new official FIDE WCC chess set

The FIDE set looks like something a twelve year old schoolboy would produce for a crafts assignment.  It would be returned to the student with a mark of "Insufficient Effort".

Weil says, ‘When the initial Staunton set was produced there was great precision – since then a disrepair had set in."

Wow pretty insulting to those who have been making great staunton chess sets for the last few decades.  Its especially brazen since most of the best chess piece craftsmen are in the country where this match is taking place. 

Not to mention that it seems the only thing this designer did was tweak a 40 some dollar chess set:

http://www.regencychess.co.uk/pioneer-golden-rosewood-chessmen-375-inches-p-805.html

In fairness to the designer, he did manage to push the knights into a whole new dimension of ugliness... 

I bought this set on Frontgate.com for $315.00 this included shipping, The Boxed Pieces, and the wood board. I thought that was fairly reasonable seeing how some sites are selling just the boxed peices for $470.00

I just received my Fide  Championship set today,  WOW, DOUBLE EXCLAIM!! What a beautiful set!!
Each piece is simply gorgeous.  I'm a serious collector with over 300 sets in my collection and this set will rank high.  I know we all have different tastes, but this set is definetely a winner!! The hand carved  Knights are especially pleasing. 

I like the set myself Mike! It really looked great in practice in the Anand vs Carlsen match.

Here's a picture of World Champion Magnus Carlsen analyzing on the Fide World Championship set.  The set must be a winner if Magnus is using it!!

The pieces are ugly, end of story.

It is not $345 it is  345+42.64 ship = $387.64 

For that price you have a huge range of chess sets you can buy.  I myself would not rush out and buy one for almost $400. I have my eye on many other sets for that price before I would even think on that set. Just my opinion from an old man here.

It's not a nice set, even for free.  If my opponent had one of these in a tournament, I'd knock the board onto the floor and demand a real set.

I do not mind to own the set myself but feel it is overpriced.  In no way does this take away the enjoyment of owning it now. If you own it and bought it for the $387.64 price off of Amazon then do enjoy it.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Life is too short. You can view the set and make the decision yourself to add it or not to your collection, which i am guessing most of us are chess set collectors.

Hi Mike, unforuntealy at his age I do not have the cash for only one or two sets a year.  Being a chess collector, mostly of older books and a few sets I know you will enjoy the set which is all that matters. Not trying to knock the set here. The more I look at it the nicer it looks. Almost $400 is my budget for almost the whole year. I just bought a set off of HOS so I know what it is like to pay a premium price although they do have some bargains.

Worse set I own was called the "professional set" from the USCF when they first started offering chess sets from India I think back in the late 1970's ebony & boxwood  $100 specially priced for the Holidays. The woods are great and never cracked however the set looks like it came from 4 different sets as some are weighted heavily some are not and the black and white rooks are so different. The more I exchanged the pieces the worse the set got. It took me the next 40 years to buy another set from India and this came from HOS. So much better it's like night and day.  

Hi Mike-After reading some of the childest remarks on this thread, its a pleasure reading your enlightening remarks on the Fide set and other sets. BTW, The cheapest price for the Fide set is from  Frontgate.com. Using an internet coupon code i purchased the set with board for $256.90 including shipping.

i love the HOS line of sets and have many in my collection. Can you tell me what set you recently picked up from them? Thanks again for your remarks

The 1924 New York set. I initially saw it on eBay and it went for a cheap price and I slept through the ending of the auction. I contacted Scott from HOS and they sold me one but for about $70 more which I thought was still a decent price.  Now I need a box for storage and will eventually get one through an eBay auction. They had a damaged one which I was surprised they didn't accept my offer as I thought it was fair since it was scratched and scuffed and as is. 

Years ago when eBay was first up I used to bid on  a lot of items and bought a chess set once directly off of Frank C before he had his buisness. Those were the days you could get a true bargain on eBay and sometimes you still can expect it's not often these days. 

What I like to do since soon I will have lots of time to finally study chess and play though games is go from 1446 to 2000 at 64 years old. Maybe I can do it in 3-4 years maybe I can't even come close. We shall see. Keeps the plaque out of my brain, chess is the best thing for it. :-)

BTW with my disappointed set from the USCF back in 1979-1980 or abouts Scott from HOS is going to try to match the pieces I need to make it a playable set for a resonable price if they have them.  HOS is probbaly your best bet if you need a piece or a few for an older set. My set is so bad the bases from like pieces are different.  Best thing about the set is the box as that was sent seperately and came through just fine so that has a value of about $40-$60 in todays' market.

The 1924 New York set is beautiful.  I really like the bishops in this set.
Can you tell me about the set you got from Frank C. Was it a vintage set?. I love collecting sets and collect both the new stuff along with some vintage sets.

That's an interesting challenge you set for yourself planning to play over games from 1446 to 2000.  At 67, my challenge is to develop an opening repertoire and eventually play in a senior open tournament.  Let me know if you pick up any more sets as I'm always interested in what other collectors are picking up

Instead of buying expensive chess set I would utilise that money probably on buying good chess books.