Tis The Season

As November quickly approaches, so does the holiday buying season for gifts. We Chess players often want Chess stuff as gifts and we usually need to guide our friends and relatives as to where and what is the best buy for us.

I know that it was at this time of the year that I got my first high quality wood chess board and a matching set soon followed. I got to know Frank Camaratta as he built his House of Staunton company and bought quite a bit of equipment, especially wooden sets and boards since then. So, I am one of a number that knows the quality stuff and what’s out there.

Now, I am not saying that The House of Staunton is the only place to get quality chess equipment, but they are USCF Sales and our contracted seller. In fact my favorite chess set came from Your Moves Chess and Games. I have also purchased equipment from most of the vendors available today.

So, here are my thoughts on equipment and where to get it:

  1. We can certainly begin at the lowest money end of the spectrum to purchase things. At this level I would suggest at a minimum a weighted chess set, usually plastic. With that though, The House of Staunton/USCF Sales, The Chess House, Your Move Chess and Games, Wholesale Chess, The Chess Store, The Rochester Chess Center, Chess Express and American Chess Equipment all have plastic and wooden sets at lower prices. They also have vinyl boards and cases to go with these sets. Of course chess clocks can be had there as well, but I’ll talk about clocks in its own point, later.

Sure, the wooden sets will be more than the lesser expensive plastic ones, but a good number of these wood sets are quite affordable. The House of Staunton/USCF Sales and Your Move Chess and Games along with The Chess House and American Chess Equipment all have these.

The House of Staunton/USCF Sales also carries a specific plastic set that currently is the only one designed as it is. That set is the Collector Series plastic set. It has an injection molded design where the weights are actually encapsulated within the plastic and hence the weights won’t fall out. Shelby at American Chess Equipment told me of this as the Ultimate Chess Set they offered was of the same design. Unfortunately Shelby lost his supplier in Taiwan and the molds for the pieces when they closed their doors without any warning. Shelby has informed me though that he is looking in another country to retool and produce those sets again. Anyway, I do own a Collector Series Plastic set and one of American Chess Equipment’s Cavalier sets as my only plastic sets.

Oh yes, the vinyl boards also have a premium quality board available and that is certainly worth the extra bit to buy.

I would suggest looking at American Chess Equipment as one of the best valued spots to get lesser expensive equipment. And look at the price on the Excalibur clocks there.

The bottom line at the low price spectrum is that there is quite a bit of availability from all vendors.

  1. The above point pretty much covers sets under $50. The next step above that brings us to sets that sell up to just a little over $100. Thanks to Frank Camaratta and his work about a decade ago, there are some very nice sets in this price range. In fact, if I were to begin from scratch again and buy 1 or even a few sets for play, I personally see no need to go into the higher ranges. The House of Staunton, Your Move Chess and Games, The Chess House are but 3 that have quite a bit in this price range.

At the lower end of this range is the House of Staunton Championship Series set which is the style and pattern of the DGT sets used at all the elite events, except these sets are weighted and don’t have the electronic chip in them as the DGT set does. These sets start at under $50 and are very well balanced and look nice.

I have to tell you of a couple of “models” that I would not live without. The Proline Series set is a real sleeper and is perfect for slower time control games. The set feels and plays similarly to the Marshall Series set at 4 times less the cost. The Classic Series set in 3.75" plays and feels like the Players Series set, which is a bit more expensive. The Liberty Series set is the exact design of the Pinney set from the 1930’s, as Frank told me. That set wears like iron. It is the perfect set for Blitz and skittle play, and I’m not kidding. The knights are a much more basic design in detail but the curves and cuts on them make playing really nice. Over the years, I have had people laugh at the set at first, until they play chess with it. Then, I have had no one not like the set. One guy who made fun of it at first, still asks me if I will sell it to him.

So, my “basic” wood set arsenal would include the Liberty Series, Proline Series and maybe a Classic Series set.

If you wanted to add some of these sets to your use for fun, the Championship Series is a great buy and the Zagreb '59 set is classic.

