Chess Set FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions about Chess Sets

What is a Staunton chess set?

Where are your wood chess sets made?

Do you inspect your chess sets or have some kind of quality control?

Why does price vary so much on chess sets that are the same size?

How are wood chess sets made?

What does single, double, and triple weighting mean?

What's the best wood for chess sets?

What's a "premium Staunton chess set"?

Why don't you sell golden rosewood chess sets?

Some chess stores give free boards, wood boxes, spare queens and knights, and other neat stuff when you buy their chess set. Why doesn't The Chess Store?

Are your chess sets the cheap Indian counterfeits mentioned by another chess store?

How do you package your chess sets?

Why do you sell some chess sets with spare queens?

What if I loose a piece or my dog chews a piece to pieces?

What's a tournament or tournament size chess set?

What is a Staunton chess set?

This is perhaps our most asked question. The term "Staunton chess set" is used to describe what people normally think of as a traditional chess set with a king that has a crown, queen with a coronet, bishop with a miter, knight that looks like a horse, the rook like a castle tower, and pawn with a collar and round head. The original Staunton chess set was designed and made back in the mid 1800s by Nethaniel Cook. Howard Staunton, a famous chess champion of the era, agreed to endorse the new chess set design. Thus, all similarly designed chess sets since this first, famous Staunton chess set, have unofficially received the name of Staunton attached to it.

Where are your wood chess sets made?

Our wood chess sets are made in India where 99% of the world's wood chess sets are made. There are about seven main chess set companies in India producing these chess sets. For some reason, some chess stores do not disclose the company or companies that make their chess sets, but we do. We buy our chess sets from Checkmate International and Chopra Chess, Inc.. We consider these two companies full partners and in fact friends, and we work closely with them to improve chess set quality and introduce new designs.

Do you inspect your chess sets or have some kind of quality control?

Yes! We inspect each and every chess piece before it leaves our door. This is very important and not all chess stores do this. Just the process of shipping can result in broken or damaged pieces. We believe it is important to inspect each chess piece to make sure that all aspects meet our high quality standards. If not, the chess piece and sometimes the entire chess set is rejected.

Why does price vary so much on chess sets that are the same size?

There are 3 main factors that drive chess set price; wood, size, and the intricacy of the design. The type of wood is probably the biggest factor in price. Ebony and red sandal wood will just about double the price over rosewood. Size is probably the next biggest factor followed by the design. Some chess sets that are very intricate in design such as knights with carved reigns will significantly increase  both cost and price. The two cheapest woods are boxwood and sheesham wood. Rosewood is in the middle.

How are wood chess sets made?

Making a chess set is a lot more work than most people realize. Chess sets are handmade, with most of the work done on small lathes . The chess set starts out as a raw log which is then cut into various sizes need for the different chess pieces. Except the knight, a piece of raw wood is turned on a lathe one at a time, to the final shape using several cutting tools to create the different profiles of the chess piece. Knights are hand carved by master carvers using a variety of tools. The base of the chess piece is then hollowed out with a drill for the cavity needed for the weight. Molten lead is then poured into the base of the chess piece. Pieces are then sanded and polished to removed all tooling marks and achieve a perfectly smooth finish. The final polishing is done on a cotton buffing wheel where lacquer is applied to create the luster. Finally, the padding, whether green billiard cloth or black leather, is glued to the bottom.

What does single, double, and triple weighting mean?

Chess sets are weighted to make the chess piece more stable on the chess board during play. It helps the chess piece stay put and if a piece accidentally gets touched during a move, it won't tip over or be inadvertently moved. Generally speaking, the heavier the chess set the better. How much weight a chess set can have depends on it's size or more accurately, its mass. The more mass, the more room there is for lead and thus, a heavier chess set. Single weighted pieces are the lightest and would have lead weight equal to the weight of the piece. A double weighted set would have lead equal to twice the weight of the raw piece, triple would be three times and so on. However, weighting is not an exact science and you can expect some variation from this general principal.

What's the best wood for chess sets?

This depends on what you personally like and we would suggest that it would also depend on how the chess set will be used and what your budget is. If you're looking for a show piece, we would recommend red sandal wood or ebony if you want something traditional and black. If you are buying a chess set that's going to be used often and thrown in a box to be taken out of the house, we would recommend one of the more affordable woods such as ebonized boxwood, sheesham wood, or even rosewood. So the correct answer is, there really is no best wood, it depends on what you like and how you intend to use your chess set.

What's a "premium Staunton chess set"?

Chess stores, including The Chess Store, describe some of their Staunton chess sets as premium Staunton chess sets. This term is somewhat loosely used to label chess sets that are of the highest quality and with a more intricate and elegant design. There are no official guidelines that qualify a chess set as a "premium Staunton chess set". Many of these claims are less than genuine, so we suggest you take labels such as "premium", "collector", and "limited edition", with a grain of salt. If you are shopping on line, we highly recommend you look for sites that have good quality photographs. If you cannot distinguish detail or colors from the picture, be cautious.

Why doesn't The Chess Store sell golden rosewood chess sets?

We do sell what some chess stores refer to as golden rosewood chess sets. However, truth be told, there is no such thing as golden rosewood. Golden rosewood is none other than plain old sheesham wood. It's merely a marketing ploy to confuse the customer into believing they are buying a rosewood chess set. We believe this is misleading.

Some chess stores give free boards, wood boxes, spare queens and knights, and other neat stuff when you buy their chess set. Why doesn't The Chess Store?

Let's just say that not all chess sets are created equal. There's a reason why they need to do this.

Are your chess sets the cheap Indian counterfeits mentioned by another chess store?

NO! But let us explain this in a little more depth. Most unfortunately, there is another chess set store that disparagingly says that other stores have copied their chess sets and anyone selling such, are selling cheap Indian counterfeits. What you'll find interesting is that their own chess sets are made in India where 99% of the world's wood chess sets are made. For the most part, chess set design is not patented or copyrighted due to the similarity of one chess set to another. Chess sets are hand made and as such, inherent variation alone would make this difficult. You can imagine that even if you patented a specific chess set pattern, that minor changes in the pattern such as the way the ears are carved, would result in a unique design and pattern. Add to this that hundreds of chess sets have been designed and made over the past two hundred years, it would be almost impossible to design a chess set that could be proven so unique as to pass the stringent guidelines of the patent or copyright process. So such claims are largely bogus, driven by ego, and an attempt to discredit competitors in the chess set business.

How do you package your chess sets?

After inspection, chess sets that are 4 1/4" or shorter are packaged in our decorative card board box. Chess sets over 4 1/4" are packaged in a rigid white cardboard box. Our decorative cardboard box is a rigid box covered in an attractive black leather grain paper with our logo in gold foil in the center. Inside there are partitions to separate and protect the pieces and white foam pads top and bottom to provide a soft cushion. For shipping, we package the chess set box in a larger shipping box to make sure your chess set arrives to your door safe and sound. In 2004, we were successful 100% of the time - zero shipping damage!

Why do you sell some chess sets with spare queens?

Spare queens are used when a pawn reaches the other side and can be promoted to another chess piece. Almost always, the queen is chosen because it's the most powerful piece. If you don't have spare queens and if the players queen has not been captured, something else such as an upside down rook has to be used. So the serious chess players like having extra queens. This has become pretty much standard the past couple of years, so now most of our chess sets come with spare queens.

What if I loose a piece or my dog chews a piece to pieces?

It happens. Especially the dog scenario, we hear it every week. We can almost always replace a chess piece if you purchased your chess set from us. We have hundreds of spare pieces and we try our best to match your missing piece.

What's a tournament or tournament size chess set?