High quality plastic chess set? Is that an oxymoron or what?!?!?!?
Can Anyone Recommend a High Quality Plastic Chess Set
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I have the executive tournament chess set combo and I am very happy with it. I'm sure anything more expensive from wholesalechess will also be great.
There are a few websites that have very good and nicely weighted plastic chess sets. The House of Staunton is one of the best followed by, The Chess Store, Chess House, Wholesale Chess, Chess Central, Chess USA, Portland Chess aka Chess Geeks, Legend Products to name a few. Varieties vary but you will find a set to your liking somewhere among the ones mentioned. Hope this helps.
Is the set you are considering the same as Legend's Alegria set? I have that set. It is one of the best plastic sets I have seen (along with House of Staunton's Collector set). I prefer to play it on a 2.375" board.
Jul 26, 2015
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#7
I have the Legends's Alegria set it is awesome. Also the Chess House has in stock some very nice plastic sets too. I bought my legends set off of eBay and got it in 3 days well packed. It is a beauty. Might be cheaper on his web site. You may find other nice sets at ACE.
I bought the Legend Kings Indian Plasic set and I am not impressed with the quality at all.
The majority of pieces have very noticeable mold marks. The weights are uneven in many of the pieces, causing the pieces sit slightly crooked.
One of the white Bishops had a horrible cut in the Mitre - forcing me to fix with a file - and upon further examination it also has a hole going down the middle of the piece.
Overall the quality of the set is below average at best. I have received much better plastic sets from Wholesale Chess.
Those ones they use in school tournaments are great. it is quite easy to steal one if you don't mind doing it a few pieces at a time. There are normally lots of people around and it is pretty confusing so making off with pieces is easy and they always blame the kids for missing pieces .
Jul 26, 2015
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#10
Sounds like you should have gotten your money back or at the very least traded it in for a different set. I didn't like the knights in that set so I didn't choose that set. EBay also has a money back quarantee so if you bought your set off of there would not see why you would have kept such a crappy set. Yes the way it sounds it is poorly made.
Contacted the seller and left a poor review. Nothing. Sometimes returns are more hassle than they are worth. Set was $35, I can use it, just not the set I was expecting when I read peoples praise of the seller here.
While you can still see the mold lines on them and they are unweighted; this plastic dubrovnik set is my favorite one hands down of any set that I own. And you can buy it without jumping through a dozen hoops to get it, which is a big plus that wasn't available until a few days ago.
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Cyklone wrote:
Is the set you are considering the same as Legend's Alegria set? I have that set. It is one of the best plastic sets I have seen (along with House of Staunton's Collector set). I prefer to play it on a 2.375" board.
It's true the Alegria seems a little large on 2.25 inch squares (see photo). The king's base is around 1.81 inches. It's also heavy, too heavy for comfortable blitz use, IMO. I won't use my Alegria for blitz. That said, it's a quality plastic set, well made and attractive ---->>
Aug 2, 2015
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#15
I have to echo the sentiments about poor quality from Legend Products, I have the Kings Indian as well and had similar problems, I contacted the owner about it and got an extremely rude response back, Legend is a one man show btw. The set plus shipping is extremely expensive and not at all what I expected. I always recommend people to stick with established and reputed sellers like chesshouse and wholesalechess, much better after sell support and products.
While quality can be inconsistent, the HOS collector 3.75" is heavily weighted, looks gorgeous, and fits perfectly on a standard 2.25" board (king diameter is 1.75").
My two sets amongst many I own in both plastic and fine wood. Here displayed is the black and camel Zukert set from the Chess Store (68 0z. with the two Queens in total weight) and the Brown and Tan Emisario set from the Chess House (49.2 oz) Displayed on a premium black and white vinyl board from the HOS. I like the Emisario set for Blitz games. It's a bit lighter and smaller for easier reach and movement of the pieces. The Zukert set isn't bad either, very stable pieces. I dropped one of the Zukert pawns from my seated position on the floor and it landed right side up! The Emisario set was half the cost of the Zukert set. I personally dislike plastic sets to be below 2lbs. or over 4lbs. in total weight. For wood chessmen I would prefer weighted pieces but nothing over 5lbs. please. After all, the nicer wood sets are designed for games on a normal time pace. I wouldn't play bullet or blitz games with a fine wood set and never on a vinyl board. They would always be played on wood or stone chess boards in my home.
My new board being finalized in Craftsmanship from mtmwood.com, Made of Rock maple and Black walnut. The Alphanumeric characters are not silkscreened on, they were actually made by a CNC-(Computer Generaed Control) machine with an inlayed method of construction. Beautiful work with 2.36" squares. Arriving shortly...
Aug 2, 2015
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#19
Wow Sal what a board. That inlay of the alpha characters would never have been possible if it weren't for the high tech era. Very nice indeed.
I am considering buying the Alegrian Staunton chess set from wholesale chess as a set that I hope to be using for a long time. It's $40 which is fairly steep for a plastic set, but the weight and design is very nice from what I've seen. Does anyone have any recommendations or comments on this or other high quality plastic sets?