Unboxing & Review | Royal Chess Mall | 1849 Original Staunton Chess Set (4.5" king) ☺️♟️

#royalchessmall #1849staunton #review 

TL;DR:

• The handmade reproduction 1849 Original Staunton Chess Set (4.5” king) from Royal Chess Mall is classic, beautiful, and luxurious. It is an easy recommendation for chess set aficionados and collectors who are experienced with large pieces.
• Everybody else should consider whether the tournament sized version with a 3.75” king would be a better fit.

Note: I was sent these items from Royal Chess Mall directly for review purposes. I have not been paid to undertake this review, and I am not sponsored by Royal Chess Mall. This review contains my genuine experiences and impressions, and Royal Chess Mall had no editorial control over its contents. Royal Chess Mall did not see this video or article before they were published.

My history with Royal Chess Mall

Over the past decade, I’ve purchased five or six chess sets from Royal Chess Mall (RCM) as a private customer. The first set I bought to teach my son how to play chess!

A bit over a month ago, RCM contacted me to ask whether I had any interest in reviewing some of their products, and I was happy to oblige given my good prior experience. If you don’t know the company, they’re one of the larger chess piece manufacturers from the city of Amritsar, in the Indian state of Punjab. Amritsar is the international centre of handmade chess piece manufacturing, with a long history of specialist craftsmen going back several generations. The best hand-crafted chess sets are made or sourced from Amritsar.

I was very excited to have received a couple of parcels from RCM, delivered by FedEx a fortnight ago, and have been working on the review since then. The items?

• Reproduction 1849 Original Staunton Chess Set (4.5” king),
• with the matching, Leatherette Coffer Storage Box

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A brief history on the 1849 Staunton chess set

The historical 1849 Staunton chess set is an icon of design, and a triumph of marketing. If you close your eyes and imagine a set of chess pieces, what do you see? Probably something like this?

This is the Staunton design! It was so successful that it has become the de facto standard. And this is a good design! Each chess piece is clearly identifiable, even at a distance. The pieces are handsome and feel good in the hand. They are sturdy, and with a weighted base, very stable on the board.

To consider, one of the most common designs for chess pieces in England before the Staunton design in the nineteenth century was the Barleycorn design.

Even into the early twentieth century, European chess pieces had an alternative design, as seen from this set of reproduction Austrian coffee house pieces.

To me, one of the innovations with the Staunton design is that the king and queen pieces are so clearly different: the king has been Christianised with the cross on top of a round crown, while the queen wears a spiked coronet. Notice how the king and queen in both the Barleycorn and Austrian coffee house designs look relatively similar apart from their difference in size.

So, who was Staunton? Howard Staunton was an English chess master who was probably the strongest player in the world in the 1840s. Famously, his victory over Saint-Amant, the master of the Café de la Régence in Paris, signalled the end of the dominance of the French chess masters, who had reigned supreme for over a century (including luminaries such as de Legal, Philidor, and La Bourdonnais). He pioneered what we now call the English Opening.

The chess set was designed by Nathaniel Cooke, manufactured by Jaques of London, and named after Staunton, who enthusiastically endorsed it and promoted it widely. Like the reproduction by RCM, the original pieces were made from boxwood and ebony. The bases were weighted with lead and felted.

Note: originally, I had planned to use a composition by Bach for the background music for the video, but after reflection, recognised that that wouldn’t fit Staunton! He was known by some to have been rather pompous, arrogant even, but at the same time, triumphed over his contemporaries even though he didn’t focus on chess until his 20s! And so, it seemed very fitting to instead use Pomp and Circumstance by Englishman Edward Elgar, who I will claim to possibly be the most British-looking person who has ever lived!

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Unboxing

After notification of shipping, I was able to track the parcels through the FedEx site. RCM has very clear details on their shipping page in terms of which countries have FedEx/DHL express shipping, and which countries will not face additional customs duties or sales taxes. My recollection was that I received the parcels by courier in 8 or 10 days.

The chess set and the leatherette box were sent as separate parcels (which arrived together). Both were packaged extremely well. Of the chess pieces, the external box had internal foam supporting and protecting an interior box, which held the pieces. Each piece was further individually wrapped with foam sheeting, and on larger pieces, this would be in two separate layers. It is likely that the pieces would survive even if the parcel suffered a major drop in transport, and probably even a moderate degree of crushing.

