...The New Bright Yellow Ultimate Chess Pieces - Thoughts

Correct.  See my previous post above.

For all who thought that the bright butter yellow was a 1st time for the Ultimate Chess Pieces. Here is a set in yellow and blue. Courtesy of a reviewer from chesshouse.
 

Yep that's mine! Actually, it is now my son's  who is age thirteen.  You will see that the reviewer from chess house has my my name too. Because that is my review.  Typos and all!   That is my card table and in my guest room of my house. 

I bought that set circa 2006, from ACE. They were sold as the Susan Polgar edition. They stopped selling them when she got in trouble with the USCF.   

I bought a couple Flex Pad boards from Chess House around Christmas time last year.  My son wanted a blue one to match the set that is now his and his old Saitek clock. 

Here is my son using that set in a tournament last February. 

from the American Press

BTW here is a video that I made about that set for another thread about the Yellow Ultimate set. 
Video review of the Blue and Yellow Ultimate Chess set

@BigLew -

Just watched your video on YouTube.  I don't own the current Ultimate Set with the yellow pieces, but from what I can tell by all the photos posted in these forums of it, the yellow of the set in your video comes pretty close to the yellow of the current Ultimate Set.

Also you mentioned that your son would like a board with blue squares....check out the Chess House vinyl board with blue squares - it has cloth backing (to me, a superior backing compared to rubber) and the quality is very good.  Also be sure to store the board rolled up with the playing squares OUTWARD to ensure it lays flat for playing.  I also recommend to store it in a cardboard mailing tube which will help further in that respect, as well as prevent wrinkling. 

I spoke with Chess House (Josh) recently and although they don't feature the cardboard tubes on their website they do have them and will sell them on request (less than $10 including shipping).  They will also ship the roll-up board in a cardboard tube if you request it.  Finally, be sure to check out the customer reviews of the vinyl boards on the web page....

https://www.chesshouse.com/collections/club-style-chess-boards/products/20-vinyl-roll-up-chess-board?variant=32275371201

Yes Russ I made that video last January. I ordered the indigo Flex Pad board from Chess House. The week I made the video. Hence the pic above from Knightsforkcafe. That was my pic from a review I left on Chess House about the flex pad. I also got the olive for myself.
In that video I misspoke several times saying Chess House when I meant to say chess.com instead.

I did start an auxiliary youtube channel after that video. If I get the new Ultimate for the 20 bucks Shelby is selling them for, I may make a comparison video.
The new YouTube channel is called Big Lew Too.

As you can see from that News paper photo above from last February, my son likes the indigo Flex Pad board.

BigLew -

It's all good.  I will be on the lookout for your Big Lew Too YouTube Channel.  Will it be about chess or cooking?!

It's about what ever I want! Right now I have four videos on it. One is a WWII plane from an air show, the other is my daughter's matriculation ceremony at Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts, a pocket knife review, and a chess set review. I'll probably do some more chess set reviews, I'll also talk about fishing, gardening, Spanish lessons, whatever I want that is not cooking related. Just a catch all so that I can keep the other channel focussed on cooking.

That yellow and blue looks pretty cool.

Now I am thinking the problem with the new set is not that one side is yellow, the problem is the other side is not blue.

It is the yellow that they all complain about. Black is a neutral color and can go with any color. I just think that people in general do not like change. I do agree that the yellow and blue are nice. It's a Blue Angels set . I do like BigLew's olive green flex pad board with his Red & Natural Reykjavik plastic set. He took a pic of it for his chesshouse flex pad review. I have an olive green flex pad and I have a Red & Natural Marshall plastic set. May have to try out that combination as well. 

Nice! I am the Chris you mentioned in that review. So it's a small world aint't it? I like the pic of the olive board with your Red & Natural Reykjavik set. I have a Red & Natural Marshall set. I normally use my Marshall set for Black & White boards. Nice to have options for combinations. By the way green is a nice color of board for you son's yellow & blue UCP set as well.

@KnightsForkCafe. Wow it is a small world! Chris, that pic and your discription of the olive Flex made me buy it. I use that Reykyovik red and natural with olive board most often at our local Thursday night club. We meet at an Asian buffet the tables are just big enough for a board, captured pieces, the clocks (set for G\10), a bottle of soy and a bottle of Sriracha and the napkin dispenser, and a glass of iced tea or cup of coffee. If we eat, we hold the plates in our hands, pieces and boards are likely to get soy sauce, sweet and sour sauce or etc. on them. The Flex pad board washes, but I dry it over night under the ceiling fan.

