Henri Chavet Guide

German reseller Weible used to distirbute Chavet sets in the 1980s.
I asked them about it and here's their statement:

"The problem for us from around 1982 was that there was not enough boxwood available in good, dry quality. We had to struggle with many crooked chess pieces and we also had to switch to chess pieces from India.

The Chavet company was managed for a long time by his son Alain Chavet, who had joined forces with the Moritze company. His chess pieces were sold exclusively through Moritze.

Chavet no longer exists, Alain retired and I think I know that the Moritze distribution company no longer exists or no longer exists as it used to."

Chavet was founded and managed by Henri Chavet until the 1950s, then by one of his sons, Max.
Max's son, Alain Chavet, took over from the 1970s until 2014, before selling part of his tools to Jura Buis and the exploitation rights of the Chavet brand. Alain kept control of the manufacture of knights.

At the end of the 90s, Morize, who mainly manufactured plastic games, approached Chavet, which was in difficulty. The link between these two companies is very old and dates from before this merger.

The Chavet company still exists but is initially limited to the manufacture of small chess sets (0.3) and many other games. Investments are necessary to renew the equipment. The knights' equipment still works. Alain Chavet regularly visits his old workshop, which is just a stone's throw from his house.

Morize is closed since 2-3 years.

For the knights' eyes, the first were made of glass, the next ones of plastic, as in the photo. Besides, Chavet made his own.

is the no good chavet from the 1980 the crooked black chavets with a lot of problems?

I don't really agree with Weible. It was from 1982 that the most beautiful Chavet sets were produced. It was from 1982 that many tournaments and international championships chose Chavet sets and this until the 2000s, even in Germany (Frankfurt 1994 for example).

But probably Weible's margin was not sufficient for his business and he preferred to see his profits increase by buying Indian.

The quality of the sets has always been variable, and if a production period can be said to be less good, I would more easily say after 2010.

The more demand increases, the less the boxwood will be dried. We went from 4 years of drying to 12 to 18 months...

The set in the photo was produced between the 70s and 80s, one of my favorites.

i cant tell if the black chuavet is wet or dry but up to the 9 the brown/tan wood has beautiful staining and the natural is gorgeous. if we can know which is from the 70s and 80s i cant tell for sure

Whether it's 70 or 80 it's been dry for a long time now. Just check to see if it's cracked or leaning, which are signs of how it dried. And sometimes spots that you'll see on white pieces.

Post #204 Originally I thought this might be Chavet because of the bishop.
"It reminds me a lot of the "old queens" (60-70) size 5..." you said...
Well here they are
K3.75", weighted, varnished.
 The king's finial looks too skinny to me.
The knights base always confuses should it be this tall or is Lardy the tall knight base?

on Kijiji. is this a Chavet?

Hey all, curious to hear how people have tracked down vintage size N 6 (3.75") chavet sets. I've periodically looked on ebay for years now with no luck, not sure exactly how to continue my hunt from here haha. Would love any advice on how to find authentic sets!

USA & Europe FB Marketplace and talk them into mailing it to you. These sets are French so hopefully you'll catch a civilian cleaning out an old garage or attic.
Regrettably Ebay has too many educated eyes on the prizes.
https://www.browsemarketplaces.com/The above site is one that blankets the whole area.

Oh wow, that's amazing, whenever I used marketplace I'd have to move my radius around the US haha. I'll definitely start looking there, thanks so much!

This seems to be a modern version of Chavet. Although this set is not bad at all. The only thing that can be criticized is the knots in the wood and tool marks. This set does not have the problems that are often mentioned with modern Chavet. No cracks, pieces are straight, weights,felts do not lose.

Set is double weighted, colour of "black" pices is dark brown:

The pieces are large and look great on a 55mm square board:

Some more pictures:

Great looking modern Chavet set. Nice to see Size 6 is back in production!

Hi, sorry but this is not a new set. Well, it is not really used so it just looks like new.

Damn, I thought it was a miracle. Hah. It's what we call, "New old stock".

This seems to be a chavet Set, but distributed by dal negro:
https://www.subito.it/hobby-collezionismo/set-cofanetto-scacchi-bosso-dal-negro-piombati-terni-572240401.htmhttps://www.subito.it/hobby-collezionismo/scacchiera-in-legno-artigianale-43cm-per-lato-milano-599838751.htm

What do you think?

Chavet work with Dal Negro (they make wooden boxes for their card games) so I would not be surprised if Dal Negro in return distributed their chess sets.

https://www.jeuxchavet.com/ 
It seems Dal Negro is a partner

But not every dal negro pieces are chavet, for sure.

Beware recent Chavet pieces can have been butchered. Five years ago I was about to buy some from a french shop, I gave up after receiving pictures:

I cannot tell the difference between 153 and 121 series, apart from the box. Can someone explain to me?