Review: Noj Slovenia - President

• Foreword:
  • I recently sold my HoS Zagreb 59’ and a few old sets/boards, reducing my collection down to just my Noj “BCE 2” and Noj “Tal 1961”; with a little extra cash on hand I sprung for a Noj “President”, which has captured my eye for quite some time.
    • Noj “BCE 2” review: https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/review-noj-slovenia-bce-stage-2 
    • Noj “Tal 1961” review: https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/review-noj-slovenia-1961-soviet-championship-tal-black-stain 
  • My thoughts on Noj as a company, their craftsmanship, their customer service, etc., can be found in the reviews above, so I will not repeat them here.
• Link to the set I purchased:
  • https://www.noj.si/?mod=catalog&action=productDetails&ID=93&lang=en 
    • Maple and black-stained maple
      • Noj does not actually offer this set in black-stain, however, they made an exception and did this for me on special request.
• My thoughts on the set:
  • Quality/craftsmanship/etc. is excellent (wonderful turning/carving/finishing/staining); as mentioned above, I will not go into detail on this, as I have already done so in my other Noj reviews; everything I say in those reviews applies here.
  • The “President” is a Noj original, in-house design; it looks like a modern take on the Dubrovnik, mirroring its classic lines and perfect proportions.
  • I like every piece in the set; from the photos, the knights were my favorite piece (followed by a tie between the bishops/rooks), but now having the set in my hands, it is the rooks for sure (very cool shape which needs to be seen in person). The king and queen shapes are very pleasing to the eye; I like the “flat” top on the king, and the design of the coronets on the queen. Every piece in this set is solid/sturdy; very playable, just like the Dubrovnik.
  • In my opinion, this is one of Noj’s best designs; I have not seen any reviews for it online, which is probably due to the fact that most people go with the BCE/Dubrovnik/Tal sets when ordering from Noj, and are only able to purchase one or two sets in total. For this same reason, I think many of the other wonderful Noj sets (like the "Portoroz 08", "GM Pavasovic", "1941 Soviet", "1910 Lasker", their designer sets, etc.) don't get much light, which is a shame.
  • I can write quite a bit more about this set, however, I will stop at this point and share a number of nice pictures I took.
• Photos:

Great review!  Amazing set!

This set is on my want list! I would probably go for either walnut or brown stained.

Q: Did you get the standard Noj box or the one with trays? If with trays, what's your opinion of the box?

Classy set! Enjoy it.

Beautiful set and nice review. I really like the bases of the pieces, they look super sturdy.

Great! But they don’t make boards, do they?

It came in the new standard (non-tray) Noj box (black), which is great because it is sturdy and big enough to hold all of the pieces standing up. I’ve always liked the look of tray-style/lay-flat storage boxes, however, you shouldn’t in my opinion store pieces laying down (because only half of each piece is exposed to ambient humidity), so I‘ve never purchased one.

Noj do not make boards, however, they’ve recently put their BCE magnetic board on the market. I assume you’re asking about the board in the pictures; it is a JLP “Raised Edge”, you can find my review for it here: https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/review-jlp-board-from-chess-house 

Thanks for all the great comments

The Rooks could be fatter in the mid section a bit. Looks too much like an hour glass. Other than that the set looks good.

I actually like the hourglass shape, it is very cool in person; I get what you’re saying though, it’s not the “traditional” rook shape.

Very beautiful set! May I ask a question about NOJ pieces? What is the difference in weight between a DGT piece and a conventionally weighted piece. I intend to purchase a DGT set. However, I prefer heavier piece in my hand. Will DGT pieces weigh less or not?

Ordinary weights interfere with DGT coils, so compatible pieces are usually not additionally weighted including most DGT compatible sets in tournament use today.

The coils do add some weight, but the pieces will be lighter than in usual weighted sets. It is possible to weight them using titanium rings, (and purchase weighted sets from DGT,) but this technology is patented by Frank Camaratta (US pat. US20160059115A1) and therefore not freely available.

Noj is not using it, therefore all their DGT compatible sets will be lighter than usual.

-Izmet Fekali

Thanks for your answer, ifekali!