Arlindo Vieira's Three "Utopian" Soviet Sets
The final chapter of Arlindo Vieira’s iconic 2012 video is titled Utopia. In it, he presents three sets that he would like to own in a perfect world, sets that are “not part of my collection, but I dream about them.” The sets are of particular significance because they came to be perhaps the most prized by serious collectors, some referring to them as Grail sets.
1930s-1950s Bakelite or Carbolite Soviet Stauntons
The first of them appears in four photos Vieira shares from the 1940 Soviet Championship in Moscow. The photos show Bondarevsky, Makoganev, young Smyslov, and Keres playing with black and white pieces very much in the traditional Staunton style. “So magnificent, so perfect,” gushes Vieira, that the set “matches with Jaques!”
Although collectors sometimes refer to this as the 1940 Championship Set, it ironically was not the set that was used in the 1940 Soviet Championship, where they played with BFII sets. The well-known photos from the 1940 event appear to have been a photo-shoot, perhaps showcasing the sets because they were made from a phenol resin plastic called Carbolite that recently had been developed by the Soviet plastics industry.
Carbolite was an advance over the previously predominant phenol resin known as Bakelite, the chemical difference being that Bakelite was made from a base solution and Carbolite from an acid one. Bakelite was notoriously brittle, and depended upon the use of filler, often asbestos, to strengthen it. Bakelite typically was colored black and dark maroon to hide the filler. Carbolite was developed by Karpov Institute of Chemistry in Moscow. Crowther, Science in Soviet Russia 66-67 (1930).
Because Bakelite preceded Carbolite, I believe the Bakelite version of this Soviet Staunton preceded the Carbolite version. This remains in the form of a hypothesis, because it is certainly true that Bakelite sets were manufactured after World War II, and at this point I am unaware of any photographic or other evidence that would confirm or refute the notion.
The design of these pieces is classically Staunton. The bases are separated from the sets by a “step up.” The stems rise vertically like a neoclassical column to a pedestal with an essentially perpendicular joint. Upon the pedestal sits a piece signifier that is connected to the pedestal with a vertical section defined by two rings. Together with the pedestal they comprise what are commonly described as the Staunton’s “three rings.” Atop the king’s pedestal sits a crown adorned with a secular finial characteristic of Russian sets going back all the way to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Its opposing color is typical of other Soviet sets. The bishop’s miter lacks the usual Staunton cut. This, too, is a Russian and Soviet characteristic reflecting not only the socialist secularity of the Soviet ideology but the direct Eastern roots of Russian chess and long-standing tension between the game and the antipathy of Orthodox doctrine to it. The knight is clearly an attempt to emulate the Elgin Marbles with a highly detailed, realistic horse head, very uncharacteristic of simpler, more geometric Soviet knights. The rook’s turret contains merlons. the pawn would be comfortable in many Staunton sets. Finally, the relative proportions of the pieces reflect the pediment and column structure architect and chess set designer Dan Weil identifies as central to the Staunton design. The predominance of Staunton over non-Staunton design elements is why I describe sets like these as Soviet Stauntons.
Because these sets were not those used in the 1940 Soviet Championship, I find that name to be unnecessarily confusing, and prefer to describe them by the years they appear, the substance they are made from, and their style, Soviet Staunton.
1949 Averbakh Chess Pieces
The second set appears in a photo of Averbach playing at what we have come to learn was the 1949 Moscow Championship, though Vieira misidentifies the player shown as Lilienthal and the event as the Soviet Championship, a mistake he corrects in comments to the video. “Wonderful pieces!” he exclaims. The set is quite removed from the neoclassical style of traditional Staunton pieces, embodying instead quintessentially Soviet design elements, from the curved shape of its stems to the structure of its knights. Like the Bakelite and Carbolite Soviet Staunton sets, this one has fascinated collectors, who have named it after Averbakh because of this very photo.
The pieces’ stems rise organically from the bases, sweeping in a concave curve, trumpeting out to seamlessly form the pedestals, upon which the piece signifiers sit. While the photo is somewhat unclear, it is entirely possible that the curve is not vertically symmetrical but dendriformic, with the tops of the stems somewhat larger than the bottoms. Berlin collector and artist Porat Jacobson has described such stem structures as anti-Staunton because they defy the bottom-heavy neoclassical column architecture organic to Staunton designs. The royals and clerics have very large heads relative to the stems and bases. The knights make no pretense of emulating Elgin marbles but instead exhibit the C-shaped back and V-shaped neck typical of Soviet sets rather than the S-shaped backs of Staunton knights.
