Checkmate: How Chess And Board Games Became The Height Of Chic

A marble chess set adorns a quartzite coffee table. A half-finished espresso cools in nearby Astier De Villatte cup. The game is paused mid-skirmish, as conversation billows into playful repartee over at the kitchen island. Increasingly, this is how chess exists in contemporary culture. Popular pastime meets object of desire as exquisitely crafted sets return to the world’s most elegant homes. Somewhere between Netflix dramas, fashion campaigns and our growing sense of digital overstimulation, the ancient game has become unexpectedly chic again.

And it’s not only chess. Other tabletop games are enjoying an unlikely renaissance too. Backgammon boards are appearing in the homes of the fashion elite, creative directors and movie stars – just ask Leonardo DiCaprio and Walton Goggins.

School chess clubs are booming and television producers have recognized that beneath all the thoughtful silence exists extraordinary drama. The BBC’s Chess Masters: The Endgame introduced a wider audience to the tension, psychology and brinkmanship that exists within sixty-four squares, turning the tactical puzzle into appointment TV.

Thanks to this sort of designer platforming, you can now acquire exquisite sets for games such as chess, tangram and backgammon, from a range of luxury brands such as Brunello Cucinelli, Dolce&Gabbana, Reflections Copenhagen and Smythson. Tabletop games are very much back in fashion and the appeal is obvious. Crystal, marble and steel objets d’art are on display like other eye-catching decor, but with the extra promise of engagement, competition and conversation.

Where The Queen’s Gambit and luxury fashion houses introduced audiences to the aesthetic appeal of the game, recent cultural moments have also revealed its messier, more grippingly human side as well. Netflix’s Untold: Chess Mates revisits the extraordinary controversy surrounding chess grandmasters Magnus Carlsen and Hans Niemann. What began as an unexpected defeat at a tournament, spiraled into allegations of cheating, lawsuits, media scrutiny and bizarre online speculation about just how the cheating was executed. In similar vein to what Drive to Survive did for Formula 1, suddenly a more niche sport rolled headfirst into the enthralling drama of celebrity culture and its relentless rumor mill.

Beyond the glamour, drama and artistry of tabletop games, perhaps the biggest appeal is that they promote real human-to-human interaction in an age when so much of our entertainment is delivered through a screen. A chance for wrist-flick flirtation, healthy eye-contact and intelligent one-upmanship.

More holistically, board games solve a problem many modern homes have accidentally created. We have become exceptionally good at designing beautiful spaces, but rather less good at inhabiting them. The contemporary living room is full of things to look at but lacks things to actually do. A marble chess board on the coffee table is an exciting proposition. It invites someone to do the unthinkable – make the first move.