How Many Chess Sets Do You Need?

I have the usual 4 named above,

plus a few more that have sentimental value, so I guess I have 7 or so, but only really "need" 4

or so

What I need:

1. tournament set
2. set to leave set up at home for analysis
3. a travel magnetic set

What I have:

1. My tournament set
2. A set that I leave set up at home
3. An extra roll up vinyl mat with a tournament name on it that I got as a tournament souvenir
4. A magnetic set that's good for long trips like airplanes or car rides, but a little big for everyday commuter train use
5. A wallet sized magnetic set that's smaller and easier to carry
6. Cheap wooden set that someone bought me as a gift - they thought it was "fancy", but it's not
7. Star Wars chess set that I received as a gift. I can never remember which character represents which piece.
8. "No Stress Chess" ( https://www.amazon.com/Winning-Moves-Games-1091-Stress/dp/B0007Q1IO4 ) that I picked up to help teach beginners when I started an office chess club at one of my previous jobs.
9. Excalibur "Chess Station" ( https://www.amazon.com/Excalibur-Electronic-STATION-COMPUTER-Magnetic/dp/B006CVA8ZS ) that I think I won as a tournament prize years ago, when Excalibur was still in business. Yikes! Just noticed how much it's selling for now - I think they went for maybe $30-40 back when I got mine, 15 years ago. And that was more than it's worth.

I realized that my needs have changed over the past few years for Chess sets.  So here I offer my opinion of what I need for Chess sets.  Note that I own more, but this is all that I find I "need" for play.  And as I have said many times, I am a Chess player first and not a collector per se.

1. As my nice, Staunton design, large (in my case large is defined as a set that works on either a 2.375" or 2.5" square size) set I have my HoS Morphy Series 4.0" Blood Rosewood set that I have matched with a Padauk and Maple 2.5" board from HoS.  This set I will use in our slowest time control games like G/90, i/30 which is what we play in our Peoria, Illinois City Championship over a few months.

2. I have the HoS Marshall Series Rosewood that also does best on a 2.5" square and the board I use with that is a 2.5" Padauk and Oak board I had a fellow on eBay make.

3. For my large, fun set, I have the HoS Mechanics Institute Series in Rosewood that I use on a 2.5" Corian board or a 2.5" vinyl board.

4. For my somewhat large (needing no bigger than a 2.375" square) set, I have my OS Piatigorsky set which is matched up with my HoS Signature Traditional Green dyed Sycamore and Bird's Eye Maple, 2.375" board.

5. My favorite regular sized Staunton set for tournament play is my OS Leuchars set, ebonized, which I have paired with a Chess House Stack board with 2.25" squares.

6. My other favorite set is my HoS Players Series in Rosewood which is paired with the Rosewood folding board from HoS.

7. My most favorite set of all is the Noj Dubrovnik II set which I have in all three of their colors.  As my slower tournament playing set, I have this set in Walnut and is paired with a BCE magnetic board in Green.

8. My Noj Dubrovnik II Red set is paired with my other BCE magnetic board which has blue-green dark squares and since Red is my favorite color, I will use this set for very fun tournament play.

9. My latest Noj acquisition is my new Every Day Carry set which is the Dubrovnik II Brown set.  I have this set matched up with a Ferrer folding Walnut, 2.13" board which I bought from Wholesale Chess.

10. For my smaller, tournament set (sets with 3.5" Kings that work best on a 2.0" square) I have the OS Morphy Series in Ebonized matched up with a Chess House Stack board with 2.0" squares as my favorite in this size.

11. As a close second in this category I have the OS Morphy Series in Sheesham which is paired up with a folding 2.0" Walnut board from Chess Bazaar.

12. For my Blitz and casual play set, I have my HoS Liberty Series, Rosewood set paired with a Chess House Flexpad board.

13. Also in the casual category I have my HoS B H Wood, Golden Rosewood set matched with a roll up leather board I had custom made by Mario Sanchez on Etsy.

14. For my analysis set that fits in my computer bag, I have a TravelMate Deluxe set from Chess Mate.

15. For my carry type of analysis set, I have my Play-Keeper Magnetic Set from The Chess House.

16. And finally as a pocket magnetic set, I carry with me, every day, a ChessMate Ultima set.

While I own more than twice this number, this is what I feel I need to be a happy Chess player.

@Eye: Haven't you ever been tempted to add an 1850 style design from OS to your collection? It should be the same height as your Morphy.

I won’t buy chess sets costing over $200. Don’t care how nice they look. Having said that, I think I own nice quality chess sets.

I use a Staunton Europa #6 as my everyday set. I also have a Fischer-Spassky from HOS that I rarely use. I use both these sets with a 55 mm walnut board from wholesale chess.

