As to the set from the Botvinnik Flohr 1933 Match, please look at my article in sovietchesssets.com on the topic. I speak to various reproductions.
House of Staunton offers several Soviet reproductions copied from sets in my collection. I sent pieces to their carvers in India and offered feedback on their drafts. Among them are the GM2, GM3, and Baku sets. They also offer an accurate reproduction of the St. Petersburg Karelian Birch set and GM Supreme sets, copied direct from originals sent to their carvers by the late Fabiano Ferreira.
Finally, Porat is a dear friend. I wrote a piece about his magnificent Smyslova set and some of his thoughts about Soviet design in sovietchesssets.com. Wonderful guy. Taught me plenty. I’ll remind him you messaged him.
Searching for ‘Prokofiev’ yielded some interesting results, in particular a set that looks quite like the Smyslov set to me. But I assume you’re alluding to the knight of the set below? I see a vague similarity.
And yeah, the reproduction definitely features a Ferocious Knight!
As for the reproductions you mentioned, earlier I searched the HoS website for ‘Petersburg’; somehow this is the first time I saw this set, as it never came up when I searched for ‘Soviet’. I like all the pieces except for the knight, which looks like a simplification similar to what I often see in Chessbazaar reproductions. Curiously, the HoS St. Petersburg reproduction shown on the Chess Antiques website looks a lot more nuanced and accurate! Any idea what’s up with the discrepancy? I recently added the St. Petersburg reproduction from Chess Antiques to my wishlist after watching a video on The Chess Collective where Fabiano Ferreira showed his original set. But now I’m worried that if I were to order from Chess Antiques, I might get the version shown on the HoS website.
The HoS Baku reproduction looks great. I added it to my wishlist a while back, but I think I will get an original at some point instead.
And thank you so much for letting Porat know I messaged him! I will send him an email with the same message so he has a choice in whether to respond on Facebook or via email. Last week I read that he moved on from the Smyslova design to explore other designs, and that the Smyslova set is thus limited to 5. Fingers crossed he is willing to consider producing a sixth one!
I’m curious about other sets he has produced or is producing as well. Any idea where to view those?
As to the set from the Botvinnik Flohr 1933 Match, please look at my article in sovietchesssets.com on the topic. I speak to various reproductions.
House of Staunton offers several Soviet reproductions copied from sets in my collection. I sent pieces to their carvers in India and offered feedback on their drafts. Among them are the GM2, GM3, and Baku sets. They also offer an accurate reproduction of the St. Petersburg Karelian Birch set and GM Supreme sets, copied direct from originals sent to their carvers by the late Fabiano Ferreira.
Finally, Porat is a dear friend. I wrote a piece about his magnificent Smyslova set and some of his thoughts about Soviet design in sovietchesssets.com. Wonderful guy. Taught me plenty. I’ll remind him you messaged him.