Anyone know of a QUALITY magnetic set? By quality I mean: magnets are strong enough to hold pieces when board is tilted sideways, 8" minimum size (10-12" preferred), square (or folding)-- not a heart/octagon/etc... and doesn't look like a cheap piece of crap!

The Passport Travel Chess set has tow versions, one magnetic that I have not tested but plan to buy it, and the original, the one where the pieces stick on the board, even taken ones. It is perfect for game analisis. I use it all the time for my postal chess games since pieces never move from their squares no matter I put it on my pocket or my backpack. You can find it at www.USCFSales.com

Is this for playing or for analyzing? For playing you probably want chess pieces on the board, for analyzing probably flat pieces with symbols on them (easier to see than tiny chess pieces, but only face one way).

I asked a while ago, and decided that the ChessMate sets look pretty good for analysis: http://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/magnetic-chess-sets ; http://www.chessmate.com/ . But I didn't buy one yet.

The Passport sets are not very nice, The materials are cheap and the magnetic one the pieces are quite small.

David Weinstock's ChessMate's sets are excellent. Well made and nice to use. Also I am not sure if Dreuke still makes magnetic sets but their quality is also quite high.

Dreuke.

The Cadillac of Magnetic Chess.

Thanks... I will check those out, though I am primarily looking for something for playing. I once had a nice magnetic folding wood set I picked up in Seattle (at Yz Seirawan's shop) and haven't found anything close to it since!

Chessmate also has 3D magnetic sets, not just the sets with flat pieces. Practical and some of them nice looking too.

http://www.chessmate.com/chessmate1.html

Dreuke?? I'd give that a thumbs down based on personal experience. I bought a magnetic Dreuke set about 6 months ago. I used it a several times and it has been sitting in the house (not in heat of the sun) with the pieces set up ready to play with the cover on. It has been about 2 months since I used it and today I took the set out to set up a position for analysis and found that the pieces were stuck to the black squares. The paint is soft and after pieces sat on black for a couple of months some of the paint stuck to the magnets. I just counted to be exact and I can confirm that 16 out of 16 black squares now show some amount of blemish including actually being able to see the bronze base color beneath the black. I was just about to post a question re: Chessmate sets when I saw this post. I am looking at the Chessmate sets and will buy one of the wallets with the flat pieces.

http://www.chesshouse.com/10_Magnetic_Chess_Set_p/e117.htm 

Travels well, good magnets, rank/file coord's, won't break the bank; great for pulling out anywhere, teaching, etc.

Can anyone comment on the house of staunton magnetic sets.  I'm looking for one and it seems quite nice. http://houseofstaunton.com/Store/product_name=Folding+Magnetic+Travel+Chess+Set+-+12+Inch+Square .  I really like their sets in general...  just wondering if their magnetic sets are of the same quality?

My magnetic set from House of Staunton has been nice:

http://houseofstaunton.com/Store/product_name=Magnetic+Travel+Chess+Set+-+9+Inch+Round/exact_match=exact/user-id=/password=

I like having a place for storing captured pieces.

There is a round and square version.

Thanks,

Good point, storing captured pieces.  Was playing on a set today and captured pieces kept rolling into the seat crevices.  Not very sofa friendly. The little drawer would have come in quite handy.

Cheers

I just received a ChessMate Ultima today. I have posted a review look here (http://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/chessmate-pockettravel-sets---excellent)

http://www.chessset.com/magtravset.html

I own this travel set and the quality is insane for a small set (I look at a bunch of others and this was by far the best). The board has numbers and letters on the sides (rank and file) and the pieces are very well detailed. I am looking to pick up another as a backup.