Help needed to identify Russian? chess pieces.
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Hello fellow chess players and collectors. I am looking for some help identifying chess pieces. Will upload pictures when I found the right button.
Thanks Pamvo7, appreciate the screenshot! My interface is on IPad and it just looks blank, 1 line to enter text, nothing else. Will need to try pc when I get to it , sorry, will take a while.
BjoernWissling wrote:
Thanks Pamvo7, appreciate the screenshot! My interface is on IPad and it just looks blank, 1 line to enter text, nothing else. Will need to try pc when I get to it , sorry, will take a while.
You can just go to imgur and upload your pictures there, post links here...
The web interface does the trick, app did not. Just purchased those in Germany, they haven’t arrived yet. Interestingly crosses on kings not opposite color, might have been replaced original finials? Seller doesn‘t know if the set is 10 years or 40+ years old. The book from Eugène Snosko-Borowsky was first published 1939, it is the 4th edition, I believe meanwhile thee are 20. If every update on edition is 4-5 years then we might look at a set from the mid 1950s?
Any help to ide tidy is welcome! Cheers from Seattle and thank you!
A very beautiful find and fingers crossed they soon arrive 
It is soviet for what little I know, could be as early as 1940, as one set I have was dated around 1940 and it has king, ferz and horse matching yours closely in style. ( https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/a-beautiful-soviet-or-eastern-european-set )
Also, the other pieces are shaped in ways that fit in with the many forms appearing in the wealth of soviet chess sets. Chuck Grau's blog Soviet and Late Tsarist Chess Sets must be mentioned as it is incredible, referring much to collected sets, old photographs and networks of collectors and also sellers, in what really is a historical group effort.
You are right in that cross finials are normally not found on Russian sets. You may be able to tell more about whether these king's finials look like they were replaced when you hold them in your hands. Book and board need not be related at all to the pieces. But maybe you will find a stamp inside the board.
Jan 11, 2024
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#7
Great find! The set is often referred to as an 'acorn' set. The cross finials on your light kings do not have the opposing color while the finial on your light queen does. So it looks to me that the crosses aren't original.
Attached a photo by @cgrau from his gallery:
Gallery – Soviet and Late Tsarist Chess Sets (sovietchesssets.com)
Thank you @ungewichtet and @broomstuck! That‘s wonderful information. It‘ll take some time until I‘ll have them in my hands (mid March) as they will be hand-carried from Germany to the US. And then it‘ll take some effort to clean them up and tbd restore the finials. Will add further pictures later then.
