uscfsales.com/chess-pieces/ … -king.html
uscfsales.com/chess-pieces/ … -king.html
Both of these pages say “These are the exact same chess pieces that the US Chess Federation uses at all of it’s National Chess Tournaments.” Which style is actually the one provided by US Chess at it’s National Events it runs?
The pieces at the national tournaments are supplied by the bookseller as part of the contract. The bookseller owns them until they are sold to players at the end of the tournament. I doubt if if US Chess could by said to provide any (well, facilitate might work).
I didn’t do a word by word comparison, but the two links appeared to be very similar items.
It is not unusual for catalog companies to list the same product in multiple places in their catalogs, sometimes even under different SKUs.
If you take a look at the style of the pieces, you will see they are different.
They may have been different shipments, possibly even from different manufacturers but handled through the same distributor. (That’s kind of how it works when you order goods from China, you may not know the actual manufacturer.)
Over the years I’ve bought hundreds of sets (we used to buy 100 or more of them every year for the state scholastic championship and sell them afterwards), sometimes there would be two or three slightly different styles in the same case.
Unless there is something specific you see that is non-standard, this entire thread is pointless. US Chess does not control the products USCF Sales sells, and I doubt the office has questioned minor differences in the sets provided for nationals.
I was just curious as to which style of pieces US Chess uses at it’s National events.
It’s called ‘Staunton’. 
I wouldn’t bet that every set used at Nationals is identical to the others. And it isn’t important that they be identical.
I have a bag of ‘extra pieces’ that I’d bring to tournaments, from sets that were left over at the end of the state tournament, sets I used when I was teaching in Lincoln elementary schools, sets left behind by players and never reclaimed, etc. If someone had a piece that didn’t quite match the rest of his set, if I had one that was a better match, I’d usually trade.
The only discernible difference appears to be the turrets of the rooks. It is not clear from the pictures what the quality of the plastic is. Having set up hundreds of sets at the scholastic national tournaments, including two Supernationals, and a couple of US Opens, I can say that both styles of the Staunton sets are used. I have a set of each style plus boards with a USCF logo, which I bought after one of these tournaments was completed. In fact, one year I bought ten sets and vinyl boards with a tournament logo in the special sale after the event to give to students and a chess club when I got back home. There were differences in the color and finish of the pieces as well as differences in the rooks. Just imagine the ‘joy’ of the staff in having to set up over 2500 sets and boards at a Supernationals. Almost all of the sets and boards that were used by the players are sold at the end of an event because they are no longer “new”.
There is another difference. One set is described as “single weighted”, which usually means the base of each piece is hollow with a lead disk inserted (more of them for double or triple weighting). The other set is described as solid plastic.
– Hal Terrie
All of the pieces between the two sets look different to me, especially the Rook, Queen, King, and Bishop.
Actually, unless they changed the wording just today, you are incorrect. The second one says (emphasis mine)
These are the exact same pattern of chess pieces that the US Chess Federation uses at all of it’s (sic) National Chess Tournaments.
As I view them, one of the links say ‘exact same chess pieces’ and the other says ‘exact same pattern of chess pieces’.
In fact, both statements could be entirely correct. The first one doesn’t say it is the ONLY pieces used at national events.