One-Piece Modular Foldable Scalable Chess Board

I have always loved the tower-shaped foldable chess board designs out there, but I could never find one that could be printed at a decent size. Every version I came across was limited by the printer bed, so you were stuck with whatever small size it could fit. So I designed my own solution.

This board is built from a single modular tile that you print 64 times and connect together to form the full board. Because the size of the board depends entirely on how big you print each tile, you are no longer limited by the printer bed. Using the Single Customizable Piece profile you can scale the tile anywhere from 50% for a compact 18cm board, which I think is the minimum comfortable size to actually play, all the way up to a full 2 meters x 2 meters with a standard 256x256 printer (Please let me know if you do it and send pictures!) but with the feet on the ground, you can still print a proper 50x50 cm (20''x20'') standard board, which gives you a full standard chess experience that still folds neatly into a tower and stores all your pieces inside.

That tower shape is not just practical, it also looks great sitting on a shelf or a table. It was the reason I started this project in the first place, and I think it holds its own as a decorative object even when you are not playing. In fact this is one of the few printed objects my wife let me put in the main room in a privileged position, and it's not little 😁

To fold the board completely flat you will need to remove one side of the spikes with a flush cutter. It takes just a minute and there is a picture in the gallery showing exactly which ones.

The original design does not have magnets inside, but adding them is pretty easy and I did not create a profile for this because each magnet size is different and I think you can make a better fit yourself.

⚠️ Important Notes ⚠️

• Folding direction matters: The rotation point of each piece is not centered. This means the board must be folded in the correct direction. If folded the wrong way, it will not fit properly into the top and bottom tower caps. Make sure all pieces are oriented consistently before folding.
• Scaling requires matching caps: If you resize the board pieces, you must also resize the top and bottom tower parts accordingly. Otherwise, the assembled tower will not fit or close correctly.