New Official Play Magnus Chess Set

Dear friends, I printed 60+ BCE Blitz sets last year exclusively for members of these fora, no offers or advertisement done anywhere else. I must thank you for your trust, interest and support.

Given the recent announcement of Magnus Carlsen adopting the BCE Blitz chessmen as official Play Magnus ches set I must inform you I will soon (in a few weeks) not be able to offer my sets outside the Play Magnus deal and brand anymore and certainly not at that introductory price.

It's been a pleasure, thank you guys, you know who you are. You served as fantastic beta testers, with your help I was able to improve my printing skills and perfect the final result.

-Izmet Fekali (bestchessmenever.com)

What does everyone think that PlayMagnus has gone public in the Olso stock exchange?

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-news/magnus-has-gone-public 

When can I buy or order the new Play Magnus Chess Set? How much will it cost?

Soon. We are finalizing packaging and a nice bag to go with the chessmen.

-Izmet Fekali

http://bestchessmenever.com

How do I find out about the appointment?
Do you announce it on chess.com?

@ifekali  Will NOJ be the manufacturer of the wood version Official Play Magnus chess set? Made to order? Or manufactured in bulk for wholesale? If yes, did this contribute to NOJ's decision to not accept any more chess set orders for the rest of 2021?

@F-Eschenauer Email PlayMagnus for details, they will have an exclusive offer for their subscribers with a 10 % discount.

@Pawnerai No, Noj is temporarily halting orders because of overwhelming demand due to Queen's Gambit. Yes, we hope to offer their luxury version of Magnus chessmen later also.

-Izmet Fekali

http://bestchessmenever.com

So that means, no wood version Official Play Magnus chess set until 2022.  

Yes, that seems to be the case for all Noj sets. But we also plan to offer more affordable wood version.

-Izmet

@ifekali  A more affordable wood version manufactured by a company NOT named NOJ? And without a +10 month waitlist? I'm interested! Also your magnetic BCE chessboard (also sold out at NOJ when I emailed them last week). I must be patient. 

I know this is common knowledge but, please be careful with unscrupulous manufacturers who will use your specs to copy your official design and undercut you behind your back. Similar to the low cost Indian copies of the FIDE Official World Chess Championship chess sets. Good luck!

Not by Noj, yes.

-Izmet

Hey Izmet! Are there any updates on when these are going to be available ?

I'm posting this with the hopes that Izmet sees this. I've wanted a BCE set forever but have really struggled deciding which combination of options to choose for the best, East vs West, level of detail etc... I love the Kasparov set with metal bases but worried the leather pads wouldn't slide very well. All of this said though I fear It's actually the knight which is preventing me pulling the trigger. Sadly as much as I want to like it, I really do! I don't think I can bring myself around. For me it doesn't fit with the elegant aesthetic of the other pieces, it's too chunky. I think it would look better not having such a harsh cut off but rather curve in at the base like the knight from the original magnus set or even the official world championship set which has a strange knight also but for me works much better. So I guess my hope is that the knight gets redesigned or at least heavily tweaked for this new magnus set. After all the knight is often the defining piece of a chess set. I get that people may like the knight and it might just be me so I'd be interested to hear other people's take on this?

Any updates on the set? I'm rather excited to finally get a BCE in a price range I can afford. Izmet really sparked my love of chess pieces as an expression in both form and function. And his prices are a true testiment to that belief. 

Is the set cancelled? I can't find anything about it on the page anymore.

I hope he didn't get screwed. See my above post #31 from six months ago. I even wrote that posting 2.5 months before the whole Dennis Petersen vs. Chess Empire fiasco over the Alegria wood set. 

Hopefully it's either currently in production, approvals, or final stages of lawyer negotiation with the PlayMagnus group. It can take over a year for a unique plastic set to come to market. I imagine a wood set would take even longer.

Huh?  Plastic sets take a while because of the need to create molds.   On the other hand,  new wooden sets are released seemingly every week. 

I agree, mostly.

I remember when Shelby was beginning to have the Ultimate plastic made.  Having the molds made was expensive and took a good amount of time.  Then the production also took time, and the shipping seemed to be on that proverbial slow boat from China.

However, when he was having the wood sets made, that also took quite a bit of time.

I am of the opinion these wood sets we are discussing should not take that long to produce and market, that is if they actually want them to market.

It's taking over 2 years for Petersen's wood sets to be made with no end in sight. Although that might be the outlier.

I imagine (and assuming) that if a manufacturer is creating a unique wood set in-house and selling the wood set directly it'll take no time at all since everything takes place in-house. The manufacturer can just "wing it" with the details.

BUT,,, when you add in an overseas client for multiple revisions, tweaks and approvals, that takes time. Then add in a corporate entity like PlayMagnus for their revisions and approvals that takes more time. After a master set is approved, those cutting blades have to be created. People trained. Production scheduling has to be slotted for. We're not just talking about 50 sets here. What about packaging? I imagine PlayMagnus will not be ok with the pieces being shipped in a ziploc bag and drawstring pouch. Who's manufacturing the box? China? That has to be produced, printed and shipped. 

Then last but not least,, you have to account for the backroom, shady aspect of current chess manufacturing. Squeeze out the middle-man. Why is PlayMagnus not dealing with the manufacturer directly? They play by different rules in other countries. Which is complete BS. And I won't get into that.