Dear old, busted-up chess set...

Jaques of London:

Whittington circa 1890:

deleted by accident......great sets and woodworking skills strng!

i had a wooden board(which is dear to me) cut in half to be able to close and for the ease of carrying. well it dont close all the way. ive had different woodworkers try to get it to work but no dice. you think if i post a pick, you could give me a idea to help?  thx

Thanks for the compliment, I appreciate the sentiment. I will certainly try to help any way I can. Cheers, John C.

chokingly large images of nice sets.

goldendog wrote:

chokingly large images of nice sets.

Yeah, sorry about that, Nikon D5200/D7100 24.3 megapixels (raw files are even bigger). Great detail though. Thanks Goldendog, I'm fortunate to have quite a nice collection of pieces...life's been good to me, so far. Joe walsh yeah? Cheers, John C.

this is the under side..it started with a piano hinge, then re did with a deeper cut...

how it closes

Easy, what you need to use are concealed hinges like so (they are also available in gold tone). Do a google search and you will find a supplier near you. Looking at your picture you will probably have to glue in strips to give the edges enough 'meat' to accept the mortices for the hinges. These hinges are designed for the very purpose for which you intend to use them. Good luck. Cheers, John C : )

Wow!

What an impressive old set and your chess table is great too.
I have build one myself, so I know how hard it is to make a nice finish.
The clock was beauutiful too. Do you know something about old chess clocks? I have an old clock called Olympia.
I could find a picture of it when I am on my other computer.

Thank you, the finish is laquer (sprayed) and the chess clock is a Soviet one from the 50's or 60's. Sorry, I don't know much about chess clocks, just how to use them : )

Her you can see my old clock:
http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/my-old-chess-clock
Can anyone tell me anything about it?

wheres the gigantic horse from?? i mean the one next to the clock

It's from the House of Staunton...a paperweight...though I use it to keep track of who's on move in postal (text) games. The horse faces the side to move.

interesting...

I thought this was a really good topic and I was hoping more people would share their earliest infatuation with this game. Here are my first chess books...12/6 each (for those Brits who can recognise the old money) that was 5 weeks pocket money each. : )

Please resize your photos. Many members don't have the bandwidth to see them, and it stops them from seeing the whole thread. Thanks. Mod.

Is this better?

Looks good to me. Thanks! Mod.

My apologies to all concerned. I've substantially reduced the image file size and I hope that will solve the problem. Cheers, John C.

B-Lamberth wrote:

Her you can see my old clock:http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/my-old-chess-clockCan anyone tell me anything about it?

B-Lamberth, the Olympia was made by the West German company Jerger. They were "the industry standard" because of their durability and reliability. In 1971 the owner of the factory committed suicide and they stopped production. I believe they reopened the factory and continued production until 1990/91. You have a quality chess clock and if it's in good condition I've seen similar models going for $145/$150 on the web. I believe the one I have in the photograph is made by Jantar or the Moscow clock company No.2. These were standard issue in Soviet chess from the '30's-'60's. http://www.chess-museum.com/the-chess-clock-cabinet-i.html

My dad's chess set. He used it to teach me the moves way back in the 70s, when I was not yet a teenager. It's on his set I played my first game and made my first blunders, much to his disappointment and to my indifference.

I thought I last saw it around 1985. By that time I had my own set (the one pictured in the opening post), and was leaving home for college. Dad's set was soon forgotten.

A couple of weeks ago I asked him what happened to his old set. He had no idea, and pulled out a small portable set he had stashed away somewhere. But the set I remembered from childhood had gold and black squares, and was much larger. He seemed to recall it, but had no idea where it could be.

Imagine my surprise this Saturday, when he called me and said he found it! "Are all the pieces there?", I asked. "Let me check", he said, and after a minute confirmed that yes, the set was complete...

I drove right over. That was it. It was dusty and battered up, but after some cleaning looked decent enough. Here it is, the very first set I played on: