Review - World Chess Studio Set - Chess Forums

zbieraj

Dec 27, 2021

0

#1

Hi,

I would like to present you my little review of the World Chess Studio Set (Chess Club Pieces and Folding Chess Board) which I recently have purchased. I decided to separate each of the set’s elements into subcategories in the review, in case if someone would like to purchase only the pieces or only the board. In the end, I am also writing about the whole set.

©World Chess

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Here you can find the list of the points I will talk about, so you can skip to the one you want.

1. Why did I make the purchase?
2. Unboxing.
3. The chess set.
4. Conclusion.

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1. Why did I make the purchase?

I think that the context of the purchase might be quite interesting for some. Maybe you will find yourself in a similar situation.

So half a year ago I bought the World Chess Academy Set which contained the plastic copies of the World Chess Pieces a.k.a. World Chess FIDE Set. The purpose of that purchase was for outdoor playing or taking the chess to the workplace and playing with my work colleagues during Friday Bars.

I immediately become in love with the plastic set. As an architect, I really enjoyed a modern recreation of Staunton design and the proportions of the pieces, all designed by Daniel Weil. Moreover, this set is probably one of the best sets overall (wood and plastic) regarding ergonomics.

I have even written a review of it here:

Review - World Chess Official Academy Chess Set

However, two factors became slightly „off” for me (personally) regarding that amazing plastic set.

Contrast - pure black and white pieces are a slight problem for me due to working in front of big screens all week. Because of those conditions, I could miss some positions in this high-contrast monochromatic setup. Again, it is fine probably for most people, but my eyes are in recent months more and more tired. I still recommend the set though!
Still, wood is wood and plastic is still plastic. Like I wrote in the review, World Chess offers probably the best plastic set in the world. And true - it is even better than the cheapest, low-quality wooden pieces. But still, it would be great to have the same set in wood.

Moreover, recently I had, unfortunately very short, opportunity to use the World Chess FIDE Set and I immediately realized that in my opinion, it is the ultimate set. Period. I even wrote most of the review of it, however, I had to give it back (this was a truly sad moment), so the review is waiting for „better times”.

So I was wondering what I can do right now to solve two issues at the same time: have a portable chess set, like the Academy one, preferably made of wood, but with the ergonomics and the design of the World Chess FIDE set. So I decided to buy the World Chess Studio Set.

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2. Unboxing.

Like before, I bought the chess set directly from World Chess. As always, the customer service was amazing. The ordered package has been delivered by the courier within less than two working days.

In my humble opinion, the names of the products should be simplified. The whole set is called Studio Set. But the pieces are called Club Pieces and the board is called Official Folding Chess Board. I think that in the Studio Set, we should have the Studio Pieces and Studio Board.

The box containing the Club Pieces is made of really thick, solid cardboard. Solid enough that I absolutely trust the safety of the pieces inside, whereas many other companies use very thin and fragile cardboard to secure their products. I have seen this already many times and I wish that the producers and distributors using this recyclable material would follow the World Chess approach.

©Zbieraj - Piotr Zbierajewski

After opening the box the first thing you will see is the pouch for the pieces (called „weekend bag” on the website). I will go back to it later in the review.

©Zbieraj - Piotr Zbierajewski

Underneath there are the pieces. Secured with bubble wrap plastic foil. I like the fact that the box is designed to precisely hold its content in a secure way, where the pouch and the pieces’ foils are making the space super tight. So you can be sure that the pieces will arrive to you safely.

©Zbieraj - Piotr Zbierajewski

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3. The chess set

The pouch

Let’s get back to the pouch. I think it is made of some kind of poly-nylon material. The choice of colours is great. Black and light grey will match most of the interiors. There is also an official World Chess label on one of the sides. A really nice touch. The zipper is solid. The zipper’s handles are not so solid though, but I don’t see that as a problem at all. I mean just try not to force-close the zipper and you will be fine. The interior of the pouch is made from artificial soft material, so you don’t need to be worry that it will scratch the chess pieces inside. The joints of the surfaces are nicely finished. Overall the pouch seems to be a very solid complimentary product for the pieces.

©Zbieraj - Piotr Zbierajewski

The chess pieces

The bubble wrap plastic foil, which is securing the chess pieces, is super easy to remove. Just unroll it. As a person who had already experience with the Official World Chess Pieces (a.k.a. World Chess FIDE Set) I will just start by saying that this is the face which you will make when seeing and touching those wooden sets (FIDE and Studio) in person for the fist time:

I mean it is just truly amazing.

