The Pieces of the 1962 Varna Olympiad

Finally, as promised a few photos of the Varna 1962 Olympiad set. As can be seen Chuck's set is similar, but there are some noticeable differences. The cross on the king, the mitre on the bishop is slightly more oblong and has a rounded "finial" up top, the rooks have a broader base and a wider crenelated top, and the pawns are slightly chunkier:

Nice find Chuck!

The spirit of no-nonsense socialist realism made tangible!

We have successfully made wooden copies of the plastic chess pieces used at the 1962 Varna Olympiad

available soon at Official Staunton ! 

Man! Those O.S. pieces look fantastic.I so want to be finished collecting,but like Michael Corleone,"I feel like I keep getting pulled back in"!

Very nice, and wonderful photos. These are stylish traditional pieces with kind of modern touch. I actually like the shape of pawns very much.

I predict that set will be a huge hit and sell out quickly.  Looks great and different enough to have traditional Staunton collectors to include this one. Obviously an original is as scarce as hen's teeth and this being the next best thing.  

Congrats in advance of what is sure to be a big hit. 

 thank you 

Hmm? Wonder what the asking price would be?

P.S.   Don;t tell the wife,who thinks I have enough sets.-

Just have her buy a couple more pair of shoes. 

Ha! She's more of a Bling person.

Bakelite is awesome. I have seen a few Bakelite sets on EBay. I won't ask how much it cost. I'll just admire from afar. Unless there's room in your will. Old buddy, old pal. 😎

Very nice!

How soon and at what price? Very fine set!

The Varna set should be here in approximately 4-5 weeks from now. Perfect timing for a fall gift for yourself!!!!      Price £149.00  If the knight is a sample of it, it will look better than the plastic set.  Thanks to Carl and OS for undertaking this project.  Maybe there will be a discount to that price or maybe that is already discounted I do not know. I do know it should be meticulously reproduced from the plastic set was their quality is quite high.  It already is a cool looking set so in wood it should be that much better, for one no seams will be there!!!!   Also wood usually looks better than plastic.  There is only one plastic set I can name off hand, I am sure there are others, that is valuable and looks cool in plastic, the Drueke series especially in red and white and heavily weighted.

Chess, just a great hobby.   

Thanks for the information(btw,chess "is" a great hobby as you stated).

I have one O.S. set and the quality of fit and finish is virtually flawless.Also,they were a pleasure to deal with as a company.The price is pretty good too,especially if a discount can be had at some time..Not priced high enough to annoy the wife,since I have one too many sets already.-

I have seen this video from an Argentinian guy, have a look and tell me if this knight reminds you any other set... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8yLqWZ2O1w

But if this guy is right, and this set design is from 1939..., any clue about it?

By the way, if any one want a Varna, I have seem this one for a reasonable price, and accepting offers.

https://www.ebay.es/itm/275045857448

Fer8799: I'm fairly convinced that the Varna Olympiad set (and the 'national' Bulgarian set with a finial instead of a cross) was inspired by (if not exactly copied from) the Buenos Aires 1939 olympiad set (which is the set discussed in the video you link to). Bulgaria competed at the 1939 olympiad, and it wouldn't at all surprise me if they brought Magistral sets back home to Bulgaria.