I know that Your Move Chess and Games and The Chess House also have some nice sets in this price range. I will say though that Frank Camaratta made sure the pieces he had created were all exceptionally well balanced and play extremely well. I really think the sets I mentioned are real bargains as they are comparable to sets that cost 2 to 4 times more.

For chess boards in this group, I would look at the tournament wooden boards the House of Staunton sells. These are the ones in Mahogany and Maple with the letters and numbers on them. Those boards are actually produced in Europe and are used in the league and known as the Bundesliga boards. They’re all under $100 by quite a bit and a very nice board. I own 2 folding ones and a regular one.

  1. I’m just going to put all the sets from $150 and up in the same buying category. Now, there are a good number of sets on the market. Your Move Chess and Games sell the Mark of Westminster sets which are nice. Of course The House of Staunton has the most sets available in this range. The Chess House also sells some very nice sets. There’s also a web site called the Chess Piece or something like that with very nice sets. All these sets are pretty much as represented in the pictures on their respective web sites. Keep in mind though that the House of Staunton sets are so well balanced.

Now, I currently own a House of Staunton Morphy Series set and that is my nice set that doesn’t leave the house much. My favorite set is the Dubrovnik 1950 set sold in this country only by Your Move Chess and Games. The manufacturer is in Serbia and they also sell their sets on the internet. But, they will ship you the set. Now, this set is the one that you will see in photographs along with Bobby Fischer. It was his favorite set. They used this set at the Fischer-Spassky match in 1992. The set uses walnut for the dark pieces. The thing about this set is that it was designed by a nationally famous cartoonist in what was Yugoslavia for that 1950 tournament. The knights are really distinctive in their detail. The set is also very well balanced and really nice to play with. Just this past Monday at a rated club event, my opponent commented on how much he liked the set as he sat down to it. I just noticed on the Your Moves Chess and Games website that the set is now at about $500. When I bought mine a year and a half ago, it paid a good amount less. But, it is no cheaper ordering from the manufacturer. The young guy that got me hooked on the set bought his through the manufacturer and it was something like 6 weeks to come and it was the same price or even a bit more than Your Move Chess and Games.

For chess boards in the higher price range, in my opinion there isn’t as much as there used to be available. There is the usual flat design board of different woods. Veneer boards are less expensive than solid wood ones. The House of Staunton also have their Contemporary type of boards that are more like pedestal chess boards with the outer frames tapering from the board to the table. Frank had a sunken board designed and the House of Staunton still sells that is a Superior Traditional Board. It now only comes in the original Rosewood and Sycamore. At one time it came in a lot of other woods, but not anymore.

Your Moves Chess and Games now carry some very nice boards, as does The Chess House. Both sell nicer boards to go along with nicer sets, which they also sell. You really can’t go wrong at this higher price range sticking with The House of Staunton (uscfsales.com or houseofstaunton.com), The Chess House (chesshouse.com), Your Moves Chess and Games (chessusa.com), and The Chess Piece (thechesspiece.com).

  1. Last but not least I want to mention chess clocks. The least expensive one that is also the biggest bang for the buck is the Excalibur sold by American Chess Equipment (amchesseq.com). The next price level of clocks has the DGT North American and Easy Game Time Plus, Saitek Competition Pro and Zmart Fun II (ZMF-II). These clocks are available from the House of Staunton/USCF Sales, The Chess House, Wholesale Chess, Your Move Chess and Games,…pretty much everywhere.

The higher priced clocks include the DGT 2010 and XL, Chronos, Duel Timer and the Digital Garde Turnier Wood Chess Clock. The Chronos is the usual one people talk about having in this price range, but the problem is their availability. Some times they are not available, anywhere. Once again, these clocks can be found at the above named sellers. Some of the sellers carry some types and not others.

Of course if anyone has experience and likes or dislikes about equipment, this is the thread.

I hope for and wish each and everyone of you a very happy holiday season and a prosperous New Year, and hope you get what you want from Santa.