I also have a 2.875 Marshall plastic chessmen I used for analysis. I used this with a 1.75 folding linen chess board. My 8 year old daughter likes playing with me on this set. She doesn’t like the big sets.

I don’t go out on tournaments but if I do, I’d probably buy the Marshall 3.75 plastic chessmen from HOS and some good vinyl board.

Obviously I have more than I “need” since I rarely play with my Fischer Spassky set. I bought that set on impulse coz I really thought it was a good deal at $149. Plus it was my birthday and I just watched the pawn sacrifice film.

I need more than I have. Chess sets are like wines, guns, beanie babies, dogs, ... You can never have enough.

Actually I prefer the 3.75" King size of the Staunton design sets instead of the larger ones.

I also do not buy Ebony.

So, my Morphy 4.0" and Marshall, both from HoS. are my 2 large, for me, Staunton design sets.  The Morphy is Blood Rosewood and the Marshall is Rosewood.

For the 3.75" size, I have the OS Leuchars Ebonized as my favorite.  I also have a HoS Players Series in Rosewood that is one of my favorites as well.  I also own the Fischer-Spassky set from HoS in two flavors, Ebonized and Golden Rosewood.

In the smaller size, 3.5" King which work nicely on a 2.0" square, I have the OS Morphy set in both Ebonized and Sheesham.  These sets are excellent.

I guess if I could get an 1849 set in Ebonized or some other dark wood as HoS now has, I might get one.  But my HoS Morphy in Blood Rosewood and then the Marshall really give me my "large" set satisfaction.

x2 

a. Marble Chess set (bookshelf display)

b. Standard Club set from Wholesale Chess(for office disputes in the break room 🤓)

I am in a similar phase, trying to decide what to do with our collection.

We have a huge collection, with several sets from 19th and early 20th century, but some of the 18th century. Most of these sets we bought in Europe. We like pre-Staunton or early variations of Staunton. We have however several modern items, among others a Novag Robot Adversary in excellent condition.

One problem is space. Most sets (and clocks and boards) are not displayed, only three. We have different possibilities what to do with the collection. 

1. Invest a lot of time to show them in a website. This is the most realistic plan. The website could later be used as a platform to sell some items and so reduce the collection. You have to know that my wife and I work with scientific research and have 7 or 8 thousand books, which take the space we could use to display sets.

2. Donate the largest part of the collection to a museum. This is a possibility, although not for the next 15 years - we still want to spend time cataloguing the collection.

3. Begin soon to sell the biggest part of the collection, keeping only a few sets and of course some sets to play. To play I need perhaps four or five sets, with at least three in official tournament size to use for private tournaments with colleagues, and some smaller sets to play in small tables in restaurants or for analysis, and one travel set.

I hate the idea of hoarding chess items instead of collection them. To collect means to reduce the items, to specialize, to make research on the sets. Unfortunately I still didn't make the step from hoarding to collecting. But this will happen soon. I hope so.

I just sold a set to one of my students. $8.00 Vinyl board, club set with extra Queens. I have to get rid of them all, retiring from teaching.

DENVER

zero

I'm looking to buy a few on Amazon, so many choices.  Looking for recommendations.  Please and thank you!  I know, I should probably read the previous 4 pages, but I'm in a hurry...  

Most of my sets only collect dust. Tbh i'm more interested in collecting fairy piece sets just in case. 

I keep thinking that I need to order one of those ultimate sets from you.

I bought today an amazing board, extremely heavy, rather old, I guess 100 to 150 years old. I have slowly slowly having problems to store all the boards and pieces. 

My pragmatic answer would be, enough to allow you to play wherever you want. Let me explain. If you frequent a cafe or coffee shop that has mostly small 24" round tables, you'd need a 16" board and set to fit comfortably, where your vinyl board's not drooping over the sides of the table and the pieces aren't falling all over the floor.

Next, you'd probably opt for a set to go with a standard 2.25" tournament size board for chess club and tournaments. Then, you'd want a larger set, say one that fits a 2.5" board, for the times you play at the reading room at the library, or at your friend's wide kitchen table. Do you like to analyze games? Which size set works best for you?

How many do sets you need? How many different venues are you playing chess at? Will a standard set with 2.25" board work at all locations?

What I have, or would like to have? (haha)

I have 1, maybe 2 junky sets that I rarely use, most of my "real" (not online) chess is at school, but I would like to have 7 sets corresponding to Chess.com themes. (and also teach a small Chess 101 class myself, otherwise they wouldn't all be used., only maybe 3.) These sets would be designed a la the Burled Wood, Walnut, Stone, Metal, Glass, Marble sets, and of course a Tournament set.