The Crownes is really just redemption for all those horrid travel-friendly portable chess sets we’ve been subjected to with the ridiculously tiny plastic pieces and the magnetic chessboard. The way Crownes approaches portability is uniquely clever, and it still maintains the footprint of a full-size chessboard… thanks to one smart detail – nesting chess pieces. Perhaps the Crownes chess set’s most defining detail is the way the chess pieces are designed. Individually CNC machined from solid blocks of metal, each piece nests into one another, becoming compact during storage. Designed with this Matryoshka-doll-inspired feature, the chess pieces are sized chronologically, or based on their importance. Pawns are the smallest, and pieces subsequently get bigger, with the king and queen being the largest. The pieces stack up to become two towers (a ‘king’ tower featuring 8 pieces and a ‘queen’ tower featuring the other eight) that then snap together using a magnetic platform. All 16 pieces (per player) fit neatly into this magnetically bound ‘baton’ of sorts, which slides right into a cylindrical case that’s long enough to house both players’ pieces. The chessboard, made from leather, rolls around the cylindrical case like a scroll, giving you a complete full-size chess set that’s roughly 75% smaller when packed up. The Crownes chess set’s build quality doesn’t really cut corners either. The premium variant comes with machined stainless steel pieces (anodized in bronze and black) with a pure leather board and a wooden casing. The regular version comes in the same size, but with zinc alloy pieces, a PU leather board, and a recycled plastic casing. If you’re looking for a lower tier, the basic chess set comes in a full size too, but with injection-molded plastic pieces and a flexible silicone board. Ultimately, the Crownes is just a well-designed chess set that’s also designed to be ultra-portable and slim enough to fit into the bottle holder on your backpack. It opens up to a full-size gaming experience that’s uniquely fun, especially when you make your king or queen ‘swallow up’ your opponent’s pieces by covering them entirely. It’s overall pretty neat too, thanks to the magnetic base-platform that lets you organize your inactive pieces on the side. Designers: ETHO & DesignNest (31% off). Raised over $580,000. Crownes is a modern approach to a timeless game. Each piece is precisely designed to fit one over the other in sequential order, creating a uniformly compact stack. A full size set awaits within an efficiently sized solution. Set up, stow away and bring along without compromise. Crownes provides a simplified way of organizing your pieces. Remove and place or stack and go. It is perfectly nested together for your convenience. 16 pieces, an entire team, is nested together and magnetically drawn to the centralized base, creating a handheld barrel for each opponent. The two teams can be stored in a cylindrical, compact carrying case for you to bring pieces anywhere with style, while minimizing mass. Play the classic game wherever you please with this space-saving and portable design. Simply unroll the board to reveal both teams. Remove each team from their storage cases to sequentially unstack the nested pieces in perfect order. When you are done, go on your way by rolling up the carrying case of both teams into the board, becoming an easy-to-carry ensemble. The centralized bases split open providing a stable platform for each piece to rest on. Basic ($35) is made from Recycled Plastic, available in blue & white. Original ($90) is made from zinc alloy, available in black & silver. Premium ($132) is made from stainless steel, available in black & bronze. (31% off). Raised over $580,000.