Decent chess set?

I was initially inclined to go with HoS, but I've read a number of rather appalling reviews recently concerning their quality control. So if there were any issues, it would take a) a lot of time, and b)money from myself to rectify any potential problems, because they are US based.

Looking at just pieces, I'm not overly impressed with JoL either...

Which led me google at other suppliers (ideally with cheap/free shipping to the UK). I've got a budget of around £200 for the pieces, and around £100-£150 for the board.

Any suggestions? Ideally I would prefer ebony, bud/rosewood for the dark pieces and 4 or 4.5" kings.

What are all your throught on the following pieces?

http://www.chessbazaar.com/chess-pieces/luxury-chess-pieces/staunton-triple-weight-club-chess-set-4q-bud-rose-wood.html

http://www.chessbazaar.com/chess-pieces/luxury-chess-pieces/triple-weighted-staunton-bud-rose-wood-chess-set-4q.html

http://www.chessbazaar.com/chess-pieces/luxury-chess-pieces/triple-weighted-staunton-ebony-wood-chess-set-4q.html

http://www.chessbazaar.com/chess-pieces/luxury-chess-pieces/staunton-triple-weight-club-chess-set-4q-ebony-wood.html

Chess sets:

http://www.thechessstore.co.uk/magnum-ebony-chessmen-palisander-ebony-and-maple-chessboard/

http://www.thechessstore.co.uk/antique-staunton-warrior-chessmen-with-pailsander-ebony-chessboard/

http://www.thechessstore.co.uk/magnum-ebony-chessmen-palisander-ebony-and-maple-chessboard/

I've not really looked at boards yet.

Kind regards,

m12

Looks like you really like the fancy Knight. I would go with Bud Rosewood. The reason is: it is almost impossible to get perfect ebony pieces in this day & age without paying a very steep price. The Austrailian guy paid a very steep price for the ebony & HOS still burned him with some pieces being stripped ebony! Also, I hope you realize that a 4-4 1/2 King is going to be a very large set demanding a 2 1/2 inch square board. I personally would not go over a 3 3/4 inch King. The reason is a standard 2 1/4 inch board would work just fine. Good Luck on your choice!

the chessstore offerings you linked above come with boards which are too small for their pieces; the small board makes it a bargain, but you will not be happy playing with it. None of the chessstore options above can be considered.

The chessbazaar ones seem excellent. Don't worry about ebony being striped; it's a rare occurrence that you'll be dissatisfied. Black (ebony) pieces on a brown-squared board; rosewood pieces on a black-squared board. Don't get black on black; and steer clear of glossy boards; the matte finish on boards is much easier on the eyes. 

The chessbazaar and chesstore both have excellent track record on ebay, but those chesstore packages are problematic, as outlined above. 

anything above 4" kings and you need 2.5" squares. Until 4" kings  2.25" squares is ideal.  Some unusually massive 4" king sets require 2.35" squares, but those are massive pieces with huge bases. Don't get 2" squares unless your kings are well under 4".  

have you checked out chessbazaar on ebay.uk? I think their prices there are much better; those places, chessstore, chessbazaar, hos, offer much better deals on ebay. I urge you to check them out. 

Just don't get a glossy board. Get a matte finish board. Promise?!

Thank you for the replies.

I quite liked the set from thechessstore, I'll ask if I can upgrade the board to a larger size. I don't mind the larger set, as it's something that'll be kept in the living room or study, so it'll serve an ornamental purpose too.

From the chessbazaar site, I'm inclined to go with the first chessmen I have linked. The issue I have of buying chessmen and a board seperately is that I don't know much about what to look for in a quality board. What are the good/decent woods to look for etc.

9kick9, I've read a few people have spent quite a lot for a HoS set, and have left rather dissatisfied with the end product. 

Somebodysson, the ebay stores are not that much cheaper, if at all from what I've seen. As for the board, I was edging towards a glossy board! However I've never played on one, so I'll take your word for it, and try and get a matte finish instead.

Kind regards,

m12

yes, I liked the chessstore set, I just didn't like the too small board. Looking at the chessstore pieces again, they're quite beautiful and exceptional. About woods for boards, all the woods will be nice. Just don't get black pieces on a board with black squares, make sure to get black squares if you get rosewood pieces, and my preference is to avoid stripey or heavily figured woods in a board.  best,

I have bought 3 sets from the chessstore and have been very satisfied each time. My first purchase I made a bad selection and asked for an exchange and they accommodated me no problems with me only paying shipping costs.

I'm a little down on The ChessStore.  I'm a repeat customer from their frequent Ebay auctions but have been blocked from further bidding because I asked why they recommended a too small board.  That should save me a couple hundred $ a year. 

