“How Much Is That Knight In The Window?” - Chess Forums - Page 3

Eyechess · 2020-10-31T12:27:58-07:00

Let’s begin with a few facts when dealing with anything, including Chess stuff. 1. There are 3 factors in business and it is not realistically possible to have all 3 at the same time in normal business: a. High Quality b. High or Great Service c. The Lowest Prices in that market Yes you might

Eyechess

Nov 2, 2020

0

#41

You assume a lot of wrong things. Well, this is an American discussion forum. Maybe you should leave and take your cheap friend, KnightsForkCafe with you.

Eyechess

Nov 2, 2020

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#42

MGT88 wrote:

sound67 wrote:

Americans are the ultimate hypocrites.They don't speak any other language, they can't find most other countries on a world map (sometimes not even their own) , and yet they feel the need to teach the rest of the world. Grow up already.

yikes

Don’t a lot of Canadians also speak French.

I also speak Italian, growing up with my maternal immigrant grandparents from Northern Italy in our home. And I also speak Spanish, having the Spanish surname from my paternal Spanish grandparents. And I also learned Spanish to speak with Spanish speaking patients.

I also learned and became quite fluent in Pig Latin in my teens.

Eyechess

Nov 2, 2020

0

#43

sound67 wrote:

No, it's not. It's an international English language forum. You're wrong again.

Then learn the English and it’s correct usage.

zagryan

Nov 2, 2020

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#44

coffeehouse_chess_1 wrote:

I don’t understand why someone buys dozens of reproductions whether they are expensive or cheap. I understand if someone is a collector and buys antique or vintage sets. These sets will always have collector's value. I also understand that the player buys a nice and expensive or les expensive set that he will use for the game. Or maybe 2-3 sets. But 30-40 sets for casual chess play? Maybe for a simultaneous games hahahah?

Can you show us your 2-3 chess sets, please?

martyn-n

Nov 2, 2020

0

#45

MCH818 wrote:

martyn-n wrote:

MCH818 wrote:

@Eyechess Is your Morphy this version?

That is the picture of HoS where the white and the black pieces do not match. Black are the "Morphy" set. White is something altogether different. I could not identify them. Sloppy that they still keep that picture uncorrected.

The white and black pieces in the photo I posted of the Morphy set looks the same to me. I remember seeing another Morphy set where there were differences. Maybe you're referring to that set?

Not that it matters to me (but it should matter to HoS) here are some differences I spotted. I have actually bought this set a while ago, that's why I have been looking at this particular picture very carefully. I told the staff too btw, but no change.

Just as a general reader's observation;I could do with a little less name calling.

MCH818

Nov 2, 2020

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#46

@Martyn-n I got to say that you are very detailed oriented. I am too but I don't think could spot these. Sometimes I will notice something strange in the photos of sets but rarely have I ever been able to put my finger on it. It might be a little easier if I owned the set like you do but I am still not sure I could do it. It is pretty cool you can.

And I am with you about the name calling. It would be better if we all stick to chess stuff.

magictwanger

Nov 2, 2020

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#47

Sound67....Knocking Americans in general was beneath you....Quite honestly,I am surprised you harbor this type of resentment.I know you like to push the envelope sometimes,which was always OK with me,but this time it would be nice of you to walk back your comment.

AND believe me....I know where Germany is on a world map! It was the first country my family showed me as a child!.....They also taught me not to harbor ill will against anyone I don't know.

KnightsForkCafe

Nov 2, 2020

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#48

Eyechess wrote:

You assume a lot of wrong things. Well, this is an American discussion forum. Maybe you should leave and take your cheap friend, KnightsForkCafe with you.

You can take your snobbish HoS standards and leave as well. Affordable doesn't mean poor quality. You never can get this concept. You are nothing but a retail fanboy. So desperate to cling to a dying business model. That's the only reason you promote them and companies like them. I have nothing personal against HoS or other retailers. I just choose not to pay for their prices. You making a dumb argument over such small details. That these details justify the jacked up prices. When I buy from a retailer. I know that I am paying for the name and not the superior quality you so think that you get with a retailer. Knock it off and just enjoy chess and chess sets.

lighthouse

Nov 3, 2020

0

#49

Beauty of chess is that it's for everyone , A long with her Laws ?

from the chess museum ,

where rich man poor man play and make do with whats available ?

