Christmas Chess

I run a Scholastic Chess club at the school where my wife teaches 3rd grade.  I run the club for grades 2 - 8.  This year we have 26 members.

Every year, I have the last meeting before the Christmas break as "Christmas Chess.  I have done this now for 8 years.  In Christmas Chess I always give the kids the standard peppermint candy canes and Hershey Chocolate Kisses.  I also play them on my own set and give them many moves and ultimately the game as a Christmas present.  I have never won a Christmas Chess game.  Of course I sometimes have to get quite creative to make sure I lose, but everyone has fun.

This year, I realized that I had some nice equipment that would fit perfectly as a Christmas Chess set.  For this I use my Noj Dubrovnik II Red set.  For the board I am using the Best Chessmen Ever, magnetic board in Green.  And for the clock I use a Chronos GX that is red.  I got some Green buttons from Sam Timer and it is a perfect setup.  Here are the pictures from today:

I bought this Noj Dubrovnik II Red set back in 2015 during the great Red Dubrovnik era of this forum.  Red is my favorite color and I believe you can see why in this set, and clock also.

Not as fancy but my favourite setup for the moment:

Love the Christmas theme!

That's a very good Christmas tradition and playing with an Noj set is an added bonus. The closest to me playing with an Noj set is with my CB Dubrovnik reproduction. 

That green and white board really makes the stained pieces pop out. It's quite beautiful. 

Thanks for the nice comments, all.

I have owned that set and board for a number of years and just didn't think of putting them together like this.  I do really like the way it turned out.

I am meeting a friend on Monday afternoon for about an hour or so before we both have to attend family functions for Christmas.  It sure looks as if I will be bringing this set for that play.  It really is a lot of fun.

I love the looks of your setup for Christmas, Ron, and imagine the children do too.  Keep up the Christmas fun the children will carry with them, perhaps forever.

Merry Christmas!

I'm not a fan of red pieces, but I have to admit these look pretty good. And it certainly is thematic. Thank you for spending the time with the kids.

The kids in that Chess club have only experienced the solid plastic pieces, excepting for my HOS Liberty Rosewood set last Christmas.

AT least 4 of them mentioned how nice they thought this set was.  Even 9 year old kids can have good taste.

The red of those pieces is pretty much exactly as pictured above.  It looks more like an Ox Blood color instead of the Candy Apple red you see in a lot of other sets.  It does look quite rich.

It's a lovely set Ron. Fantastic to hear you're playing so much with it and in this way sharing it. They're meant to be played with. Have a merry Christmas!

Thanks maik1988.

Yes, these Noj Dubrovnik sets are indeed meant to be played with.

The European Maple that they are made of is a durable wood.  And the design of the pieces are great, if not perfect, to handle in play.  

And yes, Merry Christmas to all.

Very nice! Happy Holidays.