FWIW, I've bought 5 sets and several boards from HoS over the years and I was pleased with product quality and vendor service every time. And that includes more recent purchases (ie after the ownership change). 

haha, silver lining! amazing that they blocked you from bidding for that! Terrible. The links that op provided above from chessstore showed boards that were def way too small for the pieces. He's hoping to ask them to upgrade to larger boards. I hope they accomodate him.  I think his links were to a uk branch of chessstore. At least with chessbazaar you'll always get the same operation. And yes, I imagine the claims of lousy service from HoS are overstated. They're too big a name to let themselves get a reputation for bad service. but there have been lousy stories...and from chessstore too.

I imagine chessbazaar and the other India-based operations are doing booming business these days. Good for them.

I've recieved no reply form chessstore, not even basic info like king hight, base diameter or weight...

I'm very much inlcined to go with the first link from chessbazaar.

A quick question concerning boards, what should I look for in a decent board? Types of wood, and are there certain types I should stay away from? Chessbazaar have emailed me stating that their boards are not vaneer or solid, but inlaid, what does that mean? Apologies, but I never excelled at wood-work in school 

Thank you,

m12

Boards are personal tastes like chess pieces. That being said, mahogony & maple with 2 1/4 inch squares appears to be real popular. Walnut & maple is a great color combo IMO also.

Solid boards are made  up of squares of wood glued together.  Inlaid boards have 1/4" or thicker squares of wood glued to a backing board.  Veneer is very thin squares of wood glued to a backing board.  All solid construction is the most expensive and least likely to warp.  Inlaid is a cost effective alternative and veneer is common and cheap.  All can be satisfactory but the price points are very different.  Hi gloss boards are more for display than playing because of the glare.  Satin or matte finish is preferred.  You can spend less than $100 or well over $1000 depending on the materials and type of construction.

I have bought from thechessstore, here in America. I think that one is a different company. You definitely want enough room for your pieces. Someone did a nice article about the dimensions of the squares, and of the piece's bases  on the forums, and I think they even have a blog. 2.25 is good for 1.78 sizes, I think. 2.5 might be a bit better though.

When you are talking about that size of a board, they can get pretty heavy, I would not want to lug it to tournaments. Although, it would look great in your sitting room, game room, or even library.

yes, these boards and sets are not for taking to your chess club! For that get a vinyl roll up board!

About the inlaids...yes, that's what you will get. The solid wood boards are a whole other ball game. Many are custom ordered, and cost over four hundred US dollars, sometimes more, 600, 700. 

Inlaid is fine. As baddogno repreated, get matte finish, not high gloss, and if you are getting ebony or ebonized (i.e. black pieces are black) get a board with brown squares, i.e. walnut, mahogany, teak. If you're getting pieces where the 'black' pieves are brown, ie rosewood, etc, you/re safer getting a board where the black squares are black.

Any of the boards from chesssstore, chessbazaar, hos will be fine, house of chess.

They are not for transporting. I repeat. they are for your home.  

About what Crimston knight wrote, 2.25" squares is the minimum for a king with 1.78 base. 2.35 or 2.5 is better. But if your king base is less than 1.78 then the 2.25 square is perfect. 

Thank you all for the advice and information.

Here are two that seem to fir the bill:

http://www.chessbazaar.com/luxury-chess-board-ebony-box-wood-21-56-mm-squares.html

http://www.chessbazaar.com/zoom-enlarge-luxury-chess-board-ebony-box-wood-21-56-mm-squares.html

Quite inclined for the first link.

Regards,

m12

those boards are an astoundingly good price for what they are, and I agree with the choice of first link; the second board seems too severe, too much black. If you pair that board with those pieces from the first chessbazzaar link at top of this thread I believe you will have an exceedingly beautiful set for an excellent price. Wow! You will have to post pics when you receive it! 

Those chessbazaar boards you posted are definitely not veneers; they're definitely more expensive than veneers would be. Veneer is paper-thin wood. Those are bona fide slices of wood. yay! I'm happy for you!

oh I see baddogno already explained the difference between veneer and inlaid. That board is real nice. I just looked again at your pieces at the top of the thread; that set is very large; those are 4.5" kings. That's big, real big. Make sure that those squares are going to be big enough for those pieces. It will be beautiful, no doubt, but you want to be sure there will be enough room to move your pieces comfortably, and to view them like the pieces of artwork they are 

A little update, the chessmen arrived today!

I bought this one: http://www.chessbazaar.com/chess-pieces/luxury-chess-pieces/staunton-triple-weight-club-chess-set-4q-bud-rose-wood.html

However the board I'm after (one posted above) is out of stock for a quite some time. So I was wondering whether going for a bud rosewood board would be ok. Would the colours clash too much? 

http://www.chessbazaar.com/chess-boards/bud-rose-wood.html

In particular either of the two 23" boards. What do you guys think?

Regards,

m12