Classic Chess Set by Peter Ganine for Ganine
1961
No longer in production
Peter Ganine was a Georgian-American sculptor and industrial designer, best know for his modern chess sets, all of which are now collector’s items. He was born in Tbilisi, Georgia (then part of the Russian Empire) in 1900 before moving to the U.S. in 1931 on a scholarship from the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
The pieces from his Classic set (model no. 1494) were used for the iconic tri-dimensional chessboards of Star Trek: The Original Series. The board itself was constructed for the series. Actual rules for Star Trek’s version of three-dimensional chess weren’t developed until 1975, when artist (and Trek enthusiast) Franz Joseph introduced starting positions and basic gameplay mechanics in the “Star Trek Star Fleet Technical Manual.” Even then, a complete rules standard wasn’t established until a year later, by Andrew Bartmess, who published the booklet, “The Federation Standard Tri-D Chess Rules.”
References:
Hughes, Edan Milton. Artists in California: 1786-1940. San Francisco: Hughes Publishing Company, 1986. Page 170. https://archive.org/details/artistsincalifor0000hugh/.
Dansk the Night Away. “Vintage Chessmen by Peter Ganine.” October 12, 2011.
https://danskthenightaway.blogspot.com/2011/10/vintage-chessmen-by-peter-ganine.html.Joseph, Franz. Star Trek Star Fleet Technical Manual. New York: Ballantine Books, 1975. Page 151-52.
https://archive.org/details/star-trek-star-fleet-technical-manual/.Bartmess, Andrew. “Tri-D Chess Ruled by the Original Author: The Federation Standard 5.0 Tridimensional Chess Rules.” Yestercade, 2019.
https://yestercade.net/tactical.htm.
Used in:
The Original Series
