His first idea was Hollywood vs New York. He says it was pretty easy coming up with ideas for the pieces. Hollywood's king is Oscar, the Academy Award, and Marilyn Monroe is the queen. Surfers are the bishops, film cameras are the knights, rooks are the iconic circular Capitol Music building, and pawns are oranges.
For New York, the queen is the Statue of Liberty, and the king is the Empire State building. Pawns are apples, rooks are the Flatiron building, knights are the Wall Street bull, and bishops are St. Patrick's Cathedral. It's a beautiful, fun set.
Hood next tackled sets a little more esoteric. He has one called Deco vs the New World on display in his studio, but each is actually its own set. With the New World pieces, Hood brings politics into the mix with the bishop where he has three religious symbols engraved into the bottom portion of the bullet - the Jewish star, the Islamic crescent, and the Christian crucifix.
Greek mythology has fascinated Hood ever since he was in the Navy and read Homer's Illiad and the Odyssey. So it was only fitting that he make a chess set of Greeks vs Cycladics. The pieces are made of zinc and tin. On the Greek side, Zeus is the king and Euphrates is the Queen. Homer is the pawn.
Hood has made about eight sets so far. He plays on all his new sets and says, as the creator, it's easy for him to remember surfers are Bishops, or Knights are the Wall Street bull, and it's kind of fun watching his opponents get confused at first. It takes a game or two for them to remember what's what. The one-of-a-kind sets are for sale. Hood is not planning on making many more, or mass producing the sets. If interested, contact Chuck at gallery618E@yahoo.com.
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