Noj Dubrovnik II Chess Sets

As of this past Thursday I now own one of each of the 3 colors or wood types that Noj currently sells of the Dubrovnik II Chess set.

I've been meaning to take pictures and start a topic, but the light conditions were either too poor or I was busy doing something else and didn't get the pictures taken.

Today there was a post in a different thread asking me:

 Earlier maik 1988 asked me what boards and sizes I thought would work best and also which of the sets I would suggest buying.

So, I decided to go ahead and write this with stock pictures from the Noj site.

I feel that I am now qualified to give a good opinion of which wood or color to buy for the various specific needs and uses since I now own them all.

I owned up to 34 different wood Chess sets and without a doubt this set was my favorite to use for play.  The individual pieces are not as pretty as the Jaques pieces but for some reason this set works great to the best during play.  I understand why Bobby Fischer liked this design so much.

The first set I bought in May of 2010.  This was the Dubrovnik in Walnut and Maple.  Back then there was no original 1950 so now this model is called the Dubrovnik II.  It was a number of weeks ago that I noticed the collar on both Walnut Queens had a chip in it, or them.  This was when I emailed Gregor and he told me he would replace both Queens at no charge whatsoever.  And this was after 7 1/2 years that I got the set!  I did send him one of the chipped Queens and he matched the wood color perfectly.  Looking at the set it looks as if the replacement Queens were made and provided at the same time as the rest of the set.

The Walnut is a harder and more brittle feeling wood than the Maple.  And whenever I pulled the pieces from the padded and partitioned box I kept it in, the collars felt a little edgy and kind of sharp.  This Walnut set is now relegated to slower time controls and I have added extra padding for the Queens for all my sets to prevent chipping.

I bought the Red stained Dubrovnik II set just a little over 2 years ago because Red is my favorite color and at the time getting a Red Dubrovnik set was all the rage.  There was no way I was going to be happy with the DB set because of the color bleeding and also I do not like their piece designs for this set.  So, I got the Noj set in Red.  Now, not all my opponents are excited about playing with Red pieces so I don't find myself bringing this set to play rated games with much at all.  However I really like this set and there is no way I would ever sell it.

When my Walnut Queens chipped and Gregor made a trial Queen with the collar edges rounded.  The Queen did not look like a Dubrovnik Queen should and Gregor felt this would not prevent the collars from chipping.  Well, I remembered watching Bobby Fischer analyze and play blitz with his set in videos.  He was pretty rough with those pieces and they never suffered from it.  I then noticed that those dark pieces were not a dark wood, but stained brown.

This is when I emailed Gregor asking what he thought about me getting their Brown stained Dubrovnik II set.  He agreed saying that the European Maple was a more durable wood and in his opinion would hold up better during play than the Walnut.  So, I ordered and bought this set which just arrived 4 days ago.

Here is the picture from the Noj site of the Brown stained pieces:

.My set has the pieces being a much darker Brown.  So much darker that I at first wondered if they were not Black.  Of course on further inspection they are a nice, dark Brown.

The collars of the pieces also do not have that edgy feeling.  In fact when I handle the pieces I have extreme confidence that they will indeed not chip.  This is what Bobby Fischer's set must have felt like.  Of course I bet Bobby's set was not weighted where this one is lightly and nicely weighted.  The pieces are certainly not too heavy and not feather light either.

I never thought I would say this but if you must get only one Noj Dubrovnik II set then I feel you should get it in the Brown Stain.

This set goes along with a 2.13" folding Walnut and Maple board made by Ferrer in Spain and sold by Wholesale Chess.  With a holiday Sale I paid something like $80 to $90 for the board and it works excellently with this Brown set.  I also have a Chess House Flex Pad board in green and a Butterman board in Walnut.

Maik wanted to know the dimensions.  I just pulled my set out and am measuring the pieces:

The King height is 91 mm and the base is 39mm

The Queen is 78mm x 38mm

The Bishop is 74mm x 34mm

The Knight is 65mm x 33mm

The Rook is 53mm x 33mm

The Pawn is 45mm x 30mm

The set fits perfectly on a 54mm or 2.13" square size board.

It also works very well on a 2.25" square size board and I have put it on a 2.0" size board to a good effect.  But I prefer the 2.25" and of course the 2.13" over the 2.0" size.

The House of Staunton has what they call a prototype of their Deluxe bag on sale for $30.  This is like the original Deluxe bag with bandoliers or loops in the front compartment to hold a set.  Well i got one of these bags and use it to hold what I call my Ultimate, Every Day Carry Chess Set Up.

