Our last article involved the appearance of chess boards in publicity photos for Star Trek: The Original Series. However, those sets turned up quite frequently in TOS episodes.
Sometimes they were pivotal in the episode. In “Court Martial” Kirk was damned by the Enterprise’s own computer tapes that clearly showed him pressing the eject button. However, Spock played a hunch (yes, you know he did) and played chess against the ship’s computer. When he won several games in a row, he realized that there was reason to cast doubt on the prosecution’s main witness. As it turned out, Finney had reprogrammed the system, which included the memory banks. So we can claim that chess saved the day in this episode.
Sometimes chess may not have been a major plot point but it aided our understanding of a character. For example, in “Charlie X” we could see a side of Charlie’s nature no one aboard the Enterprise knew about when he melted several chess pieces in frustration over losing to Spock. And in “By Any Other Name,” Spock used chess to gauge how well Kirk’s strategy of frustrating the Kelvans was working on Rojan.
And even if we did not see a single chess set in “Whom Gods Destroy,” the game played an important part here as well. When Garth disguised as Kirk attempted to beam aboard the Enterprise to escape the insane asylum on Elba II, he could not give the correct chess move to counter Mr. Scott’s “Queen to queen’s level 3.”
Of course, there are countless other episodes in which we see the game either appear in Spock or Kirk’s quarters or in the rec room. It’s one of the most famous props used on the show. However, how much do we know about the background of this unique version of chess?
As we all know, the chess board used in The Original Series was often referred to as three dimensional or tri-dimensional chess. The actual board and chess pieces built for the show were in fact cannibalized from other game sets. For example, the chess pieces in the show were already in existence. They were part of Peter Ganine’s Classic Chess set, released in 1961. Ganine created several different versions of such sets and they were highly valued. A complete set of the same version above sold for $1250 on eBay in 2010. And that did not include the original board. Today you may see individual pieces going for $25.
Btw, from here on out, my main source for this material comes information contributed by Gregory Schnitzer to several discussions on the Trek BBS. Schnitzer was the propmaster for Star Trek - New Voyages: Phase II for many years and was meticulous in his research and duplication of most of the TOS props used in that fan series. I will reference several of his Flickr collections at the end if you want to see detailed photos of his work.
Now the chess board has its own interesting story. The three large main boards were taken from the then currently available Space Checkers, sold at that time by a company named Checkline. Even though the boards were originally clear, the alternating squares were painted red for the customized 3D chess version.
The game of Space Tic Tac Toe itself seems to have made its first appearance in early studio publicity photos. The one on the right above appeared in The Making of Star Trek.
Another ‘60s game, Space Checkers, provided the attack boards of the 3D chess set. They were slightly smaller in size, which gave the Trek version a distinct look once both were inserted onto the metal base and frame. Normally there were four of the 2X2 attack boards that, when added to the three 4X4 main boards, totaled the 64 squares needed for a regulation chess board.
(You can barely make out a Space Checkers set against the wall behind Kirk and Spock in “Where No Man Has Gone Before” - photo credit belongs to Gregory Schnitzer)
However, if you keep your eyes open, you will occasionally see a set with five attack boards, such as in the same scene from “Where No Man Has Gone Before” mentioned above. This set would then have a non-traditional 68 squares. (Btw, that is Eddie Paskey directly behind Kirk).
All three games often appeared in recreation deck scenes. The photo on the left comes from “The Conscience of the King.” Notice the Space Tic Tac Toe game on the table uses standard black and red checkers. Evidently, the original board pieces were missing. And we see both Space Checkers and 3D chess in “Charlie X.” Props like these, which were both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time, added visual interest to the background in many episodes. And it deepened our understanding that even in the 23rd century, board games would still be popular as a way to pass time, keep one’s mind active, and form social groups.
Again, we would like to recognize Gregory Schnitzer, prop-master extraordinaire for the Star Trek fan film series New Voyages: Phase II. Much of the information on the sets themselves came from his Trek BBS discussions. If you would like to see some of his replicas patterned on the original game sets, these three links are fascinating.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/10901121@N06/sets/72157602298653167/with/2134027950/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/10901121@N06/sets/72157602298653167/with/2134027950/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/10901121@N06/albums/72157608722638071?fbclid=IwAR0TPuj07YZVKSGgdF0UuhbhqmljPnVNsNUSTBRPV9XM9hW4WLlYF-8ZePQ
