Post Your Favorite (or most Ornate) Chess Sets

Wow ... that is a heavy set ... may be the heaviest set I've heard of (but then again, I haven't looked at anything over 4.5"; 12.5cm = 4.9").  I'm very pleased with the astetics of my set - but the weights are biggest downer.  My lightest "weighted" white pawn is 28 grams, and the heaviest is 40gr pawns (yep - not uniform weights at all).  

Where did you get it?  

Seems there are only a limited number of sellers for luxury nice wood chess sets ... I only know of HOC, HOS, CB and a few others ... not many.

I found it in a flea market site (it came from south of france)

Thanks for that Loubalch ... I've poked around those sites ... the more I see, the happier I become with the design and price of the CB set I decided to purchase ...  Nice to have all these resouces bookmarked together ...

I just posted a video on YouTube ... you may want to see that video of my set here.  https://youtu.be/iKyfocgRjm8

An HD option is available.   

Funny story, I stumbled upon both sites (and chess sets) and selected the Apache set from CB with the very same wood combination. But I bought mine back in 2013. I have to agree with you: This set is also my most ornate set and therefore my favorite one.

What make you think the bud rosewood is actually African Padauk? On my chess order back in the day there was even the botanic name listed: Dalbergia decipularis. Maybe you bought your set too late, by this time Dalbergia decipularis is flagged as soon to be endangered species by the CITES.

But back to my chess set: After all this years I don't have a single crack on even one piece. This set is still in perfect condition, despite of the oxidation of some bud rosewood figures. I even thinking of purchasing the ebony figures for having some variations options available. Unfortunately CB isn't offering the regular rosewood figures.

I forgot to ask: Do you have green felt or leather at the bottom on your figures?

Baccata,

Technically, there is no "bud rosewood," Mfg's use the term as a catch-all for any number of different species. I can tell that my set is African padauk by the characteristic long, open grain structure on the dark pieces (see pic below). Also, bud rosewood doesn't darken to the extent of the redder woods like red sandal and padauk. My set has the felt bottoms. Because the sets are almost exact, there's a very good chance that both sets were made by the same source (Chess Bazaar and House of Chess may have some mfg capacity, but both act as consolidators as well, buying product from the smaller artisan operations).

[Notice how the grain structure is unlike that of any rosewood. It's a dead giveaway that it's padauk, not blood or bud rosewood.]

Although this is only a cheap plastic chess set, purchased by my parents for me in 1972 during the Fischer-Spassky World Chess Championship match, it has remained my favorite chess set and I still pull it out from time to time.

Update! Got a new favorite chess set. 1959 Old Russian Zagreb from chessbazaar (S1236-A).

The most visually pleasing/playable/chunky feel set for 2.25” square board that I’ve owned! The darkest sheesham tone as well (by far). Really deep rich chocolate brown color. Looks perfect on walnut maple drueke style board. 😃

Kindly visit https://chess-boards.com/myth-chess-set/ for more Chess Sets and future projects. Thank you.

One of my favorites...

and one of my most ornate sets.

And one of my favorites, 3.75" Chavet.

Lovely! So many wonderful sets from so many people. 

That first photo posted by @EfimLG47 is stunning and Michael your set ups are always classically beautiful. 

@EfimLG47 that first one is phenomenal.  Love the eyeball bishops.

@Powderdigit, @beachero - Thanks! And the best thing is that it is tournament sized, i.e. a perfect king size of 9.5 cm (3.75") and decently weighted.

These Chavet knights are really among the best ever produced!