Another Vintage Soviet Russian Chess Set Pictorial

Lou, email Kadun. They'll sell you a set. Personally, I prefer the vintage sets. I have no problems at all with their production standards or their condition. These were mass produced sets in a war-ravaged society that valued chess more than consumerism. Their condition reflects their owners' love of chess, and the battle damage testifies to thousands of games they played with these hardened pieces. I might add a finial or two but I'll keep the wear and tear as homage to their prior owners and their passion for playing chess.

cgrau & GNM,

I understand completely, you guys are true collectors. I'm more of a faux collector, buying new sets and reproductions I find functional and appealing. Blame in on my anality or my OCT ("T" for tendency), but I prefer my sets in like new condition, or as close as possible.

I did bid on a circa 1890's vintage British Chess Company set on eBay last year. The set was in excellent condition considering its age, but the winning bid was more than 3X times my meager offering, which is the second reason I don't collect vintage sets -- I can't afford to! But if the right vintage set comes along at the right price, I'd certainly be tempted.

P.S. Thanks for the links, GNM.

Precisely. That is also why I am going after the Mint or Near Mint sets of the '70's and '80's. As more and more former Soviet bloc countries gain a better standard of living I feel their will be a desire to regain much of their cultural past. I love these sets and if I can pick up one or two extras I can see some serious rise in "catch and release" 

You are right, we are merely caretakers of these chess pieces.

Does anyone knows anything about this Soviet set? I think it's exactly the Soviets, according to the wood processing, varnish, knights... Although the appearance of the king and the queen confused me a little.

But I find it difficult to determine the age of this set. I'd love to hear the views of experts ... thanks in advance.

A gorgeous set, Pennwarrior. Clearly Soviet. Big, proletarian pawns. Diminished bishops. How many sets do we find were the stem on the pawn is taller than that on the bishop? The kings and queens remind me of those on my pre-Revolutionary set, and other sets like those you and I posted on the other thread. I'd guess it's from the 20's-'40's. If so, the finish is in extraordinarily good shape.

Exactly, Cgrau, proletarian pawns and other peaces! Except, of course, the king and queen - in their forms, we can clearly see "a heavy legacy of the tsarist regime", as mentioned in the post-revolutionary propaganda texts ...

So, It may be the production of some 1920-30s artisanal cooperatives, ARTEL (Артель) where young proletarians mastered the difficult art of creating chess pieces.
In terms of chess boom of 1920-30s it was necessary to do a lot of chess, to provide numerous chess clubs, which opened even in remote villages ...

Just incredible photos! And history!! Please keep sharing it with us. So much of our information is filtered through Western writers like Soltis, who see everything through their cultural and political lenses. No disrespect to them, for I appreciate their efforts, but I wouldn't attempt to write a history of Soviet Chess without fluency in Russian, command of the Soviet chess literature, and years in the former USSR interviewing sources and visiting museums.

Agreed. PenWarrior, can you suggest a history of Soviet Chess available in English?

I'm sorry to limit this to PenWarrior. cgrau, or anyone else out there, could you suggest a history of Soviet Chess authored by someone with that Soviet/Russian background? I would love to read it.

Thank you all for your sincere response, but I'm not a chess historian and don't have enough interesting material (interesting for myself first and foremost) to write at least a few pages, especially in English. All I can promise - it's from time to time to translate into English some interesting facts I'll meet in the Russian books, magazines and Russian-language Internet. Perhaps some of these facts will repeat what Soltis wrote, I haven't read his books...

Lenin loved chess and played on a regular basis, and not as the street-level amateur! He learned to play chess at the age of 8 - 9 years. By age 15, he began to beat his teacher - his father, a great lover of chess and a strong player.

The photo was taken on the Italian island Capri in 1908, when Lenin was visiting Maxim Gorky. Lenin is playing with Alexander Bogdanov, a famous revolutionary Marxist, physician and philosopher. 

UpcountryRain rote:

"PenWarrior, can you suggest a history of Soviet Chess available in English?"

Sorry, I was reading the comments by night, and didn't understand correctly. 
I suddenly decided that you offer me to write the history of Soviet chess. Obviously, that's my megalomania 😇  Now in the morning I've read with a fresh mind. As far as I know, there are no publications in English, published in my country, which might interest you. But I will try to carry out more searches, especially that it's also very interesting for me. On the results, I'll let you know....

Thank you, BurnAmos! As I understand almost all of these books (except Soltis?) are devoted to the sports side of the chess development in the Soviet Union, but not to the history of mass chess penetration into Soviet society ...