Post Your Chess Sets

I love the design and the historical significance of the Lewis set and even owned a set at one time, but IMHO they're better for display than play. First off, most of the pieces are so wide you need a board so large that it makes the tiny pawns look like they're swimming in their squares. Second, and this is true of many of the plastic Ganin sets I had as a kid, you spend the entire game looking at the backs of all your pieces, which could get confusing for an opponent not familiar with the set. Since it wasn't going to be included in my playing rotation, and I didn't have room to display the set, it made little sense to keep it hidden in a box taking up space, so I ended up selling it.

My vintage Britain's lead chess set on the roll up Pendleton's chess board 

sleazymate, I like this one very much. I looked it up, right now and I know this already. I haven't bought it, because the original one have printed stones instead chess pieces. So you have replaced the stones with this staunton chessmen. Great idea. This game comes from Germany. How big are the fields? I guess almost 30 mm, right? I consider buying this. I think about it. How flat does it lay down, whem it was rolled up a long time?

Hi, yes the fields are 30mm. It lays down very flat. I am happy with it. I was looking for this specific type of board for my vintage pieces because I did not want any elevation from the table which would have come about with a wooden board. Also I wanted something for travel. I think the colour combination of the fabric works well with the red and black of the lead pieces. 

@sleazymate

thanks for your reply. Yes, the board - pieces combination is great.

An interesting observation thank you for the info.  An important consideration for anyone considering a purchase.

Hi all, just joined to ask if anyone can give me any information about a board I have,  used a pic of it as my avatar.  It's a vintage black faux fur and yellow vinyl board,  about 30" wide, believe it was once stapled to a board to flatten it.. had it since finding it in a thrift shop in  the 80's, would love to know its origin. TIA 

Just scored a Filipino Staunton. It absolutely dwarfs my regular set. The king is about 6 1/8" tall. The bases for all of the pieces are the same diameter.

Apparently they've been in storage for a while.

I absolutely love the grain of the kamagong(dark) pieces!

Beautiful set. Looks like you'll have to treat yourself to a new board as well!

Yup! I'm just keeping them on that tiny board until I have a good storage box. I'm sure I'd knock them over trying to play them on that board!

Hello, 

Just wanted to show you my two newest addictions to my personal collection. 

Philippine Staunton 1974 set: 

From: @EfimLG47

Woods: Narra/Kamagong

King height: 11.6 cm (4.6")

King diameter: 3.7 cm

White King weight: 40.7g

Black King weight: 51.9g 

I saw this topic while browsing on the forum and I immediately fell in love with the look of the set. An authentic, vintage new Philippine Staunton made in Narra and Kamagong, I couldn't resist. I contacted the very kind EfimLG47 and after asking some more informations, I decided to pull the trigger. The communication between me and Efim was very cordial and was wery helpful. The shipment was fast, they arrived yesterday and I'm very pleased. The combination of these two particular woods is absolutely gorgeous. Love also the kind unusual, long faced Knights, I never saw such a style before and their particularity conquered me right away. That's the tallest pieces that I have, but the diameter was the same as other of my sets, so I figured that they would still look good on my 50mm square boards, and to my eyes, they indeed look very nice on them. 

The other set that I want to talk about and that arrived today, is a very small set bought on Etsy from Antal Zoard. He's a very kind and disponible person, I asked if he had some pieces that would fit on an old, little chessboard that my father had in his childhood that we recently found on the basement sitting there for many years (I talked about it in this topic ). He had only 24 mm diameter pieces, that I verified would have looked a little bit too crowded on my 29mm square board. So, he made a version of the 24mm pieces in 20 mm, and that's the perfect size for the little board. They have a nice, pretty Romanian style and I'm absolutely pleased with this buying, finally the old chessboard come back to life ahahah. 

Thank you for reading! Hope you appreciated. 

@IIFabreis - thanks for the shoutout and for showing the beautiful pictures! I am happy when you are happy!

And yes, I still have sets left (as does @sound67), in case anybody is interested. Check here or directly via my website.

Thank you sound, for the board size, maybe you're right, but I played a game yesterday with them and they were absolutely fine to play with. All my sets with the same diameter fits well (in my eyes) with my 50mm boards. Probably in the future I will consider to buy larger boards, but at the moment, I only have these ones, and the actual combination doesn't bother me. Still, thank you for the advice

My pleasure Holger!

Wanted to write additions, but addictions is also a right term ahaha

Congratz!

Every addiction starts with some additions

Exactly ahahah, and thank you Michael

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/post-youre-chess-sets?page=110#comment-null

After 3 weeks, today arrived my Russian order

It was a real cheap deal, so nothing special expected, but I'm however astonished about the brutal bad finish of the pieces. 

Maybe they are crafted to play them with gloves in winter there, but no polish and a violent varnish. Seems to be produced under time pressor, but certainly by human hands. 

Don't know if it's because of lack of material or just robust russian style...

Remembering to the very similar hunting Baikal shotguns, rough but robust, made to function but not designed to please the western eyes. 

Figurines and boards are however pretty unique and gives a good impression of the russian reality. 

Overall, I do like them ! (The french Chavet sets are pure luxury in comparison)

btw, weighted with screw nuts !

(Keep in mind, that these sets are produced for their own national market, maybe schools etc;  they are not (yet) designated to export !)

Enjoy

It has a rugged simplicity to it.  Not as beautiful as so many of the same old fancy sets posted here.  It is about playing chess.  It looks like an old mass produced Soviet style.  Probably a holdover.   It is a shame though that the local wood workers in Russia are not making a beautiful carved set also from local woods.  It seems an opportunity missed.