Mikhail Tal's favorite Latvian Chess Set circa 1950s

Great set with an enormous patina of cigars and wodka and beer.

Very good pics!!! I really wish they made a set like this in plastic. Perhaps in Russia or in eastern Europe somewhere? I wonder if the sharp appearance of the pieces spoke to Tal about how chess should be played?!

Nic, if you search Ebay or Etsy under Soviet chess pieces you'll find all kinds of plastic sets with similar designs.

Thanks! I will give it a good look! 

Thanks informatic for the additional pictures of your wonderful set

Yes, very nice, informaticacobach29.

How do we know this was a favorite set of Tal's?  I do not recall ever seeing a picture of him with one.  I looked through the thread, but do not see any.  Don't mean to be a doubbting Thomas: it would just be nice to have some verification as there are many sets floating around with claims (ie. CB's claim about their fake Dubrovnik being Bobby's favorite set; that set is makde by NoJ and no one else.) and it's good to have proof.

Spassky69, I've never run across anyone who knows more about Soviet sets than Arlindo Vieira, who sometimes posts here as BurnAmos. In his amazing video on Soviet sets, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXTwxG4N62Y, he refers to these Latvian sets as "Tal's favorite," and the characterization stuck. In his video, and in his blog, Xadrez Memoria, http://xadrezmemoria.blogspot.com/, he shows several photos of Tal playing on this set.

I've enjoyed learning a few things about chess set collecting from you folks on this site.

I have questions about these Soviet/Latvian/German 'vintage' sets that seem to come via Ebay or similar sources.

How does one satisfy concerns about provenance?  Or does it bother anyone?

Given the turbulent history and human rights abuses of these countries, is there not a distinct possibility that some of these sets were simply confiscated at some time from their rightful owners?

I've had the opportunity more than once to acquire 'liberated' European firearms of questionable source.  Example would be a beautiful Simpson SxS shotgun that 'came home from the war'.  To me, that is just 'loot', and I want no part of it.

I would likely consider a replica before an undocumented original.

Thoughts?

Hello, this very interesting chess set! Does it have the stamp of manufacturer or date?  

This seems the appropriate place to post pics of my “spanking new” Latvian-Tal set, partly because it was here that I was inspired to buy it in the first place! :-)

This was the state I got it in :

sound67 I will let the experts answer you on this one. This is another set completely which inspired cgrau and a colleague to collaborate with Noj to reproduce it. You are obsessed with Chess Bazaar. :-)

The connection to Tal comes from other photos and, if I am not mistaken, they appear somewhere else on this thread.

BTW I wouldn't swap this set for a CB one if you gave me  $1000! (not that you would offer )

Here’s a pic taken especially for you. Each bishop's different. Hell, no! You would have sent the turner to Siberia for that! 

sound67, look at #56, #57 regarding this being Tal's favourite set

@utpic, you restored this from the set shown in post #62 to #69? Did you do this work yourself?

Yes I did