Chess Sets of All Shapes and Sizes

Chess sets – or chessmen – come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and materials. Their function in the game all stays the same, but their appearances can be radically different. All chess sets include 32 pieces – 16 Pawns, 4 Rooks, 4 Knights, 4 Bishops, 2 Queens, and last, but not least, 2 Kings. An array of materials and techniques are used in order to make chess sets unique pieces of art.

• Material 

Chessmen can be made from wood, marble, stone, bone, glass, plastic, or even carbon fiber. These are among some of the more popular materials used today. Chess sets can be either hand-made or machine manufactured out of raw materials.

Wood is one of the more popular materials used in making quality chess sets. Ebony and Rosewood are types of wood that are used in many high-end, handmade chess sets. These types of wood are very dense so they take more times to construct the pieces. Maple, palm, and cedar are some of the other wood used to make chess sets as well. They are not as difficult to work with as Ebony or Rosewood, but they still make for great chess sets. Wood offers versatility in style, which is why it is a common material.

• Style 

Chess sets vary in style as well. The most common of the styles is the Staunton chess set. Staunton chess sets are the style recognized and exclusively used for competitions. Nathaniel Cook made the first Staunton chess sets in 1849. He then asked Howard Staunton – a prominent chess player and chess columnist – to promote the style of chessmen in his column. After that, they become known as the Staunton chess set.

By design, Staunton chessmen have wide molded bases. The knights always have the shaped head and neck of a horse, but they can stylistically vary in appearance. The king, queen, bishop, and pawn all have “collars” separating the head of the piece from the body. Most importantly, kings are the biggest pieces and pawns are the smallest – which represents the hierarchy within the game.

Staunton chessmen are among the most common style of pieces, but they are most definitely not the only pieces. There are classes of chess sets from thematic, artistic, contemporary, etc. There are also chess set design differences – Lessing, Broadbent, Anderssen, and Morphy – to name a few. Each set has specific nuances and functions.

 

• Technique 

There are different techniques to making chess sets as well. The two most common are handcrafted and machine manufactured sets. Hand crafted sets are mostly made of wood, bone, and stone. Wood pieces have hand carved tops and the rest of the piece is normally done on a lathe. Bone and stone chessmen are all hand carved by skilled craftsmen. These types of chess sets are weighted at the bottom and then covered with felt to help the pieces glide across the board.

Manufactured chess sets are mostly made of plastic and metal. Molds are created and the molten metal or plastic is poured into a mold. The pieces are then cleaned up and ready for use.

 

 There is a lot of hard work, thought, and craftsmanship that goes into any chess set you may come across. The sets are almost as intricate as the game of chess is – and for good reason. Chess got its start as a game of nobility and it has kept the look to go with it. Next time you sit down to play chess, take some time to admire all the hard work that goes into making each piece.

Chess Changes When You Choose a Strategy

In general terms, the differences between tactics and strategy amounts to a difference of perspective. Tactics, ultimately, are the immediate decisions made to accomplish short-term goals. Strategy, on the other hand, is concerned with the long-term – your broader strategy over the course of the entire game, from beginning to end. By game, of course, we mean chess – is there really any other game? Understanding the differences between chess tactics and chess strategies will help you to become a better, more competitive player.

Brass Tacks 

When choosing or even developing your own strategy, you must first define what the purpose of the strategy is. Identify the broad goals that will advance your board-state toward victory, as well as what resources you will need to get there; some pieces are more important in certain strategies than others, for example, while it is sometimes more important to eliminate certain pieces belonging to your opponent depending on the strategy you are executing.

Tactics then help you accomplish those goals from move to move. Deciding which resources to use to move from point A to point B, from B to C, from C to D, and so on, is an important part of advancing your strategy. While a strategy can offer a way to win, tactics are ultimately the way your strategy adapts to your opponent’s own attempts to win. Seeing the combination of moves you need to make to obtain an advantage on the board is an essential part of any strategy, and can’t be specifically made part of the strategy (for the most part) because you can’t always foresee what your opponent will do. (Although you can make a very educated guess, of course)

The Beginnings of a Chess Strategy 

Every chess strategy begins with its opening. The opening consists of the initial moves of the game using sequences of moves that are collectively referred to as “openings”. They are typically given names like “the Sicilian Defense,” and you can read all about them in the Encyclopedia of Chess Openings. Generally speaking, your openings will be, in part, reactions to what your opponent is doing; it is best to fall open standard openings, rather than try to invent a new variation, as these openings provide consistent defenses against your opponent’s strategy.

There are four different elements of opening moves to consider. First, there is the development of the overall game; by placing your pieces on useful squares, they can impact the game for some time to come. Then, there is the goal of controlling the center: control of the center of the board allows you to easily move pieces across the board, while also making it difficult for your opponent to move their pieces. Then there is the goal of ensuring your king’s safety (timely castling can help), and finally, structuring your pawns correctly to avoid weaknesses.

The Middlegame of a Chess 

Strategy The middlegame of chess strategy comes when most of the game pieces have been developed – as in, they are in useful places and tactics can begin to come into play. At this point, you will assess the board and the pieces on it, and form plans based on those positions. At this point, you need to begin to anticipate what your opponent is going to do.

The ultimate goal of the middlegame is to simplify the board to the point that you can enter the endgame. This typically happens when the board is so wrecked that many pieces will have a hard time interacting with each other, allowing some pieces to pass across the board and toward the king.