Let’s start with showing the whole set, separately for the white and black pieces. But I will use the 50mm square World Chess Board (Rosewood and Maple) for now. By the way you can check my review of it here:

Review - Official World Chess Board (Maple and Rosewood)

©Zbieraj - Piotr Zbierajewski

I was wondering or even afraid if you can play with the Studio set on 50mm chess board due to the possible too loose proportions of the pieces regarding the squares. It turns out, that it looks great. The king’s height is 78mm and its diameter is 30mm (30,5mm to be precise). The ratio between the king and 50mm square is therefore 60%.

©Zbieraj - Piotr Zbierajewski

Note that the World Championship and Candidates tournaments both use World Chess Pieces - full size, with king diameter of 38mm - but with 55mm square DGT boards, to have a bit more visible space. This gives a similar ratio of 69%. For comparison, the full-size FIDE set on 50mm World Chess boards gives the ratio of 76%.

Many people will be happy to know that this set comes with two extra queens.

©Zbieraj - Piotr Zbierajewski

This is how the World Chess Studio Set (with king’s height of 78mm) pieces look like compared to German Knight Timeless 3,75”.

©Zbieraj - Piotr Zbierajewski

Now let’s talk about more technical aspects of the Club Pieces / Studio Set pieces.

As mentioned, the king’s height is 78mm and the diameter is 30mm. World Chess claims that the size of the set is 87% of the full-size set. Unfortunately, this value is off. Let’s quickly compare those sizes:

	FIDE Set (H&D)	Studio Set (H&D)	Height / Diamater Diff.
Pawn	57 mm / 30 mm	46 mm / 23 mm	84% / 76%
Rook	60 mm / 35 mm	48 mm / 28 mm	80% / 80%
Knight	73 mm / 34 mm	57 mm / 28 mm	78% / 82%
Bishop	79 mm / 34 mm	63 mm / 27 mm	79% / 79%
Queen	83 mm / 38 mm	67 mm / 30 mm	80% / 78%
King	94 mm / 38 mm	76 mm / 30 mm	80% / 78%

The average difference in height: 80,16%

The average difference in width of the base: 78,83%

I will compare now the weight of those pieces to the World Chess Academy Set (plastic) pieces and to the wooden German Knight Timeless 3,75”.

	Acad. Set (plast.)	Ger. Knight 3,75"	Studio Set
Pawn	12g	17g	12g
Rook	21g	23g	24g
Knight	25g	27g	29g
Bishop	20g	28g	23g
Queen	26g	46g	25g
King	28g	57g	28g

The German Knight is heavier due to the size and extra weighting. The Club Pieces are only slightly heavier (or the same) than the Academy pieces because even though they are also noticeably smaller than the plastic set, they have also small additional weight added and therefore better regarding the weight ratio. I think it would be great if the Studio Set king and queen had that 5 g of extra weight. Because currently, the knight is slightly heavier than those two, which is odd (on paper - during the game you don’t think about it probably at all).

From my experience of playing with the World Chess FIDE Set, which is really big (equal to 3,75” German Knight) and really heavy (which is a great thing), I think that the Studio Set pieces are perfect in a sense where the set is compact but also heavy enough to stand solid in the board.

At the bottom of the pieces, you will find thick black and white felt pads, like in the full-size set. In both World Chess pieces, the felts are probably the thickest on the market, which in my opinion is great.

©Zbieraj - Piotr Zbierajewski

It is interesting, that the Club Pieces’ bishops have a slightly different design than the full-size FIDE set bishops. The first ones are slightly more thin, vertical, whereas the full-size set has slightly more fluffy heads. But this difference is really small. Personally, I like more the one from the Studio Set, but again, it is a matter of personal preferences.

©Zbieraj - Piotr Zbierajewski

For people who have never used any of the wooden sets from World Chess, I would like to mention also the knight design regarding ergonomics of movement. Why?

So usually when we all prepare the set for a match, we turn the knight heads towards our opponent side. But when we move it, we tilt it slightly (from my experience with different sets it is usually 30-45 degrees). Especially, when we are trying to capture opponents pieces on the fly.

©Zbieraj - Piotr Zbierajewski

But ergonomics of the knights designed by Daniel Weil is different. It is made for the default position of the knight not slightly tilted, but actually rotated 90 degrees from the axis towards the opponent. For those who did not play with the knights in this way, it might seem off in the beginning. However, the design of the piece, its centre of weight, momentum when moving the knight, are all making it super comfortable to move around the board in this rotated position. Also to capture the opponent’s piece on the fly. The difference is that during this capture, you will do so from a side and not from under a 45-ish degree angle.

