New Chess Set

Hey, everyone! I've become interested in purchasing a chess set from TheChessStore.com and I was wondering what you guys thought was a better buy:

http://www.thechessstore.com/product/SGS275VW/German_Staunton_Chess_Set_Value_Package_in_Sheesham_Boxwood_with_Walnut_Chess_Board__2_34_King.html  

or:

http://www.thechessstore.com/product/SGB275VW/German_Staunton_Chess_Set_Value_Package_in_Ebonized_Boxwood_Boxwood_with_Walnut_Chess_Board__2_34_King.html   

The sets are not intended for tournament play, but rather for casual play at home.

I like the rosewood / boxwood pieces and the low-contrast look.  They match the board better, too, yet have enough contrast to see the pieces okay.  The ebony is fine and classy, but might look better on a different board.

To tell you the truth, I liked the colour match better on the first selection; but I thought that maybe the traditional "Black" colour would look more "Staunton-like"? I'm not sure what's better.

Pieces look okay and the small footprint will be nice. I still use a small, real board and pieces when I play Fritz et al, if the tc is long enough.

The pieces look crowded to me on those boards. How do they seem to you?

They look fine to me. Not very crowded at all.

LOL, I like Black's position on your board better!

As a rule of thumb to see if pieces are correct proportion to square size you can try placing 4 pawns on one square, if they all fit in the square its usually a nice fit/proportion. I forgot where I picked this tip up from but it works very well for me. I have played on sets where th squares were far too big for the pieces and also the reverse...... where the pieces were crowded because the squares were too small for the pieces.

Reb, the king base is 1 1/8", and the square size is 1 5/8". Do you think this is too crowded? It looks fine to me in the pictures.

Looks ok to me in the picture also but when I look at it I try to envision 4 of the pawns on one square and wonder if they will fit. I once played in an event in Spain in which I had plastic pieces from 3 different sets ! It was the worst sets I have ever played with in a tournament !  I have NOT been back to that particular tournament either. I saw on another board that a guy had ONE bishop that was taller than his king but the other one was smaller....... ridiculous. Now , I never go to any tournament without taking a set of my own that I like and is tournament size...... if I dont like whats provided I use my own set/board.

Sounds like a fun set! LOL 

I don't know if four pawns will fit on those squares, but it doesn't look crowded to me.

How many pawns fit per square here? (For me, this is just ridiculously crowded lol.)

Kasparov vs. Korchnoi, when Viktor could afford to give odds.

Yes, those sets are far to crowded for me ...... but to play against a legend like Korchnoi I would tolerate it !

The rule of thumb I have been told is that the squares on a chessboard should be approximately 1.25 times the size of the base of the king.

Wikipedia says the following: 

"A square size approximately 1.25 to 1.3 times the size of the base of the king is preferred (the base of the king should be about 78 percent as wide as the size of the squares.)"   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chessboard)

I hope this helps.

I like the first one.

I like the sheesham wood set.  I wish I bought those instead of the black ones.  Anyway, I built my board using the 75% rule.  That states the diameter of the king should be 75% of the square size.  That's just rule of thumb.  I got that from chessusa.com.  They have a primer on selecting boards and pieces.

I should also note that in the Wikipedia article I referenced in my earlier post there is also a link to the fide.com website which states the following:

But those measurements are for tournaments. I'm using this set for casual at-home play, so the height regulations don't really matter.

               the rosewood set is fine.i like the look of both the board and the chess set.

If you just want an inexpensive, nice, wood set for you, that'll be fine.  Unless one of us came over to your house, no one is going to hassel you over it.  Like I said before, get the sheeshamwood pieces instead of black.

 For casual play, I think either set you are thinking about will be fine. Both seem to me to be in reasonable proportion (size of square in relation to size of pieces) so I wouldn't worry about either set feeling "too crowded".