Bauhaus Chess · Strategy in pure form

Hartwig does not try to “reinvent” chess — he makes it more legible. Each piece has a specific form and presence, so you can grasp movement and value faster. The result is chess as method: reduced, clear, repeatable.

• Simplicity: fewer signs, more meaning.
• Functionality: form supports the game, not decoration.
• Systems thinking: pieces, board, and proportions act as one.
• Innovative aesthetics: beauty emerges from clarity and consistency.

At the Bauhaus, design was not a “style” — it was a method. Things were broken down into parts, examined for purpose, material, making, and use — and then rebuilt into a form that can explain itself. That is why many Bauhaus objects feel so natural today: they are not meant to impress, but to work — and to be understood.

Hartwig’s chess set takes this attitude seriously. It translates a culturally loaded game — kings, crowns, tradition — into neutral, readable geometry. The pieces do not tell a story of rank; they show rules. You recognise movement not through symbolism, but through structure. Complexity does not shrink — orientation becomes clearer.

This also changes the role of the player: you don’t only look — you read. The set trains attention, proportion, and order — like a small didactic model. It fits the Bauhaus belief that learning can happen through objects: through handling, scale, and systematic difference.

And one more thing becomes visible: Bauhaus reduction is not “less for the sake of less”. It is a decision for legibility. In Hartwig’s chess, form becomes communication — calm, consistent, without gesture. That consistency is exactly what keeps the object modern today.

• Method over style: the object results from a clear design process.
• Rules over symbolism: forms explain movement, not decoration.
• Learning through the object: play becomes training in systems thinking.