As a postscript, I don’t want to leave out the other vendors that really sell nice stuff as well. Chess Express, The Rochester Chess Center, The Chess Store and Cajun Chess come to mind. I am sure I have forgotten others and I apologize for that.

As an addendum, I need to mention the electronic scorekeeping devices.

Of course there is the Monroi device for sale on the internet. With shipping it comes to just about $400.

Plycounter is a newer device on the scene being just USCF approved with the FIDE approval currently in progress. At $169 less shipping, it is quite a bit less expensive that the Monroi.

Sevan Muradian and his ChessIQ have and sell the eNotate software. It is $50 for the software but you will need to buy a Dell Axim 51x on eBay or somewhere like that. I got one for $72 including shipping and accessories. This brought my total cost for this system to $122. I also bought a 2 gb card to keep the games on for $6. So, for $128 I have all I need to keep electronic score.

Both the Monroi and eNotate have you use a SD memory card for the best way of keeping the games. The Plycounter has a direct connection to the computer with downloadable software to run on your computer for this purpose.

There are 3 things that make systems advantageous:

  1. While you can make errors in move notation, it is always legible and easy to read instead of a hurried penmanship. I’m not sure about the Monroi or Plycounter, but in the latest version of eNotate, 3.0, there is a way to correct the errors and the program keeps a log of all changes made to the score.

  2. When playing through the game afterwards in a post mortem, you simply play through the moves. However if you get off on a variational tangent, the picture of the last position is still on the screen for a rapid reset back to that position. Last Monday night my friend a 1900 commented on how nice this was and that he usually just starts back from the beginning of the game without the electronic way. Don’t underestimate this as a valuable option.

  3. It really is fast and easy to upload my games, at least with the eNotate. When I finish the game, there is an option in the program to save the game as pgn and write it to the SD card. I just click that and it’s saved. When I get home, I simply take the SD card from the Dell Axim and put it in the card reader on my laptop and it really takes me less than 3 minutes total time to save the game to my database.

I personally expect to see more of these on the market and hopefully ones that use a tablet, either Apple or otherwise.

I am in the process of writing an article comparing these devices that is tentatively scheduled for Chess Life.

Actually eNotate 3.0 has been tested on Dell Axim x50, x50v, x51, x51v, HP iPaq 1955, and HP iPaq 211.

v3.0 fixed the hi-res issue so the x50v, x51v, and iPaq 211 works flawlessly now (these have hi-res screens). Also the iPaq 211 (which is well more expensive on eBay in the $200-250 range) has a 4" screen vs the 3.5" screen on the Axim.

v3.0 also provides the ability to take the PGN file and convert it to PDF and then to export it to your memory card. This could be used if the organizer wants a physical copy.

v3.0 has the ‘view log’ feature which allows to see what changes were made during the course of a game, whether the game is in live ‘record’ mode or if its been finished and saved.

v2.0 introduced and v3.0 cleaned up time stamping also keeping track of two types of time per player, time for the move itself and total time elapsed for the player (each side, white and black, gets this recorded). Time stamping can be turned on an off but it will only be accurate really for the per move time stamp if the player records religiously after each move.

Ron,

Great job on putting this information together. And to be honest, your information on the “Ultimate Chess Set” is something of value for me. I have this as my primary set and have been looking to buy a few additional sets of them but everyone is out of stock. Now I know why.

Thanks for putting this all together.

Charlie

Are Mammoth Tusk ivory pieces still available anywhere new or used?

Yes they are: http://www.uscfsales.com/the-mammoth-ivory-and-genuine-ebony-collector-series-luxury-chess-set-4-4-king.html

I’m liking my mousepad board instead of the quality vinyl. It barely curls even when left a long time in the bag. The only downside is that it isn’t as spill resistant, and some of the most popular bags have loops that will just barely hold it.

