2021 Official FIDE World Chess Set.

Nice catch indeed.

Being in the trade that I am, I would say that a board without mitred corners had better have a half lap or box joints in the corners, but none of these boards do. Even the maple perimeter edging is butt jointed rather than mitred. And it's all this sloppy construction for a board that costs several hundred dollars that drives me nuts. It makes people undervalue well built properly constructed boards hand made by real craftsmen. If it's a 1/8“ solid board on a 1/2“ sheesham base then it's still solid wood, but it's not a solid maple and ebony board. Definitely deceiving, and definitely standard industry practice from what I've seen. 

@KineticPawn.  Sorry to say: Been there, done that. It doesn't help. Like you, I thought that the DGT WCC FIDE weighted set would have better manufacturing quality control because of the premium price. Nope. Same manufacturing QC issues with the pieces that will need following-up and replacements. Purchasing from a trusted, reliable retailer is most important with this set.   

Niggemann individually re-wraps the DGT pieces before shipping. Confirm with them before ordering. So that helps with one last quick QC spot check. They are sold out at the moment. 

Thanks for the heads up on that @Pawnerai.  Btw Marshall's has opened up to non-Club members again as long as you are fully vaccinated.  You should come through sometime. Or register for a 1 day event. 

Umm... That horse is scary... Bishop's head was stung by a bee and the king with the queen are off the original proportions, especially with the crowns. For less than half of price off it is not worth it, IMHO.

If you want to see the wch set used in professional blitz games, check out the ongoing armageddon championship on the world chess channel. It is a lot of fun. I still enjoy this set a lot!

In honor of game 6 and in order to get out ahead of the inevitable question about the set used in this year's championship, here's a photo from this morning of the FIDE DGT pieces on a World Chess board.

Has the FIDE set used in the WC Championships since 2013 changed slightly for each championship since? To me the set being used at the moment looks a bit different from previous sets.

Beautiful, BEAUTIFUL ending to Game 6. If Ding goes on to win the Championship, "41.d5" is The Move which live in infamy.

Yeah, if Ding wins this WC then I'll definitely save the d5 square for his signature.

I know there hasn’t been a post on this in a long time but I decided to order the new black edition of the world chess set and I’m psyched. According to the news article about it, there should be a metal plaque with a numbered edition for this limited edition board/set combination. Hopefully everything comes in perfectly! There’s a decent discount during the candidates tournament, 16% if anyone is on the fence about ordering a set! Loving the tournament so far!

Sorry for what lol

🤷🏻‍♂️ I love the design, the king and knight are very unique, but to each their own!

looks like a chess set.

Enjoy! Forever and a day I have tossed and turned on this set … ebbing and flowing from dislike to admiration for its modernisation of a classic design. The only reason I don’t have it is that it sits well above my personal price point but I have a low bar in that sense - many people spend far more than I and sometimes I wish I had the cash to do so. Other than its price, I would add it to my collection but alas, I am left to ponder it from afar. Another reason I like this set is that it stirs opinion. Not everyone likes it, not everyone dislikes it but it seems to make people feel something. There are so many beige and dull sets and for me at least (and others while will disagree) this is not one of them. I end as I start - enjoy your purchase. Congratulations. 👍

I don't know why they don't CNC the bulk of the form and do the details by hand. The basic form should be consistent. I've seen reviews where the reviewer pointed out manufacturing flaws. Should be perfect at that price. This idea that that is what handmade is all about doesn't wash with me. I've built my own guitars and appreciate great craftsmanship. I had considered this set a while a go.

The presentation linked on page 1 in #3 is quite interesting. So let me give Pawnerai's link again

https://www.pentagram.com/news/watch-daniel-weils-keynote-at-the-world-chess-championship-london-2018#24203

Daniel Weil started by carving 3 Lewis chess pawns as a boy and seeing Fischer-Petrosjan in his home town Buenos Aires, where he studied architecture, going on to make a master of Arts in London in 1981, a designer, architect and artist. One of the things he could do was to create the playing venue for the 2013 candidates tournament in London (where Kramnik had to outperform Carlsen and they both lost their last round)- and he did the pieces.

According to his presentation, the pieces are following the classic Staunton design

His idea is that maybe it was Cooke's idea to reflect the Parthenon! And here we see his own pieces in that beautiful frame:

The strength/importance of the pieces is recreated in the base diameters. And thought was given to 'north' and 'south' playability.

(all images are taken from the presentation).

The knight standing out for having no shaft

Now, if we like them is up to tastes.. I, personally, find the stems on king and queen too thick, leading up to their relatively fine royal heads, whereas for the bishop, its head is too thick for its alright stem- and mince collar, which it shares with the other pieces, of graceful signifiers. How in the world could that happen? Rook and pawn are very slender. The pieces don't go together. Or it's just me, of course

In all my collection I find no pieces I can not play 'north' and 'south'. My eyes and hands are thankful if they can adjust to little differences. That is to say the uniformity of stems in this set may be lessening functionality.

In this mess, the controversial knight is clearly my favourite piece, great character and nice carving!

The keynote ends very amiably with the artist moving both black and white pieces on a board to rhythm & sounds. (John Cage and Marcel Duchamp had played a chess game on a board that was making sounds according to their different moves in their happening 'Reunion' in 1968. Following on that idea, Weil created 'chess notes', a program turning chess games into music. The sound example is in fact taken from what the program made out of game 2 between Carlsen and Caruana).

I will add this video, because he is explaining the program here, but also the pieces are presented in action.

They play with a bishop with a broken finial. Sympathetic.

I kind of enjoy the knights as well, and the bishop miters. I've been kind of tempted to try out the Studio set - since I've been looking for a travel board anyway, ideally wooden, around the size of the Studio board, that folds in half...

One of the things holding me back is that the knights share a lot of stylistic similarities to the Biro Sandor set that I splurged on a couple of years ago... It'd feel silly to have two "nice" sets with similar knight styles (at least for my purposes - I'm not trying to accumulate a large number of sets here!)

I like the rooks.

Contrary to the popular opinion, I quite like the chess knight in this chess design. It is a simple knight and can be easily played around with. Also looks quite durable so no worries of the intricate details being broken off.