Rare Fischer Dubrovnik Pic

Seems Bobby Fischer, here at an older age, still played a Dubrovnik type chess set. Was it stolen like everyone thinks, but not sure ?

pic deleted. 

His personal set was definitely stolen as Fischer made a lot of fuss about it, see a transcript of one of his radio interviews:

http://www.bestchessmenever.com/blog/files/fischer-about-dubrovnik.html

-Izmet

That certainly is not the set that he was photographed or filmed with in the early 1970s.

Thank you. Although it is then not the 70's set he had, we still found this photo very interesting that it seems to be a Dubrovnik as well looking at the bishops. Wonder what happened to this set in the picture and if it was a Dubrovnik as well.

Yes, but it is a Dubrovnik made in the Nineties, maybe from Subozan, Subotica. These cheap replicas were quite common in the region, including Hungary. (Subotica itself is quite close to the Hungarian border.) Most probably it's something like this (although I'm not sure this particular one was done at Subozan):

-Izmet

Thank you again and truely very interesting on the various Dubrovnik type sets and how he then obviously obtained this one in the first photo after his 70's set was stolen. Truely was a loyalist to the Dubrovniks. Still makes us wonder though what happened to the set in the first picture since it was not the one that was stolen. Not sure who he's playing with in the photo ?

It's Susan Polgar.

If you zoom in and examine Fischer's Knight closest to the viewer then it doesn't resemble any Dubrovnik Knight I've ever seen. What do you think gents?

Rather akin to this currently available set.

http://www.chessgamesshop.com/index.php?c=13&p=42

yeah, doesn't look like a Dubrovnik knight...

BTW, notice they are playing Fischer Random Chess (or Chess960)

EDIT: JackieMatra appears to have correctly identified the set. I guess it's a Dubrovnik after all...

FrankHelwig wrote:

yeah, doesn't look like a Dubrovnik knight...

BTW, notice they are playing Fischer Random Chess (or Chess960)

EDIT: JackieMatra appears to have correctly identified the set. I guess it's a Dubrovnik after all...

Very true, well spotted Jackie and yes, I did notice that they were playing random...also that the Rooks apparently had four crennelations. Cheers lads, John C. 😎

Thank you for the link. Interesting comment quoted here from the provided link that the pieces are made of Hornbeam and were used in the 1992 rematch with Fischer and Spassky.

"Quality wooden chess pieces, felt base

Weighted, double coated!
Tournament size
Material: Hornbeam

These chessmen are considered to have significant historical importance and are a timeless design classic.

World champion Bobby Fischer bought a Dubrovnik set in 1970 and later proclaimed it his favourite chess set ever. By his request, the set was shortly reissued in 1992 for the second time and used again in Fischer/Spassky world championship rematch. This is the later version of Dubrovnik chess set, world known design. "

"the pieces are made of Hornbeam and were used in the 1992 rematch with Fischer and Spassky"

Nowhere on the referenced webpage is the above claim made.

Hello,

I own two of them (in order to have extraqueens if needed) and the pro version with a dubrovnik knight style.

They are far from the original. And they look somewhat cheap, but at the same time I found it a very welll balanced set to play. Maybe the king base is a bit thin, but they are very stable even playing blitz.

A really nice set to push wood fast and hit the table with.

The rooks and bishops are really great and it is much cheaper than the noj. For me it is more than enough for the moment, and the they are the reason because I haven't considered to purchase the noj.

From my point of view they are better than the chessbazaar ones (I own a crimson CB).

Also, in my opinión they are only suitable for 5cm square chessboards.

Sorry for the bad quality of the photos and the silly looks of the chessboards ( I hand made all of them)

Seems the advertisement was then a play on words, but a bit confusing, however, based on the nice photos that szocio shared, we rather like the set szocio pictured and the handmade green and white board he made. We like the sets rather similar relationship to Fischer in 1992 & later years. Still wonder where Fischer might have purchased this later Dubrovnik remake set from and where that set is now.

Scozio, great job on the boards! I'd love to see more pictures of them!

Boards? Who cares?

I suffered from some kind of "mental illness" and started making chessboards one after another. I have given away most of them, but 3 50mm and 2 55mm that I still keep at home.

They are really cheap to make, less than 10$ each one, so no worry about smashing them.

I prefer this kind of cheap sets (like this dubro) which fit perfectly with these chessboards.  It's great to play with them.

I bet, there must be second hand sets to find locally and local shops (without internet pages) which sell good Dubro reproductions. A pity I live so far from there...

Thanks for the pictures. Do you have any more of your production process? How do you go about making them? I've made some with masking tape and spray paint. I can post some pics, if you'd like.