Maybe playing all the time on a computer screen has made me nostalgic for the heft and beauty of real chess pieces. I have started to collect sets made by the William F. Drueke & Co., which was the first company commercially to manufacture chess sets in America. They began in 1914 when America's source of sets was cut off by World War I, and they produced tens of thousands of sets by 1991 when they were purchased by the Carrom Co. Bobby Fischer liked playing on Drueke's "Players Choice" sets.

In the last four years I have collectede enough Drueke sets to illustrate a century of their chess output. This I have presented in a blog entitled "William F. Drueke Chess Sets." https://www.chess.com/blog/BruceHedman/william-f-drueke-chess-sets

One human interest story in this monograph is about Samuel Reshevsky. In the 1920's William Drueke arranged for the boy Sammy Reshevsky to play simuls in department stores where Drueke sets were sold. And the April, 1965 issue of Chess Review shows Samuel Reshevsky making his winning move at the First National Open Championship using a Drueke "Players' Choice" tournament set. Life had come full circle.

I was complimented that Chess.com liked my blog and awarded it "Blog of the Month" for October, 2024, and designated me a "top blogger."

When reading a chess book I find it so much easier to follow the game on an analysis board rather than a physical board. So I have compiled libraries from Chess.com's database of the games cited in several chess books by Soltis, Vukovic, and others. To download these libraries link to my blog

https://www.chess.com/blog/Bruce_Hedman/libraries-from-chess-coms-database

Tell us about yourself. I like to know whom I am playing. I am 72, and haven't played chess since graduating from high school in 1972, the year Fischer beat Spassky. But now, having climbed my professional ladders, I want to have fun and stay sharp. Also, chess sets can be artistically beautiful, and I have a few vintage sets. I recommend "Master Pieces," by Garth Williams; "The Art of Chess," by Colleen Schafroth; "The Birth of the Chess Queen," by Marilyn Yalom; and "Vintage Chess Sets of the United States," by Duncan Pohl. I am an associate professor of mathematics and a serving Presbyterian minister.