Amusing / Infuriating Bit of Lunacy through Catawiki Auctions: A "Harmon" chessboard

I don't know how many collectors here know about Catawiki, a European online auction company based in The Netherlands that specializes in arts & crafts products, new and vintage. A search in this "chess equipment" sub brought up almost nothing. 

Well, if you look at their chess auctions you will soon realize that many of the items come with descriptions that are fairly transparently bogus, especially those offered by a number of sellers from Spain. Chess boards, sets and pieces that are very obviously of contemporary Indian origin are being sold as "late 20th century UK"  - or "Russia". I first noticed the questionable items a couple of years ago, and the same sellers have kept up the proud tradition ever since. 

Last week, however, I came upon the most flagrantly, and most amusingly, dopey item yet: A chess board "from the famous firm Harmon" [auction text]. The description continues: "This beautiful board is the same one used in the 1968 final of the Tournament of Champions held in Moscow where protagonist Beth Harmon defeats Russian chess champion Vasily Borgov."

I had a good laugh. As all fans of "The Queen's Gambit" should know by now, the boards used for the scenes of the Moscow tournament were new ones, made by Rechapados Ferrer. Apart from that the whole story of course is entirely fictional. I'm still not sure whether the seller was trying to dupe someone naive enough to not see through this madness, or if he intended it as a joke. Maybe not, because I confronted the seller after the board had been sent, and he sort of pretended that he wasn't in on the joke.

Anyway, I liked the style of the board enough, and the end price was right, so I won the auction. A real board made by a fictitious company for a fictitious tournament in a fictional TV show - irresistible. I also knew the craftsmanship was a bit on the rough side, but I bought it for the fun of it.

Yep, it really comes with a massive "HARMON" sign attached to the back. I also think I've seen that logo before, possibly in connection with the character/show. I'm sure one or more copyright infringements are involved here, too, but let's not go into those right now. 

To the seller's credit, his original photos didn't gloss over the rough edges in the workmanship. The board isn't made of individual chunks of wood; rather, what they did was laminate each square independently onto a single massive wood or MDF "plank". The board is quite heavy (about 5-6kg on a 46cm x 46cm board with 50mm squares).

I'll never know for sure. I'll probably also never find out who actually makes these boards, and I haven't seen one in this exact style before. Have you? I don't think it's mass-produced, maybe it's made by an enthusiast.

Be that as it may, I think this is a real curiosity item, and since I bought it knowing fully well about its dubious "credentials", I am more amused than infuriated with its existence, especially as a huge fan of the show. Still, I am pretty confident the seller didn't really believe someone could be THAT ignorant to believe the fairy tale story around it.

P.S.: Upon arrival of the board (very well packaged by the way - you don't want a precious Harmon board to get damaged in transport, do you? ), I did try to contact the supposed "curator" of the chess items on Catawiki, one Roger Schreutelkamp, and ask him about this and the many other fictitious descriptions of chess-related items on the site. So far, neither he nor the company have responded.   

Hilarious!  And with an image of little Beth herself!

A trail of fictions like they're shoveling qualifies them as evening news contributors.  

This is such a funny story for sure. The phrase "Buyer be ware" comes to mind. You certainly were aware of all of it so no harm no foul. I feel sorry for anyone who got duped though.

I think I know what Spannish seller you're talking about. He sold me chess set and the measures were way off. I thought it was size 6 but it turned out to be size 5. Avoid communications, didn't picked up the return for a week. I gave him bad review and it's still the only one bad review of his. He was not happy lol

At least I got what I wanted. Apart from the bogus origin story, the board turned out exactly as advertised. And it's a good-looking board, I don't mind if handcrafted products have  few rougher edges.