House of Staunton review

I agree, very good advice.  I know that I have very specific likes and dislikes when it comes to chess sets and I am pretty sure we are all like that to some degree.

editgrl: Plenty of good advice here. Especially CrimsonKnight's point that if your husband plays in tournaments, it's a tricky choice to make for him.

A friend once gave me a pricey wood set (>$100) and my heart sank because I feared some terrible non-standard set. It turned out to be a pretty decent set with 3.75" King. Apparently this one. But the wood board had 2" squares and was too cramped for me and the set is too nice for anything other than going over games on my own.

As others have said, be wary of buying a fancy set with ornate knights.

If your husband is an active player, you might consider getting a nice, inexpensive, no-frills wood set that's a clear cut above plastic, but absolutely standard and durable enough for regular play. It probably won't be the chess set of his dreams, but it's one he can knock about with proudly in club or tournament play and not have a heart attack if anything happens to it. Later you can discuss with him the real chess set he would love.

Here's a standard European-style tournament set:

German Knight Staunton Set - 3.75" King: $69.95

Here's a more American-style version:
French Lardy Staunton Set - 3.75" King: $79.95

Ebonized sets are more standard in American play with green/buff vinyl boards. The Europeans seem to go for the rosewood look and wood boards.

Thanks guys for the kind comments, but I remember when I was married my wife  (bless her heart) once bought me a set, and yes it was the marble one, and I couldn't ever use it, because I could not tell the queen from the bishops, nor pawns.

I gave the set to my brother. I like nicely carved knights, but they still have to be Staunton style. Even though I do not play in tournaments anymore.

Alas, after weight and balance, it's the knights that make or break a set for me.  I had an old, very cheap set years ago with "flat" knights, and to this day the DGT style knights just don't excite me at all.  I know the "big boys" use them in tournaments but I'd never spend money for a set which is obviously turned on a lathe with no hand work on the knights.  Don't get me wrong - for OTB play they are fine.  But for display or guarded personal use, I want some artwork on my wood.

So the point is, chess sets are a very personal choice, and very difficult to pick out, especially if you are spending a LOT of money.

I ended up buying the German Knight for myself after I couldn't find a decent plastic set to replace my old Drueke "Player's Choice" which had oddly enough become too valuable to play with in public.

The "flat" knight grew on me. But basically I like the set because it is a vanilla tournament standard, the pieces have a decent heft, and it's about as indestructible as a wooden set gets.

I understand.  I use my Drueke Players Choice #35 set for home analysis, and a Paladin set from Chesshouse as my tournament set.  They are nearly identical except the knights are nicer with the Drueke set.  Weights and balance are nearly identical.  Sadly, I do not have a nice wood set at home, nor do I have a good place to "display" one.  The flat knights on the wood sets just look "cheap" to me, although I've never played with such a set in person.

I was going to buy the DGT set and board as well , but the chess pieces are horrid to me, if I could have used my own chessmen, I may have gotten it, but for just an electronic board the price is silly. I like, the king to have options on his crown style, the Queen to have crisp sharp points on her crown, ( 2 needs to come with an expensive set ), the Bishops thiner mitres, but wide mouths, the Knights have to be pleasing to me as well, the Rooks unusual crenelations, they need to look good however. I also like them taller than the bishops and knights ( within the set, there is some leeway there though). Also the pieces can not be top heavy. Weighted as well. A couple of  really good examples of what I am talking about can be viewed at thechessstore.com. The Alexander set, and the Wellington set, I own the Wellington, and it is beautiful, its also less than the Andulsian set that I was thinking about getting, and its style is very comparable. So it is the best looking set for its price, I could find, for my personal preference. I am not trying to be a sales person here, everyone has their own personal tastes to certain degrees.

Also I like leather pads instead of billiad cloth personally, I like the click sound they make on the board, its just pleasing to me, and its a different feel too ( if the pieces are of high quality, billiad is acceptable to me, and thats how most come now anyway. ). The glue that secures either type needs to be the right type, and done right, because if you leave the pieces on your board, if the glue isn't done right, or its a poor quality glue, it will mark your board up, or even come unglued from the base. Yes I am very picky.

This past December, I purchased The Championship Series Chess Set and Board from HOS.  Literally, right out of the box, the white queen had a lose weight and rattled.  And the rosewood King wobbled and would not sit flat on the board.  As the purchase fell under their 21-day return policy, they sent out an RMA label and I sent the defective pieces back.  After a few business days, my replacement pieces arrived.  At this point, I'm thinking this is an isolated incident.