©Zbieraj - Piotr Zbierajewski

Again, this approach to ergonomics are very welcome and this is being written by a person who has never used a knight in this 90 deg. position. Just to be clear, this is not the only one set in the world with such an approach for moving the knights, but it is uncommon. And interesting.

The chessboard

Let’s look at the Folding Chess Board a. k. a. Studio Chess Board. It came in a nice black, very thick cardboard. Much thicker than the chess pieces’ box not to mention typical cardboard boxes of the chess boards. To be honest it is even much more solid than the World Chess Boards’ cardboards which are already pretty solid.

©Zbieraj - Piotr Zbierajewski

Oh boy, I must admit that I did not expect such quality of the chessboard. Especially foldable one.

Its unfolded size is 380mm x 380mm x 12mm (38cm x 38cm x 1,2cm). This thickness does not include a really thick felt of the board (which is greatly appreciated). When folded it has 380mm x 180mm x 30mm (38cm x 19cm x 3cm). The squares are 45mm. The border around the board is very thin - it has only 10 mm. The weight is also impressive - less than 1,4kg (1.365g to be precise).

The board is made of walnut (dark squares) and sycamore (light squares). The border is made of walnut which really matches well with the first two types of wood. The finish is in mat compared to the other World Chess boards. However, we still get this nice thick double (triple?) layer of the lacquer which are used in the boards mentioned earlier.

To be honest, the quality of the product feels oddly familiar. World Chess published information on the website that the board is made in Spain. Spain… High-quality board… So I asked World Chess one question: Is it possible that the board is produced by the one and only Rechapados Ferrer? World Chess confirmed. Rechapados Ferrer is producing the foldable chess boards for World Chess!

Why this is huge news? Ferrer is a globally renowned producer of chess boards (they also made the boards for the Queen’s Gambit). And Ferrer does not collaborate with the companies towards which he has any doubts regarding the great partnership. So on a personal note: Congratulations to both companies on the collab. It absolutely makes sense for Ferrer to work with World Chess, which is FIDE’s partner, as well for World Chess to have such an amazing production line making the boards for them.

I mentioned the width of the board earlier. On the Rechapados Ferrer’s website, their own foldable board with 45mm squares is 42x42cm. That is 4 cm wider. So the board which they are making for World Chess is much more compact.

©Zbieraj - Piotr Zbierajewski

As you can see, the board has the same painted hexagons as the World Chess Board (Rosewood and Maple).

©Zbieraj - Piotr Zbierajewski

The hinge side.

©Zbieraj - Piotr Zbierajewski

It is incredibly impressive how beautiful the hinge side is. It is super clean and there are no metal elements standing out showing the precise position of the joints. That moment when the hinge side of the board looks better than the fronts of most of the boards on the market...

©Zbieraj - Piotr Zbierajewski

I needed to actually slightly adjust the board to show the gap between both halves of the board because it is really invisible in the normal fully horizontal position of the board. Impressive. I would like to add again that the bottom of the board is covered by a very, very thick felt layer (around 3mm) which is so solid that I have full trust that it has been made for lifetime use.

©Zbieraj - Piotr Zbierajewski

What about other 3,5”-3,75” sets? Can the compact, foldable board from the Studio Set be an option for bigger chess? Well, I decided to put my German Knight Timeless 3,75” to the test and try to fit the on the board. This is the result.

©Zbieraj - Piotr Zbierajewski

With the king’s diameter of 34mm and the 45mm squares, we are getting a 75% ratio. That is slightly dense, although not extreme yet. If you don’t mind having the pieces so close to each other and still want to have a compact board - well, that might be a good choice for you.

The Studio Set

So let’s look now at how both, the Foldable Board and Club Piece look together.

©Zbieraj - Piotr Zbierajewski

With the king’s diameter of 30 mm and the 45mm squares we are getting a 66% ratio, which is a bottom sweet spot for most recommended ratios, both for a tournament and casual gaming (all the official tournaments with DGT boards use 68-70% ratio, with Candidates and World Championship tournaments having 69% ratio).

©Zbieraj - Piotr Zbierajewski

The compactness

The set is really small and really compact. I like the idea of just quickly putting the whole set into the dedicated pouch, which is designed for that specific volume (including two extra queens). It is easy to throw the pieces inside. When you try to close the zipper, if it seems to have problems with closing, due to the uneven distribution of the pieces, the only thing you need to do is slightly and quickly massage the bag so the chess can change position to a more optimized one and you are done. This works every single time. No surprises.

The board? Just fold it. You’re done. Go.

©Zbieraj - Piotr Zbierajewski

This set is so compact that you can put it into any small backpack. What I miss here is additional, small fabric protection for transporting the board. It would be a nice addition in the future.

