Fortify Chess Set in Concrete by Daniel Skoták

Fortify is a minimalist chess set designed by Daniel Skoták. The brutalist aesthetic derives from the material choice of cast concrete and bent iron bars — reminiscent of core architectural components. Even the chessboard itself was cast in concrete, with square black iron tiles being inlaid afterwards.

The concrete bases of the chess pieces in Fortify were cast in a frustrum shape (essentially a cone with its top cut off). This gives each piece a heightened degree of stability against toppling, with a lowered centre of gravity and a larger base area. Atop these concrete bases sit metal clips, and the simplified shapes in which this iron wiring is bent into denote the roles of the different pieces.

Shapes of the upper parts of the figures are stylised into the most simple forms so the legibility of the figures is maintained.Daniel Skoták

The opposing sides in the Fortify chess set are demarcated by whether this iron wiring is coloured white or black. However I think this colour distinction could be quite subtle during a complex game and the designer Daniel Skoták could have potentially tinted the liquid concrete with darker grey pigments to help differentiate them.