Royal Chess Mall

Charousek2002 = chatboot experiment or the most persitant troll I have ever seen.

@sound67 Anything from CB and RCM are cheap and poor quality. Anything from HoS and NOJ are great and high quality. Thats the mindset of people here. You keep posting those nice pictures. Never mind these 🤡

Wait a minute.  This is wrong.

1. Charousek2002 did not troll.  He just stated his opinion regarding that particular set.  And I agree with him on that set.  

2.  No one has said all sets from CB and RCM are cheap and poor quality.  CB has produced some nicer quality sets recently, for instance.  And yes, those prices have not been cheap at all.

3. As a rule HoS and OS do consistently offer higher quality products.  And yes these sets are not cheap, but they are not too expensive either in most cases.

"Sounds"....Keep parading all the sets you want! I've benefited from such posts and bought a lovely C.B. Gloss Empire set during the Black Friday sale,due to you're good tastes.....LOVE IT.....and....I own Official Staunton as well as Noj myself.

This is my latest acquisition. 1852-55 Harrwitz Staunton repro, made of antiqued boxwood and ebony, from Royal Chess Mall. Height of King is 3.5" but due to its large base, it feels like a 3.75" piece and plays well on tournament size boards (w/ 2.25" squares). I've been searching for Staunton styled chess pieces for some time and I think my search is over. It is that good. I would like to thank @sound67 for reviewing this model, for otherwise I would not have noticed it. 

Very nice! I have to agree that sound67 has darn good taste.....He's cost me a few dollars as well.

Very nice set at a good price.

Another killer set...You really have to get your hands out of my wallet! -

A few weeks ago I received a lovely Alban set from RCM in ebony and boxwood. I also purchased a super box with sliding lid to store the pieces. I love the Alban design (especially the knights, which I find elegant yet not ornate to distraction).  Sadly, today I noticed three of the ebony pieces have cracked at their base, after only three weeks in my home. I've sent a message and photos to RCM and expect that they will send replacement pieces, but I'm worried that within a few months more pieces will crack.  Fingers crossed that more pieces won't!

Pretty common among many of the typical large-ish chess vendors.I have had my share of this kind of problem,but always got replacements......What I do is keep a portable humidifier running at all times when the weather gets cold....Dry air is not good for wood....Still,this particular issue may be related to the set and woods used....but....Once you get things cleared up( I certainly hope so) it's a good idea to give some thought to proper humidity.....You can also use small humidipaks in the chess storage box if you don't want to go with a room humidifier.

Good luck

So, for future purchases, would ebonized boxwood be less likely to crack than ebony?

Recently, I purchased two sets of chess pieces and one chess board from RCM. I bought their Hadrian chess pieces, which was my main choice. I will add pictures of this set later though. The second set I bought from them is  the 4.2″ Executive Staunton chess pieces. I also bought their 55mm solid wood borderless chess board. The first series of pictures I'm posting here shows this combination:

Both sets demonstrate a high level of quality and craftsmanship. Of course, I like the Hadrian set most. However surprisingly, my roommate prefers the Executive Staunton set! Here are a few more pictures of this set:

I intend to use the Hadrian set on a chess board I custom ordered from a vendor on Etsy. So, I will wait to receive that board before posting pictures of the Hadrian set.

Nice looking set . A bit different from the normal staunton style. I am tempted to buy one

Here is a mini review: the white pieces are made of boxwood with subtle hint of wood grain pattern which is very nice. The dark pieces are made of 'golden rosewood' that is their terminology for Acacia. It is a medium light brown wood tone with some noticeable wood grain pattern which is also very nice. I hope I could show the tonality as best as I could. They are weighted but feel quite lighter in comparison to the triple weighted Hadrian set. Nevertheless, this doesn't seem to affect the stability level. I can tilt any piece in either set to about 45 degrees and they don't fall over when released. The executive pieces have negative angle curve at their bottom . This produces a brief pendulum like motion before returning to the standup position. I am quite happy that there is no stamp or mark on any piece (I am ok with stamping only at the bottom of pieces). The board is made of solid wood (walnut and maple). The squares are 55mm which is the largest I have ever seen in life so far. My other board will be even bigger though at 60mm.

This has also been the first time ever in my life I ave seen pieces this large. The sheer size of the pieces just by itself can be impressive as it shows the fine details of each piece at a relatively large scale. The first thing I realized is that the king height alone is not an indication of the size of the pieces. After all, we are talking about 30-dimensional pieces. If a piece is %20 larger in each dimension, it will be %73 larger in volume. When we see them in real, we notice the difference in volume which is quite more substantial.

  The finish on these pieces isn't perfectly matte. There is a slight sheen to them. I guess we should call this satin. The Hadrian pieces are quite more glossy in comparison. My overall preferences for low gloss/satin finish. Overall, I find these pieces aesthetically pleasing without being showy or distracting.

  I cannot attest to their historical faithfulness to the original Staunton design as I am no expert in that regard and Honestly, I have very little concern about this. They are pleasing to look at and that's what matters to me.

Packaging: I would rate their packaging at %80 or so: good but still benefits from some improvement. For pieces, their packaging is good enough to prevent any damage while on route for delivery. All individual pieces are safely wrapped. However, the package doesn't look professional. I have seen on some YouTube videos that Chess Bazaar takes one extra step for better protection: they put all pieces in one large plastic container inside the cardboard box. I have one suggestion for RCM: use the same idea for better protection and moreover, stamp the plastic container with your logo for a professional look. For the board, I feel like their packaging is not adequate and leaves the corners somewhat prone to damage while being handled by the shipping carrier. IMO, they should add extra protection for the corners.

I can show you pictures of my boxwood pieces with identical cracking.  They say Ebony is more susceptible to it, but I think its more about curing and proper prep of the wood than the type of wood.  Plenty of ebony pieces never crack. 

RCM contacted me today to say that they would be sending me pieces to replace the cracked ones.