Iconic set. The all wood Supreme is much nicer than the standard with plastic knights bodies, which always stood out too much for me. Was there also an all wood version below the Supreme range? Some of the older cheaper versions do give the appearance of having been dipped in sticky sauce rather than carefully sprayed or brushed with varnish/lacquer. Still they seem to have lasted fairly well through the years, very few cracks, leans etc.
Top level Soviet Era Tournament sets ...
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Audioq wrote:
Iconic set. The all wood Supreme is much nicer than the standard with plastic knights bodies, which always stood out too much for me. Was there also an all wood version below the Supreme range? Some of the older cheaper versions do give the appearance of having been dipped in sticky sauce rather than carefully sprayed or brushed with varnish/lacquer. Still they seem to have lasted fairly well through the years, very few cracks, leans etc.
Yes the "standard" Soviet Grandmaster sets before the 1970's were all wood (including finials). These sets were no where near a nice or precise in their carving. But still quite rare. You can see in these five all wood knights each from a different Soviet Era "standard" GM set in my collection. Just how they varied in style ... 
Just sharing a few pics of what some collectors call the Soviet Grandmaster Supreme set. You can see the distinctive two tone white knights with the tops having almost a yellow varnish which some of these sets had. These sets are extremely rare. And much heavier than the standard Grandmaster sets of the day. The wood appears to be a finer grain and they don't exhibit the over lacquering you find on some many Soviet era sets from the 1940's to the 1970's. The super deep cuts on the Bishop miters is indicative of this set as well. Unfortunately none of these sets are mine
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