Chess pieces as today's modern military analogue.

Chess pieces are designed as archaic units, so how would your modern version of chess pieces be?

Mine would look someting as :

= Light infantry

= Sniper

= Attack helicopter

= Tank

= (I still don't know what could be the queen)

= General

I've been thinking about this too, and often I think people take the rook as castle way too literally, in fact, Originally the rook is a charioteer, so very similar to a tank in modern warfare, which makes sense how it moves, so totally agree!!!!!  Good job!!!!!!  Same with Knight, absolutely attack helicopter!!!!!  Exactly what i was thinking!!!!!  Bishop as sniper is perfect!!!!  Great idea!!!!!   For the Queen, the obvious choice for me is Special Forces.  Strongest piece in the game and makes complete sense that an infantry unit can be Promoted.  Think of the infantry unit being trained as it proceeds through the game until it becomes a special forces unit.  Alternatively, infantry reaches enemy supply lines and can confiscate tanks or helicopters!  Even if you wanted to go more literal, ask the general (king of course) how much he is in love with his special forces?  Can he live without them?  Does he want to?  :-)

I would love to make some chessmen with this modern theme, I am a HUGE fan of beautifully crafted and conceived chess sets.

I've also been thinking about analogs for different fighting environments/armed services, but not quite there yet.  Would be interested in anybody's thoughts on Navy, or Air Force, or possibly a beach invasion force like Normandy or Iwo Jima, or perhaps nuclear Era analogs!?

Great thoughts Soldarius, Thanks!!!!

A little more development:

Rook1:    Tank

Rook2:    Heavy Artillery

Knight1:  Fighter Aircraft (think of a napalm drop)

Knight2:  Attack Helicopter

Bishop1: Sniper

Bishop2: Machine Gunner

Queen:    Special Forces

King:        General

Pawns:    Infantry

I would love to make a custom themed chess set, but I don't quite have the carving/shaping skills!

I'm glad you liked the idea mate , check online if there are people who make customised chess boards , it's probably very expensive though.

How about this (WWII Pacific Theater)?

Pawns - Destroyers

Knights - Light Cruisers

Bishops - Heavy Cruisers

Rooks - Battleships 

Queen - Carrier

King - Flagship (?)

Pawn = infantry

Knight = drone

Bishop = stealth bomber

Rook = cruise missile

Queen = tactical nuke

King = President

The Bishops look more like ICBMs to me.

Queen would be an E9, whether you want that to be a Chief Master Sergeant, Sergeant Major, or Master Gunny could be debated. You could also go with Master Chief, but then your King would become Admiral and you should probably have a ship somewhere on the board. Maybe in place of the tank? 

I really like this idea of having each R B and N be a different asset of a similar category. Hey, you don't need to carve, you just need a 3D printer! 

Yeah, as a friend of mine uses to say, "God exists and He's on g7".

Rook: Tank 

Bishop: Humvee/Oshkosh/Jeep

Knight: Mortar infantry

Pawn: Infantry

Queen: F22

King: Commander's tent/post and flag

vobispacem wrote:

Rook: Tank 

Bishop: Humvee/Oshkosh/Jeep

Knight: Mortar infantry

Pawn: Infantry

Queen: F22

King: Commander's tent/post and flag

My considerations:

I combined from all the ideas from above.

The Queen is by far the most overpowered unit. No ground unit is that powerful, especially compared to tanks and snipers. So it's an STOVL aircraft that can be killed with great difficulty.

Rook being tank is obvious. From there, I see a Hummer/Jeep as a unit with similar mobility as the rook but weaker than the tank, to represent the Bishop. 

As for the knight, I'd thought of snipers, but that would be visually harder to distinguish from infantry. A mortar infantry is visually different, as the soldier is crouching down, holding a ground mounted weapon. As for why it is not a vehicle, it's because the limited mobility of knights compared to bishops or rooks.

As for the king, a tent or a commander's desk exemplify the limited mobility of the piece. A tent might also explain why checkmate ends the battle, because critical things are contained there, maybe food, medical supplies, strategic information, etc. 

An important feature is to put the traditional 2D chess symbols as large insiginia on the pieces, to avoid confusion. So, the tank would have the rook symbol on it, the infantry would have pawn symbols on its uniform, etc.  

I have seen chess pieces in production with modern army theme, but they mostly use different rank of officers as the pieces. I think that's a bad idea, because they are visually similar at a glance, also it's asking the user to memorize entire new sets of representations. And no, they don't put traditional 2D chess symbols on the pieces. 

 I'd love to 3d-print this. If I ever do, it would be nice if I can upload the designs. 

My Rooks are Attack Helicopters.

King = Field marshall    no core

Queen = army chief   from the core of infantry 

Bishops = major general  from the core of infantry 

Horse = brigadier        from the core of armour 

Rook =   Lt general   from the core of Artillery 

Pawns = private         from the core of infantry

King=General

Queen=Special Forces Operator

Bishop=Sniper

Knight=Mortarman

Rook=Tank

Pawn=Light Infantry