My Set Collection

None of these sets are particularly valuable, at least that I know of. However, me and my family have a collected a good may of the things over the years, so I thought it might be fun to post them on here.

Above is a picture of them all together (bonus puzzle: name the opening).

The first set is one of those incredibly tiny magnetic jobs which cost about £2. This one is actually a combination of two similar sets of this type, the first one which I have no memory of, and the second one which my aunt bought for me and my sister. The black king is missing, so the taller black queen has to suffice. The picture on the box gets it almost right, except that white is starting from black's side of the board.

King size: 10x20mm

The next set is a magnetic travel set which I rather like. I was gifted this by my other aunt (on a side note, both my aunts' husbands are decent chess players). Sadly, I didn't see a need to keep the box at the time and so it has become quite scratched. I quite like the silvery-grey colouring because it's kind on the eyes. The pieces fit nice and snugly inside the board. This is actually a 2-in-1, so you can play backgammon on the other side.

One of the rooks is a bit wonky because the base fell off (one of the cons of this set is the weak adhesive), and I filled the inside with just that little bit too much hot glue.

King size: 17x39mm

The next set is a plastic set in a tin. I remember buying this from ASDA at I think 9 years old. It came with a card board that was too small for the pieces. The image on the front contains the standard “black on the left” of most cheap sets. I've lost too many pieces over the years to actually use it, so I use them to augment my other sets, as you'll see below. The board is one that I printed and laminated some years ago for this set, and I don't know what possessed me to use those colours.

King size: 19x46mm

After this we have the Kasparov sensor chess, which was the easiest to find on Google as it seems to have sold quite well. The board works by pressure, so even though the pieces are magnetic, you can get away with using non-magnetic pieces. You could even play a blindfold game by pressing the move squares with your finger.

The pieces fit nicely into the board like so:

King size: 18x48mm

The next set has a lot of sentimental value since it's the first set I ever played on. In fact, I can't really remember not knowing how to play chess (not that this has done me any good!).

The bases are well stuck to the pieces in comparison to some of the other sets, and I've never had any problem with them coming off. My main gripe is that the black and white board is incredibly headache-inducing.

There are some unusual design features on this one. The knights have a large, fancy mane; the rooks have 2d rather than 3d turret pattern; the queen's coronet is patterned rather than spiked; and the pawns have an interesting mark on their heads.

King size: 20x50mm

The box has some rules on the back (which don't explain stalemate properly at all), which rather amusing explain when [sic], “Casting can be consummated”.

The next one up is a very nice mini wooden set my grandmother found hidden away in her house (to be honest, it's starting to seem like half of these sets come from my relatives), shown here on a printed and laminated board. I'm assuming that the set is made from boxwood and the black pieces are ebonised. The damage marks appear to bear this out.

Sadly the box was also damaged in a couple of places. One of the knights was just a base, so I carved one at around age 14. I have to admit it isn't very impressive.

The box has the mark “8/7” on it (which I've digitally highlighted). I'm not sure if this is an auction mark, or if it originally cost 8 shillings and 7 pence, or if it means something entirely different. Hopefully one of you guys will have some idea.

King size: 24x54mm

Next up is a smallish glass set. I personally go by the convention that frosted is white and clear is black, a la black ice. Sadly the clear king is missing and so I've here used the black king from the chess set in a tin. I used to use a king made from clear LEGO® blocks, and that actually looks better than this.

Some of these pieces have gotten a strange rusty yellow colour in the bottom, and I'm not sure what caused it. Another issue with this set is that the bases are not stuck on very well at all, and I've had to reglue many of them. The chemicals from superglue create a frosting inside the clear pieces which is not good.

King size: 22x58mm

The next set actually belongs to my sister who plays as plopkins13 here on chess.com and swisse5 on lichess. She found it at a second hand shop. My best guess as to the woods used here is that the pieces are made of cherry and walnut. I think the knights are “German” style. The pieces actually weren't cut and sanded that well by the manufacturers and are quite rough despite having a glossy finish. A rook has had one of Its turrets knocked out of place by the previous owners as well. The felt on the bottom (which I assume was part of the original design) is starting to peel off now.

When it comes to the design of the pieces, from the spherical bishop's mitre to the rook's outward tapering crenelations, they all make a very tasteful and pleasing deviation from the standard Staunton pattern.

The main problem is that the bases are far too small and the pieces topple easily. I'm actually in the process of making a board for this set, so I'll probably being doing a blog on that soon. The box used to store these is just one that I happened to find in the attic; and cut out, sand and varnish a piece of wood to fit the lid slot.

King size: 21x65mm

The next one is a smallish wooden set. However, it felt quite satisfyingly substantial when I first bought it. It only cost £1.50 for the pieces, the board (which is probably a draughts board), and a set of wooden draughts. In terms of material I think this is like the smaller wooden set, boxwood and ebonised boxwood. There's not actually much to say about the design. It's a clean, bog standard, Staunton set. The box, which has a paper base inside of it, has one of the side slots broken off, which I think I did by dropping it.

I also felted these myself, rather clumsily as well, since the base of one of the rooks is badly scratched. The light colouring gives credence to be ebonised boxwood theory though. One interesting detail is that the lid has the inscription “R.K.”, and I'm hoping this signifies something. Hopefully someone here will know if it does.

King size: 30x71mm

Next up is a resin Isle of Lewis set that I picked up at a car boot sale. The box says “Hand-made in Middle Rasen”, which obviously can't apply to casted resin, so the box is probably completely unrelated.

Sadly a couple of black pawns are missing, but since we actually have resin in the house, I'm hoping to cast some. I might do a blog on that, too. The board is one that I made myself at the age of 14, and then filled with resin to make a nice smooth finish. As you can see, neither the squares not the board itself are remotely square.

King size: 32x74mm

Next up is a large glass set. I actually owned half of one of these sets (which I still keep in a tub for spares) for some time, because my grandmother mentioned early found half of a glass set around her house (goodness knows how) along with the small wooden one mentioned above. I eventually found one of this size in a second-hand shop on holiday. As with the other glass set, the felt bases come off far too easily, and superglue chemicals create a frosting inside clear pieces that you mend.

King size: 29x76mm

Now here's my best set, made from boxwood and rosewood. It's actually one of those “cheap Indian sets” (it cost me around £40 from eBay) that one is constantly reminded never to buy. However, I'm quite happy with the weighting (the king weights 51g), and it takes quite a bit before they topple.

I also think that the knights are quite handsome. The only issues are that the bases are quite large for the height (the king has a 41mm base for a 94mm height), and there are no extra queens. I keep them in the box they came in, and they slide into foam cylinders to prevent them from getting scratched. The board is completely unrelated to the set, and is a walnut (the light squares are stained) board with 55mm squares, which also cost around £40 from Amazon.

The (well, nearly) final set in this blog is an east Asian design (my best guess is Chinese) resin set. The board came with the set, and they cost me £7 together from a second-hand shop. If any of these things is likely to be of value, it's the board for this set, since the edging and all of the dark squares are intricately hand-carved.

I store the pieces in a box I made myself (the shop sold them in a plastic bag).

King size: 36x125mm

There's just a few more images to see. This is a chess clock which I found at a car boot sale. It's actually made of plastic, despite being an analogue mechanical clock.

Here's an image of all of the kings together for size comparison.

Finally, this is an outdoor set I knocked up from a thin sheet of fibreboard and some wooden railing. The king is 4cm wide by 5cm high.