I picked up that rosewood Romanian model from RCM as well as a matching board. Both are of excellent craftsmanship and quality BTW. They have reasonable pricing. I have 2 more sets I may obtain from their offerings on Etsy or eBay depending on which site has the better deal or bang for my buck.
The board and set I picked up recently. The Tal set and the players' choice board. Excellent acquisitions!
A truly impressive set and board!
@Gamegrunt: If you are referring to my post yes, I would agree on the style of the pieces and the board drew me to obtain this combination right away. Equally as impressive is the Romanian set on the Rapachados Ferrer boards that sound67 displayed on his input post as well. I had obtained my crimson buff set from CB but that particular set had many customer complaints with the way they were finished, not sealed properly which led to bleeding of the color on fingers when moisture developed on player's fingers through sweat or of handling of condensation from cold beverages. That crimson buff polished set was discontinued by CB but the Lacquered version is still available at a very affordable current sales price. FYI.
@QtoQlevel3
Man, I love the design of these Romanian/Hungarian sets! Which of all the sets have the smallest base width? Do you by any chance have 1.875" or 2" size board to see how they look on smaller squares? Do they make any smaller versions of these pieces?
Smaller versions? Not that I'm aware of, but perhaps they could be found in Romania in some local chess shops I would imagine. If you go to this website www.caissa.ro and click the search within the orange strip under the title "chess set" highlighted in white print, you'll see the images of the red wine and brown stained sets on what I believe are 2" square vinyl boards. The original Tournament sets from Romania have the smaller base diameters. CB and RCM Romanian sets are a bit larger in diameter size overall.
By the way, just to show some more eye candy on this particular set, I wasn't too enamored with the way the buff finished looked on both the crimson and ebonized models from CB so I jazzed them up a bit using clear lacquer spray from Minwax and put a "spit shine" to them. Below for your viewing pleasure. The first photo shows the matte/buff finish the set came as delivered. I took it upon myself to brighten them a bit.
Thanks, yeah it looks like the caissa pieces have a slightly smaller base.
I just love the shape of those pieces! Were the pieces from Caissa a lot more expensive?
Very few people know but the Caissa chess sets are in fact the original ones . This type of chess sets are produced by a Romanian International Master named Biro Sandor . All of the sets are build entirly by him , and the first sets where manufactured starting with the 90's . The so called Romanian-Hungarian chess sets build in India in fact are reproductions of the Biro Sandor chess sets. It seems that he did not register the pattern and the them was copy . Biro Sandor is a Romanian citizen with Hungarian blood roots so most probably thats why the set has this name .I will try to clarify and present the real story behind this set on my youtube channel pretty soon . On my channel I started to present some of the most common Romanian chess sets , in each week a new video will be posted . The Biro Sandor chess set will be the last from the series and I will present the fully story . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3DaEUSMedc
Very few people know but the Caissa chess sets are in fact the original ones . This type of chess sets are produced by a Romanian International Master named Biro Sandor . All of the sets are build entirly by him , and the first sets where manufactured starting with the 90's . The so called Romanian-Hungarian chess sets build in India in fact are reproductions of the Biro Sandor chess sets. It seems that he did not register the pattern and the them was copy . Biro Sandor is a Romanian citizen with Hungarian blood roots so most probably thats why the set has this name .I will try to clarify and present the real story behind this set on my youtube channel pretty soon . On my channel I started to present some of the most common Romanian chess sets , in each week a new video will be posted . The Biro Sandor chess set will be the last from the series and I will present the fully story . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3DaEUSMedc
I received a generous gift from a fellow Romanian collector some weeks ago, who sent me a number of Romanian chess sets together with some background information. It was a good reason to start a new section on Romanian chess sets on my website, where I will present these sets whenever I have time to take pictures. So far, only the oldest two sets from the early 20th century are online, but there will be more in due time. In fact, Romanian chess is more than just the set made by Biro Sandor, even though it is a very beautiful set without question.
In case you are interested, the link is https://www.chess-collection.de/the-romanian-collection
I think that the Romanian-Hungarian I acquired privately a couple months ago may be an authentic one from Romania. After all, the pieces are maple rather than boxwood.
This is a actual set from Mr.Biro Sandor . Notice that beside the extra set of queens there's also an extra set of pawns , this seems to be a kind of signature of Mr.Biro Sandor for each set he manufacture or is something that he makes on demand .In the last picture Mr.Biro Sandor is present.
I can't give you an answer for this . Most probably because the pawns are getting lost more frequantly 
. The set that I own was received as a gift from the same Romanian collector that EfimG47 was mentioning .
I have a set with 2 missing pawns...if I were to have 2 extra pawns with that set I would have probably a set with 4 missing pawns now 😢
I can't give you an answer for this . Most probably because the pawns are getting lost more frequantly . The set that I own was received as a gift from the same Romanian collector that EfimG47 was mentioning .
ah right- nice gesture
To much vodka 
I can't give you an answer for this . Most probably because the pawns are getting lost more frequantly . The set that I own was received as a gift from the same Romanian collector that EfimG47 was mentioning .
ah right- nice gesture
To much vodka
Vodka is a traditional drink from Russia , in Romania we drink Tuica or Rachiu
I think that the Romanian-Hungarian I acquired privately a couple months ago may be an authentic one from Romania. After all, the pieces are maple rather than boxwood.
This is a actual set from Mr.Biro Sandor . Notice that beside the extra set of queens there's also an extra set of pawns , this seems to be a kind of signature of Mr.Biro Sandor for each set he manufacture or is something that he makes on demand .In the last picture Mr.Biro Sandor is present.
