Congratulations on your new set. The board and pieces are beautiful along with the photos you took. I also like your older set in the first photo. You can tell you have a lot of memories with it 😉 thanks for sharing
New chess set from chessempire and stauntoncastle (with lots of photo's)
Sort:
Jun 3, 2022
0
#3
Nice!!! Those knights look ready to fight and the bishops look ready to prey...I mean pray. 
Sorry to hear about your shipping hassles. I thought being in the EU was supposed to "simplify" all that. Ah well...as you say, the end product is worth it so ENJOY!
Jun 3, 2022
0
#4
Wonderful stuff. A lovely present and no doubt a new heirloom for your family. Thank you too for taking the time to post photos and your thoughts - it’s so helpful for everyone who reads this forum to hear from so many different people and perspectives. Cheers 🍻👍
Congrats on graduating to a notationless board after 30 years! I have yet to achieve that level of attuned consciousness. Hah! Beautifully matched board (rosewood?) and pieces. A wonderful gift.
Jun 3, 2022
0
#6
Wow, that’s a great looking set-up. I especially like that board. I hope it gives you years of enjoyment and inspires you to continue to improve your game.
That’s a beautiful gift! Great job on your choices and thanks so much for posting. Keep the old set safe, that looks like a great set up too!!!!!
Congrats! What a great gift! The board and pieces look great. I hope you get a lot of enjoyment from it.
Jun 3, 2022
0
#9
Ah very nice indeed and a wonderful gift for years of memories and memories to be. What series is the SC set?
The board looks great. The chess pieces are only average, you could have gotten nicer ones by ordering from India directly, too (also from The Chess Empire, who offer, among many others, this MUCH superior set: https://www.thechessempire.com/grande-staunton.html).
Jun 4, 2022
0
#11
chessmaster_diamond wrote:
The board looks great. The chess pieces are only average, you could have gotten nicer ones by ordering from India directly, too (also from The Chess Empire, who offer, among many others, this MUCH superior set: https://www.thechessempire.com/grande-staunton.html).
I’ll disagree with our friend @chessmaster_diamond. The set was a gift from the grandparents. Since the former set and board have been used and cherished for these many years, the new equipment will be as well. Well done @sr18 and thank you for sharing your new gift with us.
The point is value for money, and on that count the set chosen was only average. Not bad at all, just average.
Jun 4, 2022
0
#13
chessmaster_diamond wrote:
The point is value for money, and on that count the set chosen was only average. Not bad at all, just average.
No, the point of the thread has nothing to do with money. You unnecessarily took it into that realm. The point of the thread was about grandparents gifting the set to a loved one.
But he was the one who was free to decide which board & set, wasn't he?
I've got several run-of-the-mill sets I've had since my youth, and I cherish them. That doesn't make them great in comparison.
@chessmaster_diamond, do you just like pissing on someone’s good feelings about what they bought? Give it a break!
@chessmaster….. thanks so much for your help. Clearly your opinion on which set he should like better is a valuable contribution. Thanks again. And I’m happy to know you have several sets that you cherish.
I think this combo is outstanding! Great choices!
You can’t go wrong w Mandeep and Staunton castle
Jun 6, 2022
0
#19
I really like those queens. It's weird how less than a quarter-inch can make such a difference in proportions from one size set to another. Like, these pieces aren't that much bigger than a 3.75" set, right? But there's just... something. The ribbing/ridges at the top of the queen (I wish I had the technical word to describe what I mean; y'all know what part I mean, right?) seem pushed a little higher than normal, giving the piece a longer, more graceful waist. Just lovely!
My grandparents wanted to give me a lasting gift. My wife suggested to them to buy me a nice chess set. It would be to replace this old wooden set I have been using for over 30 years.
Because I have found the various posts and reviews on this forum to be invaluable during my research, I decided to give back a little by sharing my own experiences.
The chessboard
In the end I settled on this board from thechessempire.com. Personally, I think it looks great. As it is handmade, it is not free from imperfections. But for me, these are all within acceptable standards. The most noticable is the alignment of the squares, which is not laser-cut-precise. The finish is great and the board feels great to play on. It is always hard to judge work like this from pictures on a webshop, but I'm happy with the way it turned out. The board is also really heavy. The board comes in matte and glossy. This is the matte finish.
The chesspieces
I chose this 4 inch set from Stauntoncastle.com. I first saw this set on officialstaunton.com, but I had trouble ordering from them. I love the set. It arrived in perfect condition. I think I would need a microscope to point out imperfections. Here are some pictures.
Shopping experience
The shopping experience is worth mentioning. It is noticably worse than when buying from mainstream European (and I assume other western) webshops. For instance, paying for the board at thechessempire was a hassle. My creditcard was rejected because, as I learned from a call to my issuer, the payment was flagged as fraudulent. Not sure what that was all about. As an alternative, I tried Google Pay. This payment option - which also didn't work for some unknown reason - would sometimes show at check-out, and other times not. In the end I had to settle for the (more expensive) Paypall option.
It took both chessempire and stauntoncastle a couple of days to send the order, eventhough the items were supposed to be in stock. Every other webshop I order from sends in stock items at the latest the day after you place the order.
According to the customs agency, stauntoncastle didn't provide them with the proper documents for them to calculate the required taxes and duties. I had to provide them, delaying the shipment.
The information about the items on the pages from the webshop could be more thorough. For the pieces for instance, the weight, hight and base size of the individual pieces (other than the king) was not provided. Providing this info removes some of the guesswork.
All in all these are minor niggles. The end product more than makes up for them.