Old and busted: Chess pieces that don't come together to form an ultimate fighting robot. New hotness: Chess pieces that do exactly that.
Joseph Larson's 3D-printable Action #Chess set doubles as a mecha construction kit, with knights that flip over to form feet, and bishops that serve as arms and hands.
King: "And I'll form ... the head!"
[make]
The European Chess Union has instituted a dress code for tournaments that prohibits excessive displays of cleavage, starting with this year's Women's Individual Championship, which is currently being held in Gaziantep, Turkey.
According to one of the new rules, only the top two buttons of a player's shirt can be open. ECU General Secretary Sava Stoisavljevic says the organization came up with the dress code because many players were "not wearing proper clothes."
Stoisavljevic says that after observing three days of the tournament, she thinks the rules could use some modification -- she feels women's skirts are too short, and the ECU should limit them to 5-10 cm above the knee.
"It's nice to see chess players with short skirts – they are very pretty girls," she said, "But I believe there should still be some limit."
Asked whether the cleavage ban was put in place to protect male players from being distracted by their female counterparts, Stoisavljevic said "It's a funny question and I don't think it can be taken seriously. We didn't think about that while making the regulations."
Although the two-button rule does seem to be directed at décolletage, it applies to men as well as women. Stoisavljevic feels the dress code will be even more important at the upcoming men's championship because, unlike women, men don't "take care about their looks and what they wear."
[deadspin]
