Let's hear about your favorite/weirdest/most balla/most ghetto/etc. chess sets.

I have a small leather chess wallet similar to this. It's not very good for playing, but is kind of neat.

Cool idea for a thread.

I always play with a "Tournament Design Wooden Chess Set" that I got in/around 2001. It looks great and more expensive than the $25 or so I spent on it. I typically have my opponent or someone playing near me comment about it.

Another set that I own that I think is pretty Baller is the replica Fischer-Spassky 1972 Championship Reykjavik Set. I've never used it in an official tournament game but maybe one day I will.

Some obligatory pics of it:

I had this when I was a kid:



Baller imo

Was Fred the white king?

I think he could be either. afaik

Yeah, Flinstones were White, Rubbles were Black.

it drives me crazy when people bring wooden boards/peices to tournaments

Cmon, wooden pieces, as long as they arent a pristine Staunton set that comes in a fancy ass box, are perfectly standard and shouldn't drive you crazy.

Is this common in the US that people have to bring their own boards to tournaments? Don't your clubs have their own boards? What about clocks?

This is very weird to me. I have played many tournaments here in Europe and boards are provided by the tournament organisers as a matter of course, even at very small tournaments. In fact, I wouldn't even consider playing in a tournament where I have to bring my own chess set because that really looks "shady".

If you have to bring your own boards, are the starting fees smaller then? Here in Europe the usual fee for a tournament with at least 10 GM/IM is about 50 to 70 Euros (=70 to 100 dollar). I guess the fees for comparable tournaments should be quite a bit lower if the players do part of the organisers' job.

Every adult tournament I've been to in the US requires the players to provide the boards and clocks. Many of the scholastic tournaments will provide these for the kids. And the entry fees are probably higher here. At least outside of NY, NJ or CA the only tournaments that draw more than a couple titled players are the big money tournaments where entry fees are 200+ dollars.

In Ireland and Britain you typically have to bring your own, with the club maybe providing them for the top section. This is getting a little better but you still have it really good in continental Europe.

So can you bring whatever crap you like (such as Flintstones or the Simpsons chess sets, or a magnetic pocket chess board) to official tournaments or does it have to be decent chess set with a well-defined size and so on?

That must be very annoying. (I got already slightly tilted by the non-Staunton east-european style pieces they use in Pardubice).

The set has to be a regulation chess set and be not too shiny or weird colors (like red and white).

I've seen a player complain his opponent's set is too shiny and then the TD rules that it can't be be used.

A Flintstones set is not regulation.

Happy Gilmore chess movie: "Is that chess set regulation or WHAT!?!!?"

I use one of the cheap 40 buck wooden sets from chesscafe.com with a blue vinyl board for my traveling stuff - works pretty well -



and when the time came, and I saw the picture, I became obsessed and failing to nail my credit card down to the wall, got the Centurion set from Staunton - (had to get humidifiers - the damned black pieces cracked in the MN winters but it's good for my guitars too probably)



I like collecting sets and may get a few more - I'd like some different colored boards - saw some similar to the one I got with the Centurion but green, red, and blue - can never have too much useless pretty stuff, I say

RB

I remember in Josh Watzkin's book how he described playing in India, I think, and the pieces weren't staunton and were of a decidedly unnatural nature - he tried playing a combo of blindfold and board chess and did ok -

I play online at flyordie.com vs one friend, and those pieces suck so bad I dragged a board out for one of them - the 2d representations look like salt shakers - LOL

RB

Lmao

Yeah I remember reading about that in JW's book.

Nice Centurion set btw. Gotta love nice chess sets.

I couldn't figure out what this meant so I went to flyordie.com. Wow.

hehehe- one of my coworkers from India loves the site - he is pretty easy to beat right now but I have given him tactics websites to work on his game -

tecnhically I first used the centurion set vs. him on this site cause I hated the interface so bad, and he had problems with a typical USCF 2d interface - I think the Informant website has a special type of chess they run off of flyordie.com though - something about promoting the pawn on the 7th rank too - anyways....

Omg this set is tilting my eyes so hard.

I love this chess set but not in this color. It's the Collector Series Prestige chess set by Staunton. A+ imo. I've just never felt comfortable paying $600+ for a chess set.

Yeah how expensive is wood anyway?

a lot of those sets are practically identical - except for the pawns I see little difference between that one and mine although the actual wood colors are skewered - (the white on that set would match the black on mine) -

I like having the nice one, but I like the 40 buck one I can throw when I miss a mate in one too -

RB

I used it for this video:
I also really want this one:



And this one is bound to impress the ladies:

http://www.thechesspiece.com/NUP1CMB...hessboard.html I have this one too, use it for US Chess Scoop: http://vimeo.com/channels/scoop#5442383


And for something more standard:


I used to think people who collected chess sets were lame, but now I really want a bunch of nice chess sets.

I was wondering what kind of chess set that was in the hula hoop demonstration - fun video

It's not as cool as collecting poker chips, but not as lame as collecting bible translations - but it could easily turned into a high priced hobby though -

there's a book out there by a guy named Gareth Williams called "Master Pieces" I found in the half priced shop that goes into the design and evolution of chess pieces - lots and lots of cool pictures - but if I buy another set, it'll be something unique like these - I think I have enough Staunton pieces - I'm kinda wanting different colored boards now

RB

The set for the hulachess video:


Those pointy tops make this one a bit too fragile though especially for hula chess or bullet I guess collecting nice sets and blitz is not a great combo!