Description
Hollendonner Abstract Chess Set by Robert Rudolph Hollendonner
The Washington architect, Robert Hollendonner Abstract Chess Set, Hollendonner designed the pieces around 1978 with an explicit brief: to contest the dominance of the Staunton pattern in serious play. Each handmade man is built from a vocabulary of spheres and squares, arranged so that form hints at both movement and rank. In his own account, the circle stood for the divine; the square for wisdom, construction, and dwelling. The result reads as architecture reduced to chess—mass, axis, and void—rather than as a carved illustration of medieval armies.
The King stands 3-1/16″ tall. Chessmen and board are solid walnut and maple. The playing surface is 18″ square with 2-1/4″ walnut and maple squares and is included. The pieces live in a custom-fitted solid walnut box measuring 9-3/4″ × 5-1/2″ × 4-1/2″. Also, present is the original 26-page brochure in which Hollendonner sets out the design logic of each piece, with a measure of historical conjecture. Condition is like new. An identical Hollendonner set belonged to Grandmaster Walter Browne (1949–2015), inducted into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame in 2003.
Included
- 32 walnut and maple chessmen
- 18″ solid walnut-and-maple chessboard, 2-1/4″ squares
- Fitted solid walnut box, 9-3/4″ × 5-1/2″ × 4-1/2″
- Original 26-page Hollendonner design brochure
Date: circa 1978
Condition: like new
The designer
Robert Rudolph Hollendonner practiced architecture in Washington, D.C. The chess set is the public record of that training applied to the board: geometry as meaning, wood as structure, and a pamphlet to argue the case. It is a late-1970s American modernist object that happens to be playable.
Each handmade piece was created using a system of spheres and squares, which were arranged in ways that suggest the pieces’ movements and meanings. To Hollendonner, the circle represented the divine while the solidity of the square symbolized wisdom, construction, and dwellings. An identical Hollendonner set was owned by 2003 U.S. Chess Hall of Fame inductee Grandmaster Walter Browne (1949-2015). Browne was a dominant force in American chess and won six U.S. Chess Championships (1974, 1975, 1977, 1980, 1981, 1983). Walter excelled in open tournaments, earning shared or outright first place in the American Open seven times, the National Open eleven times, the U.S. Open three times, and the World Open three times.
