The Red Queen becomes the White Queen

A new chess set has been designed based on the friendly rivalry between Oxford and Cambridge. College foundress Lady Margaret Beaufort has been chosen to represent the White Queen for the Cambridge side.  

Lady Margaret Beaufort, foundress of St John’s College and mother of King Henry VII, never became Queen in her lifetime. Now, 506 years after her death, she has: in chess form, at least.

A new chess set, celebrating the longstanding rivalry between Cambridge and Oxford, is being launched via the crowd-funding website Kickstarter. Each piece is based on a prominent figure or landmark from one of the Universities.

Known as the “Red Queen” by author Philippa Gregory due to her descent from the royal family of Lancaster, whose emblem was a red rose, Lady Margaret has been chosen as the model for the White Queen in the chess set.

The piece is based on a statue of Lady Margaret carved by Thomas Burman in 1674, which can be seen above the west archway in St John’s College First Court.

Each highly detailed figurine is made by award-winning sculptor Shawn Slother, who has worked for film studios including Warner Bros. and Disney as well as the Smithsonian Institute and the Martin Luther King Foundation. Shawn creates a wax model for each piece, which is then moulded in silicon and hand-painted to reveal every recess and detail.

The complete prototype "Oxbridge Chess" set took over three years to design and sculpt, and now the makers are looking for backing from interested customers. The Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign will launch in May. In the meantime, progress on the set can be followed at www.oxbridgechess.com.