How the Official FIDE World Championship Chess pieces are carved. New video.

Saw this video posted in my YouTube feed yesterday on 7/3/21. They say less than 10 people are trained to carve the 250 official sets each year. Which explains why the repro sets always look sort of wonky and slightly off to me. 

It's interesting to see not one hand chisel or gouge used in the carving. It's all power tools. I'm sure this helps with production speed and uniformity. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Tg9xiJ6D6k

Very nice video! I like to watch how they make the pieces even using specially shaped chisels. thanks for posting!

I really don't think the $500 price tag is warranted at all. The basic shape of that horse sticking its head out of the toilet is far simpler to make than alot of the more detailed knights in sets that go for a hell of a lot cheaper.

@jacmater  Although I'm not a fan of those "cutter" blades, I can see how in a factory environment with numerous carvers churning out the same piece one after the other, and then all placed into a shared communal pool of pieces, uniformity is key. The 4 bishops in a set of pieces could've been carved by 4 different carvers. Much different than a single wood worker, carving each piece of a set from start to finish. But man,, those cutter blades go through that boxwood like a hot knife through butter. Mesmerizing to watch. 

@Tank1366 Not sure why the video said $500. These sets are currently $300 usd. These sets do trigger strong opinions so I won't try to convince you otherwise, but from a technical standpoint, in some ways it's easier to carve a moderately intricate design than this simplified form with curves and angles. The simplified angled curves of the Knight are a nightmare to match from piece to piece. There's zero room for error. Again, this is from a technical standpoint. Whether one likes the look of the Knight or not is a different matter. And I respect the differing opinions on that.

@Pawnerai I'm fairly positive that the $500 quoted by narrator is for the Set which includes the board as well and not solely the pieces. 

Also I've seen videos of other chess manufacturers and they all use the same basic methods. The pieces are done via lathe using calipers and metal "molds". The knights are done using dremels. The only difference I really see in this video is that the knights are one piece and not a 2 piece knight and pedestal. 

SC's manufacturer

There is also a BBC video similar to the OP that features The Chess Empire. 

Ah. In hindsight, you're totally right about the $500 for the chess pieces and board set. I've completely blocked that ill-fitting 2" square board out of my mind, I forgot about that option. Hah! 

I'm sure you've seen Noj videos. No profile-shaped cutter blades in that workshop. From the videos I've seen, using these cutter blades is industry standard at this price point. They are definitely a step up from the machine made Chavet and Roz sets. 

I posted this video, more to show the making of the World Championship Sets, (which I've never seen a video of) rather than anything groundbreaking in the chess making industry.

Cool video. Thanks for sharing. Personally I really like the set except for the knights. I think it would have been better with a traditional Chavet knight. The one-piece feature of the knight is nice though. The only draw back is cracking. It is much easier to replace a cracked base with with 2-piece knights.

I wonder if "Girdharilal Chopra Agents Private Limited" is a shell company connected to one of the larger online retail manufacturers in Amritsar. CB, SC, CE, RCM, etc.

@DennisPetersen  Give Aditya Chopra (Export Director) a call! 

Intersting, I just saw that video few hours ago and then open chess.com and boom there is a forum on that video.

I wonder how the the situation with Dennis is playing out. It seems like there is a gag order in place.

Thank you for sharing the video. It gives me a perspective of the time and effort to produce chess pieces that are worthy to be selected as official pieces used at the championship level.

Sorry for reviving an old thread. It’s a good video as far as the footage of the chess being carved. There isn’t enough of that. I am an amateur wood carver and I try to make chess pieces from wine bottle corks, or from wood. I found that often there just needs to be a demonstration of what is the most efficient way to make some sort of common object, and especially a knight from chess. But apart from that the video simply sensationalizes the chess figure, chessmen carving process as something borderline mystical. 

I think most wood carvers can make a chess knight. They just don’t have a need to after making a couple of chess sets. The video almost seems to be providing a justification why a chess piece should cost $500. I am n on arguing with the price , if someone is willing to pay that, but I think the average cost for the time and skill to learn how to carve chess is still pretty low. The more time you get, the nicer the chessmen will be. I am saying this to explicitly criticize the large markup the bosses of companies put in manufactured chess pieces, and the relatively low price, some of them are offering for this work.