This Rolls-Royce Chess Set Is Fit For A King
A checkmate to all other chessboards.
Rolls-Royce doesn’t often stray from luxury automaking and stamp its logo on accessories, but the few items that do carry the overlapping “RR” badge are just as over-the-top as the marque’s opulent rides.
The Rolls-Royce Chess Set follows this $61,000 Cellarette whisky and cigar chest as the latest in a sparse line of ultimate RR accessories, each of which is a presentation-worthy furnishing for either a home or coach car. Designed to “capture the same sense of occasion as the arrival of a Rolls-Royce motorcar,” the playing board opens in a smooth, single theatrical motion to that elevates an elegant drawer of magnetically secured pieces—the motion is meant to evoke the buttery smooth opening of a Rolls-Royce car door.
A polished aluminum Spirit of Ecstasy emblem is also discreetly affixed to the front and back, the board’s base is made from milled aluminum, and the veneer squares are laser-cut and hand-placed. More hidden magnets keep the pieces perfectly aligned during play, while a pair of secret drawers on either end of the board each contain a second queen, lest the opponent promotes their pawn to the most powerful piece.
Speaking of those pieces, they are something like abstract, monolithic interpretations of traditional chess pieces, each crafted from ceramic-coated aluminum, containing a hidden magnet, and crowned with a jewel-like polished stainless-steel head. The black chess pieces are given a satin finish, while the white pieces feature a subtle iridescent treatment.
Being a Rolls-Royce product, several customizations featuring fine materials and textiles are available. The playing board is available in a choice of four veneer combinations, each arranged to create a diamond pattern when viewed from above. High-gloss finishes include Blackwood with Ceramic White and Macassar Ebony with Royal Walnut, but Open Pore veneer treatments in Smoked Eucalyptus with Paldao and Obsidian Ayous with Blackwood are also available. The chess piece drawer can also be clad in one of 13 leather hues running the gamut from primary colors to more esoteric options like “Scivaro Grey” and “Havana.”
There’s no word on price—an educated guess would be in the mid-five figures, like the Cellarette–but the Rolls-Royce Chess Set is available for commission in showrooms and Private Office boutiques now.