Why do Americans use plastic pieces and roll up boards all the time ?

I mean I get it , it's portable and cheap, easy to carry and so on. But if you go tournaments and you want some quality games out of it , how?

Roll up vynal boards, mouse pads, silicone all the same uncomfortable, not classy, cheap and dirty.

Some surfaces might not be flat and your roll up board already not good, it gets dirty quickly, it's not stable especially when you playing speed chess board moves alot, cheap looking no class.

Plastic pieces , also cheap, not classy , easier to break the wooden , metal lead comes off often etc....

So MY POINT is , why not use something more classy, nicer, more stable , which won't break your bank either and really reliable to take to a tournaments and qualifies to all FIDE standards.

Something like that

https://www.amazon.com/Chess-Set-Tournament-Staunton-Complete/dp/B000SOGHQ4

In my opinion it's just perfect tournament set, which won't break the bank and looks fabulous, quality, classy.

I love wood sets, but the plastic sets are still a lot cheaper than even this set and are likely less cumbersome to transport.  For a lot of people, that's all that matters.

Do Americans that poor? I mean both sets are cheap and extra wooden pieces cost around $20 dollars

High crime. Lot of thieves. Guys that steal chess. Rats.

Polish pieces split by wood layers. 

I think you're confusing being thrifty with being poor. As Aizen89 points out, it's not about being poor, it's about keeping your nice sets for when they won't risk being damaged. Plastic might not please you aesthetically but it's economical and practical. 

zhaboed wrote:

ESP-918 написал:

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Something like that

 https://www.amazon.com/Chess-Set-Tournament-Staunton-Complete/dp/B000SOGHQ4   

Polish pieces split by wood layers. 

Can you elaborate a bit more

They have a crack. In my town I saw on sale for half price.  Of course, no one will buy them even at a discount.

lol

We don't. 

 I play with wood pieces well over 90% of the time.

For blitz and skittles I have a HoS Liberty Series set that wears like iron.  Of course I do use a roll up board but with that set I use the Flex Pad board from The Chess House.

For G/30 - G/60 I have a number of sets that can take a bit of harsher treatment even though they are all wood.

For longer than G/60 I have a number of wood sets including 4 Noj sets, Dubrovnik II Walnut, Dubrovnik II Red, GM Pavasovic Walnut and BCE Stage 2, Walnut with Stainless bases.

Of course I make sure my opponents will be respectful of the equipment, which usually is not hard to do.

I have an Ultimate Chess set in plastic with a roll up board for the times I feel like I want to use it.  And yes, I use a flex board with that set from American Chess Equipment.

I think there was a language problem with the Russian using the term, "poor".

Really there are a number of Chess players in the United States that are more cheap, not wanting to spend money even though they have it to spend, or miserly when it comes to chess stuff.

There are also some nice plastic sets, like my Ultimate Set, that are perfectly fine to play with.

You can use a folding board instead o a roll up one. Thus there is always a smooth surface.

¿Break/Bend? Is agglomerate! Package services are definitely worse than I suspected.

A good move is just as effective with plastic pieces as with wooden pieces.

I have a good solid set, but it's too heavy for the cheap, American tables.

I once played with someone cheap who had a nice heavy set.  She was Canadian though.

I'm not enamored of plastic pieces and vinyl boards.  I much prefer wood!  But I am *extremely* bored (ahem!) of seeing green squares on vinyl boards!  I like the vinyl boards with a sort of very light golden color for the white squares, and a beautiful, light-ish medium blue for the dark squares.  I wish I had one.

USA players are too rude. I took a wood board and set to a tournament once. One of my opponents slammed the pieces down extremely hard with every move. I told him that I would complain to the director. He stopped. That was the last time I played with a nice set. 

I wouldn't take a nice set of wooden pieces to a tournament just to let some random person use them, and I wouldn't want to play with ultra cheap wooden pieces (like the ones you linked to). I much prefer the look of molded plastic pieces to crudely-made wooden pieces. Also, solid plastic is heavier than most species of wood, for a given volume, due to typically having a density close to 1, while most species of hardwood have a density of 0.7 or less. Ebony and boxwood have a density of about 1 or a little more, but neither of those woods are used in the cheapest wooden pieces, and the cheapest wooden pieces aren't typically weighted either.

As for wooden boards, they are heavy and bulky compared to roll-up boards, and I wouldn't want to risk damaging a nice wooden board by letting random people play on it either.