Wooden Chess Set in Dollar Store!

Unbelievable, right?

Not really; the board was a thin piece of wood with squares printed on it... and the pieces were small wooden squares with piece symbols printed on them.

But it's all wooden, no cheap plastic!

Although I was suitably amused, it occurs to me now that there is an important practical use for... minimalist... chess pieces of that nature.

Many chess sets come with two Queens these days.

At formal chess events, the official rules do not allow using an upside-down Rook to represent a Queen. This is understandable, but who knows how much time will accumulate on a player's clock while waiting for an arbiter to come along with an extra real piece.

Supplying players with an extra complete set of chess pieces that are simply flat tokens for immediate use in promotion would solve that problem.

I purchased this one for 7.50 USD the other day, board is looking much better with a sanding and is ~25cm wide. She didn't even know that it is "wood", hence it has barely been played with

Where did you buy that set, Wollyhood?

I recently bought a set at a thrift store. The board is wood, nothing great, about 9 1/2 inches on a side. The box says the pieces are wood, but actually they are plastic. I want to buy some wood pieces, but nothing too expensive. Ideally I would like to buy a wood board with letter and number notation along the sides. One of these days... 

9 and a half nice size. I got that above one on NZ's version of Ebay, it's called trademe.co.nz

my new fave is this one: 

I bought that off trade me as well but it cost a lot more I think it's ... do you call it drop forged brass and bronze if it's done in sand ? A lady that used to work at the foundry sold it to me which was supercool, they have a great clink. I'm probably too hedonistic for chess but oh well maybe I can end up making some boards to sell, that's the dream at the moment. I think things are generally a lot more expensive in NZ due to isolation, mind you a weighted Staunton set with competition board 50cm sold for 90$ last night, USD about 2/3 of NZD so 60$US. 

Brass and bronze are great--there's nothing like picking up a chess piece with some weight to it. But metal is far beyond my budget, I'm afraid. Someone in the other thread said your pieces would look even better on a stone board, and I agree. They look like they came from a 10th century abbey in Scotland or Wales or someplace like that! Nice.

I have another set that I also bought at a thrift store. The pieces and board are made of some kind of stone. Maybe marble, I don't know. I paid USD19, and the saleslady said the set had come in that very day and they did not expect it to remain in the store very long. It's beautiful, but rather small. 

I'd really like a wood set. A board with annotation along the sides, and pieces with the grain in the wood visible. Varnished, but not TOO varnished. 

I'm surprised that chess equipment is very expensive in New Zealand. Surely you have enough chess players there to support at least a few manufacturers and mail-order companies.

Nice yes would be great to find out where the foundry got the pattern from and how old was the pattern. They have got that anglo saxon look about them eh. I'm super impressed with how well they work and it was 165$ so say 130 US, not HEINOUS. But I think coz this is considered fantasy and a bit out of vogue I got a great deal. 

Would love to see a pic of your pieces as I like trying to find out what stone is what on the internet. If they are white shades through to brown they could be alabaster, which does chip kind of easily. If the carving is really basic maybe they are something indestructible like granite.

In my mind younger people don't mind smaller sets, as we get older our boundaries might get a bit more austere and further apart ! XD To hide the burgeoning fragrances of age perhaps... 

Yeh I'm not really sure about prices in NZ, it's partly based on buying other items, I have only been looking for a few weeks, trying to compare with the aussie and usual ebay etc. Bringing in breakable things to the country they just have to come such a long way I guess.

Here is the chess set I bought a while back at a thrift store. It's made of some kind of heavy stone, but I don't know what. It's very pretty, but a little too small and I would prefer a set with annotation along the sides.

hi

Interesting! If it could be a bit larger (the king is just one and a half inches tall) and had annotation on the sides, it would be great. The board is very heavy.

That's gorgeous. I believe you can get black marble like that. Yes I would love that board yet I understand your wish the pieces were slightly bigger; am loving the 2 inch plus kings sets. I'm not really into the notation though

I need the notation because I'm old. When I learned to play, that other notation was used--I forget what it was called...the one that used descriptions like "Q-KB4." Coming back to chess a few years ago I found that algebraic is now used. I'm more comfortable with it now, but I still often find myself having to count out the square location when I study a game.

Ah ok. I'm semi old but new to chess so it seems normal to kind of count to the cited square. Plus the notation on the board distracts me from the battle : )

We had a cool game on a little 25 cm board the other day when we were camping, my youngest son and I against my oldest son. My youngest son won the game lol, after lots of aggressive tactics I'd learnd on chess.com, and my son holding one square back with his otherside check to nearly pressure the king with an empty backline, but making a route for the queen. It wasn't too bad, playing in candlelight in a windy tent because the 4 cm kings and everything were Weighted; I can't imagine wanting to play with anything without a decent base to it now. 

@wollyhood -

I occurs to me after reading your posts, as a new chess player you might come across something of interest in one of my blog articles.  Just a spur of the moment thought....

Thanks very much I will look into them.

Also if anyone is interested in buying a set almost identical my brass and bronze set above, ( I think it's all brass with a coating on the dark set ) there is another one for sale down here but it is going for 350$ at the moment. I'm not the one selling btw : )

I heard they came from a local NZ foundry about the turn of this last century but were too expensive to make so were discontinued. 9.5 cm king.

PS I guess my first thread hi-jack badge is in the mail!

Y pay 275 dolars, is ebony wood

That is a gorgeous set up, what type of pieces are they so I can look up a close up of the knight... it's mane seems unusual.