What is the best wooden chess board and pieces

What is the best wooden chess board and pieces and where to buy them ?

From reading these forum topics, the consensus of opinion is Jaques' of London as the gold standard. Apparently the older the better.

The forum topic made no mention of playability or practicality.

Define best. Best looking?

No point recommending anything until the op specifies material, size, use, and budget.

The set in the photo is from chessbazaar via Amazon. DKW alerted the forum to a particular sale. I bought the same set during that sale. CB prices fluctuate wildly. You have to keep checking to catch when there's a sale.

@hushki007 About how much are you wanting to spend for a chess set with pieces and a board? There are definitely a lot of options out there when it comes to chess, especially since so many are now offered from India. A lot of what you see on Amazon are actually Indian sources and shipped from India, and often more expensive when bought through Amazon or Etsy, and without any additional protection. If you don't see the words "Free returns" then you can bet it won't be a 'no questions asked' free return.

So you probably want to check out websites like Royal Chess Mall or ChessBazaar, and be sure to use their discount codes. For example, you can save over $100 on that Dubrovnik set from Staunton Castle if you buy directly from their website, and you'll always have 3rd party protection through Visa, Google pay, Paypal, etc..which sometimes is even better than Amazon or Etsy.

Also, if you're not stuck on 'black' pieces, then some of those other woods have very nice looking grains (that you don't need an LED light to see) and are very good woods. Just decide how much you want to spend and I'm sure you can find a nice set for your needs.

Well I bought a chess set last year from Chessbazaar through Amazon and had an issue and the return process was not 'hassle free'. In most of these cases for chess pieces, it will not be as easy as items listed as 'Free Returns' or 'Prime Shipping'. In my case, the set came looking slightly different than the pictures, and going through Amazon's return process, I still had to wait for the seller to provide an RMA. I had to send in pictures for comparison to justify the return. I ended up accepting a 20% discount to just keep what I got. So don't be fooled into thinking ALL chess purchases through Amazon has the same processes as other items with 'free returns'.

This process is the same as compared when buying directly from most of these websites. It's not just protection by disputing a charge (which actually can be what happens even when buying through Amazon).

BTW, you overpaid for that set if you bought that through Amazon.

Well you say that money is not an issue, yet you seem to often tell people that they paid too much if they didn't buy it from Amazon or Etsy. And the weird thing is, you point them to where it actually costs more (I can show that link if you want). I'm not really sure why you didn't know about discount codes.

And regarding your characterization of those manufacturers getting their money and not honoring anything they say, it appears you're saying you have zero experience with them. Well I actually have a lot of experience with them, including getting a 100% refund on an item that seemed defective to me.

Given the prices that I've compared between Amazon/Etsy versus buying direct, it's about 3 to 2 ratio in price. So I definitely recommend buying directly from some of those India manufacturers, and cut out the middle man. After all, most of these set are coming from India anyway, even when bought through Amazon.

In the end it's down to taste & Money + Size + Board + Box + clock = A lot of money ,when you add it up + Then how to keep the other half happy , Because to Her or Him you just spent silly money ?

So true. But I always say, "I only spent part of my half".

Hey that's fine, you can do you. I just see things differently. With me looking at the price ratio, I could have bought 9 chess sets for the price of 6, and could have tolerated getting screwed over on 3 sets and still end up with 6 sets. But as it stands now, I have 9 sets with no issues, so I got a bonus 3 sets since I didn't get screwed over on any of them. So my experience has been very good (actually perfect) by buying direct.

I'm not saying that buying from Amazon or Etsy is a bad thing...it's just that in regards to chess sets mostly being made in India these days, it just seems cost-effective to buy directly from them. Ten years ago, maybe not as good, but it sure does seem that things have changed a good bit.

And yet I have returned a sale item...free shipping and 100% refund. So that's just bad information. And you do seem to give out a lot of bad advice.

Wait, did you just try to put up a policy from a Canadian website, trying to argue against buying direct from an Indian web site? What a liar!

From Canada? What a liar! I mean...you do know that Canada is not India, right?

So I've been saying that buying direct from Indian sites was a good thing...and now you want to just forget all that because you don't want to admit that it might actually be worth while to buy there. And now you want to focus on this one Canadian site .

Tell you what...let's ask Staunton Castle directly on whether this policy applies to EVERYTHING they sell...or maybe as I believe...it only applies to their 'clearance sales' or 'defective sales' which are more heavily discounted. I'm willing to go through the trouble of asking them directly, that's if you agree to admit that you are wrong in saying that we're all "SOL" even when buying at their 15% discount. Are you willing to admit that you are wrong?

This definitely informs the rest of us. Who are salesmen (one user name in particular)

And Who actually stays on topic and responds to the original post.

Yes, I'm a noob.

Yes, learning as I go.