Santana Row Chess Plaza

This over-sized board game is a piece of interactive public art that begs passersby for friendly attention.

“Playing” with the portable pieces usually results in a highly unorthodox version of the actual game: queens swapped for rooks, pawns annihilating bishops, and so on. There are quite commonly several toddlers in on the madness, probably attending to their play more seriously than the adults monkeying around and taking cell phone pictures of themselves on the checkered turf. Located along Santana Row – San Jose’s best knockoff of the Champs-Élysées – this curiosity is a more emotionally fulfilling diversion than the shopping complex’s retail offerings.