Last Friday's Set--The Pieces of the Petropolis 1973 Interzonal

@WandelKoningin Good question. My two cents is that these reproductions didn’t sell as expected. I love the Petrópolis 1973 set, but the pieces from the 1979 tournament lack the same level of craftsmanship. If you look at the Knights, for example, you can see how they were streamlined compared to the original models from the mid 1960s (left in the image below, and probably based on a classic Staunton as seen in the top left of the image) in the early 1970s (in the middle) but then lost all details and became something else in the models used in the late 1970s (right). But, it is fair to say the late 1970s’ pieces are quite charming and many people love them for that.

Image sources: Staunton Knight here, 1960s here, early 1970s (personal archive), late 1970s here.

I can imagine it wouldn’t be a hugely popular design, but I don’t see why you would remove it from your catalog. I guess it’s a risk to have the artisans produce a particular design sporadically; better to keep them with the muscle memory to produce a design with consistent results.

But yeah, those older sets are much nicer! That cross in the body of the 1979 set is a compelling idiosyncrasy, but other than that, the 1973 design may have had greater appeal as a reproduction. But I guess the interest in these sets just isn’t great enough.

Hello!

It's great to know that I'm not the only one on this planet who is in love with this Petrópolis 1973 chess set.

I've been looking for this set of pieces to buy for years, but I can't find it.

I will post here some photos as reference and the differences of the horse that I found in my research.

The photos are in black and white, but they are the few that I was able to locate of this set.

I intend to replicate these pieces. So, I ask for help from those who own Petrópolis 1973 and post as many photos of each piece as possible, please!

Hello!

I found some photos with a variation of pieces, with the king, queen and knight indicating that they were inspired by the Petrópolis set.

Below are photos and source link:

https://xadrezfeminino.wordpress.com/page/93/

Hello!

I found these photos in a book I have.

They are in black and white, but they enrich the theme.

Note that we have Petrópolis 1973 and also 1979

1979 model:

1973 Model:

@klevertonmoises I'm sharing some pictures of the Knight that I believe will be very helpful for your project. Combined with what you already have, and previous photos from this post, these should provide more than enough detail for a reproduction of the entire set.

Also, in my set the King is 11cm (~4.3") height, has a 4.5cm (~1.7") base and weights 55g (white) and 65g (black). Pawns measure 5.6cm (~2.2") with a 3cm (~1.18")base, and weight, in average 21g (white) and 22g (black). You can estimate the sizes of the other pieces based on these proportions

Best of luck with your project, and please keep us updated by sharing photos of the pieces as they come to life.

Hello Paul.

Fantastic.

I have already passed it on to the craftsman to serve as a base.

I will post the result soon.
 
Thank you very much!

@WandelKoningin and @klevertonmoises There's a new reproduction of the Petropolis 1973 chess pieces made by the Indian Chess Company here. Overall the pieces seem to lack the elegance of the original, but they're are quite similar

Cheers!

I love the design of the 1973 set - and I am enjoying several of ICC’s reproductions (very happy to see them following this path). I *wish* they would make just a couple of refinements to the knight: the 1973 has a right angle - 90 degrees straight back to the flat top. The ICC. eraion has an acure angle (knights leans slightly back then top of head is not flat but slightly downwards.

Under the head of the original, a curve leads from the neck to the chin creating a beautiful contrast to the right angle on the back of the end.

These seem to me essential elements to the design:

Very unfortunate. I like the more slender neck and triangular body of the original as well. And the square eyes! I’m not quite sure why so many liberties are taken with reproductions. I would think accuracy to the original sets is what most people are after. That’s certainly what I value in reproductions. ChessBazaar also tends to do radically different knights for reproductions. I couldn’t NOT get their 1940s Soviet Staunton repro on clearance sale, and its nights do look beautiful in their own right, but I made a request to swe if they were able to create an extra set of more authentic knights.

ChessBazaar and Indian Chess Company are very accommodating in my experience though, at least when it comes to the finish. I would contact ICC and ask if they could make you knights that are more authentic to the original, if you want the Petropolis repro.