Tamer Karatekin, the founder of Deep Sea Chess, is also the designer of the ŞAHÎ (SHAHI) chess set and chess icons, supported by the European Union Erasmus+ Youth program and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. The first exhibit of this chess and shatranj set took place in Hagia Sophia in January 2024. The ŞAHÎ (SHAHI) chess set and its corresponding chess icons have a long design journey that includes elements from the various names given to chess pieces across civilizations. For example, the rook piece incorporates design elements from the war chariot (wheels), the tower (bricks), the cannon (barrel), and the ship (anchor), which are the names for this chess piece in different languages. Similarly, other pieces have a long design story that sparks interest in the classroom when telling stories about the evolution of historical board games and the development of chess piece names.
Historic mind games and Şahî (Shahi) chess set exhibition at Hagia Sophia
with Prof. Dr. Mustafa Kaçar and Tamer Karatekin
(January 2024, as part of the shatranj.ai project)
