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Pieces play off cultural heritage photo by Pennell Saint Mary's junior Aleesa Bansmer created and molded in clay a chess set based on her experiences in Taiwan . Medford student sculpting distinctive chess set to reflect childhood in Taiwan By Vicki Guarino of the Mail Tribune In a game renowned for depth of strategy, one player has taken the intricate interplay of planning and execution further than most. Aleesa Bansmer has moved beyond devising a successful gambit for her chess pieces; she has fashioned her own chessmen. Aleesa Bansmer created dragons to act as knights on her chess board. All 32 pieces, from lowly pawns to powerful queens, adhere to the traditional design for the game yet exhibit the flash of Aleesa's imagination and her memories of growing up in Taiwan. Knights are horned, green dragons with curling, spined tails. Kings in copper-shaded robes carry long braids down their backs. Pawns modestly bow their heads into the folds of a novitiate's plain wrap. Rooks stand as scroll-roofed shrines. "A lot of it is out of my head," the 17-year-old junior at St. Mary's High School says simply. The queens, swathed in robes of green, burgundy and gold, are her favorite pieces. "They look a little mysterious, like they have everything together in a perfect, magical way." A suitable appearance, she says, for the piece enigmatically given the greatest power on the board. Although the game rests on the fate of the king, the queen can move and kill at will. The rooks, typically little fortress-like pieces, were the most difficult. First, Aleesa struggled to come up with a design; then she struggled with the clay to get them to look right. "It was hard to get it so it doesn't look like a clump of clay," she says. Aleesa uses a common modeling clay, the kind that bakes up in the oven, to build her Asia-inspired game pieces. An artistic student who has always enjoyed drawing, painting and sculpting, Aleesa began the project before Christmas as something of a clay doodle. Her mother, Jenece, says Aleesa is prone to such things. She has watched her daughter casually grab a lump of clay and quickly twist it into something surprising. The idea for the chess set came from an interest in the game. She has played the game for about seven years. Although Aleesa is working on the set for herself, and doing so in her spare time, she'll get school art credit for the effort. The work is painstaking. Rather that carving designs, Aleesa shapes dozens of pieces and layers them together. The gold trim on the robes is a narrow strip of clay attached to the clay garment's edge. The ties that bind the robes likewise are separate -- slender clay coils. Something seemingly simple, like the pawn's arm, is made up of three clay pieces: the hand, a sleeved arm, and the trim at the cuff. A single chess piece takes at least an hour. Coming up with the designs, however, has taken longer. Aleesa wanted the pieces to relate to one another in a way that reflects Asian culture as well as their roles and relationships on the chess board. "That was the hard part," she says. Much of the Asian styling, however, comes easily to Aleesa. She was born in Taiwan, and the Bansmers lived there for 11 years. The Bansmers moved to Medford three years ago. While in Taiwan, family members steeped themselves in Asian culture. Aleesa grew up with her parents' collection of art, crafts, furnishings and books. Some designs sprang easily from those childhood memories. Others Aleesa researched for cultural accuracy. The bishop, for instance, is a Chinese wise man. Aleesa's version is culturally correct down to the peach he carries. "I wanted the pieces to have some significance," she says. Aleesa's artistic effort parallels the effort she puts into the game itself. But that is what she likes about chess, she adds. "It makes me use my mind. You have to use strategy." Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA