[lemmsjid]

It would be interesting to do an experiment on people playing one another (online) with these pieces vs regular pieces (e.g. one player with a regular set and one player with this set). Because I do feel like I can visualize the state of the board more easily with this approach--but would that translate across people into better play, or is there some point where a more expert player (I don't play very often, though I enjoy playing and have played for years) has already internalized the mapping from piece shape to movement. But that said, it does feel like the difference between font styles in programming, which for me have a very meaningful impact over time.

Edit: Though good point to the parallel commenters, the knight shape is harder to differentiate and kind of throws me off. But maybe tweaks there.

[nescioquid]

If you're ever going to get the point where you recognize tactics (or anything, for that matter) on the board, how the pieces move must already be internalized and not require any thought. People even especially practice visualizing knight journeys between arbitrary squares to make this more automatic.

If you ask an experienced player to use a weird piece set, you will only be introducing error and cognitive overhead. If you ask someone naive to the game to use the piece set, do they internalize how the pieces move more quickly and get over the impedance when they start to use a normal set?

Going at a tangent to your idea, maybe it is possible to construct a set that aids the performance of a naive player, but which degrades the performance of a more experienced opponent. Could that handicap be as great as a club player offering pawn odds against a naive opponent?

[palata]

Exactly this. Relatives have been trying to choose "fancy-looking" chess sets for me as a gift, and I always hated them. I don't want fancy pieces, I want the standard ones that don't give me cognitive overhead :-).

"Tournament chessboards" are my favourites, obviously.

[jakeinspace]

Hell is filled with glass and ornate chess sets, I am convinced.

[Raphael]

I've gotten so used to 2D knights that it annoys me when people face them forward on a 3D board.

[unnah]

There are flat chess pieces that have the traditional 2D symbols on top. Another question is whether anyone makes 3D knight pieces that are designed to lay flat on the board. Such pieces would fit a "Godfather" themed chess set rather well...

[bondarchuk]

>Going at a tangent to your idea, maybe it is possible to construct a set that aids the performance of a naive player, but which degrades the performance of a more experienced opponent. Could that handicap be as great as a club player offering pawn odds against a naive opponent?

Blindfolded chess for the better player ;)

[sleeplessworld]

The knight shape does seem off. But it avoids the piece being a sun symbol / fascist tribute piece :-)

[donkeybeer]

It shouldn't look like that, its two I's at 90 degrees: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GEqoWAFXQAAPRXm?format=jpg&name=...

[Zanni]

That's nice. Plus it solves the manufacturing issue if you try to turn this into a physical set (the current knight design is very thinly connected).

[LudwigNagasena]

That knight looks like it's 12th century and he's heading to Jerusalem.

[junon]

> has already internalized the mapping from piece shape to movement

Magnus Carlson, considered one of - if not the - best chess players of all time has a famous video of him playing three chess matches simultaneously, blindfolded, and winning all three.

Once you get to a certain point not only the movements but also entire gameplay strategies become internalized.

[WJW]

Not to mention the video where the board is presented in the "wrong" direction, so he enumerates to himself which squares the pieces are on, then closes his eyes so he can see the board clearer.

[NickC25]

The more impressive one is where he's matched up against 10 Harvard Law students simultaneously, and is blindfolded. He won all of the games handily.

Even more impressive, one of the students asked Magnus if he could sign a chess board. Not only did Magnus sign an autograph, he literally annotated the entire game from memory. That is insane to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1Rr4Uq1R-I

[junon]

Holy shit, I missed this one. That's wild.