Chess Steps Illusion

44 comments

This impossible chess board was created by Dave Barlow 2006. It's pretty simple, yet so impressive. Expect two more original illusions from Dave in the following week!






44 Comments

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  1. Anonymous Lucilu 

    ok...

  2. Anonymous Lucilu 

    Wow I like that... I think

  3. Anonymous Nestorious 

    Both boards are flat..

  4. Anonymous justin 

    umm yeah... what is the big deal with this one? I think they should have put more in the description besides just saying how impressive it is!!

  5. Anonymous Devon 

    Somehow the curves look like they are heading down, yet they don't at the same time. This is giving me a headache!

  6. Anonymous joey o 

    umm... ok

  7. Anonymous Eric 

    justin is right.... both of the boards r flat. don't look at the stairs or the grey stuff... just look at the bordering....

  8. Anonymous nishay 

    i dont get it

  9. Anonymous KandiCorn 

    it's ok...i've seen better.

  10. Anonymous Eric 

    Same stuff as Escher, just different format. boring.

  11. Anonymous John 

    It's all in the shadows ;)

  12. Anonymous Leendert 

    Really, the boards are flat. Look at the little shadows. Definately flat!

  13. Anonymous Leendert 

    Really, the boards are flat. Look at the little shadows. Definately flat!

  14. Anonymous niki 

    Cool!

  15. Anonymous scott 

    the "stairs" are just put farther or closer to you to make it look like stairs

  16. Anonymous db 

    These are like several of M.C. Escher's drawings. He has this cool one of guards in a castle that are marching up a set of stairs forever - they never reach the top, they just end up back where they started.

    Look it up, he did an amazing job and you won't mistake it.

  17. Anonymous joe 

    It's not that both boards are flat.. it's that THE BOARD is flat; there's only one and it's reflected in the mirror. That's what is unique about the illusion.

  18. Anonymous Cuby 

    I think that's pretty cool. It took me a while to see that the board was flat.
    Very clever!

  19. Anonymous William Burke 

    Esher? This is KINDERGARTEN ESHER. It's not even an ILLUSION! I'm not coming here fora a long, long time, because this is PATHETIC.

  20. Anonymous MMM 

    that's pretty cool!
    but look at the shadows...
    (^_^)

  21. Anonymous Dave Barlow 

    There is only one board photographed in a mirror. The 'steps' appear to go in opposite direction in the reflection.

  22. Anonymous Jer 

    Can see two Illusions So/So
    M.C. Escher's Drawings are way cool! It comes in a B & W Book.
    db- You have good taste!

  23. Anonymous harky 

    pretty lame really.....

  24. Anonymous Ed 

    To all the haters you're seriously deluded if you think this is lame.

    This may have been inspired by Escher but Escher drew the entire illusion. The thought that goes into incorporating this into a real world effect is quite creative.

    The composition of the photograph could be tweaked to better show off the effect, but this still shows great promise.

  25. Anonymous sffc 

    On the first one, the square to the left of the black chess piece could be on the first level, jus appearing to be at the same lavel. But for the second one, it's just wierd.

  26. Anonymous Kristina 

    Not bad, but I think he did a pretty sloppy job of removing and adding shadows to make it look flat. Meh.

  27. Anonymous Jesusfreak 

    This is pretty sweet and you can also tell that this is not a mirrored projection because then the black piece would not be seen, the stair wall would be in the way.

  28. Anonymous WantonAnton 

    ouch

  29. Anonymous Laurence 

    I find it hilarious how so many people are so fooled by the illusion that they don't even realize that it's an illusion at all.

    For this type of illusion a video might be a better way to present it: start with a still shot like the one above, lasting a few seconds. Then have a hand come in and remove the two chess pieces (showing that it's a reflection). Finally, pick up the board and rotate it, showing that the staircase was just an illusion.

  30. Anonymous Lem 

    you can see shadows there. but until i realised that, i thought, and well, i still do, that its a really cool thing

  31. Anonymous Shanelle 

    Umm...WoW. Dats all i have 2 say.

  32. Anonymous rocket man 

    hey dudes it is possible the sides could be a ramp type thing

    i reconmend the 3D chalk drawings and then the rooms (1st option) ok well cya dudes in internet halo

  33. Anonymous meeow =^_^= 

    alrighty then

  34. Anonymous Anonymous 

    look at it like there is a mirror in between the two, then it will be easyer to figure out

  35. Anonymous Anonymous 

    he just flipped the board over... see its opposite the stairs.

  36. Anonymous Anonymous 

    I would like to say that is that same board but with one board is normal and the other one is upside down. And the chess pieces are move to different locations.

  37. Blogger Paul 

    there is only one flat board here with a mirror to show how it looks from the opposite angle!

  38. Anonymous Alexx 

    Its simple. the second picture is the bored placed upside-down, so it appears to be different, but its the same.

  39. Blogger Derek 

    the two pictures are the same

  40. Anonymous Anonymous 

    its one picture in front of the mirror people.

  41. Anonymous Anonymous 

    the boerds the white piece is on in both are slanted

  42. Anonymous Anonymous 

    it's just flat pieces arranged so that they look like they are impossible.

  43. Blogger KRIZ1474 

    LOLZ I GET IT THEY JUST TRUNED THE BROED UPSIDE DOWN=)

  44. Anonymous Anonymous 

    THERE IS REALLY NO SIGNIFICENT SIGN OF A MIRROR SO IT COULD JUST BE TWO BOARDS WITH DIFFERENT DESIGHNS.

    IF THERE ARE ANY DETAILS THAT ELIMINATE THIS POSSIBILITY,PLEASE TELL ME.




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