The Endgame of a Chess Strategy

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A chess strategy’s endgame comes when there are few pieces remaining on the board. Generally speaking, there are three differences between the rest of the game and this final stage: pawns are more important, the king becomes a stronger piece, and the disadvantage of being forced to make a move – as a rule of the game – all comes into play at this point.

Many different endgame board-states exist, and at this point, a new strategy must be formulated: are you going for basic checkmate? What pieces do you have to work with, and what pieces do they have to work with? If your strategies have been successful up to this point, you will be in an advantageous position here. That is why strategy is so important – because without it, you aren’t looking ahead far enough to have any real control over what the endgame looks like. Then it’s just all move and countermove, and if your opponent is deftly executing their own strategy, you won’t like what the endgame looks like!

Chess Pieces, Chessmen or Chess Set.

 That is the question.

From time to time we’ll receive a call from a customer that purchased a chess set and to their surprise and disappointment they did not receive a chess board with it. While we try our best to make it perfectly clear, whether it is just a chess set or if it also includes a chess board, there is that rare occasion when what our customer really wanted simply got lost in translation.

What it really boils down to is what "chess pieces" or "chessmen" might be to one person will be a "chess set" to another. Here at The Chess Store we define “chess set” as a set of 32 or 34 (when 2 spare queens are included) individual chessmen. However, some people define a chess set as a set of chess pieces or chessmen with a chess board. Not an unreasonable use or meaning of the two words and it can go either way but we have chosen the "chess set" road.

From our perspective, a chess set is a chess set and a chess board is a chess board. One does not necessarily imply the inclusion of the other. When we purchase chess sets from our suppliers, our purchase orders state “chess sets” and the items on the invoices we receive are described as “chess sets”. We purchase complete chess sets, not chess pieces.

The term “chess pieces” could be used to describe 2 chess pieces or a million chess pieces, regardless of whether they make a complete and cohesive chess set or not. When you say chess piece you are referring to a single chess piece and the plural form of the word only implies more than one and not necessarily 32. When you use the phrase "chess set", it’s exclusively is in reference to a set of 32 or 34 chess pieces.

It seems to be evenly divided between the stores that use the phrase “chess set” and “chess pieces” to describe a complete set of pieces. For the time being, we’re going to stick with the more traditional use of the word “chess set”. But, someday we might find that we need to convert for consistency sake and use the terms most shoppers have in mind when they think of a chess set.

Wood Chess Boards – Inlaid or Solid?

Over the years we have had a lot of customers that are completely confused about wood chess boards and what they are buying, and it’s understandable. What is an inlaid chess board anyway – what does that mean? And when people look at the chess boards on the website, they certainly look like they are solid wood. Who would know? So let me give a brief dissertation on wood chess boards.

There are really only two types of wood chess boards, a solid wood chess board that is made from nothing but solid pieces of wood glued together and inlaid chess boards that are made from a substrate of some sort, like a particle board (a wood material) and are covered with wood veneer. They are both "real" wood chess boards but they are made differently by using different types of wood material.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both types of chess board. The first thing one will notice is the price difference between the two. A good quality inlaid chess board with 2.25” squares can be purchased for about a hundred bucks. A good quality solid wood chess board of the same size will cost about 4 to 5 times that much or even more. There are two things in play here; one is that all of that solid wood is pretty darn expensive and two, it’s simply a lot more work and takes a lot more labor (skilled labor at that) to make a chess board from a set of seventy or more solid wood pieces that all have to be perfectly glued together.

There are obviously other differences beyond cost. A solid wood chess board can have a lot more problems than an inlaid board simply because of the solid wood. Solid wood is sensitive to moisture and needs to have been properly cured before being made into a chess board. Solid wood is more apt to warp over time and can develop cracks. The joints of a solid wood chess board can over time start to separate if the wood was not properly cured or if the gluing job was sub par. Having said this, the real craftsmen making wood chess boards for a living know all of these things and are careful about the chess board construction. So you shouldn’t have to worry too much about this if you buy a chess board from a reputable company.

 An inlaid chess board can look every bit as beautiful as a solid wood chess board. You will generally have a lot more options with the type of wood you can get with an inlaid chess board. For example, we offer inlaid chess boards in walnut, mahogany, tiger ebony, elm root, teak, rosewood, African padauk and in a range of different color stained veneers as well. It’s a huge choice, whereas solid wood chess boards are more limited due to the availability of solid wood and the cost of it. But you can get a lot more creative with the design of a solid wood chess board simply because you are working with a 3 dimensional pieces of wood rather than a 2 dimensional piece of veneer. 

For the money you cannot beat the value of a high quality inlaid chess board. You can get just about any size and any type of wood or color for less than $200. We have our inlaid chess boards made by Rechapados Ferrer in Spain and the quality of their workmanship is remarkable. We also have a nice collection of inlaid chess boards from Italfama in Italy . The quality of these chess boards is excellent as well. We also carry a line of inlaid chess boards made in China . These are decent inlaid chess boards and are an excellent value for the price (less than $70) but the quality is not as good as the Rechapados Ferrer or Italama chess boards and for the price you wouldn’t expect it.

We currently carry two solid wood chess boards made by a company here in the United States . We carry American black walnut and maple and African Padauk and maple. These chess boards are absolutely beautiful and very well made. You would not go wrong with these boards.

We hope this makes it a little easier to choose what type of wood chess board is right for you!

Inlaid African Padauk and Birds Eye Maple Chess Board 

Inlaid Color Stained Veneer Chess Board 

Solid American Black Walnut and Maple Chess Board