 I rarely play in tournaments, though I have entered one on on November 16th. My tournament set is the HOS Marshal natural and black variety. I use it on a 6cm or 2.375" Premium green vinyl board from the Chess Store. I like the Marshall on the slightly larger board best. The Marshall set came from Wholesale, I have review of it there.

My home play study set is the HOS Championship Series with either a leather board from ACE, or Rechapados Ferrar veneer board from HOS. I have video about that Leather board, on Big Lew Too. I saw a video on Shelby Lohrman's channel "What's in My Bag", he mentioned that ACE will be offering the leather roll up boards again.

 So I've now mentioned ACE, Chess House,. HOS/USCF, Wholesale, & The Chess Store. I have no vendor loyalty! which ever is the best deal including Amazon! LOL

Shelby's video where he mentions re-introdicing the leather boards

@BigLew Hmm I might have to see about getting a leather board when they return. I have so many sets and boards that I could host a tournament using all of my sets and boards.

For wooden sets I tend to shop at houseofchess.com They in my opinion have the best prices for wooden sets. I have bought 4 of their sets. One I got from plesanttimes.com but their are one in the same. Here is a list of the sets I bought from them.

http://www.houseofchess.com/supreme-staunton-wood-chess-pieces-golden-rosewood-boxwood-3-3-4inch.html

http://www.houseofchess.com/popular-staunton-tournament-wood-chess-set-pieces-3-3-4inch-ebonized-boxwood.html

http://www.houseofchess.com/wood-chess-set-pieces-broad-base-staunton-king-size-3-3-4inch-rosewood-boxwood.html

http://www.pleasanttimes.com/333-colored.html

There was actually 5 but the 5th one I got for a friend.

http://www.houseofchess.com/victorian-staunton-wooden-chess-pieces-rosewood-boxwood-3-3-4inch.html

The shipping is a bummer but with the prices it is hard not to pass up. 

I see they're still available. Looking at the Rooks, apparently this set is an attempt to follow the design of the pieces used in 1972 in Reykjavik.

ChuckVinson,

As the guy who produces the set, I would have to say no on this.  Our minimum run is 2500 per color.  It takes a while to get through that many.

thanks

Shelby Lohrman

American Chess

Perhaps when you sell out of the current stock you can reconsider the issue of color.  From what I glean from the many posts in the other forum threads related to this issue, it appears that the vast majority of folks prefer the off-white color of the original Ultimate Chess Pieces to the "butterball" or the current ivory.  It's part of what what set the original Ultimates apart.

Russ,

If you want to put up the $$ for all the additional inventory I am all for it.  Putting in that kind of inventory is not something I would do on the spur of the moment.  

When we brought these back and I did the yellow, I knew that I made a mis-calculation.  After they came out I went and surveyed the people out there and from what I remember is that the off white was a 65%+ favorite over the original color.

In these days I need to be smart on where I put my monies.  Times are tough.  Getting inventory is hard these days and having a stash of money put away allows us to capitalize on any opportunity that pops up instead of investing it into a new color.  The Ivory is a safe color that some people might not choose if they had a choice, but would go with anyways.  Bring back the original cream and I know people will be screaming for my head for putting out a non-traditional color.

Heck, I still get people coming up to me going "BUTTER?!?!?!?"

Have a couple of new things coming up that might really screw with the inductry.  If they take off the way I am sure they will...MAYBE I will bring back a limited run of the original color and sell them as a collectors item.

But for right now I need to focus on expanding my brand and bringing my products to new consumers.  Also need to keep on innovating to keep my competition focused on me instead of themselves.  That, my friend, is not an easy thing to do.

thanks

Shelby Lohrman

American Chess Equipment

@ShelbyLohrman -

I didn't suggest that you should implement this anytime soon.  You'll note that I said when you sell out of the current inventory.

Keep up the good work.

Hola me gustaria saber como puedo conseguir las piezas para España un saludo

Hola me gustaria saber como puedo conseguir las piezas para España
Chulete wants to know if you ship to Spain? Shelby Lohrman