10 Star Trek Toys That We Loved

This writer is still very two-dimensional when it comes to his chess sets (booooring, I know!), only owning the Star Trek: The Next Generation chess set by The Really Useful Games Company Ltd and Crown & Andrews. Apparently 1999 is also now "vintage," so thank you Amazon for that product description!! 1999?! To quote British comedian Miranda Hart, "but that's only just happened!"

Three-dimensional chess as an idea in fact predates its first Star Trek appearance in Charlie X by over a century at least. It is German chess master Lionel Kieseritzky who is credited with having invented "Cubic Chess" in 1851, which was then developed into "Space Chess" (with unicorns apparently) by Ferdinand Maack around 1907. There's even a 'World Tri Dimensional Chess Federation'. Nevertheless, it is the Star Trek version, favoured by Spock and Kirk, and later by Data, Troi, and others on the Enterprise-D, that is no doubt the most iconic.

1975's Star Trek Starfleet Technical Manual dedicates two pages to the design of the "Tridimensional Chess: Regulation Tournament Board" and gives some basic rules. One fan, Andrew Bartmess, took this and devised a complete guide on how to build one, as well as creating a more detailed set of rules on how to play.

If you're afraid of the hyperspanner or couldn't give a flying flux about the flux coupler, however, then you're in luck because you can still buy a ready-made Star Trek Tri-Dimensional Chess Set from The Noble Collection. They are a little expensive, but so is reattaching your fingers should you fail at building your own.