Excalibur tournament sets with Chronos clock

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rickreynolds1969

Many years ago I got this tournament set by Excalibur - it was the first tournament set I ever bought, and it was the "nicest" set I had ever gotten at that point.  I love the pieces.  It felt like a "pro" set to me.  It came with a bag and a Chronos clock.

As of late, I've not seen these available from various chess retailers, but similar looking sets can be found on ebay.  Does anyone know the history of these kinds of sets?  I assume they were offered with and without the chess clock as part of the bundle.  The Chronos clock is pretty pricey, I think.  I'm curious to know what I might have paid for this set.  And also curious to know if they were (are?) very popular.

Also, it is curious to me that they put "Excalibur Electronics" on the set bag but this set doesn't have any electronic component to it (other than the clock).  Did Excalibur dabble in tournament sets for a bit and then back out of that market?

KeSetoKaiba

I know almost nothing when it comes to prices of chess sets and chess clocks; some people collect them, but I don't.

I do have an Excalibur Electronics chess set though (no clock). The set is smaller than tournament regulation size, but it has a built in computer and a small LED screen. Because the board and pieces are magnetic (magnet on each square and on the bottom of the pieces), I use this as my go-to set for analysis at home. I can literally hold the board and pieces upside down if needed and the magnet strongly keeps them all in place.

From what I know, Excalibur Electronics made several chess sets with built-in chess computers, but I also wouldn't be surprised if they switched their marketing focus to sets without a computer; this would probably be because it is hard to compete with strong chess computers now available so easily (such as chess.com).

I don't remember how much this set costs, but I think mine was around $100 (USD), but I got it on clearance sale as the store which sold it was closing. I got it over half priced I'm sure. I have no idea what it would be worth today.

I have also seen Chronos clocks enough to know they are popular, but I wouldn't even be able to guess at how expensive or not they are.

Falkentyne
rickreynolds1969 wrote:

Many years ago I got this tournament set by Excalibur - it was the first tournament set I ever bought, and it was the "nicest" set I had ever gotten at that point. I love the pieces. It felt like a "pro" set to me. It came with a bag and a Chronos clock.

As of late, I've not seen these available from various chess retailers, but similar looking sets can be found on ebay. Does anyone know the history of these kinds of sets? I assume they were offered with and without the chess clock as part of the bundle. The Chronos clock is pretty pricey, I think. I'm curious to know what I might have paid for this set. And also curious to know if they were (are?) very popular.

Also, it is curious to me that they put "Excalibur Electronics" on the set bag but this set doesn't have any electronic component to it (other than the clock). Did Excalibur dabble in tournament sets for a bit and then back out of that market?

That chronos was supplied by someone else, somewhere along the line.

Excalibur used to make a plunger (noisy) digital chess clock, called the "Gametime", so they probably ended up selling a bag that came with it as a bundle, as I doubt that chronos will fit in that section of the bag.