#5 is playful and sleek. The chessboard would have to be 4x4 with a white square on the lower right, and pawns never are on the back/front rank like that, maybe try it on the second rank?
hum, the board looks better on the earlier one, I really like the idea of the playful pawn, anyway to get the board looking better with 4x4, maybe try 4 pawns ?