 3D models of the chess figures based on them. The subsequent stage consisted in printing the figures with the use of a filament printer (with the support of Dr Eng. Dawid Kozień), and then in making plaster moulds of each piece. Such an action made it possible to obtain shapes with clearly visible details. The figures were then cast, dried, fired into bisque, which is a hard ceramic blank, glazed, painted, and re-fired.

The chess section of AZS AGH Krakow, the AGH University Museum, and the AGH University Main Library also provided substantive assistance at the stage of the set's creation. The project also provided for the making of a chess box and, at the same time, a game board. The case is wooden, lined with sponge, while the chessboard is a black and white mosaic.

After firing, the coffee grounds mass has mechanical properties that are not significantly different from a mass without the addition of coffee. The mass after firing is light, which translates into the final weight of the box. The chess set along with the figure guide is a fully usable set. 

Enthusiasts of the game will be able to play with this unusual ceramic set as early as November 4 this year during the International Tournament “Nauka i Szachy" 2023 OPEN, which will be held at the main building of the AGH University (address: al. A. Mickiewicza 30) at 10 a.m.