Is the Chess Baron website Legitimate? For Official FIDE World Championship Chess Set?

Hi,

Has anyone bought items from chessbaron.com? Or has anyone bought the Official FIDE World Championship Chess Set from them?

I wanted to ask for your past experiences with this shop before purchasing this set from them. I just wanted to verify if this set was legitimate from them?

And, is there any difference between the set here at Chess Baron and the set here at World Chess Shop?

Thank you so, so much.

Mr_Pajama_Pantaloons

For what it's worth, the owner of ChessBaron is a member at chess.com. @bturner

I purchased the FIDE set from ChessBaron in June 2020. It was shipped quickly, was well packaged and the set was in excellent condition.  I have seen Chess.com forum posts indicating there are subtle differences between the original 2013 version of the set and the 2018 version. I think ChessBaron sold me the 2013 version, but I'm not certain.  The Certificate of Authenticity I received from ChessBaron indicates the set was obtained "through World Chess."

I would purchase from ChessBaron again.

An easy way to tell is the original 2013 World Chess Championship Chess set only came with 32 pieces (single Queens). And a horrible, flimsy interior cardboard insert holding the pieces. 

I also got the set from ChessBaron early last year. World Chess was then supposedly making only 200 of these sets every year, and when I was looking it was the only place to purchase one. Mine came on time, well packaged in a very sturdy cardboard box. The spaces to hold the pieces are a stiff foam, rather than the cardboard from earlier versions of the set. Mine look great and are lovely to play with. Baron is a very nice guy and emailed me when my brother also bought a set, and he was wondering about 2 sets to the same address. My brother promised him a photo but never got around to it. I have a new camera and am going to try to start a thread with all my chess treasures.

As to your original question, yes he is very legit and you can order from him with confidence.

I'll add to the growing chorus of "yesses" here. Chess Barron is legit, and sells the real deal. Enjoy.

I also bought this set from Chess Baron which was shipped to Canada without any issues. My set came with foam spaces in box for the pieces. Had a question on shipping and Baron answered my question quickly and offered to hold shipment and refund if I had an issue. Would highly recommend this seller if you are interested in this set.

He's not legit at all, my experience matches the 1 star reviews here:

https://ca.trustpilot.com/review/chessbaron.co.uk

I purchased the World Set from him and was sent damaged, probably used or unofficial merchandise. There were somewhat extensive scratches and wear on every piece, very strange for a bubble wrapped set, and several pieces had more severe damage

When reaching out about the damage on the pieces he simply asserted, without any evidence, that the quality was good and my standards were unreasonable, eg. "These chess pieces are marketed by World Chess Ltd. They are inspected by World Chess and meet their standards - that includes the box. They're made from a tree[...]"

An honest business person would likely inquire for photos and be open to and concerned about the possibility that something had gone wrong, whereas a person who knows they are scamming would be more likely to make bold claims to divert the issue without needing to ask any questions.

For a ~$500 set the pieces that don't come out good are meant to go in the defect bin, any scratches on the pieces should be minor, and the pieces should fit in the foam in the bottom (they don't)

Here's the box (looks repackaged), and the horse with a sizeable asymmetrical dent.
He offered to replace only the horse, which makes it seem not unlikely that he is repackaging.

Not sure why this guy can't seem to afford to do business right, if you have used pieces or pieces from the manufacturer's defect bin then sell them as such

Was waiting years to get such a nice set and I can tell you this is not $500 quality. He won't cover the cost of his fraud and wants me to pay return shipping and probably won't pay for my wasted time either. He also advertised free shipping to Canada from a .ca url, but then he selected for receiver to pay import fees.

I think he is dishonest and probably his business is struggling and or he is just very cheap and petty. I'd stay away, wish I just paid the full price. Beware of discounts..

Another satisfied customer here. I bought a travel set. It seemed really good quality to me, other than just one pawn had a flaw in the varnish. I contacted Baron and a replacement pawn turned up a few days later.

And now my second positive experience of ChessBaron. This time I was looking to buy one of the marble sets - a bit more of an outlay than the previous travel set that I bought, so I decided to read around for more reviews, and actually found a bad one, with pictures, from someone who bought exactly the set I intended to buy. That nearly put me off, but I decided to just ring Baron and discuss the review. I was imagining he might get defensive and criticise the reviewer, in which case I just wouldn't put in an order. Anyway, quite the opposite: he said something along the lines of "Yes, we had some problems with a previous batch. I don't think I dealt with it very well. It's made me realise that I need to make more effort to ensure customers are happy". That attitude made me feel safe to put in my order. It arrived today, and it's beautiful.

I did actually have one of the problems the reviewer mentioned: a pawn stuck to the lining of the box by a tiny blob of glue (the glue used to stick the felt pads on the bottom of the pieces), but it took not much more than a minute to completely remove the glue blob with a finger nail. There are also a few tiny chips in the marble of the pieces, but they are very difficult to see, and mostly, if anything, add to the character of the pieces. I'm very pleased with the set.

Avoid Chess Baron at all costs. This seller is rude, vulgar, and highly unprofessional.

Shop elsewhere. Not the most pleasant to deal with.

Wow - quite a spectrum of opinions here! I personally have had nothing but superb experiences buying from Chess Baron!

My Set was like d4Nf6's experience. Top notch with no flaws in mine, and no scratches, as the other fellow claimed on his set. Baron Turner has been quick to reply, checked in after arrival of items (email), and with a larger board I bought, I got the wrong one, but liked it better than my original choice.

They offered to solve it for me, but I was fine with the purchase. Somehow, the folks at the UK warehouse grabbed the wrong (same size board, just different layout) board. No biggey, but I KNOW after discussing this, they were ready to resolve my situation right away.

I also got two of their leather chess mats - VERY nice! The black and white one is my favorite, but I got one of each color, the other matches nicely a few boxwood/rosewood sets I have...

IMO, a fine company to deal with! Hey - free shipping to Canada?! hard to beat that - my deliveries (2 total - big board, then FIDE set/mats) all came within 4-5 days, shipped from the UK to Canada! No worries here...

Rookium (Rm)

I had a horrible bait-and-switch experience with these unspeakable b.a.s.s.t.u.r.d.s, documented in a previous thread in this forum. Never again!