NOJ 1950

There are a lot of us who love the Dubrovnik and many who just can't stand them.  That being said, I ordered an NOJ 1950 Dubrovnik as a graduation present for myself for finishing law school.  Just like chess my law school career has had its ups and downs, but regardless we do it for the love.  so here it is.

Congratulations on finishing law school, Alex! That is a really nice looking set. One great thing about this is that for the rest of your life, whenever you play with this nice set, you will not only enjoy it for what it is (a beautiful set), but you will also think about the milestone in your life that it signifies for you. Very cool. 

Yes, congratulations Alex.  Graduating law school is a major accomplishment.

And congratulations on getting this excellent Chess set.  I am sure you will enjoy playing Chess with it for many years.

I've seen it referred to many times, but don't know - what does "NOJ" refer to?  Thank you.

P.S. Congratulations Alex on graduating Law School and on the purchase of your very nice chess pieces!

Enthusiastic kudos on your accomplishment & purchase.  Perhaps you can become a chess lawyer 

Russ, it's a small Slovenian family business that makes pens and chess sets. https://www.noj.si/

Congrats, Alex, on both counts!

congratulations on both the graduation and the chess set

Thank you cgrau....I had been wondering about this....!

 Yes, the owner is Gregor Novak.  Gregor's brother works with him and their father, who is retired, comes in to do the finish work on the pieces; staining, sanding and varnishing.  I believe that is to total of their workforce.

Here is a direct quote from their "about us" page that I just copied and pasted:

"Noj Ltd. is family owned company with it's begginigs dated to 1979. We started with a production of wooden games (specialy lower-priced chess sets), but found new line of products in 1994 when cooperation with important furniture fittings manufacturer began.

Today we combine serial production with a a manual manufacture of wooden chess sets and fountain pens. Yeah, enough reasons for waking up every morning with a big smile!"

Of the 26 or so wood sets that I own, the 4 Noj produced sets are the finest in manufacture and finish, without a doubt.

Since they are in Slovenia the woods they use are European woods.  European Walnut and Maple are the woods they use for their pieces.

They got the rights to duplicate the Dubrovnik sets.  If I recall correctly they used to have a different person carve the knights and now Gregor and/or his brother carve them.

They are definitely a small shop with a limited production number.  They make pens for the European market as well as Chess sets.  And they only make one design of set at a time.  They were making something like 8 Dubrovnik II sets when they made mine, for instance.  And it was going to be quite awhile after they finished that run before they would get back to making the Dubrovnik II again.

Last year, 2015, they finished the Dubrovnik II sets right around Labor Day.  They were making other sets and then got into my GM Pavasovic design and finished it in December.  I do know that they have a few months in the spring when they are making pens and no chess sets.

The sets they sell are definitely not inexpensive.  They have raised their prices since last year by 50 Euros a set to 100 Euros per set.  The GM Pavasovic and Portoroz sets used to be 50 Euros less expensive than the Dubrovnik II in Walnut which was 448 Euros.  Now these three sets all list for 498 Euros.

But, once you own a Noj produced set you never want for any other of that design.

Very interesting background info on NOJ.  Thanks Eyechess!