Drueke chess set

Great pics.  I just noticed that the original box says "Simulated Wood".  Interesting, my set did not come packaged that way.  Perhaps Drueke's was the first plastic set that attempted to mimic the expensive wooden sets?  They did a good job of attaining the appearance of wood.  And at a more affordable price (at the time), and with more resistance to scratching.

I like the linen board -- have not seen one in ages.

The linen board always sold fast when it was in production. It had no gap and as you can tell the board will last probbaly for 100 years.  I can only think it was another casuality when they sold out to Carrom as well as the vinyl roll up boards getting better along the way. And their wood boards are lengendary, I have a two and I see on eBay where the grandson still makes them.  Why they dropped all their hot selling items I will never know.

OMG Mike-Simply put just fanplastic...! opps fantastic :) No fare as you have two, so sell me the Red and White one..... Pretty please :)

I have the black and natural Drueke set as above, purchased in the late 70's. My box also says simulated wood. BTW one of my pawns had a loose weight from day 1. Any suggestions for best way to fix it? For the prices these are going for I am thinking its worth it to do a good job.

My Drueke 1964 Cavalier wood set has emotion attached to it. It was an inexpensive set and just needs a little TLC to be put back on display. I was looking at Alan's vidios on cleaning pieces and I see he uses a little shoe polish and a very soft brush.  I was thinking of using Old English lemon oil, just a little, and then buff it to a gleam. One light piece rook has a crack going almost the whole length.   I think the woods used were rosewood and maybe olive for the light pieces?  The wood on the light pieces is sometimes a two tone. King is only 3.25" and I like the eyes on the knights. Sorry I got the one knight backwards. It saw a lot of play back in 1964.  Gets g=harder and harder to tell the light from the dark pieces as time goes by even though they have been stored for the past 42 years. Vinyl box cracked due to age but keeping it original.

its not a bad set if you do not mind the small pawns/ i would recomend that u order two, the bad paper on the bottoms can fall out or rip easily, and i have know several people with those sets who have had the bottom weights go out within 2-4 years/ with plastic or wooden sets i always try and look for the sets with the felt of billard cloth bottoms on them

later

goommba88

I have this plastic Drueke set pictured in the first post. Had it since the mid 1980's. Its my favorite tournment set. To bad you can't get them anymore.

73 to one and all.

Jeff (KB8PIH)

Here's a link of interest for Drueke fans.

http://www.peterspioneers.com/druekepohlarticle.pdf

Thanks Crappov, great article!  I didn't know the Drueke companies had such an interesting history.

I have the Players' Choice (Luxury Line) chess pieces, both the larger and smaller sizes.  The smaller set is what we now call an analysis set.

Yes, I appreciate the nice article. I eat this stuff up.

Great history. I have the Players' Choice standard size for my big board and now I recently bought a magnetic Drueke travel set that looks like the red & white set shown on p. 8 of the article, 'cept mine are black & natural colors. It's about 8" x 8" with squat little kings & queens. Only drawback is the bishops look almost like the pawns but they're a little wider at the base, so one must be watchful of that during a game. Thanks 4 posting the link!

I long ago did a Dubrovnik on my same Drueke bishops, using a Sharpie and some hobbyist white paunt.

No issues at all now.

Cool!    Yeah, that would work nicely--thanx 4 idea.

I painted my bishops' mitres red and yellow. Haven't gotten mixed up since.

Looks nice, loubalch! I lost a Bishop once in a game cuz I left it sitting there thinking it was a pawn. In poor lighting, which was what ruled at the time, the bishop-pawn flip was easy to confuse. Did you have similar experience when playing this set B4 you painted the bishops? Think I will paint mine, too, but maybe use less paint, just color the very top point to distinguish between pawn & bishop. Thx 4 idea.

Jay, I originally tried painting only the finials, but would still get mixed up in low light conditions at times, so I went ahead and painted the entire tops. Works great!

Might do well 2 heed your advice. I'm prone to missing distant diagonal threats--don't tell my opponents that!! Or maybe I should go with a booklight/chesslamp after dusk! :robl: rolling off board laughing.

I love my Drueke set.  I was just looking for a larger set of the same.  I have the one with the 3 1/2 inch king.  I love the design and the weight.

Hey, Omaha Joe! Another Drueke fan. I love the weight, too! 'Specially the horses and rooks--love to plop 'em down a little hard on my wooden board for emphasis, if it's a good move!