Buying and review of House of Staunton 3" Anderssen Dropjaw Chess Set

Hello everyone!

Recently I bought House of Staunton 3" Anderssen Dropjaw Chess Set. This set is amazing and I deside to told about this purchase.

I already have couple chess sets both made in India:

1. The large one is pretty beautiful, the black pieces from palisander and all pieces good weighted.

2. And the small one, which is pretty ugly (lol), the black pieces simply painted and besides with careless. But I made it magnetic with small neodim magnets in each piece (used the drill and glue) and under each square of the board (just glue), so it was pretty comfortable to play in travels.

I used it for several years but in length of time some of it’s details start to disappointed me. For example: the queen almost the same tall with the king, and at quick view you can to mix them up, the rook much smaller than the knight (although the rook is major piece, but the knight is minor), the base of each pieces not so large compared with chessboard’s squares etc.

Sometimes I look games reviews, and at The Sinquefield Cup I had seen the perfect chess set! All details, that annoyed me in my chess sets was absolutely ideal at Sinquefield cup. The king much bigger than queen, the rook much more solid (dwarf-rook most annoyed me), the knight not so giant and the proportions of each piece and it’s bases was ideal!

I started to find this chess set to buy. Well, it turned up pretty expensive… about 1500$ lol, but the main thing: I understood, that there’s the right chess sets and start to find and compare its!

Before buy new chess set, I chose for a long time between several variations: Antique Jaques, New Jaques, Official Staunton and House of Staunton. That's what I think about each of them:

1. Antique Jaques – of course it's most cool to have about 150 years old chess set! But first of all it's expensive! And it pretty hard to find set in good conditon. When you buy things like that, of course you want to get aesthetic pleasure everytime you take it in your hand. And if pieces would have chips and cracks, one of pieces will be from another set, king's cross will be broken, box's key will be lost etc - it will be sad. Of course, it's possible to find chess set in mint condition, but it will be even more expensive.

2. New Jaques – in one hand Jaques it's most authentic Staunton chess set. In other hand, their modern sets not looks like I want (again dwarf rook etc.). Also black pieces in most lowpriced sets are from ebonized boxwood, the same time other sets, where black pieces is from geunine ebony, cost much more expensive.

3. Official Staunton – at moment, when I chose chess set, their pieces's and board's range was pretty small. Most of them was 2 sizes: 4.4 inch king with 2,5 inch square; 3.5 king with 2.25 inch square. I don't like when square much bigger, than king's base and on the whole I wanted to buy small set.

4. This complicated choice took place in my head for few months! I regularly looked at official sites, e-bay, again and again looked at photos, prices, discounts etc. Finaly by the totality of signs I firmly decided to buy library size chess set with dropjaw knights.

I had two option: Antique Jaques and House of Staunton. But all of Antique Jaques library size chess sets are not weighted! Small lightweight wooden piecies can't give you tactile pleasure, when you take and move it. Also center of gravity of that pieces pretty hight and pieces become unsteady.

I looked with care to HOS Dropjaw Chess Set and compared it with 150yo original (at photos of course). It's almost edentic. Also I had read at HOS website, they have post warranty service: If you broke or lost one of your pieces, they can send another one to you. I decided, that new beautiful chess set satisfies my needs more than others.

There’s was big problems with shipping chess set box and board to Russia. But finally I got them. Well… it’s amazing! It’s exactly what i looked for! All pieces made with care to small details, heave weighted and I have aesthetic and tactile pleasure every time I take and move it! I personally bought chess board with 1.75 inch squares in place of 2.00 inch squares, that offered by default.

So, what I finally have:

1. Anderssen Dropjaw Chess Set with 3" king. White pieces from antiqued boxwood, black pieces from genuine ebony. The king’s knights and rooks are marked crown sign. The set has additional queens for pawn promotions. Cost 295.00$

2. Chess box with HOS logo. Pieces fits in box with a margin but the same time box not too big. The box have steel hinges (golden color) on the cover, that preventing cover from opening at 180 and breakage. Box also have steel lock (golden color) to fix the cover. Unfortunately without key. Cost 49.95$

3. Solid (not folding) chessboard with 1.75 inch squares with HOS logo at h1. Cost 59.00$

4. Shipping to Russia was done by Qwintry.com Cost ~130.00$

Hope, this review will be useful for someone!

