This is absolutely one of the coolest chessboards I’ve ever seen. Designed by Yasmin Sethi and inspired by the novel “Alice through the Looking Glass”, this chessboard utilize chess pieces which are opaque when not on the board. However, when they’re placed on the board, the chess piece turns transparent revealing what the piece actually is.
The key to this is the usage of a material called LightPoints which is a material manufactured by Schott. LightPoints is basically glass with LEDs embedded within it. The individual cylindrical chess pieces are coated with a material called Mirona which turns transparent when light shines through it. Thus, when the piece is placed on the board, this completes a circuit on the board which causes the LightPoints material to shine light up through the chess piece thereby exposing what’s inside the object. When you remove the chess piece, the LEDs cut out and the piece turns opaque.
As Yasmin Sethi notes, this is essentially “a comment on how a chess piece has no value unless it is in play on the board.” There’s nothing good in standing in the sidelines!
[Check it out via Gizmodo]
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