Cool Vintage Chess Photos

Lardy chess pieces were used on several occasions. Here are some examples:

World Chess Tournament Amsterdam 1950 (it looks like some sort of Lardy or proto-Lardy):

1974 Nice Chess Olympiad

1982 Lucerne Chess Olympiad

I also found this one in my files, but I am not sure, on which occasion this picture was taken.

Austrian Upright Chess Set

Euwe v Bogoljubow match, Carlsbad, 1941
A photograph published on page 114 of the August 1941 Deutsche Schachzeitung is shown here courtesy of the Cleveland Public Library.

Rudolf Spielmann vs Baldur Hoenlinger (1935)
Austrian Upright Chess Set

Austrian Upright Chess Set
played in international tournaments:

World Chess Championship 1910 (Lasker–Schlechter)

Euwe - Bogoljubow (match, Carlsbad, 1941)

Ajedrez Olimpico Argentino

Buenos Aires, 14th November 1978.  In the opening round of the international tournament sponsored by the newspaper Clarín, grandmaster Oscar Panno (Argentina) faces ex-World Champion Vasily Smyslov (USSR).

Buenos Aires (Clarín), October 1980. Miguel Quinteros and Friðrik Ólafsson in post-game analysis. Ulf Andersson and Vlastimil Hort look on.

Chess set
Ajedrez Olimpico Argentino
played in international tournaments:

XXlll Chess Olympiad 1978
(Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Candidates match (semi-final) 1980
Korchnoi - Polugaevsky (Buenos Aires)

Buenos Aires International Tournament 1978, organized by the Clarín newspaper
Link to league table
https://www.365chess.com/tournaments/Clarin_1978/24556

Buenos Aires International Tournament 1979, organized by the Clarín newspaper
Link to league table
http://www.chessfocus.com/tournament-results/1979-clarin

International Tournament Buenos Aires 1980, organized by the newspaper Clarín
In the tournament, Karpov took only 5th place.
Link to league table
http://www.chessfocus.com/tournament-results/1980-clarin

I have compiled a table of international tournaments in which chess pieces are identified.

I'll post it in a few posts. This post only: Austrian Upright Chess Set, Ajedrez Olimpico Argentino.

@Kovylkino, very nice pictures of the Austrian Uprights!!!

Chessbazaar's reproduction of the Olimpico set is terrible and inaccurate IMHO. Chuck Grau has shown some very nice pictures of original sets under this thread https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/comparing-argentinian-olimpicos

I love that Austrian Upright set - so elegant and unique. I wonder if the current World Championship FIDE set took inspiration from that King's crown...

Do we have an approximate height of the King?

Česká Klubovka

Photo from the tournament Poděbrady 1936

Čeněk Kottnauer plays Friedrich Sämisch during the Duras Memorial in Prague. December 7th 1942, The game was a Slav drawn after 42 moves.

December 1942, a tournament in Prague, Alekhine against the Czech master K. Gromadka (photo from the archive of the Czech historian Jan Kalendovsky).

Alexander Aljechin a Paul Keres na pražském Velikonočním turnaji v dubnu 1943.

Chess set Česká Klubovka" (Czech Club Set) was played in the following international tournaments:

IV. Chess Olympiad 1931. Prague

Poděbrady International Tournament 1936

International Tournament Prague 1942, 1943

FIDE Zonal Tournament 1951 and 1954.

My Lasker set has a king size of 11 cm (ca. 4 1/3").

I can add something different, if ok.

These are screenshots from the Indian movie "The Chess Players" (Shatranj ke khilari) from 1977. The movie was directed by Satyajit Ray. The two players are Sanjeew Kumar and Saeed Jaffrey. The set they used was a modern version of the so called John Company sets.

The last picture is showing a rather similar, even a bit more elaborated version from my collection. King size is an impressive 15.4 cm (6").

In the aforementioned movie, another chess set is shown, but curiously enough it is not an Indian chess set (despite the movie being Indian and the story playing in an Indian environment). The set is of the so called Burmese pattern. Sets like this were initially attributed to Burmese craftsmen, but research mainly by Michael Mark has shown that sets like this were in fact made in 19th century Canton, China.

The last two pictures are again examples from my collection.

Old Vienna & Coffeehouse Chess Set

Photo from the tournament Semmering/Baden 1937

Old Vienna & Coffeehouse Chess Sets,

was played in the following international tournaments

Semmering 1926

Carlsbad 1929

Semmering/Baden 1937

Bundesform chess set 

Richter-Alekhine, Munich, 1941

TOURNAMENT PHOTOS SALZBURG 1942

Duel Gösta Stoltz with Klaus Jung on Salzburg 1942 tournament

1970

Münster (Germany)

Robert Fischer's simultaneous game in Münster 1970.

The session was played with German Bundesform chess pieces.

