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Make your own Giant Outdoor Chess Set

Perfect for harry potter fans and chess players alike, this easy-to-make giant chess set is perfect for taking to the park for a giant chess match or for parties.

What you will need:

Preparing your Giant Chess Templates

Once you have downloaded the PDF, you will find the silhouette of a knight, a pawn, a bishop, and a Rook. Then you need to resize them all to be quite large, and piece together the pages once cut out. Make sure that they will fit on the foamboard as this is what your pieces are made of. You cannot easily attach two foamboard pieces together securely.

Tracing onto the Foamboard

After your paper is cut out and ready to go, carefully hold it down as you trace around it with chalk, but do not tape or glue on the template, as the foamboard can easily be damaged by sticky things and may not remove correctly. Trace out double of the bishop, pawn, and rook. The knight is a little different than the other pieces, and there is a second piece that has the ears and the piece that holds it up. Trace both parts. Several giant chess pieces can be traced into one foamboard, typically two.

Cutting out your Giant Outdoor Chess Game Pieces

Set up your cutting mat on a table. Put a piece of your foam board with the template off on your table. Very carefully cut out the outline with your x-acto, note we are not using a boxcutter. An X-acto is a much smaller and more precise blade. Try to keep your lines as smooth and straight as possible. Sand down any rough patches with the sanding block. The foam will easily sand down. DO NOT USE YOUR X-AXTO FOR THIS PART. You risk harming the edges. 

Making your Giant Chess Pieces Usable

 

  

So now you should have a bunch of pieces–Not very helpful or useful right now. We are going to cut the giant chess pieces so the two halves interlock, like a puzzle. For all the pieces, you will want to cut a slit that is just big enough for the foamboard, or about a quarter inch wide. On half one, cut the bottom slot, and the other one requires a slot on the top. I recommend starting at a foot long cut on both halves and adjusting as necessary. Slide them together and you are done! They easily come apart for storage, and store quite well in big trash bags.This chess book will help you practice your moves and is very fun to use along with giant chess.

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