Any experience buying from The Chess Empire?

I'm considering one of their nice boards,but don't know much about this manufacturer.They seem to have high quality products......Thoughts appreciated.

House of Staunton all the way

I prefer the offerings from T.C.E.

CE are a good company. They have manufactured for Jaques and HOS in the past (they may still do). Remember though that all chess manufacturers are suffering from unprecedented demand, in the middle of a pandemic, so everything, from everywhere will be delayed. I think Rishi posts here occasionally.

This is one of the best manufacturers.  Thanks to Audioq I bought one of their Chavet retro’s as well.  It’s great.  I know that they have made a number of the best sets sold over the years by HoS and possibly OS at the least.

Speaking of Chavet repro. It doesn't seem to have affected the price of vintage Chavet sets.

https://www.ebay.de/itm/143934767809?mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=707-53477-19255-0&campid=5338722076&toolid=10001

Thanks folks.....I'm leaning heavily towards their Signature Series Maple and Sheesham board,with 2.25 inch squares.

I have a very similar board(not quite as nice) from C.B. that I'm going to gift my grandson,along with the C.B. Zagreb pieces I am holding for him.....A nice birthday gift,since he shows interest in chess.

I have scrutinized many of the other mfgrs,looking mostly at nice platform boards and though I love some of the HOS offers,they just seem too overpriced compared to The Chess Empire's comparative models.

Thanks for the feedback.

For a chessboard, US should be the first choice. I was hesitant with an Indian board because of some posts back in 2014 with Indian boards getting warped and ebony cracking. Maybe experience might be different now with many offering maple/sheesham chess boards.

I bought one set from TCE way back in 2014. Back then they were known as AIW..Very interesting and positive experience. Was looking for a 3” luxury design and Gaurav agreed to it immediately. His words were – “any size any design any wood.” He was ready for even 2.5” KH with a 1.25” base Imperial chess set but the prices would have gone through the roof and beyond my budget. According to Gaurav, smaller the chess set, more difficult it is for a knight carver to do the carving. The knights in my set are just two inches height. The Sandringham Tres Corone on Regency UK site is another example of it.

In that 2 month period, I must have exchanged around 40 emails with Gaurav with very quick response from him. Not sure about right now, with the Queen’s Gambit traffic. I was just one retail client, who eventually bought only one chess set; it was surprising to get so much attention.

Eventually I purchased a Sultan in 3 inch KH with 1.4” base in three woods; boxwood, sheesham and ebony. One ebony piece did crack in a few months, I was told to send a picture and Gaurav shipped me a replacement. Retrospectively, sheesham seems to look most beautiful among the three sets. I hope some day they offer the option of maple and sheesham combination.

I am not sure Rishi is a member here but Gaurav is @maestroinchess

Some pictures here,

On my board, ebony gives the right contrast but sheesham is sheesham. I had read somewhere on the net, “some Europeans” like playing sheesham as white and ebony as black.

Most recent pictures,

Beautiful....Can't say much more than that......Thanks for posting Rishi.

Actually, now that I think about it, it's the FB collectors site that Rishi from CE posts on. I sometimes forget which site I've seen things on! 

Shelby is familiar with a number of these companies, including Chess Empire.

I just talked with him now about my extra Queens, which are now on their way.  Anyway, I mentioned this topic and questions.  He said that they are one of the best producers.  And they also make chess boards.  So, boards from here look to be good.

Hello , All Chess Friends, I am the managing director of The Chess Empire and any information or detail of product if you need, you can write on my email address, gauravsharma169@gmail.com or on my contact number +91-981-503-7970.

We are the oldest chess manufacturing Company of India and we have created many chess designs what are much popular in our reseller's website. Amritsar Ivory Works is the brand name of our company and Amritsar Ivory Works and The Chess Empire are the sister concerns, You can also contact my brother Rishi sharma at rshsharma@hotmail.com for any kind of query, Enjoy new products at www.thechessempire.com and at our ETSY store, 

Your any query will be most welcome. 

I just bought a 3" set from them, boxwood and rosewood.  Arrived today, 10 days after I first got in touch.  Easy to deal with, nice set, no dramas. Would buy from them again. 

Looks really nice!

I am a recent customer of TCE and I had a good experience buying from them. Good customer service/fast email responses/good chess pieces

I just purchased a chess set from them.  A cheap set to see what the experience was like before ordering something more expensive.  They sent the wrong wood.  They want me to pay $70 for a whole new set to get the wood I originally ordered.  That or pay $50 for return shipping on a $100 set...

The pieces look nice and I'm hoping to come to a good solution to get what I ordered, but so far no luck

@Maestroinchess  Thank you for joining in this topic since it is about your company. Anyone can direct any complaints directly to Gaurav Sharma who is one on the same and part-owner of the company.  I would think that would be the fastest way to get an answer. It is his own personal email!! The company by the way is one of the oldest manufacturers in India and well respected. They were called AIW (Antique Ivory Works) when their father was running the business. 

Gaurav posted his email address as well as his telephone number. I would think you can also click on the name and send him a DM too. 

If all the chess purveyors did this I think it would cut down tremendously on complaints. Communication is the key, too much miscommunication or lack thereof is never good. 

I've been going back and forth with Rishi.

Paying $70 for half of a $100 set (I was asking for just the ebonized half of the set as I was sent sheesham instead) that I ordered and paid for was not something I was considering so...

I ended up offering to buy a more expensive set that I was eyeing (and likely planning on buying anyways if the experience was good) in order to defray shipping costs and have my originally ordered pieces included for free... and he accepted.  Now that is not always an option for everyone and I would of rather had the original pieces ordered, sent at no cost.  But I am reasonable and that was good enough for me.  I'm still in the process but I believe we have come to a resolution.

Experiences were asked for and this is my current experience.

Totally agree. I feel like this forum is turning into the unofficial complaints department for chess retailers/manufacturers. That's not to say that the complaints aren't genuine. Many of them are but I can't help feeling that people are being a bit unfair, given the Covid situation and unprecedented demand. Some of the complaints are about very minor imperfections. Back in the day when chess sets were manufactured in France, you could have bought 10 sets and not got one that was "perfect". Even going back to the time of Jaques, most sets had a few imperfections (buxus was notoriously knotty and burrs/tool marks were present in most sets). This comment is not aimed at the user above. If you got a different set than you ordered, that should be remedied. Just an observation from someone who has collected some vintage sets.