©Zbieraj - Piotr Zbierajewski

Or you can just quickly switch places to chill on your sofa next to the Christmas tree.

©Zbieraj - Piotr Zbierajewski

EDIT: Additional photos showing mobility of that set, half year+ later.

©Zbieraj - Piotr Zbierajewski

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4. Conclusion.

This set is amazing in what it is made for - compact, pro set for players. When you don’t want to have a large chessboard with large chess pieces laying in your home or apartment. Or maybe you want to have a quicker set to set up. Or just maybe you want to have a very compact, yet professionally large enough set with which you can still be mobile. Or you just want to have a cheaper (and smaller) experience with the World Chess FIDE set. If you feel familiar with any of those cases, this is a set for you.

The naming though should be simplified. In my opinion, since the set is called Studio Set, the pieces should be also called Studio Pieces and the board should be called Studio Board.

The pieces are just scaled down World Chess FIDE pieces, which in my opinion represent the ultimate set. Whether you like the design or not, the ergonomics of the pieces are something you basically can not discuss. They are designed from scratch by Daniel Weil to be the best possible regarding handling them when you play over the board. So the fact, that you can have the same design in a smaller form factor while being also much cheaper, makes it a good offer for people who do not need the full-size set. And each of the set’s elements can be purchased separately, which is great.

It is worth underlining, that the Club Pieces can be used on the 50mm squares, which in my opinion works. I found myself sometimes analyzing my own games with the computer engine and the bigger sized board just to see better the space between the squares. Keep in mind that the Studio Board has great proportions too - it is less crowded than the full-size FIDE set on 50mm squares.

The foldable board is made of good quality materials and probably has one of the best hinge sides on the market. Again, the hinge side of the board looks better than the fronts of most of the boards on the market. This might be important for people who really do focus on such details. As mentioned, the build is solid, although it would be great if World Chess could include some small fabric cloth bag that could protect the folded board when travelling with it.

In addition, you get a very practical pouch for the pieces, which by surprise is really useful and better than keeping the pieces in the wooden box.

Overall, this is a very good set which is exactly the same as the iconic World Chess pieces but scaled down. Personally, I am in love with Daniel Weil’s design of the chess pieces. And I highly recommend anyone to, at some point, buy any of the sets, even the Academy (plastic) one. Of course, such sets will not make you a better player. But as OTB players, we need to remember that it is good to have a nice quality chess environment when we train, when we analyze or when we practice. And the World Chess pieces, of any size, absolutely are helping with creating that better environment.

On a personal note - I just wish there was an even better option for officially registered chess clubs, where there is a discount after, for example, 10 orders. Like with the Academy set. Because I think that, at least the Studio Set, deserves to be more globally used by more players. After playing with World Chess pieces, it is hard to go back to the other ones.

- Piotr "Zbieraj" Zbierajewski
[Piotr "Spear+ay" Spear+a+yeah+ski]

zbieraj

Dec 27, 2021

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#2

Additional "Thank You" to @lotsoblots and @pawnerai, without whom I would probably not consider the Studio Set so much .

lotsoblots

Dec 27, 2021

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#3

BEAUTIFUL review, @zbieraj. Wonderful photography, nice insights, so much detail, and even a bit of humor. A true labor of love and one that World Chess should take note of! Thank you and enjoy the set!

PS: I totally agree with you on the naming.

PSS: Now I really need that board. grumble, grumble

MCH818

Dec 27, 2021

0

#4

Nice thorough review! I always wondered about the fabric non-metal hinges for foldable boards and how it might stand up to use. The board you received looks very durable. I can barely see the gap which is very impressive. Btw, I really like your backpack. It is perfect for that set.

zbieraj

Dec 27, 2021

0

#5

Thanks @lotsoblots! Again, this set would probably not be purchases if not your help regarding the details about the pieces .

--

Thank you @MCH818! The backpack is from Rains, Danish company making waterproof pants, raincoats and waterproof packpacks . I think that this specific model is no longer available though...

http://rains.com

MCH818

Dec 27, 2021

0

#6

zbieraj wrote:

Thank you @MCH818! The backpack is from Rains, Danish company making waterproof pants, raincoats and waterproof packpacks . I think that this specific model is no longer available though...

http://rains.com

Thanks for the info!

Powderdigit

Dec 27, 2021

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#7

- a wonderful review. Insightful words accompanied with beautiful and illustrative photography. Thank you for taking the time to create this thread. The picture with your feet, the set and the xmas tree made me smile. I imagine you kicking back to relax after the festivities!