Sorry for my english =)

PS. If you press on image right mouse button and choose open image in new tab, you can see image in full resolution.

Thanks for the review!  (Your english is good, by the way.)  I'm curious if you prefer smaller sets for a particular reason or is it just the "feeling"?  I tend to like sets in the 4" range with 4.5" being too tall and shorter being too short.  For me, if the rooks are too chunky it seems to spoil the balance of the set but you definitely don't want them to look like bishops with turrets!

Antique Jaques – of course it's most cool to have about 150 years old chess set! But first of all it's expensive! And it pretty hard to find set in good conditon. When you buy things like that, of course you want to get aesthetic pleasure everytime you take it in your hand. And if pieces would have chips and cracks, one of pieces will be from another set, king's cross will be broken, box's key will be lost etc - it will be sad. Of course, it's possible to find chess set in mint condition, but it will be even more expensive.

just to add would go for the 1855 /1860 set hard knocks & all if I had the choice , A Unweighted is way better for training with than weighted .

Very nice set Mihail. I hope it will last you a lifetime. I think the pieces would look slightly better on a board with brown squares instead of black. Have you tried that? 

My first chess set is near to 4.4 inch. Actually the king smaller than 4.4, but all other pieces like in 4.4 set (I cheked demensions at official staunton site). And I noticed, that I almost not use it. When I play chess in real life, I always use the small set. It's just more compact and convenient for home playing.

Why unweighted is better? All professional chess set are weighted. This is much more comfortable for real game, especially in blitz. Pieces much more stable.

PS. At your photo looks like knights from other set - it's too small, as well as bishops - the form and incision of mitres is other (oval in place of rhombus). Here is House of Staunton 3" Anderssen Dropjaw Chess Set (above) compared with Antique Jaques Anderssen Dropjaw Chess Set library size (bellow).

Thanks! Yes, in fact black piecies a little bit merge with the dark squares. Unfortunately, I had no chance to see board and pieces until it's was delivered (also that's was very difficult, and I had to pay for delivery twice). This small inconvenience, so I can take it easy.

I assume when he says training he means "studying by myself and moving the pieces [for both sides]," which involves more frequent lifting than when playing a game against an opponent.  This could get tiring after a while when using a heavy set.

Oh, I got it. Actually you not have to lift up piece everytime for move it. In most cases it could just gliding. I think, when you play by itself, the hand (more precisely the shoulder) are tiring because you hold hand aweigh for much time. By the way, large board in this way more difficult to play.

Yes all that Lifting is not good that why I like the unweighted Jaques set for studying / Training !

Still would not use a Antique Jaques for blitz games !

I love all my HoS sets and boards.  Wide variety, exceptional quality, and exceptional customer service for many years.  Doesn't get much better than that.

Seem's like it's a cult of Repos ?

Thanks for this review. It's a very good read. 

Privet Mihail Petrov, vash english sovsem ne plohoj. Esli hotite eshe luche, to mozhete pisat' po russki a potom vvoodit' v Google Translate. On ochen' horosho perevodit. Dazhe legal'nye dokumenty tochno perevodit.

Hello. Thanks. I use Google translate when it's difficult for me, but most of time I try to write and read by myself. Are you Russian-speaking?

Heaven forbid you would burn 3 or 4 calories moving those "heavy" pieces!

Heavy pieces vs not so heavy is mostly a consideration of personal preference and how you plan to use them. The HoS players series which I have is the heaviest set I have at 1.6 kgs (incl. extra Qs). I use that one for long play only these days. I analyse and work through Yusupow books with a lighter set. It's not about the extra burned calories. It's about convenience.

Both sets are beautiful, but for me the color scheme of the larger one looks best. I prefer smaller sets because I study games alone, and with a smaller set I can take off my glasses while playing out games. I prefer weighted pieces. 

I also love it that both boards have annotation along the sides! 

If you had ask about 'a lot of antique chess sets in my area" due I wrote about it in first post, then no. I found antique chess sets and a lot photo of it in internet. At chessantiques.com, antiquechessshop.com and ebay.com. Sometimes there are quite interesting offers, but in any case they are quite expensive.