Post your Travel Chess Sets

I got mine (Russian House set) for about $40 brand new.  Once in a while they will advertise it on Amazon or eBay for a lot less. Service was good and got it in about 2 weeks.  The set is great and actually improved over the ones many decades ago. 

Thanks, bob, for your thoughtful reply. Is the farebrother as well made as the K&C? That is - pieces fit well and uniformly in the holes, etc... The farebrother looks slightly delicate - that is, the plastic box looks, not flimsy, but pretty delicate... but you feel it's pretty rugged?  the pieces look very nice. from the pictures i've seen of it, it looks not quite as strong as the lowe. the clear plastic case just looks easily cracked...

I think i much prefer peg sets, which are pretty small, and don't care for the pocket magnetic ones. And the russian, german and japanese ones, although nice --- i don't like the folding vinyl board.

I may eventually end up with a farebrother, if the price is right, and am now fond of the utilitarian lowe.

thanks again. btw, as i look on ebay, some of the little vintage sets stay on and keep getting posted again and again, for the same price..........

greg

Hi Gregor,

I just ordered six of the American Chess Equipment pocket sets because they are convenient to carry, though some will suggest an iPhone or an Android is the way to go if you don't mind two dimension pieces.  I guess they have a point ... until the power goes.

To answer your question, I guarantee that neither the H.B. Farebrother nor the rarer House Martin are delicate.  Both are made of heavy plastic and will take much more abuse than the Lowe but not as much as the Shoptaugh, which, as I said, is as rugged as a tank.  The Lowe case is relatively thin and more brittle than the Farebrother, which may be made of high impact plastic.  It may crack if you dropped it hard, but the Lowe certainly would.

Regarding the pieces, Lowe's are hard plastic whereas the Farebrother are of the soft variety.  The pieces pressure fit into the aluminum board, but I imagine with a lot of use they will become looser but not as loose at the traditional Lowe; I'm not talking about your particular set.  In other words, the Farebrother pieces will never fall out when new so the board can be tipped without worry and is good for carrying on planes.

The lid of the Farebrother, being a nearly airtight fit, can be placed on the bottom of the playing section of the case like a Shoptaugh.  However, be prepared for the lid's crystal clear appearance to be compromised by micro scratches and rubs lessening it's transparency.  Even carrying it around, no matter how carefully, is bound  to degrade its clarity over time.

If you're worried about this cosmetic change, you can find this soft plastic piece/aluminum board combination attached to a leather cases with a snap.  Here is an example from a 2014 eBay listing.

I hope this comparison will help you choose what's best for you.

Best,
Bob

thanks bob -------- very helpful.....

Four extra Queens! Must expect the players to do a lot of promoting! 

Push those pawns!!

Excellent, 2Q1C, and the set indeed looks new.  You also got it for a very good price.  On eBay USA I've seen them range from $4.99 all the way to $12.99, the latter with free shipping.  Anyway, glad you like the set.

Yes, the designer's name is Philip Shoptaugh, a player and musician with the San Francisco Symphony.  Here is a brief bio.

Best,
Bob 

Interesting story behind this cobbled together set.  It began life as the standard modern-day Drueke, but I had trouble at times distinguishing some of the pieces from one-another, particularly the bishops and pawns, so I got the tiniest paintbrush I could find and some silver model paint and added all the highlights, including the eyes and mains of the knights.  My next problem with the Drueke set was that the magnets were so strong that the paint of the black squares was having some weird chemical reaction to them... they weren't so much flaking off as they were doing some bizarre bubbling-melty-looking thing, so I grabbed a $6 folding "checkbook style" chess set from Amazon (stock with flat disc-style image pieces), and found the board to be the same size but with the added bonus of folding.  Next I grabbed a Nintendo 3DS case that happened to be the perfect size for the folded board and even a sewn-in velcro pouch (designed to hold the 3DS unit itself) for storing the pieces.  The result is a cobbled-together, hand painted (to an extent) travel set that I am never without.

