The Regency Chess Company is delighted to finally be able to offer The Isle of Lewis Chess Set (Wizard’s Edition) to Harry Potter fans. Given their fascinating origin and links to the middle ages, the Isle of Lewis chess pieces certainly look at home in the Great Hall at Hogwarts. If you want to experience the Harry Potter world through Lego and are ready to compromise on the wizard’s chess part of it, the Lego Harry Potter board gameis great fun. I know this doesn’t really make up for it but as Ron would say:

Few Harry Potter fans can forget the dramatic chess scene that takes place in the first movie, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. It comes while our heroes are trying to make their way through the hazardous maze the Hogwarts teachers have put in place to guard the Sorcerer’s stone, a powerful magical artifact. The original Lewis chessmen were discovered at Uig Bay, on the west coast of the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, in 1831. Most historians believe the chess pieces, carved from walrus ivory and whale tooth, were made in Trondheim, the medieval capital of Norway, in the 12th century. We’ve been asked about the ‘ Harry Potter Chess Set’ more times than you can shake a wand at. So, after studying the scene we noticed that the chess pieces are the spitting image of our limited edition, red and cream Isle of Lewis chessmen. Features: 'Wonderful wizarding world happiness generator (text only version)' at Pottermore (archived) The appearance of the pieces is also very good and the shapes are really well defined. The craftsmanship really shows through when you compare the chessmen to the ones in the Harry Potter movie chess scene. The pieces replicate the movie chessmen almost perfectly.The chess pieces of this Harry Potter Wizard’s chess set are made of high-grade plastic. They are heavier than normal chess sets and also very sturdy. The board – which is made up of cardboard – folds up in four sections and it not as good as the pieces. The fact that it folds up is not ideal for gameplay since one or the other section may end up not sitting perfectly flat which can hinder gameplay. The size of the board is also very small which can make the pieces cramped up. intricately designed and highly detailed chess pieces ranging from 2.5 inches to 5.5 inches in height During the Christmas holidays in the 1984–1985 school year, Rowan Khanna got a new Wizard's Chess set from their parents, and invited Jacob's sibling to play the game in the Great Hall when they were on break from Christmas decorating. [6] A similar concept is featured in Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita, where Professor Woland (alias Satan) and his retinue play with a supernatural chess set whose pieces are animate and move by themselves.

Players moved their pieces by speaking the name of the piece and the square it was to move to by algebraic notation. For example, 'Knight to E5'. Aside from the self-moving pieces, the rules of Wizard's Chess were exactly the same as Muggle chess. The moving pieces seemed to be reasonably sentient, as seen when Harry Potter began learning how to play the game, he used Seamus Finnigan's pieces, which offered him conflicting advice because they knew that he was not a good or experienced player. [1] Sentience [ ] The "Dragon Variation of the Slytherin Defence" appears to be a pun on the real-world Sicilian Defence, Dragon Variation. The Isle of Lewis chess pieces might not be as recognisable as the world’s-standard Staunton, but their fascinating history – and mystery – make them the perfect choice for Wizard’s Chess. Ronald Weasley owned a Wizard's Chess set which he inherited from his grandfather. Unlike many of his hand-me-down possessions, the second-hand chess set was advantageous as the pieces trusted him. When Harry Potter played with Seamus Finnigan's chess men, they did not trust his judgement and offered him advice. [1]

Details

The Isle of Lewis Chess Set (Wizard’s Edition) should look familiar to Harry Potter fans as it’s almost identical to the set seen in The Philosopher’s Stone. During the 1988–1989 school year, Jacob's sibling and Chiara Lobosca played Wizard's Chess to help themselves think the situation through after Ismelda Murk attempted to capture Chiara and reveal her werewolf identity. [10] 1990s [ ] This set was never made to play professional chess play so it would not be fair to criticize it for not being suitable for a regulation game of chess. The set is not good enough for serious gameplay due to the pieces being too lightweight and the board feeling slightly cramped up. If they had made the board a little bigger and added a bit of weight to the chess pieces, the set would have been perfect. That being said, if you have bought this set due to it being a “Wizard’s” chess set, it does the job perfectly. Murphy McNully played Wizard's Chess with Jacob's sibling to test their strategy. [8] They would then often play with each other between Quidditch practices. At some point after the start of the 1987–1988 school year, Orion Amari also played with Murphy as one of several activities from which he hoped to regain mental balance after he was injured in a Quidditch friendly. [9] During the 1988–1989 school year, Jacob's sibling and several of their friends participated in the Walter Aragon Wizard Chess Competition, named after former Hogwarts Headmaster Walter Aragon, in Flourish and Blotts. Jacob's sibling managed to defeat the esteemed chess player Celine Castillon of Beauxbatons in the tournament. [3]

We can’t expect anything less from a world that introduced us to invisibility cloaks and extendable ears! FUN TO PLAY ANYWHERE - includes 32 highly-detailed moulded plastic chess pieces measuring between 5 to 11.5 cms in height, and a playing board approximately 47cm square.The chess pieces are very well made and look exactly like the wizard chessmen from the movie. The plastic used to manufacture the pieces is of good quality and the pieces hold together very well. Just like the Harry Potter Wizard Chess sets from Mattel and The Noble Collection, the board for this one is made out of cardboard and folds into four parts. This is the biggest letdown for an otherwise very impressive looking chess set. The kids had to get on the board and stand in for pieces that had been captured in a previous game, putting themselves directly in harm’s way!