Different knights
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I totally get what you are saying. I'm fairly new to chess, love looking at sets.
It seems like the knights are a huge factor in whether I like the set or not. There are some other factors, but if I like the rest of the set, and not the Knights, it's not something I'd purchase.
I think that's why I keep looking for the holy grail set for me.
It could also be that chess aficionados are somewhat detail oriented, we want the perfect set, one that our significant others feel looks exactly like every other set, but is so very different in our minds.
Perhaps this is heresy to true collectors, but here goes: I often find that the differences between King, Queen, and other pieces aren't too great in many top level repro sets and that there are one or two that I like very well and could live with forever. But the big differences are in the knights -- some designs I like and others I can't stand. Does anyone sell these with spare knights? Or to put it another way, can I order a nice set and then 2 or 3 sets of knights from other designs to use with them? This would be especially relevant for Official Staunton or Chess Bazaar.
For example, I'm very impressed by the Zagreb sets and by the Leningrad set. The latter seems great as it combines a Slavic knight and good traditional Staunton pieces. Authenticity per se is not that relevant to me.
Being able to get one of the 1849 or 1851 or collector sets and then ordering pairs of knights from all other designs I'm curious about would be a great option.
Thanks.