Two Decent Staunton Sets from Chessshop.eu (Czech Republic), Very Reasonably Priced!

The Czech Republic-based Chessshop.eu has moved up in the world since my last visit to their homepage, now offering a variety of decent, more decorative Made-in-India sets on top of the cheapo "ultility" standard sets they sold exclusively in the past. Not only that, but the prices are very reasonable indeed, often cheaper than the sets you can buy directly from India over Etsy et al. So I gave it a try and ordered two of their higher-level sets: The "Reykjavik Staunton" and the "Oxford Staunton". Chessshop.eu offers these sets in two wood combinations, with ebonised boxwood or acacia wood (a close relative of Sheesham, or indeed Sheesham), in three different king's sizes: 3.5", 3.75" and 4". More exotic woods like ebony or bud rosewood are absent. For both sets I chose the 4" version in the least-likely-to-crack wood, acacia. My sets were delivered within just 5 days of placing the order, which is very good. Packaging was safe and sound: A bigger carton, filling, one carton each for the white and black piece of each set, the pieces inside indiviually wrapped in bubble wrap. 

Each set comes with extra queens.

The Reykjavik set is being advertised as a copy of the Fischer-Spassky set, but it's not that close. It reminds me more of the Ultimate Chess set Sheesham, but costs less than half. The set is double weighted and sits comfortably on a 55mm square size board (as pictured). The knights are a little "rough-hewn", but there were no serious flaws on any of the pieces.

The second set is the more elegant "Oxford Staunton", which is basically a "Fierce Knight" set. Here, the knights are very well done, and the set as a whole is aesthetically more pleasing. The pieces have a solid heft to them (again, double-weighted), and there are no flaws in the carving or wood. This set could work even on a 60mm square size board. All in all, this is a splendid alternative to ordering from India (where prices have exploded during Covid and the Queen's Gambit boom), as long as you don't need very fancy sets in very fancy wood. I'd order from them again in a heartbeat.

The price was below €100 per set (€89 and €94, respectively), plus shipping from the Czech Republic to Germany via "Germany Express" (DPD).  

https://www.chessshop.eu/16-chess-pieces

Same story for me. Wrote them months ago asking a simple question about a board of theirs I was interested in. Never heard anything from them.

When submitting inquiries, did you use Google translate to convert it to Czech? I wouldn't assume the worker on the other end speaks anything but their native language. When I had an issue with a French retailer over a Chavet set my English language email was ignored. After a week, I resent the email using Google Translate and they replied back within a day. 

When dealing with the actual Craftsman that makes the product, I have found they take the extra effort to answer communications as best they can. But when it's a retail company you are contacting, and it's an employee or "hourly worker" on the other end, it's much easier to just hit "Delete" to a foreign language email unfortunately. I don't know if that is what happened here, but give Google Translate a shot and see if you have better luck. It's all just cut and paste.

I suppose that could be the issue and I probably should have tried Czech. However, I don't think it's unfair to assume contacting them in English is OK since their site (including the contact page) is in English. Anyway, sadly the board is no longer on their site.

I contacted them in English with a link to this review, and they answered in English. So that should be okay.

And a note on their website says they ship globally.

https://www.chessshop.eu/content/1-delivery 

Thanks for the follow-up. I wanted to give the retailer the benefit of the doubt as to why their customer service didn't reply to two simple questions from two potential customers. I guess language wasn't the issue. Oh well. 

Nice sets by the way. This retailer has a decent selection of Indian made and European made, affordably priced wood chess pieces. Nothing over €105. 

To be fair they are not the only ones with sub-optimal customer communication. I have also tried writing Sunrise Chess & Games / polishchess with no response.