If House of Staunton still has the “build your own combo”, I would highly recommend it. I got a wooden board, pieces, and deluxe bag for about 100. Maybe 120. Really nice. I wish I would have sprung the extra 20 bucks for the rosewood pieces, though. The sheesham (“golden rosewood”) looked darker in the picture than they were in reality.

If anyone needs to buy me a Christmas gift, rosewood pieces would be a great choice.

In my opinion, the best, premium-quality board to take to a tournament is a House of Aragon leather board. I love mine. I think they’re much nicer than vinyl and I’ve never had a problem with it laying flat (unlike the cheaper, thicker leather board I bought from the USCF several years earlier). I like my oxblood color dark squares (dark red-brown), but they had the more traditional colors as well. It’s important to not get a cheap leather board – I detest the ones that curl up, look like the squares have been painted on, or (worst) are have a rough or suede finish. House of Aragon was absolute tops in quality, in my opinion.

My board from them and my House of Staunton wood set have held up well in a lot of tournaments .

Yes, i found The House of Aragon and now own 3 or 4 leather boards from there.

The problem is that they quit selling and their store page is down.

However now I might just put the green board with the Dubrovnik 1950 set. Thanks for the reminder, Rodney.

Can’t stop salivating! Great thread! :smiley:

I had a little time so I went to the sites to see what was happening there for the Holiday Season.

I’m here to tell you that American Chess Equipment (amchesseq.com) is having a blowout sale on Excalibur II clocks. He is selling them for a mere $20 each, and that is with no minimum purchase required. Other than that most of the stuff there is the same as always.

The Chess Store (thechessstore.com) actually has the largest selection of nicer plastic chess sets.

The Chess House has their normal nice offerings including a Chess course by the owner’s (Raphael) brother, Elliott Neff a Master. I bought the DVDs and use them with my school chess club. The kids like them and they actually learn.

The Chess Cafe store (shop.chesscafe.com) is currently having a 70% off sale on most in stock items. That’s quite major. Mark, sells a couple of very nice portable sets called the Passport Travel Sets, one with magnetic pieces and one that uses slots and flat pieces. I own one of each and at the price they are now, I own 2 of each one…

Also I need mention Cajun Chess (cajunchess.com). Jean has a nice selection of Chess “stuff”.

Thank you, Ron.

That really is one heck of a sale over at ChessCafe.com. I can scratch rosewood pieces off of this year’s wish list.

Any opinion regarding “The Best Chessmen Ever” from Slovenia?

I Googled that and found their website. The video and pictures show a nice chess set, but I don’t know if it could be called the Best,…Ever.

The piece design is Modern. The construction looks to be alright, but there isn’t a lot of detail on the Knights as with other sets.

I don’t know if the set is worth 250 to 300 Euros as the respective 2 designs are priced. Also, where can you get the set? If it’s only from them in Slovenia, then there will be a long wait for the set to arrive after ordering, due to shipping and customs.

The set looks alright though.

Boyd,
Try spraying the cloth part of the board down with Scotchgaurd fabric protector. Should hold down the stains.
Shelby

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Agreed. Bigger loops are needed in chess bags, because the vinyl boards are here to stay for awhile.
.

Shelby, I didn’t write this post. Meadmaker is David Lame, from Michigan. Just FYI. :slight_smile:

Not to mention the 3M phased out Scotchgard due to health risks.

There are bags made with elastic for the loops. These expand to fit mousepad boards as well as more than one vinyl, silicone or leather boards. USCF Sales might handle them along with American Chess Equipment, The Chess House, Your Move Chess and Games, Cajun Chess and the Rochester Chess Center.

I just got my Christmas present which is the Best Chessmen Ever set mentioned earlier in this thread. I got the Stage 2, Eastern style, natural Walnut with Stainless bases option. Normally this set must be bought from the place in Slovenia, but I got Quentin at Your Move Chess and Games to import it for me as he has an account with that shop. The set is GREAT and plays great as well.

Holiday prices are also really good this year. Pretty much all the places mentioned in this thread have some really nice sales going on.

In the spirit of the season, good chess shopping to all and to all a good Knight.