Plastic pieces and mousepad mat - the way to go!

As much as I love nice wooden chessmen and boards - and that I do - I´ve in recent years become a convert. Or maybe a heretic? For I prefer a well made set of plastic Staunton pieces on a mousepad style chessboard when I play.

HoS Collectors Series or Best Chess Set Ever with 4´´ high kings on a board with 2 1/4´´ squares are just about perfect. According to HoS* the pieces are close replicas of the original Staunton set and if that is true the same goes for the Best Ever set since the pieces are really hard to tell apart. They both look and feel just about right and there´s nothing to distract one from what happens on the board.

As for boards I´m currently using this one:

It´s thin - 2 mm - and seems to hold up well. I´m so pleased with my experience that I now have ordered Soft Mouse Pad Style Tournament Chessboards from HoS. Of course I´ll still be fondling and love my wooden chess sets but, as already stated, the modern stuff is (probably) what I´ll use most of the time.

*The Collector Series Plastic Chess set has been crafted to replicate the design and proportions of the original Staunton pattern Chessmen, registered by Nathaniel Cooke in March of 1849 and first manufactured by Jaques of London in September 1849. The distinctive feature of this set is the the open-mitered Bishop and Knight design, which is modeled after the noble steeds from the Greek Parthenon (Elgin Marbles.)

What should we do? Ban this man? Temporary suspension?

Anything but the comfy chair...

Yes! I love my mousepad style board - why won't anyone manufacture smaller sizes with this material? I'd love a ~1.7" mousepad to use with my reduced size Chavet pieces!

A second on that idea, @natteh. I wonder if Shelby at ACE could maybe price it out if there were enough folks interested.

HoS Hastings in natural and red, ACE mousepad in wenge, lightwood, and rosewood.

Butters on an ACE mouspad in weathered grey and bubinga. Our @hermanjohnell knows what's up. That said, some mousepad combos go really well with wood, so...

Philippine Stauntons (from our man Holger) in narra and kamagong being played in an accelerated London on an ACE mousepad in camphor and oak. I hate the London because I haven't learned it yet and I'm right at the level where folks start playing a lot of the London for whatever reason. I have no idea what's going on and I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. But I'm waiting in style.

Interesting looking rooks. Can we get a close up?

There are many close-up photos in this thread. See post #16 specifically for rooks. https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/anyone-interested-in-4-6-philippine-staunton-chessmen-made-of-kamagong-and-narra-woo

Thanks nice work!!!

Some plastic is really hard to tell from wood...

No harm, no foul. I was just ribbing you. Cute ponies.

My House of Staunton by USCF mousepad boards arrived yesterday and while I won´t say that they make other chess boards obsolete they may be the ultimate boards for actual play.

A fairly nice plastic Zagreb set on a mousepad.

Wait -- those are PLASTIC?! Where in the world did you find them?

Amazon Link

Chess Sets for Club & Tournament Play

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell/chess-sets-for-club-tournament-play

https://www.chess.com/blog/RussBell

This green/white rollup board is now my go-to and, often as not, I grab some of my multi colored non weighted plastic pieces.

Weighted pieces are... heavier, but whats wrong with heavy enough pieces?

The board looks OK, but those pieces are BLEH!

Well, thats... an opinion, I guess and everyone is entitled to have one. Yours, however, is somewhat inarticulate (unless BLEH is some clever akronym that passes over my head). What´s your problem with the pieces? Their form, their colors , the material or something else? Please elaborate!