Prison camp chess sets
by Thomas Thomsen
(lecture at the German CCI meeting Nov. 3 - 6 of 2016 in Altenburg Germany)

At various times and in the most diverse circumstances, chess has served imprisoned men as a consolation, as a means to while away the time, to engage in mental gynmnastics, to help from going around the bend. When You are in jail, with uncertain prospects, You have time - time to play, but for playing - You need chess pieces. Under severe controls, with limited materials and tools, jailbirds have often shown great resourcefulness in order to come up with chess sets. Most of these chess sets are very simple and rough, as they served for playing - they had to be small so they could be hidden easily. In other cases, where the regime was more open, POW's have produced little works of art, in some cases even making chess sets for their prison warders. In one US POW camp, some SS men made a bit on the side by carving chess sets for the guards - but the condition was that each set - had to be marked with SS runes!

French prisoners of war during the Napoleonic wars

The earliest chess sets from behind the bars were produced by french sailors - with the british controlling the seas and capturing relentlessly one french ship after the other, a lot of french were taken prisoner which the british proceeded to stow onto prison ships - so-called hulks, ships which were too old or too damaged to repair, but which still could float at anchor. On these hulks, life for the french salts must have been very uncomfortable through all those years, food was definitely not up to french standards, although the bread maggots and the ship rats must have enlivened the menu.... . Many of these sailors were very adept with a knife, and produced highly elaborate scrimshaw miracles - some of these were chess sets as well, but the most procured pieces were card games and various boxes, combs etc. - and detailed ship models, minutely cut and carved in whale or cattle bone.

three masted ship of the line, in bone, by french wr prisoners around 1800

Piquet cards in bone, ainted, with a point counter, resembling a four-poster bed

World War I

The soldiers in the static trench war at the western front in WW I also were prisoners - of circumstances, the narrow trenches and the tunnels and dugouts. During some of the pauses, chess was a popular sport - some soldiers had chess sets along, others made them out of the materials at hand - wood, cartridge shells and bullets etc. And at the end of the war, many german soldiers were marched off into camps, for example to Siberia, some of them spent several years there. Chess was one of their concerns, and making chess sets something between a hobby and a much procured service for others, including the guards! In general, the "trench" sets are more elaborate, because the craftsmen had better and more varied material at hand, and possibly more leisure during the combat pauses...

Standard Form

The majority of chess sets in POW camps or prisons conform to a standard pattern - they are fashioned from quadrangular slats of wood, which were readily "organized" from roofs, parts of chairs, furniture, fences or carpentry leftovers. Most are abstract, with a horse head denoting the knight, but figurative sets occur, mainly in bust form which are easier to play. Sections of rectangular stakes are often only minimally carved in order to produce recognizeable pieces, - the knights usually with a horse head, the rooks with crenellations, or brickwork, king, queen and bishops in the "Selenus" pattern, with one, two or three or more parapets or collars to distinguish the piece. Even simpler sets maintain the rectangular form, but only mount a cross, a crown or a simple crenellation on top of the figures. Pieces are usually small, boards were improvised from wood boards, cloth or paper....this stereotype form also applies to the later sets from WW II - very little changes...but some of the sets have been touched up after the war when they were brought home as memento of the camps! This means that it sometimes is a bit of a guessing game to determine whether a set dates from the First or the Second World War!

Boards

Chess boards are the most likely place to find inscriptions - mainly recalling the date and place where the game was made. In general we have wooden boards, but rollup cloths and even metal sheets were "drafted" - the inmates used what they literally could lay their hands on - often at considerable risk of being caught by the guards...

Concentration camps & the Gulag

Chess was fairly important in the concentration camps - both as an activity, as well as craft. Much the same goes for the many Nazi prisons - in some cases prisoners even fashioned minute chess sets from the daily bred ration - in small size, so they could be swallowed quickly in case of a cell search.
As for the Gulag, chess obviously was widely practiced in the camps, and many chess set were whittled, often to sell to the guards or manage some kudos. Petra Korchnoi, widow of the chess grandmaster who died last year, was kidnapped by the Russians as a 19-year old student in Vienna, Austria, summarily condemned and sent off to Workuta camp, where she spent ten years workng. Chess was an important part of the camp routine, and Petra learnt to play a solid game there.

Bone sets & figurative sets

Some sets in the camps where laboriously made from bone - the cattle or horse bones which rolled around at the bottom of the soup cauldron! This material is very difficult to work without appropriate tools.. but where there is a will there is a way. Figurative sets where mainly fashioned to earn money, extra food rations, tobacco or other privileges. Some of them show a fairly solid background in styling , especially some sets by german POW's who hailed probably from the Erzgebirge hills, judging by the looks of the pieces.

