Official FIDE World Championship Chess Set

Uncle Joe, if you're talking about the BCE set, the tournament version manufactured in India is quite reasonably priced. The NOJ version (the red and king-branded white pieces in my pictures above) are relatively expensive. But I'd rather spend my money supporting Slovenian artisans than FIDE bureaucrats and politicians.

I'm normally not one for minimalist designs, but side with the BCE fans on this one.

I like this one more than either of the others.

It's not only more appealing to me, but it's better carved, less expensive, and is made of ebony wood.

[URL=http://s1167.photobucket.com/user/JackieMatra/media/CB%20Empire_zpso9fozdcx.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1167.photobucket.com/albums/q638/JackieMatra/CB%20Empire_zpso9fozdcx.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

"king looks like he's got the plague."

Not at all. He's boxwood. The Black pieces look like they have plague because they're ebony.

JM, I have two of those sets in their House of Staunton iteration. I like the design of all the pieces except the knight, but find the BCE lines to be cleaner and more elegant. The knight on these so-called "Empire" sets is a real Frankenstein's Monster to my eye. I much prefer the BCE knights, even the simple ones. I realize that desiging a knight for an art deco set is a difficult task, but the Empire knight falls way short IMHO.

I don't really like any of the knights overly much. The expensive BCE "stage 2" knights are nicest IMHO. I prefer CB ones to the HoS ones, but I think that both would look much better without their "pedestals". Cut those out and I'd be positively thrilled with the CB set.

All the same, I couldn't quite resist buying a CB Empire set in ebony a few years back for under $100.