The contents of the box:

• a soft cloth bag to hold the pieces
• microfibre polishing cloth
• warranty card and care instructions
• 34 pieces in total: 16 + an extra queen per side

The pieces

The pieces are best SEEN in my video review. The white pieces are carved from boxwood, and have been stained to give a distressed, antiqued appearance, and lacquered to a semi-gloss. The black pieces are carved from ebony and lacquered.

The quality of the carving is perfect to my eyes. The video includes slow macro video shots of the rooks as the crenellations (the “battlements” of the rook) is often where you will see a lack of attention to detail. There was no rough carving in any of the rooks. However, the black rooks did demonstrate some under-lacquering of the top surface. This isn’t a defect, but it is a blemish to an otherwise near flawless finishing.

The original Staunton design has few ornamentations, especially when compared to modern luxury designs that might have a dramatic flair. As this is a historic reproduction, this is of course appropriate, but some collectors might find it unexciting. An advantage, however, is that the design makes the pieces very robust, as there are few protuberances that could get damaged by a drop or snag (e.g., for some designs, the knight’s ears and mane can be delicate). These are pieces that can be played regularly, and while care is always advisable, they won’t need to be babied.

These pieces are noticeably larger than tournament size pieces. The king is 20% taller (4.5” vs 3.75”) with a proportionately larger base. These pieces can be reasonably used on a standard tournament sized board (with 55mm side squares), but my aesthetic sense is that it does look a bit cramped. Your mileage may vary. These pieces pair perfectly with a larger board with 2.5” (64mm) side squares. I demonstrate the pieces with both in the video.

The leatherette box

This is the matching storage box recommended by RCM. There are two colours (black and tan), and I received the black leather version. A spring-loaded clasp keeps the lid closed, and this can be locked with a small key. This might be advisable during transport to avoid the box accidentally opening. Inside, there are two trays, the top stacked on top of the lower. Each tray has shaped cutouts in what feels like soft foam rubber, covered with a soft synthetic felt/fleece material. The pieces fit easily into these cutouts and are not tightly held in.

and this can be locked with a small key. This might be advisable during transport to avoid the box accidentally opening. Inside, there are two trays, the top stacked on top of the lower. Each tray has shaped cutouts in what feels like soft foam rubber, covered with a soft synthetic felt/fleece material. The pieces fit easily into these cutouts and are not tightly held in.

The box has been designed for pieces in a size range, and it seems that the cutouts are a little too large for the pawns; meaning that they rattle a bit in the carry case, and they can be dislodged from their position when the case is carried upright by the handle.

If the case is only used to keep the pieces tidy, clean, and organised indoors, then this is not an issue. However, if it is planned for the case to be used to carry the pieces out and about, then the pawns will need to be secured better. The solution that I found was to cut up a foam sheet that was included in the packaging material, to place on top of the pawns on the tray. When the lid was closed, this was enough to keep the pawns safely in place. A folded-up silicone or mouse mat material chess board in the same position would probably work just as well.

Price and warranty

The 1849 Original Staunton Chess Set (4.5” king) is USD $390 at the time of writing, and the Leatherette Coffer Storage Box (for chess pieces 4.2” to 4.6”) is USD $195. However, RCM has a quirk on their store in that they seem to always have standard coupon codes available which offer a substantial discount. Currently, coupon code CHESS25 (which is prominently displayed on their website) will give a 25% discount.

I notionally have a coupon code CHESSNOOB64 but this only gives a 10% discount, and I don’t think RCM allows for codes to stack (but give it a try and let me know). If you are interested in a set, just use their standard 25% discount code. On occasion, RCM will offer time-limited codes with higher discounts, so keep an eye out for those!

This means that the “real price” of the pieces is just under USD $300 and the storage box just under $150. If you live in a location where shipping is free, and where RCM has given a commitment that they ensure that there are no added customs duties or good and services taxes (see RCM’s shipping policy page), and this includes:

… then this should be the complete price.

RCM gives free replacement warranty of 3 years for the chess pieces, and 6 months for chess boards, boxes, and travel chess sets.

Summary

These are excellent chess pieces. If you love the history of chess like me, then these are a set that are well worth collecting. Genuine antiques from the mid-nineteenth century are not only very rare but would be much too valuable to play with!

These pieces are robust and a joy to use. As luxurious larger pieces, they deserve to be used with a 2.5” (64mm) side squares board. If this is not practical or possible, then the 3.75” version of these pieces might be a better choice.

The leatherette storage box is lovely, but might not be more practical than a simpler, smaller, and less expensive box, especially if the pieces won’t be moved regularly.

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