The announcement about the piece was timed to promote the 2012 U.S. Chess Championships, which begin on Tuesday and have been hosted by the club since 2009.

The piece, Wilmering said, has already been certified by the Guiness World Records as the largest in the world. The previous record-holder is in Sweden and was built by Mats Allanson in 2003. Allanson's piece is also a king, but a mere 13.1 feet high, according to the Guiness website.

Wilmering said he and members of Weber Shandwick, the Chess Club's public relations firm, came up with the idea in March.

R. G. Ross Construction used an enlarged three-dimensional image of a king piece as a model. The company documented the construction with time lapse photography.

“This would be a great piece to have on the Discovery Channel someday,” said Vince Mannino, president of R. G. Ross. “This is by far the most unique project we have ever done.”