Post your Travel Chess Sets

Nice set and superb overall room set up.....I know what you're thinking,but the effort you made deserves some cred. Very nice.

Many thanks fightingbob for starting this fascinating, fun thread. I've recently been looking for a smart, practical, compact travelling chess set and I couldn't have asked for a better fount of information than I've found on these now 31 pages.

I wanted a set which would be small enough to fit into a large coat pocket or small bag, but also one which could close securely while keeping all the pieces in place in the middle of a game, a 'game-enclosure' set: I don't want to have to remove all the pieces from a board during a game when on the move. Furthermore, I wanted a set that wasn't so expensive or delicate that I'd feel bad if I dropped or bumped it during regular use.

After much research I settled for a K&C Ltd. of London wooden box set very similar to the one you showed earlier in post #73, from around the mid-20th century, with clearly defined plastic peg pieces on an inlaid wooden board, and 15 spare holes for captured pieces in a differently coloured section of wood at either end of the board. I opted for the plain wooden box version with black & white pieces. It looks very elegant.

I compared K&C Ltd. with H.B. Farebrother and a couple of other English makes available during the early and mid-20th century and found that the K&C Ltd. versions seemed more solidly made and their pieces better defined. The pieces fit in the holes firmly which is important. I noticed that another company called Gibson produced similar sets a little later, probably during the 1970s, that were manufactured in East Germany (GDR), also with wooden hinged boxes, but its wooden pieces are not so easily distinguishable from one another and the the box is of poorer quality manufacture.

The distinguishability of the different pieces is important with small travel sets. The slightly smaller Indian wooden game-enclosure sets have even smaller boards with pieces that are all just too similar-looking to my eye, with ill-defined major pieces and ungainly over-sized pawns (macrocephalic as you say). A shame since many of those Indian-made boxes are handsome externally.

I'm looking forward to a lot more chess on the move now, thanks again to you for starting this helpful thread.

Maybe we should rename this thread? Travel sets displayed at home?

The trouble with magnetic sets is that if you jog them accidentally, even with the top on, you can still scramble the position. It's why I much prefer pegged chess pieces for travelling.

That makes sense. I've been wondering whether the reason the ChessHouse's milled leather magnetic set has such unusually chunky squat pieces was to maximise their base diameter and magnet size relative to their overall height and weight, so as to increase the magnetic grip.

I do not know of any portable magnetic chess set that uses rare earth magnets. That said I found 100 pieces for 9.99 to 20.98 depending on disc size. I would love to refit some of my magnetic sets, especially the 12" and 10" sets which are sold everywhere and their magnets suck. At least the sets I received are weak magnets. So why don't the manufacturers use them? Whoever uses them first and advertises them, even if for a few dollars more, I believe would sell them fast.

I have the Chess House milled leather with the fat pieces as well as the regular pieces. I can see if the magnets are too strong that would create a problem for this particular set.

I have a wooden 12" and 10" I would love to find pieces with strong magnets. I really don't want to go through the process of putting the rare earth magnets on these and then trying to felt them. Just getting too old to spend so much time on one project.

What HOC set are you talking about?

Someone suggests this thread should be renamed "Travel sets displayed at home". I understand that. However some sets are pricey and I would not risk mine in the subway. I use a checkmate
 magnetic set on the road, but have a soft spot for collecting slotted sets. The bottom one is my oldest and the only one with a slipcase. It is also the most expensive one I own. The eBay seller said it is from the late Victorian period.

Maybe we should define exactly what a travel set is?

@hermanjohnell This is difficult because the particular requirements can vary, which is also evident in the design of travel chess sets. In the simplest case, it is simply a chess set of smaller dimensions so that it can be carried well in travel luggage without taking up too much space. In most cases, however, it should also be designed in such a way that the pieces are secured against slipping due to movement (travelling, waves, etc.). In the ultimate case, the travel chess set should even be designed in such a way that one can interrupt the game at any position and continue it later, thus securing the playing position.

The criteria for a Travel Chess Set is vague. It could be magnetic, peg-in, slotted, or just "regular" pieces. Pieces can be made of wood or plastic or any other material that would work.

Sizes can vary widely.

Age has nothing to do with it. I have seen new sets that look interesting but some of the old sets are very exquisite.

The magnetic sets can be further defined as stand-up or disc.

So if one feels they can use it during their travels I feel that is good enough to post here. I love travel chess sets myself and always like to see sets I never have seen before. It always amazes me.

I agree whole heartedly!!

I've just received the 9" milled leather travel chess set from Chess House that quite a few people here have mentioned. I have to say I'm very disappointed in the quality of the pieces: they're made of a very light cheap wood and the workmanship is poor. The staining of the black (or rather brown) pieces is very patchy, and the knights are particularly roughly carved with little evident care or attention. Not nearly as nice-looking as the photos on the Chess House website

I don't know how clearly you can see this, but the staining to the naked eye is very uneven and patchy, while on this particular knight, the muzzle/jaw is also chipped and rough, a disappointing lack of quality control. The brown pieces in the Chess House website photo for this set have notably darker, much more uniform staining. I've e-mailed them, will let you know what they say.

P.S. On a more positive note, the milled leather board itself is lovely. It puts the poor workmanship of the pieces into even sharper relief. I expected a much better quality set of chessmen at this price point. It's true that the magnets are on the weak side, but that's the least of the problems with the set I received. I didn't mention above, but there were also two white pieces that somehow got green stains on them that won't rub off!

The trouble is it looks nothing like the dark chessmen as shown in the photos of the set on the Chess House website, which are a uniformly very dark brown colour without any of the patchy brown colouring of this piece. The difference is striking.

My ultimate multipurpose collection. Travel sets, dedicated mini-comps.

@DesperateKingWalk you are confusing Chess House with House of Chess. There is a HUGE difference in my opinion.

Raphael Neff has fantastic customer service and I have never been disappointed with it. His reputation is beyond reproach. If you have something you do not like in the product he will make it good.

Well I for one hope that that Chess House customer service lives up to its name! They appear to have acknowledged that the dark knights I were sent were defective, plus two white pieces that had green stains, and they've asked me for a photo showing other irregularities in the set. I just sent them this photo here that shows the striking contrast between the dark pieces and the dark pawns of that 9" milled leather set I was sent: the pieces look as though they belong to a different set from the pawns. I only hope they'll agree to swap my dark pieces for a set that is stained uniformly dark and actually looks like the set advertised on the Chess House website.

For comparison's sake, here's the set of dark pieces as advertised on the Chess House website: there's minimal variation in colouring between the different dark chessmen and no notable difference between pieces and pawns.

Update: I've received a mail from Chess House customer services letting me know they're posting me a replacement set of dark pieces along with two white pieces to replace the two that had odd green stains. They don't require me to return the faulty set (which is a relief as I live in the UK and international postal costs are royal-forkingly horrible these days). I must say - pending arrival of decently coloured dark pieces - that I'm pretty impressed by Chess House's customer service so far. Fingers crossed!