Krames

Dec 27, 2021

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#8

Thank you so much for the detailed review. Hope you enjoy that beautiful combo for a long time!!!!!!

zbieraj

Dec 28, 2021

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#9

Powderdigit wrote:

- a wonderful review. Insightful words accompanied with beautiful and illustrative photography. Thank you for taking the time to create this thread. The picture with your feet, the set and the xmas tree made me smile. I imagine you kicking back to relax after the festivities!

Ha! Yes, that is exactly what I did . It is also much more comfortable to train more advanced nuances of my openings and gambits while just laying in a weird position on the sofa .

Krames wrote:

Thank you so much for the detailed review. Hope you enjoy that beautiful combo for a long time!!!!!!

I hope that too. Of course I hope to also to get the full-size FIDE set as well but I know already that I will be using mostly the Studio Set due to the comfortable size. Then for playing with my chess friends and my place I would use the full-size set.

zagryan

Dec 28, 2021

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#10

That was a great, beautiful review. Even though I own a WC Studio Set, I shall envy your colleagues on Friday.

Pawnerai

Dec 28, 2021

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#11

What a beautiful, efficient, mid-size, portable set. Your IRL photos with natural light, showcase the pieces and board so much nicer than studio-type photos with artificial lighting in my opinion.

It's clear the manufacturer did not skimp on quality with this smaller Studio Set. Looks good on both a 50mm and the 45mm sq board.

Thank you for taking the time to write it up and illustrate with beautiful photos and even charts! It was a very enjoyable read.

Ok,,, time for Rapid Blitz Championship Day3. Carlsen/Abdusattorov and Nakamura/Firouzja streaming right now!

Aernout_nl

Dec 28, 2021

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#12

Very nice review. Not I'm quite close to ordering the set as well...

One point of feedback would be to use lenses with a larger field of depth, as the overview of the complete board with all the pieces is actually quite relevant for such a review (rather than only the few pieces that are in focus).

zbieraj

Dec 28, 2021

0

#13

zagryan wrote:

That was a great, beautiful review. Even though I own a WC Studio Set, I shall envy your colleagues on Friday.

I mean it is not every Friday that we have the Friday Bar, but still .

Pawnerai wrote:

What a beautiful, efficient, mid-size, portable set. Your IRL photos with natural light, showcase the pieces and board so much nicer than studio-type photos with artificial lighting in my opinion.

It's clear the manufacturer did not skimp on quality with this smaller Studio Set. Looks good on both a 50mm and the 45mm sq board.

Thank you for taking the time to write it up and illustrate with beautiful photos and even charts! It was a very enjoyable read.

Thanks! Yes, the set is really great!

Pawnerai wrote:

Ok,,, time for Rapid Blitz Championship Day3. Carlsen/Abdusattorov and Nakamura/Firouzja streaming right now!

Don't even start... We supposed to go to Poland to our family for Christmas, but because of Corona situation in Poland we decided to stay in Denmark. So when I learned that this year's Rapid and Blitz champs will be held in Warsaw, my home town, I was really angry. And still am . Especially that I have special access to the National Stadium, where they play, due to the fact that I was the construction site photographer when it was built. Goddamit...

zbieraj

Dec 28, 2021

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#14

PS. I have no idea why the font in the review is messy on non-Apple devices. I think Chess.com has still the font issue on different platforms and in different access (web/mobile).

Pawnerai

Dec 28, 2021

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#15

Oh no.... Hikaru is drinking hot tea and coughing repeatedly at the board during the Magnus game in Round13 right now. He just touched his throat and winced. I hope he's ok.

zbieraj

Dec 28, 2021

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#16

Ok, I have corrected the fonts myself in a really painful and slow way... It should work now.

zbieraj

Dec 29, 2021

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#17

I forgot to mention that the kings in both FIDE and Studio set, are just pure amazing fidget pieces . I will order some extra full-size kings, once they will be available, just to have one at work and one at the desk at home. Worth the price .

Kohpablanca

Dec 29, 2021

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#18

Huh… At $8/piece, it’s cheaper to get 34 replacement pieces for $272, than the set of pieces for $349… 🤔

Kohpablanca

Dec 29, 2021

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#19

— thanks heaps for the detailed review, and all the marvellous photos!

I find it interesting that the Studio set on a 50mm board looks fine, even with a 60% King-base-to-square ratio. I think chess aesthetics — maybe helped by the use of the FIDE and Timeless sets on 55mm boards in top level tournaments — is moving towards more spacious / less cramped boards.

magictwanger

Dec 30, 2021

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#20

That was the "War And Peace" of reviews....and....I mean it as a compliment!

Just fantastic!