Chessity
A collectible chess set opening Yoomoota's long-term collaboration with World Chess: a hand-painted, engraved walnut-and-maple reimagining of the classic championship edition. Each piece, from pawn to king, is an inhabitant of the surreal town of Chessity with its own name, personality and life mission. Dedicated to the World Chess Championship 2026.
In 2026 Bangkok-based artist Taras Yoom partnered with World Chess — FIDE's official commercial partner and organizer of World Chess Championship matches — to transform the official Pentagram-designed World Chess Championship set (walnut and maple) into a one-of-one collectible art object called 'Chessity': an imagined city where each piece is a citizen with ambitions and hidden conflicts. The pieces are hand-painted in acrylic and hand-engraved with organic motifs, anatomical distortions and symbolic markings; the set includes a 44x44 cm veneered board and a custom ashwood cabinet with removable lid and storage drawer. Fully playable, dedicated to the World Chess Championship 2026, priced at $7,700 (edition 1/1). It premiered at PAD Paris 2026 (April 8-12, Yoomoota Booth 72), timed to coincide with the FIDE Candidates Tournament in Cyprus. World Chess has stated this is the first chapter of a long-term collaboration that continues across the 2026 FIDE World Championship cycle.
After Yoom's 'Another Kingdom' chess sets drew press attention from 2023 onward (Designboom, Hypebeast), World Chess — the company that produces the official championship set — invited him to rework the very pieces used in elite play, turning the game's most authoritative object into a narrative art piece while keeping it fully playable.