The currently-available checkbook set from USCF Sales, but with the added bonus of 3D magnetic plastic pieces from a cheap set from Tuesday Morning.  The effect is a club/tournament vinyl board in miniature :-)

A checkbook style set from USCF Sales circa the mid 1990s, long since discontinued.  They were originally available in your choice of red, brown, green and blue (pictured).  I ordered this brand-new from their catalogue back in the day, and doing an extensive search for checkbook chess sets on Google and eBay, I can't find any like it anywhere, so I'm a bit proud of it.  It has a thicker, sturdier feel than the modern checkbook sets I own, and even came with the leatherette sleeve also in the picture.  When folded, the outside of the board is the same blue leatherette as the sleeve.

I found this little set in a K-Mart in Daytona Beach back in 1995.  I wasn't a fan of how the black pieces were the identical color of the black squares, so some gray acrylic paint was employed.  Great set to accompany reading/analysis, as the magnets are very decently strong without being obnoxious to lift a piece.

And finally my old RadioShack chess computer from the early 1980s, which may well still function, but I haven't really checked into the "computer" aspect of it in recent years.  The pegs are such a good, snug fit that I really just use it as an occasional analysis/reading set.

Nice collection Matthew. I like the one from K-Mart and I know which one you are probably talking about (the one on ISB down towards the corner of Clyde Morris and ISB). Do you live in Daytona or were you passing through/visiting? 

I live down I-4 in Deltona. 

I just received the current checkbook from USCF last week, I find it awesome.

I found this on Etsy. It has not arrived yet. I fear it might not be too practical, but the nostalgia factor sold me on it.

@celticduck - that looks great, love the leather and the snaps. Good find.

thanks Chessmates....great stuff.  sorry no photo of my  4" x  4" wooden inlayed nothing too fancy traveling with the handcarved twigs replacing the pawns I lost along the way SET

You're very resourceful and practical, Mr. Brunson, matching set to board, and also finding the right case.  Do you ever have problems with the paint rubbing off the plastic?  Did you rough up the plastic first?

You're correct about the older checkbook pocket sets, they were more heavily padded.  Perhaps it's a cost savings measure.

Interestingly, I have one of those sets in Post# 236 I won on eBay, but it's not for chess.  It has a 10 x 10 board, 20 white and 20 black pieces for international draughts.  The retail box says Jeu de Dames, which is draughts or checkers in French.  Sadly, it has the same black on black problem, so I may try spray painting the black pieces red.  The folks who make these sets must never use them or they'd change the color of the dark pieces or the dark squares.

Lastly, the small, Radio Shack pieces look a lot but not exactly like the pieces used in the Shoptaugh set seen in Post# 229.  I wonder if Philip Shoptaugh used the Radio Shack pieces as inspiration.

Lastly, I think I like the USCF checkbook set with the Tuesday Morning pieces best because it looks like a "club/tournament vinyl board in miniature."

I never lived there, but my great-grandparents lived in Ponce Inlet (I'm sure you're familiar), so every summer my grandparents and my mom (a schoolteacher) would take me and my sister down for the entire summer.  You are correct about the location of the K-Mart.  I want to say there was an Outback Steakhouse in that shopping center, and a Books-A-Million not too far away.  And wasn't Volusia Mall and the racetrack just up the way about half a mile inland?

I like the set, celticduck, and it appears to be in very good condition for its age.  If it's similar to a set I was able to obtain, the pieces are pre-plastic celluloid and rather delicate.  I broke the tip off one of my pieces trying to fit it into an uncooperative slot; had to tape it back together.  Be sure to open up the slots first (I think mine was never used) using a sucker stick whittled flat or a fingernail file, or you could keep it as a collector's item.

Celticduck, that set is gorgeous... seems like it would snap up into a very compact little unit.  There also seems to be a pocket for a few scraps of paper or folding money opposite the board.  I love the slip-in style of the pieces, as it mimics those large display analysis demonstrators.  Overall, until I find one very similar, I am twelve types of jealous!