Ultra-trivia: Chicago chess set

All Things Chess
1

OK, on the off chance that someone here has a long memory and/or deep archives:

I remember reading, when I was a kid – this would have been in the '70s or (more probably) '80s – about a sculptor who had made a Chicago-themed chess set. The kings were the Sears Tower. The queens were the Standard Oil Building (now the Aon Building). The bishops were the John Hancock Tower. The knights were the Picasso sculpture in Daley Plaza (the horse/dragon/woman), and the rooks were the Old Water Tower – two particularly brilliant casting choices, IMO. The white pawns were policemen, and the black pawns were firemen.

Anyone have any clue who it was that made this set, and when, and whether it might still be available somehow as a collectors’ item?

2

I remember seeing that set on display in the 1980s at one of the Michigan Avenue shops across the street from the Art Institute. You might try Floyd and Bernice Sarisohn at the Long Island Chess Museum.

3

Just couldn’t help it…

I looked for a Cubs chess set, but only found a Cubs vs. White Sox checkers set. It’s just as well. The Cubs side wouldn’t win anyway. :laughing:

Silly goat :smiling_imp: :imp:

4

Just remember, any Cubs fan at the gates of heaven is let in by Saint Peter. He thinks they’ve already suffered enough.