Are you sure? My set has neither extra queens nor extra pawns, and from what I gathered from the person who sold it to me it came from the collection of his father, who had been engaging in trips to the former Eastern bloc on business back in the day. Also, it differs in style from both the Indian sets and from what I can see from Mr. Sandor's sets in the picture. The stems are generally more slender in the queen, king and knights, and the bishops hv a flat-top finial rather than a ball. Indian pieces on the left:
It's possible that the set you have to be a earlier version of the Biro Sandor chess set . Like I said there is a very interesting story behind this chess set and I will try to make a video about this.From my knowledge the first official sets were produced in 1992 if I'm not mistaken .Those sets where offer as gift to some important chess player at that time when Mr.Biro Sandor was participating in Serbia on a international contest.At that time Mr.Biro Sandor was rated at 2400+ and it was on his peak as a chess player. To give some examples Kasparov , Karpov and Bobby Fischer had received this set. Tracking down data about this chess set is somehow difficult because most of the interviews and data over the web are in Hungarian (Romanian citizen with Hungarian blood roots) , and I don't speak the langugage It's very possible that during some years that the format changes and some improvements were made to the set. In fact Mr.Biro Sandor started to build this type of chess set because he was not happy with the sets that where available in Romania at that time and wanted to build one after his taste. He set that I have is one of the most recent ones build by him , I think 2018 - 2020 .
How much does the Romanian set cost from Biro Sandor's site? Unless there's a language issue, I don't see the price anywhere. Even on the ordering page.
How much does the Romanian set cost from Biro Sandor's site? Unless there's a language issue, I don't see the price anywhere. Even on the ordering page.
From my knowledge the set cost is around 100 Euro without shipping , and like I mentioned above the set is entirely built by him . So the process will take about at least 1 month or more , only the knight has 25 carving steps.
This is the actual link from where you can bought the item : http://caissa.ro/Order/form.php
Even Though from some articles that I read recently he stop producing this sets from 2017 (64 years old ) but I think this is not true .
This is my latest video regarding Romanian chess sets , soon I will try to make one also with the Biro Sandor chess set
@KalashChessAddict - great video and nice set in great condition! Looking very much forward to the second video of yours.
@KalashChessAddict - great video and nice set in great condition! Looking very much forward to the second video of yours.
I agree. Excellent video. Spent 7 minutes watching it in the morning with my coffee.
@KalashChessAddict is it possible to interview Mr. Biro Sandor for a video? Maybe with an interpreter? It would be great to document his story, in his words while he is still able. Romania is not a large country, I can't imagine he lives very far from you. Bring a bottle with you
Thank you for the price. 100Euro plus shipping is very reasonable. If he is in his 60s I don't think he is personally making these sets nowadays. They are most likely made locally in Romania under his supervision. But I'm just guessing.
@KalashChessAddict - great video and nice set in great condition! Looking very much forward to the second video of yours.
I agree. Excellent video. Spent 7 minutes watching it in the morning with my coffee.
@KalashChessAddict is it possible to interview Mr. Biro Sandor for a video? Maybe with an interpreter? It would be great to document his story, in his words while he is still able. Romania is not a large country, I can't imagine he lives very far from you. Bring a bottle with you
Thank you for the price. 100Euro plus shipping is very reasonable. If he is in his 60s I don't think he is personally making these sets nowadays. They are most likely made locally in Romania under his supervision. But I'm just guessing.
Thank you for the feedback , the videos I think will get more interesting from now on . During the last 2 months I was able to track down 2 Romanian chess collectors and I'm gathering informations from them in order to be as accurate as possible in my videos. The Romanian sets are the first ones that I will present , after that I will switch to Russian , German and other nationalities . Regarding Mr.Sandor , I think this will be possible but first we need to collect some informations and beside that it's pretty hard for me with the free time.But if I can split the time effort with the two collectors I think this will be possible . Regarding the way he manufactures the sets . The set I own is a gift received from one of the Romanian collectors , he had some very long conversations with Mr.Sandro that he shared with me.He had a order of 2 chess sets ( one is mine now) but he had waited more than 1 year to receive it .Also for some time he is trying to order another set but with no success until now . The second chess collector from Romania had told me the exact same thing.I know that for the Romanian market at one point the prices were lower than the ones that were shipped outside. Also I have send some articles that are in Hungarian regarding Mr.Sandro to be translated by some of my friends in order to prepare the videos.The video with Mr.Sandor will be the last form a series regarding the Romanian chess sets.
I posted another Romanian chess set on my website. Here is the link, in case you are interested. The set has a certain resemblance with the German "Bundesform" sets. It was most likely made in the 1950's. There is footage showing the Romanian writer and first president of the Romanian Chess Federation Mihail Sadoveanu (1880-1961) using a similar set onboard a ship while in the Danube Delta.
I posted another Romanian chess set on my website. Here is the link, in case you are interested. The set has a certain resemblance with the German "Bundesform" sets. It was most likely made in the 1950's. There is footage showing the Romanian writer and first president of the Romanian Chess Federation Mihail Sadoveanu (1880-1961) using a similar set onboard a ship while in the Danube Delta.
Muzeul Național al Literaturii Române
like the clock better
Thanks, yeah it looks like the caissa pieces have a slightly smaller base.
I just love the shape of those pieces! Were the pieces from Caissa a lot more expensive?
No not really about or near the pricing RCM sells their Romanian sets. Contact Mr. Sandor if interested, he answers his email messages BTW.