INTERNATIONAL CHESS TOURNAMENTS OF THE THIRD REICH

in which German Bundesform chess was played:

Unofficial Chess Olympiad 1936 (Munich)

Stuttgart 1939

Munich 1941

European Chess Championship 1942 (Munich)

Salzburg 1942

Salzburg 1943

Not only were the chess sets fascinating, but the players were so stylishly dressed! If I can't have Capablanca's technique, could I at least have his tailor?

Regency chess set

Chess tournament Monte-Carlo 1902

Chess tournament Monte-Carlo 1903

International Chess Tournament Paris 1925
In the photo, Alexander Alekhine against Edgard Collet (Belgium) play Regence chess, photo source - Gallica
Tartakower is playing next to Alekhine, Alfons Goetz is standing to the left of Tartakower. 1925

Chess Tournament Paris 1929

Photos from the chess tournament Paris 1929.

Vera Menchik plays Régence chess in July 1929 at a tournament in Paris, France.

Tartakower from Poland plays against the Belgian chess player M. Colle between them Vera Mechnik, in July 1929, a tournament in Paris, France.

Tournament Paris 1929 (from left to right: M. Pushamp, Fred Lazar, W. Schwarzmann, G. Thomas, M. Znosko-Borowski) in July 1929 in Paris, France.

World Chess Champions and Regency chess set:

DUBROVNIK CHESS SET

Tournament photos at the link
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/original-1950-dubrovnik-chess-set?page=2

The Dubrovnik chess set was played in international tournaments:

Chess Olympiad 1950 (Dubrovnik)

Interzonal Tournament 1958 (Portorož)

Candidates Tournament 1959 (Bled, Zagreb, Belgrade)

Bled International Tournament 1961

International Tournament Rovinj/Zagreb 1970

International Tournament Belgrade 1987, 1989

Chess Olympiad 1990 (Novi Sad)

Fischer – Spassky (1992 match in Yugoslavia)

Antique St George chess set in Liverpool chess club.
Géza Maróczy St George chess set.

INTERNATIONAL CHESS TOURNAMENTS FROM THE FIRST HALF OF THE XX CENTURY, WITH INSTALLED CHESS PIECES:

Tournament / Year / Chess set

Monte Carlo 1901 - 1904 / Regency chess set 
Cambridge Springs 1904 / Cambridge Springs 1904 chess set 
Trebic- Tournaments (Vienna) 1906 - 1938 / Old Vienna chess set 
Petersburg 1914 / Petersburg 1914 chess set 
Carlsbad 1923, 1929 / Old Vienna chess set 
Margate Chess Congress (1923, 1935-1939) / Margate Chess Set 
New York 1924 / New York 1924 chess set 
Paris 1925, 1929 / Regency chess set 
Semmering 1926 / Old Vienna chess set 
Moscow 1935, 1936 / Botvinnik-Flor 2 chess set 
Nottingham 1936 / Nottingham 1936 chess set 
Semmering/Baden 1937 / Old Vienna chess set 
Hastings (from the 1930s - 70s) / Hastings (1930s - 70s) chess set 
Munich 1941, 1942 / Bundesform 
Salzburg 1942, 1943 / Bundesform 
Piatigorsky Cup 1963, 1966 / Steiner chess set
Buenos Aires 1978 - 1980 / Ajedrez Olimpico Argentino

The Régence pieces used in the event shown in post #35 seem to be of younger age, i.e. from the early 20th century. The design itself was developed in France and goes back to the 18th century. Here are some examples of earlier Régence sets.

I hope paintings are ok as well. Here is an old painting showing a chess game for which 18th century Dutch chess pieces were used.

Here is a photograph taken by Robert Capa in 1947. It shows two boys sitting on a park bench in Moscow playing chess. The chess pieces have been described as "Svelte" chess pieces. They are also known as Soviet "Mushroom" set.

Here is another curious picture of a chess set. It is an early 19th century French Directoire set, which belonged to the Gareth Williams collection and is shown on pages 38/39 in his book "Master Pieces: The Architecture of Chess". The picture from this book was then copied on a stamp by the Republic of Congo (actually, the setup is wrong, as bishop and knight were swapped). I managed to acquire the set from Gareth Williams before he sadly passed away in January 2021.

Wow, the idea for this thread is kind of arrogant. Only “desirable” chess pieces? Not a place for “disgusting chess pieces treated terribly?”. 

Beauty and esthetics are in general subjective concepts that are extremely diverse and this is especially the case with chess pieces which are historically made from different materials, shapes, and styles. And that stuff about the age and patina on the chess pieces. Some people may consider “patina” to be dirt that makes their pieces look ugly. 

In the Lasker set I posted above, all pieces have the same base diameter. I guess it only seems to be bigger as the ratio between base diameter and height is different in the pawns .