CHESS SET IDENTIFICATION

Not available for purchase yet, and no photographs yet.

It will definitely be much too small a size at only 3.25" to be similar to the set in "From Russia, with Love", although Lardy did make sets in various sizes, including most definitely 3.25". The set in the film, looks very much like a Lardy design of that time. It's unusual in being larger than any Lardy sets of the time that I have seen, which mostly ran in the 3.25" to 3.75" range, although I own a French set, that is probably a Lardy, that is 2.5" tall.

Lardy chess sets were very common at the time, because they were quite inexpensive in comparison with other wood sets. They were additionally very common in the U.S.A. around 1970 because they were the wooden chess sets that were sold by both the USCF and Chess Digest, who, together, supplied most of the club and tournament chessplayers in the U.S.A. with equipment and books. My chess club then, owned a fair number of Lardy chess sets, and Lardy chess sets were overwhelmingly the sets owned by the chessplayers in my club who had wooden chess sets.

Lardy chess sets can be found for sale on Ebay quite often. It's a good bet that there's at least one there now, and, if not, then some probably will be showing up there shortly. They usually don't fetch anything resembling high prices as they are of a plain, but attractive, design and are still quite commonly found. A very nice condition Lardy chess set, allegedly used at the 1974 Chess Olympiad in Nice, which Lardy was the official supplier of chess sets for, recently sold on Ebay for a winning bid of all of $45.50.   http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-1974-LARDY-XXI-CHESS-OLYMPIC-GAMES-NICE-FRANCE-CHESS-SET-IN-ORIGINAL-BOX-/281581454163?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item418f900353&nma=true&si=H4uipmUgBWq84sS%252FGZtBUtrUoMc%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Thanks for the comment Walter. The Nice Olympiad chess set features a quite different pattern, is there any chronological listing of Lardy's chess sets? So these used in the movie seems much more glossy/luxury material.

Lardy generally made inexpensive plain chess sets that were either stained or painted, with some also being lacquered, and not made of expensive or rare woods, so they have never really been highly sought by collectors. They also had numerous designs, over the years, but in a generally similar style.

The chess set in the movie appears to be a lacquered one with the dark pieces either stained or painted black. It is also unusual in being an unusually large size for a Lardy set, although it is definitely in the Lardy style typical of the 1960s and early 1970s, which are mostly the style of Lardy sets that you'll encounter on Ebay.

The one historical article about Lardy that I know of is this:   http://www.chess-museum.com/lardy.html  , which features photographs and discussion of Lardy chess sets from earlier years.

I couldn't say that the chess set in the film, "From Russia, with Love", is definitely a Lardy, but those Queens with the considerably longer than usual section above the "collars" were very typical, if not possibly even unique, to Lardy.

May be these snapshots will help our readers to have a better idea about the chessmen we are talking about:

Thanks for the nice pics.! Would you say the King is 4 inches or larger than that.? Thanks

Thanks for posting the additional screenshots. The knight definitely looks like a 1974 Nice Olympiad Lardy. Although the movie predates the Olympiad by over a decade.

Larger. "Large Club Size", 4.25" to 4.5", I would guess.

How nice and interesting would it be if such big sets were used in official FIDE tournaments!

I think our chess set worth to be exposed among these marvels:

http://www.worldchesshof.org/exhibitions/exhibit/prized-and-played/

Interesting news everybody, it seems that sean connery's favorite chess set was also lardy!

is there any possibility this set is the one used in the movie????

None. I see no black.

-Izmet

Perhaps they've been handled with wet hands from drinks or the pool and the stain has come off?

I love how on Connery's picture the board is setup in the wrong way.

The board is set up right, it' just that Sean is kibitzing (observing from the side) here, not playing.

-Izmet

The hell of a chess table...

Sean was/is a chess player ?  I have sevral Lardy sets myself and those look like Lardy sets to me . 

To me too, but it seems quite hard to identify this chess set as exactly as we wished at the beginning of this forum.