So, in this bag I have put my original Ultimate Plastic set in the bandolier loops.  My Brown Stained Noj Dubrovnik II set is in the main compartment in a well padded, flat Plano tackle box.  I have the folding Walnut, 2.13" Ferrer board from Wholesale Chess in the board area and carry a Green Wholesale Chess Flex Pad board, a Walnut Butterman board and a Green thin flexible mousepad board from American Chess Equipment.  If I feel the game might get too rough I will use the plastic Ultimate set.  Otherwise the Noj Dubrovnik II will handle the play very well.  I also decided to carry 2 Chess clocks as well.  Both clocks are V-Tek 300 models.  One is black with red buttons added and the other is the White color.  So you see why I call this my Ultimate, Every Day Carry Chess Set Up.

Many thanks for that, Eye, especially the dimensions. Regarding the colour: You've certainly given me something to think about. It's a thing with the Noj website, I think, that their woods look much lighter in colour there than in real life. I'd certainly look forward to any comparative pictures you could post on here with the different coloured dubrovnik pieces. I think I'm really jealous you have all three

p.s. I just made a comparison with the 3,5 inch king set I have from Official Staunton and I think that 2,25 inch squares would be good for this dubrovnik set as well. Admittedly, the king would have a little bit more space (39 mm to the 40 mm from the OS set), but the other dimensions are very close or the same. In fact, the queens, bishops and knights have exactly the same width on these sets. The rooks from the OS set are 2 mm wider, while the pawns are only 1 mm wider on the 3,5 inch king set. 

That's really interesting to me, since so many people suggested to pair the dubrovnik set with a 55 mm square board, while I feel that the OS set I have would really be too cramped there.

We'll see. I thought it was interesting to note. All of this is the byproduct, of course, of me having too much time on my hands on being too impatient to actually receive this set.

As requested here are pictures of my Dubrovnik II sets and 2 board sizes:

The first 2 pictures are of my new, Brown stained Dubrovnik II on the 2.13" or 54mm folding Ferrer board I bought from Wholesale Chess.

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Next are the dark Brown pieces on a 2.25" FlexPad board from The Chess House.

And the last 2 pictures are the Walnut, Brown stained and Red stained Noj Dubrovnik II Kings and Queens along with one set of the Maple King and Queen for color comparison.

Thanks for the pictures! The brown stain looks very very dark here. I know that that's probably because of the camera used, because I've also seen pictures of brown-stained dubrovnik II pieces that didn't look that dark. I think I like the red and walnut slightly more. The walnut/maple contrast especially looks really nice and soft/easy on the eyes. If I do change my order of maple and walnut in the future, perhaps I'll pick red instead, also because I don't play rated games with anyone and wouldn't have to contend with people's objections. I personally would never object to those!

@Eyechess: How about posting a picture of the brown stained set in natural sunlight? Those pieces are looking as you said almost black from the photos you provided. The natural daylight would give a better perspective overall of the staining method Noj currently uses for the brown version of the Dubrovnik II. Thanks!

I wouldn’t be concerned about players objections to red pieces.  If you are in a tournament and you are paired with someone who has white, you have the choice of which set to use.  I don’t think there’s a FIDE color code requirement.

I would prefer the Dubrovnik II with 4” king.  That way, the pieces are very playable on 2.25”, 2.375, and 2.5” boards.  Much more flexibility.

I am out of town for a couple of days, but read the above posts before leaving this morning.  So I grabbed my bag with the Noj Dubrovnik II Brown stained set.  The place I am working has sunlight coming in the afternoon into large glass windows, plus I believe I should have a window of opportunity either this afternoon or tomorrow to snap some pictures, and I will.

Actually the 3.6" Dubrovnik II size set plays extremely well.  And it works just fine on a 2.25" board.  Bobby Fischer used it that way all the time.

It also works very well on a 2.375" board and pretty well on a 2.0" board.  That's a lot of flexibility.

I understand people thinking they want the 4" size and realize that everyone has their own tastes.  However, I am just a bit concerned that the larger sized pieces might not handle as well during a game as the original size of 3.6" King height.

I believe Chuck Grau has a 4" King version of the Noj Dubrovnik II.  I wonder what he thinks of it and if he has an original sized 3.6" version to compare.  Of course if there is anyone else out there that has handled  both sizes, I would be curious to get their opinion.

For those interested in the scaling of sets and boards, I have taken Eyechess' measurements on his new NoJ Dubrovnik set and run them through my dimension table spreadsheet for 2"(51mm), 2.13"(54mm), and 2.25"(57mm) chess boards.

The first table is for the 2"(51mm) board. This would be my preference, as the scaling factors for this board align perfectly with the scaling formulas I've posted in the past (Kd=76.5%, Pd=58.6%).

Next, for the 2.13"(54mm) board:

And finally, for the 2.25"(57mm) board. You'll notice here that the scaling factor for the king (@ 68.4%) falls below the 72-73% recommended figure by both FIDE and the USCF.

This is great, Lou.