March 2014 - Through no abuse while using this set, I noticed now a boxwood pawn had a hairline crack from the bottom and running up the side!  Clearly, I am not outside of HOS's 21-day return policy.  So to send this pawn back, it cost me $8.51.  A few days later, I receive a call from HOS requesting $4.00 to pay for their shipping to get my replacement pawn back to me!

I own three other sets (thankfully purchased elsewhere), made out of the same materials (boxwood and rosewood), of varying price points, that have had absolutely no problems.  Each set being over 5-years old with the oldest, nearly 10-years old.  No extra special care and they are flawless.  After my initial complaint, their customer service rep told me because I live in Arizona the dryness is likely the contributing factor as to why these pieces are exhibiting the problems they are having.  If that's the case, then my other pieces should be falling apart by now! 

This set is clearly inferior and on top of that, HOS will not stand behind their products if the customer has to pay for shipping defective pieces to them, then having to pay to have them ship the pieces back!

April 2014 – Boxwood queen now has a hairline crack!  I have lost complete faith that there is any quality to this set that I purchased just 4 ½ month ago.  Yes, this set has a 1-year warranty, but by the time I end up replacing every single light colored piece in this set, I might as well have bought me a far better set!!!  This set is complete garbage!  Now this, after I purchased a humidifier. 

I requested my money back on this garbage set but of course they will not honor a deeply unsatisfied customer, stating that as the set is now over 4-months old, this would not be possible.  In this instance, HOS send me a replacement queen without requesting that I send back my defective piece.  Show of good faith.  Let’s see what they show next!

May 3^rd, 2014 – Just when I thought I had weeded out all the bad pieces from this set, I was playing this past Saturday when to my disbelief I noticed the rosewood king and one of the bishops is hair lined cracked too!  I’m sure they will want me to send both pieces back so that they can “color match” for replacements – all at my expense. 

I cannot emphasize enough how regretful I am with this purchase.  Buyer's remorse doesn't even begin to describe my frustration.  It is getting to the point that I don't even want to look at this set anymore in fear that I will see yet another and another and another piece that has cracked.  At the rate that this set needs replacements, especially on my dime, I might as well have bought me a much better set – elsewhere!  In the end, this set will probably cost me double (or more) what I paid for it.  Will I ever buy from HOS again?  I won’t waste my keystrokes answering that question. 

I closed one of my emails to HOS customer service with this paragraph, “If you were the customer, how would you feel?  What would you expect after the experiences I have had with this combo set and the HOS?  Would you be happy to continue paying shipping costs as each piece continues to crack?

Nice website but buyers beware!

just had great experience with HOS. (managed to get a NY 1924 4 inch king on ebay for $300) . Their online help was excellent esp needed as I am in australia. i recommend them

Here are a couple:

Hey guys, a while back I bought a chess set from uscf sales, which is interconnected with house of staunton. A few days after my order, my debit card was hacked, so I think that POSSIBLY somebody from these companies might have gotten a hold of my debit card info... what do u guys think?

Someone from the CIA (American spies) probably sold it on the side. Many are corrupt.

I made these dorky pics back when I got The Sultan 4.4"(they are black and ivory lacquered), yeah, I know, I'm a duffus.

Your set is not that bad looking IMO. I don't like the Stark contrast between the black & the snow white pieces though. The Europeans are way ahead of us in pieces that go together like peas & carrots. I.E. the nice honey brown & the boxwood pieces are fantastic in practice. We seem stuck with pure black pieces & boxwood pieces.

They aren't "snow white", and actually when I bought them, that's what I wanted(just 'white').  But the pieces are more of an off white/ivory color.  They look so white for two reasons, one may be the filters i used to sharpen up the images(even though I tried to keep the set looking true to it's real color, and these pics are what the set looks like).  And, two, The board is not white, it's bird's eye maple, which is a REALLY white wood, but it's wood.

It all comes together pretty good, it's far from a high end set.

I suffer serious clock, board and set envy every time I see your pics, Frank.  

TheChessStore.com is another good online chess store with lots of nice chess pieces and sets at all price points.

For the money, I particularly like their "Exclusive Staunton" pieces which are a nicely executed classic Staunton design.  They come in several different sizes, types of woods, including ebony and ebonized boxwood.  

The pieces are also available in many combo sets (board+pieces).  

Simply good quality at reasonable prices (i.e., not exorbitant).  Worth checking out IMO.

http://www.thechessstore.com/search/keywords/exclusive%20staunton