Ah, I love the Chicago skyline. When I was in high school, I always felt so grownup to take the Blue Line into the city by myself. My desintation: the downtown library, where my neck would get stiff looking up at the magically mosaic-ed dome ceiling. Where books and talent and wisdom inspired me. Where I was sure someday I would meet my Prince Charming.
But I digress.
It’s just that this amazing chess set I found at Sawbridge Studios, with its pieces that look like the wondrous Chicago buildings I’d seen on my downtown hunts for learning and love, shook the memory jar and that’s what fell out.
Do you enjoy chess as much as I do the city I grew up in? Or love architecture and the wonders of Chicago?
Then thank Steve Vigar, the California artist, who makes these gloriously detailed sets (and others featuring buildings of New York or San Francisco). He makes the 21-inch-square boards of zebra wood and wenge. Buildings/chess pieces range from 1 1/4 to 6 inches. They’re $1,780 — such a deal for an entire city?
You can find Vigar’s chess sets (which come in a leather storage box) at Sawbridge Studios, 1015 Tower Ct., Winnetka, IL,
847-441-2441, or 153 W. Ohio St., Chicago, 312/828-0055.
~ Elaine Matsushita
the snoopster 