I don't have a 2.0" board with me today and tomorrow but I do have the Walnut folding, Ferrer board from Wholesale Chess and a 2.25" Flexpad board from The Chess House with me.  Of course those are also the boards in the above pictures with my different colored wood sets.

However, Glen Butterman did have some 2.0" boards made for me and I have used my Dubrovnik II sets on them before.

I think that the upper sizing and dimensions of the pieces also can and do matter.  This is why I feel the set is just a bit cramped on the 2.0" board.  I personally much prefer the 2.12" and 2.13" board sizes with this set.

Because of this I use the wood, magnetic - 4 piece, 55mm square boards from BCE for my Walnut and Red Dubrovnik II sets.  And of course the Walnut board is 54mm.

@ Eyechess and Lou: I also think that the relative dimensions matter. For instance, the pawns on a set are half the army and they will, therefore, dictate to a considerable degree how a set "looks" on a board. I don't know whether that's quantifiable in numbers or sheer board presence. The OS set I have has very wide pawns and its king too, falls slightly short of the USCF guideline with 40 mm/57 mm = 70% (for a 57 mm square board). Now perhaps a 55 mm square board might work as well for that set, but any lower than that, to me at least, would simply look off. Then there's the thickness, or bulbousness, of the bases of the pieces to take into consideration to some degree.. 

Eye & Maik,

In most chess sets, the design of the back row pieces is usually well balanced, you don't see too many sets where the queen is taller than the king, etc. It's in the design of the pawns where many sets go astray -- they're either too tall or too short, too wide or too narrow, leaving you with the impression that the pieces and pawns look like they came from two different size sets.

I based my analysis on the premise that any sets I would be interested in would have a well balanced back row. In other words, the queen, bishop, knight, & rook would be dimensionally balanced with respect to the king. Thus, to make sure that the design of the pawns fit the rest of the set, I'd only had to make sure that the king and pawns fit with each other.

The next step was in selecting a board whose dimensions fit within USCF and FIDE guidelines, which specifies a king diameter between 73-78% the size of the square. Since I was never fond of FIDE's "four pawns to the square" rule when selecting a chess board. I found when two pawns, placed diagonally, just fit inside the square to be a near ideal size, which of course is purely subjective.

The calculations help to select a board closest to standard guidelines. If the set is too tall or too short, if the pieces are too wide or too narrow, then feel free to move up or down to the next size chess board. Always go with what looks best to you, regardless of what any guideline or formula says.

What keeps us tethered to India as the main supplier of new chess sets? It's not the turning of the pieces and bases. That could easily be done with a multi-axis CNC lathe. It's not the exotic woods of the Indian subcontinent. What with red sandalwood banned for over a decade and the rosewoods joining the list, these could easily be replaced with quality American hardwoods. It's the carving of the knight heads that keeps us buying the imported sets. Figure out a way for a CNC lathe to make an intricate knight, or go with a simpler knight design that can already be done on a good lathe, and you open the door for the return of American (and British) made chess sets.

P.S. Stauntonmaster brings up a good point about CB and other Indian suppliers claiming that all the sets they're shipping into the U.S. are 'samples' of nominal value. This ruse alone avoids a $30 customs fee that FedEx and UPS charge on every commercial invoice. And this is over and above any tariffs levied by the government. This alone would add at least $30 to cost of every CB chess set, regardless of price. This is the same $30 charge that American resellers pay, per invoice, when they import their sets from overseas. Which isn't a big deal for them if they're importing 50 to 100 sets at a time.

I'm a loyal customer of CB for a long time. I'm not sure about the past orders but I've checked the shipping invoice of my recent order & they have put the unit value of $366. I've also noticed that they have changed their shipping carrier from Fedex to DHl. Anyways I've ordered Arabian knight chess set with a chess case which I'll review it later.

This is a topic about the Noj Dubrovnik II Chess set.  Please do not post about other companies or products.

Here are some pictures I just took of my Noj Dubrovnik II Brown stained set on a 2.13" folding Walnut board made by Ferrer of Spain.

It is cloudy out today but the windows go from the floor to the ceiling so are complete, giving a good daylight.

Noj, nobody does it better.

Makes me feel sad for the rest.

Nobody does half as good.

Baby, they're the best...

I never would've taken you for a literary guy, Eye, perhaps we should discuss Shakespeare sometime.

Lovely pieces. 

Love that board Ron. I have one also, although I somehow managed to scratch mine in two places.

Of course that set looks perfect on it, like they were made to go together.

(Sorry, I originally put Chuck, forgetting it was Ron showing the board.)

Thank you Eyechess the second to last photo really shows the deep brown staining quite well. Now you have me thinking about changing my order for 2018, I may just get the Dubrovnik II in brown stain and call it a day. I really like the heft of the red stained one I have just received last month. Totally in agreement with you that it plays extremely well.