Hi chessfans,
as a Christmas gift for myself (and the chess playing part of my family) I had ordered some premium wooden chess pieces (actually a set with a board as well). It took quite a while but a few days ago finally it arrived!
Each piece was individually bubble wrapped.
After unwrapping the pieces it turned out the box has cutouts of different sizes in the foam which is covering the ground, so that each piece is firmly held, like here the spare Queens which are included in the set. Really nice.
The pieces are made from boxwood. The slow growth of Buxus sempervirens renders the wood very hard, heavy, and regular, making it ideal for the crafting of flutes and oboes, engraving, marquetry and - chess pieces.
They are hand-carved, hand-polished, have some weights inside and are allegedly FIDE approved for Championship use!
The board is made from ebony, walnut and maple wood.
Some details:
The mane of the horse is the most complicated structure to manually carve and takes most of the time.
While the white pieces have a layer of white felt at the bottom to smoothly glide over the board, the black pieces have - of course - a black one.
With this pieces we are ready for the big blackout, as playing over-the-board (otb) makes really fun now 😄!
I never had such classy chess pieces! This was a one-time investment for the rest of my live (and that of my inheritors)...
Hivechess Season 10 will start on Fr., 14th January! Stay tuned.
PS:
20% of the rewards of this post go to the price pool of S10!
