Meet The Most Playable LEGO Set Of All Times

And guess what? It’s even cheap… A balanced review of LEGO’s Iconic Chess Set.

Nope. Not a hyperbole. Not clickbait. I can’t think of a single LEGO set that has better play value than the #40174 Iconic Chess Set. You see, what very commonly happens is that you buy a LEGO set, you build it and then you either display it or break it apart and build something else out of the pieces. Don’t get me wrong, neither of those options is bad, especially not the latter, but to find a set that you can keep built as it was originally intended and play with it ad infinitum, now that’s rare! Incredibly rare, in fact. And all for around 60 bucks?!? Practically unheard of.

OK, you might feel tricked because, well, sure, if it’s a board-game, obviously you can play with it for many years to come, but hey, it satisfies the criteria of maximum playability and I think that’s worth celebrating. That being said, while it’s a fantastic value in terms of parts to dollar ratio, the set itself is a little bit of a mixed bag, and I think I owe it to my readers to highlight that.

The pros and cons of LEGO’s Iconic Chess Set

Let’s start with the cons first, so we can end on a positive note, shall we? After all, there must be a reason for me purchasing this set, other than just not already owning a chess set — believe it or not. I was eyeing a few metal ones for a while now, but never went for it. Having one made of LEGO bricks seemed like a much better alternative. So, what’s not so ideal, then?

• The building experience is one of the most repetitive ones I ever had the “pleasure” of experiencing. I will say this. I generally don’t mind repetitiveness, but this set doesn’t give you a great building experience, and throughout the build I kept feeling like I just wanted to be done with it already.
• Stacking the board instead of folding. I only realised this as I was building the set. Somehow I had this impression that maybe the board folds, like most chessboards I have seen in the past, do. This doesn’t. It stacks and requires four 1×1 round plates to achieve that.
• Piece storage is meh at best. You need to pry open the top plates to get to the storage area. This could have been done so much more elegantly, like with a real chess set.

On a more positive note, however, there is plenty to write home about, both as LEGO and chess set, and that’s not necessarily the easiest thing to pull off.

• Let’s start with the price. At roughly 60 bucks — depending on your luck — this set is a steal. In fact, it’s one of the cheapest sets I have ever seen at this price.
• The piece-count is also nothing to sneeze at, as for your 60 or so bucks you get a whopping 1450 pieces. Sure, they’re not necessarily the most interesting LEGO pieces, but you do get a good number of large plates, rectangular, square and round tiles and jumper plates. If you’re a LEGO Classic fan, you can’t get any more classic than this. You’ll also see the gold and silver cupcake pieces used like never before.🧁

• The look of the board and the chess pieces is quite impressive. While one could argue that the board isn’t a big deal, you can’t dismiss the added aesthetic value of the detailed patterns on the side of it. And then there are the chess pieces, that, I think, are easily recognisable and the dark red and dark blue accents give them a premium, almost metallic feel.
• It’s not just a chessboard, as you can also play checkers and you get the necessary pieces in red and blue, so while I would have loved to see a version that can do backgammon, this is also quite a welcome secondary use.
• The actual play experience is quite good as well, as long as you make sure to properly stick the pieces down on the jumper plates. I can see how this aspect may require some getting used to, especially for kids, but it is a 9+ set after all, so I wouldn’t worry too much.
• Ample storage space for all the pieces in the board. I was a tad worried at first, but all the chess and checkers pieces fit just fine, without any special arrangement needed. Just dump them all in there after you’re done, and it’ll be grand.
• The chessboard has a good size of 26×26 cm, which, if you ask me, is perfect.

So, there you have it, folks. A LEGO set that’s also a chess set and checkers set. A set you won’t want to take apart, but it doesn’t become yet another showpiece to dust off every couple of months. This is a set that you get to play with regardless of age, for as long as you like. You lost a piece? No bother, just build another one, as the pieces are super easy to find on LEGO’s Pick A Brick store.

LEGO’s Iconic Chess Set may be a mediocre build, but past that, it’s infinite amounts of fun for decades to come.

Attila Vago — Software Engineer improving the world one line of code at a time. Cool nerd since forever, writer of codes and blogs. Web accessibility advocate, LEGO fan, vinyl record collector. Loves craft beer! Read my Hello story here! Subscribe and/or become a member for more stories about LEGO, tech, coding and accessibility! For my less regular readers, I also write about random bits and writing.