While I know of no exact specimen of the set depicted in the Averbakh photo, there are a number of later sets that are very close in design, which I call Averbakh-style pieces. Here is one such set from my collection.
I believe this set to be a later generation of that Averbakh is shown playing with in the well-known 1949 photograph. We can hypothesize that the set of the 1949 photo that gives this set its name is quite rare, perhaps specially made for that tournament, with evolved versions like the specimen in my collection produced in greater quantities for general tournament use.
1962 Tal Chess Pieces
The final set Vieira pines for is in many ways the most famous, as it appears with Tal on the cover of his autobiography, The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal.
The photo that has given the set its Tal name shows its namesake contemplating his position after Black's 32nd move in Tal v. Krogius, played in the 30th Soviet Championship in Yerevan in 1962, a Ruy Lopez won by Tal. “So precious!” Vieira exudes. Research into the photographic and physical record indicates that there were a number of versions of this design, and that the set was used in high level play from 1940 through the 1970s. Here is the version of the Tal set that I believe was used in the 1959 Soviet Championship held in Tbilisi.
The pieces largely follow neoclassical Staunton conventions, while also incorporating certain Soviet design elements, the combination of lead me to characterize the set as another “Soviet Staunton.” Among the traditional Staunton elements present in Soviet Stauntons are wide bases that incorporate a step as they rise to meet the stem; vertical stems that rise from the base’s step with a bottom diameter appreciably less than that of the base; stems that taper as they ascend to form a largely vertical segment and intersect the pedestal at a distinct, perpendicular or near-perpendicular joint; upon the pedestal rests a piece signifier resembling the symbolic representation of the piece in chess diagrams; which is offset from the circumference of the pedestal and connected by a connecting section defined by two collars resembling the rims of crowns or miters (together with the pedestal the two collars of the connector are often referred to as a “three collar structure”); and the rook’s turret typically contains merlons; when arrayed on their starting squares the pieces resemble a series of columns supporting a triangular pediment.
Among the characteristically Soviet design elements of Soviet Stauntons are the opposite colors of the king, queen, and bishop finials; the modification of the king’s cross to not quite be one recognized by Christian iconography; and, with one notable exception, a knight not patterned after the Elgin Marbles. Among the features that distinguish the Tal set are the hefty wide and tall bases; the thick rook towers; the crisply carved angled merlons; the squat pawns; and the jaunty knights, which appear to lean backwards with their heads tilted up toward the sky.
The earliest known specimen of a Tal set is seen in photo of Paul Keres and Mikenas in a match between Estonia and Lithuania held in Tallinn, Estonia prior to the annexation of the Baltic states by the Soviet Union later in 1940. A specimen of this set resides in the collection of Mike Ladzinski, known as Goodknightmike to readers of Chess.com’s Chess Books and Equipment forum, where he once was a prolific contributor.
Lacking several elements of the mature Tal design of Yerevan 1962, these chessmen adopt traditional elements of the English Staunton design, most notably the long stems narrower at the top than the bottom; the distinctly jointed pedestals, the three-ring collar system, the cross-crowned king, the bishop miter cuts, the merlons of the rook turrets, and the collective column-pediment. Unlike traditional Stauntons, the crosses and finials are opposite-colored. The unique, jaunty knights do not emulate the Elgin Marbles but are virtually identical to those of the 1962 Yerevan set. The pieces contain the wide, almost squared-off bases characteristic of the Tal, but not yet as tall as those of the Yerevan set. The cross is a true cross, not the vestigial cross of the 1962 version. While the rooks’ turrets incorporate merlons, their towers are noticeably narrower than their successor’s, and concave rather than straight, like the Yerevan tower. The pawns’ stems are longer than the Yerevan versions, making the pawns less squat.
Conclusion
Arlindo Vieira identified three sets he would want in an ideal collection of Soviet chess pieces. They have come to be known as the Bakelite/Carbolite Soviet Staunton Set, the Averbakh Set, and the Tal Set. Following an agenda Arlindo set, collectors have begun to find specimens of the sets he coveted and to research their history.
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