Odds & Ends

Let me finish with a few unassuming sets, which either demonstrate the talent of chess carvers in camps and prisons to improvise and vary, in accord with what ws possible by material and circumstances.

Prison and camp sets in perspective

Our random selection shows how resourceful makers of chess pieces acted in a constricted situation. These sets are , objectively speaking, not especially attractive or artful - how could they be? But just as obviously they are of great value because of the historical situation(s) in which they were created , and testify for the great consolation chess proved to jailed men, with uncertain or even threatening prsopects hanging over their heads. Chess was - and always will be - the magic carpet that took people away from their dire situation, permitted their minds to concentrate on a game, and ease their everyday routines. The fact there are still such a lot of these sets around proves also that they were highly prized by the owners, who brought the game home after their release from prison or the camps. These sets also teach us a lesson in terms of do it Yourself - and of what we are capable of when we are faced with a quandary.

(c)Thomas Thomsen 2016

chessroboto

Nov 3, 2020

0

#50

Found that site when the forum topic was about homemade chess sets, then I thought twice to consider posting a response where prison as “home”. Despite the circumstances, some of those pieces are quite detailed!

Eyechess

Nov 3, 2020

0

#51

KnightsForkCafe wrote:

Eyechess wrote:

You assume a lot of wrong things. Well, this is an American discussion forum. Maybe you should leave and take your cheap friend, KnightsForkCafe with you.

You can take your snobbish HoS standards and leave as well. Affordable doesn't mean poor quality. You never can get this concept. You are nothing but a retail fanboy. So desperate to cling to a dying business model. That's the only reason you promote them and companies like them. I have nothing personal against HoS or other retailers. I just choose not to pay for their prices. You making a dumb argument over such small details. That these details justify the jacked up prices. When I buy from a retailer. I know that I am paying for the name and not the superior quality you so think that you get with a retailer. Knock it off and just enjoy chess and chess sets.

Once again you show your crazy and stupid logic. And you continue with your lies. I have never said the things you say I have said. And you conveniently ignore the things I have said.

You have shown your slanted and distorted view of things.

where did you see me say the opposite of what I did say; Empire Chess, Chess Bazaar, and Staunton Castle are excellent?

Why do you ignore the fact that the last Chess set I bought was from Chess Empire, and I encourage people to get their Chavet set?

Quit insulting and otherwise attacking me by changing what I said.

You, KnightsForkCafe, are a liar and a sensationalist, attacking me because you disagree with me.

magictwanger

Nov 3, 2020

0

#52

Now I can understand why so many long standing members have left these forums.

Eyechess

Nov 3, 2020

0

#53

magictwanger wrote:

Now I can understand why so many long standing members have left these forums.

Well, I am tempted.

ogbumblingpatzer

Nov 3, 2020

0

#54

magictwanger wrote:

Now I can understand why so many long standing members have left these forums.

And always the wrong people leaving, it seems.

Eyechess

Nov 4, 2020

0

#55

Come on KnightsForkCafe, respond to my last posting of facts that you are conveniently ignoring and that also show you for the liar and completely wrong information poster you are.

You are still a liar and not a good guy even if you ignore my statements of truth.

IpswichMatt

Nov 4, 2020

0

#56

ogbumblingpatzer wrote:

magictwanger wrote:

Now I can understand why so many long standing members have left these forums.

And always the wrong people leaving, it seems.

That's a bit harsh on those of us who are still here!

IpswichMatt

Nov 4, 2020

0

#57

martyn-n wrote:

MCH818 wrote:

martyn-n wrote:

MCH818 wrote:

@Eyechess Is your Morphy this version?

That is the picture of HoS where the white and the black pieces do not match. Black are the "Morphy" set. White is something altogether different. I could not identify them. Sloppy that they still keep that picture uncorrected.

The white and black pieces in the photo I posted of the Morphy set looks the same to me. I remember seeing another Morphy set where there were differences. Maybe you're referring to that set?

Not that it matters to me (but it should matter to HoS) here are some differences I spotted. I have actually bought this set a while ago, that's why I have been looking at this particular picture very carefully. I told the staff too btw, but no change.

From your pic there appears to be huge difference between the black and white pawns too!

Prison camp chess setsby Thomas Thomsen(lecture at the German CCI meeting Nov. 3 - 6 of 2016 in Altenburg Germany)

Prison camp chess sets
by Thomas Thomsen
(lecture at the German CCI meeting Nov. 3 - 6 of 2016 in Altenburg Germany)