Treasure Chess

To play or not to play?

Anyone who owns one of Steven Dahlberg’s elaborate--and very expensive--chessboards is confronted with that question.

Dahlberg, who lives and has a studio in Laguna Beach, spends as much as half a year designing and creating his large, mostly wooden sets.

He considers them unique, as much “sculptural artwork” as gaming item. And so do the people who put them in a favored spot in the living room or den. With prices as high as $27,000 for his best boards, it’s little wonder that many decline to actually try that Boris Spassky opening or its Bobby Fischer countermove.

“Most people don’t play with them because they’re worried about hurting them, nicking the wood or whatever,” Dahlberg said. “I’m disappointed if they don’t play them because they should be used, but I understand when they don’t. They’d rather see them as an enhancement to their homes.”

Dahlberg said he’s having no trouble finding customers, even with the works’

hefty price tags. Part of the credit, he said, goes to the economy, which has swelled investors’ portfolios and made luxury items more accessible.

A recent study by the National Housewares Manufacturers Assn., which monitors the $63-billion U.S. housewares industry, revealed that consumers reeling in big stock gains are splurging on unusual items, from indoor waterfall fountains to artsy, expensive coffee tables. Dahlberg’s sets clearly fit in the category.

Dahlberg said that once the Y2K fears vanished, people no longer worried about a Wall Street sell-off began showing up in his studio in larger numbers.

“With all this disposable income, people are looking for interesting things. That, of course, has generated interest in my work. It’s looking good.”

Dahlberg, 53, has been building the boards for six years and has depended on his art background for their signature flavor.

Before turning to wood crafting, he was an illustrator for several years. The boards, he said, reflect his imaginative drawing style and have appeared in crafts exhibits, including the Pacific Craft Show at the Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach late last year.

Most of the boards have a nautical appearance, which is an extension of another of Dahlberg’s earlier careers, a miniature shipbuilder. He made a living building the kind of detailed copies that collectors pay big money for and tuck protectively away in glass cabinets in their homes.

“I did that for a long time, but it turned out to be a dead-end street,” he said. “It just wasn’t satisfying for me. Good workmanship but not enough imagination.”

Dahlberg wanted to be more creative and was also dismayed by the hands-off quality of the “museum quality” ships. As someone who is “in love with the warm, tactile look and feel” of rich wood, he hoped to make something more inviting.

Dahlberg, admittedly only a “mediocre chess player at best,” turned to chessboards as a happy compromise.

“Even if you don’t play on these much, they still welcome touching,” he said. “The ships were always stuck behind glass but these are out there. People always want to touch wood [and] these, although they seem delicate, are meant to be handled. I put a lot of work into making them sturdy.”

Dahlberg usually fashions only three sets a year, with time on each overlapping. They start at about $6,000 with a mid-range between $14,500 and $20,000. Weighing about 20 pounds--with some bronze chess pieces, which he designs himself, at a pound each--the sets are heavy and more than a little complex.

He uses exotic woods--including Brazilian satin wood, teak, Honduran mahogany and Central American rosewood as well as walnut, oak and maple--cut into small pieces and then placed as inlays in his designs. He envisions the board’s frame as a ship’s hull and can inlay as many as 6,000 of his wood bits into it. His “Great Karake” board, for instance, has a stylish prow jutting from two corners.

When he creates his chess pieces, he carves his original designs in wax, then has them cast, often in bronze but occasionally in stainless steel.

Though devoting six months to one project would seem daunting to many people, Dahlberg enjoys the process. He appreciates the sensuality of working in wood, from the way it responds to his tools to its scent.

“Take teak, for instance,” Dahlberg said. “I just love the smell of it, very sweet. All woods are distinctive, like a woman’s perfume.”

* Steven Dahlberg’s studio is at 3251 Laguna Canyon Road, Studio A2, Laguna Beach. (949) 376-8826.