So, I decided to upgrade my current\u00a0chess set. It’s a fairly nice set, but the white king suffers a broken crown; it’s very well made, handsome even. But, nothing particular about it screams fancy<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Below is a log of my search for a luxury chess set to replace my current set, shown above.<\/p>\n My experience is divided into different sections – read the sections of interest to you. \u00a0The final section is a review of the ChessBazzar Arabian Knight Series set I purchased. \u00a0Sellers may want to read all sections, as I recorded in detail how this story unfolded.<\/p>\n Here’s some personal thoughts that were flying around my head while looking for chess sets on the internet.<\/p>\n Where to buy, where to buy, where to buy??? … quick look on eBay … \u00a0Oh my, chess prices have risen since obtaining my first set on eBay back in\u00a02004! I bought my 4.0″ classic rosewood\/boxwood Staunton set<\/u><\/a> right at $78.00 (if memory serves me right). \u00a0I bought my matching board, same wood, 2.5″ squares, with a nice \u00a0boarder and very round corners, separately for $120 or so. \u00a0Those prices are not available anymore! \u00a0Chess prices have risen!<\/em><\/p>\n If I am going to upgrade from my existing set – I want something\u00a0patterned\u00a0after a traditional Staunton style … but artistic enough to breathe a breath of fresh air back into game play!<\/em><\/p>\n Most\u00a0House of Staunton<\/u><\/a> sets look rather plain\u00a0… unless you start looking at item greater than $975. \u00a0 Hummm … <\/em><\/p>\n ChessBazaar<\/u><\/a>\u00a0has some nice sets … wait, they’re located in India! \u00a0Bummer. \u00a0I’d be leary\u00a0about ordering from India … might get ripped off … hummmm …\u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Those were my initial thoughts. \u00a0I browsed several sites, \u00a0House of Chess<\/a>, Chess USA<\/a>, Chess Warehouse, eBay, \u00a0etc etc etc … I kept coming back to ChessBazaar for the nice unique selections displayed there. Eventually I decided to check them out – just to make sure they were not a scam site. This was the first step towards deciding to order\u00a0from them. My initial checks were satisfied. \u00a0Now, I was convinced that I would probably be purchasing something from their site in the near future.<\/p>\n I was convinced I wanted a wood set, something akin to the classic Staunton design – but something luxury, something a bit unique, without going wild. There were several sets where\u00a0this<\/em> piece looked fantastic –\u00a0but that<\/em>\u00a0piece ruined the set for my tastes! \u00a0(I didn’t like pawns with even the slightest hint of a point on top – resembles a bishop too much; or a bishop that is more rounded at the top, or double split at the top; or pieces that look like they have a helmet style; or pieces that have a double “collar” – yeah, I’m pretty picky!) \u00a0My wife even stated looking at sets with me; and she certainly had her favorites. (We discovered our tastes were different!).<\/p>\n Knights are the showcase piece<\/em> of any set, aren’t they? \u00a0It’s the only piece that is not lathed and has to be hand carved! \u00a0I liked the design of several knights in sets at ChessBazaar. Examples of some of my personal favorites: the Indian Chetak II,<\/a>\u00a0 the Sher-E-Punjab<\/a>, \u00a0California Chrome<\/a>, Dragon Knight<\/a>, Pegasus<\/a>, and others. Eventually, I decided on the Arabian Knight Series<\/a>\u00a0– not only are the Knights stunning,but the design of all other pieces agree with my taste. I especially like the 3D crown atop the king; the knight is exquisite, and I’ve never had a castle that flared open at the top \u00a0– \u00a0very unique looking! (If you are more familiar with House of Staunton, this set is similar to the Ercolando<\/a> design.)<\/p>\n It’s settled; that’s the set. \u00a0I ordered it.<\/p>\n There is a short story and a long story to this section. \u00a0But, the short story is that shipping was a very pleasant surprise – it arrived at my doorstep just 37 hours after the package was received my FedEx!<\/p>\n Although I ordered it on Saturday, shipments did not go out until Monday; my package was further delayed as ChessBazaar sent an email wanting clarification instructions about\u00a0my order. \u00a0They noticed the storage box I ordered would not accommodate the size of this chess set. By the time I noticed and answered the email, Monday’s FedEx cutoff time had come and gone. But ordering on Saturday, and receiving Wen morning was still fast!<\/p>\n Time-wise details: the item was picked up by the local India FedEx center at 8:03 pm (local time) Monday, 5\/16. \u00a0It was delivered to my door at 8:51 am Wen morning, 5\/18. Although shipping dates\u00a0spans parts of three days, the shipping time took less than 48 hours – 37 hours to be exact. That’s pretty impressive!<\/p>\n I normally track expensive shipments such as this. Tracking was fun. I even\u00a0used Flight Aware to track FedEx Flight: \u00a0FDX 7\u00a0once the package made it to\u00a0Somma Lombardo, Italy. \u00a0That was the only FedEx flight leaving that city to the USA, and it’s destination was Memphis, TN. \u00a0According to Flight Aware, the flight was due to arrive in Memphis at 1103 pm. It actually landed 1115 pm; at 1122, FedEx reported the package had arrived in Memphis TN. It departed Memphis at 0324 am, arrived in Richland, MS at 7:48 am, and was delivered at 0851 am. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n On to the Review …<\/p>\n (Don’t like reading? You may want to just skip to the YouTube video at the bottom.)<\/em><\/p>\n What do you do when you’re anticipating an\u00a0exciting shipment to arrive ? \u00a0Well, if you’re like me – you read everything you can about it. And that’s what I did. \u00a0I found some threads on the Chess.com forums about\u00a0substandard hand carved knights from ChessBazaar – I became\u00a0worried. Would I have knights that were different from the advertised images? Haunting thought!<\/p>\n Waiting anxiously … Reading more articles … I also found many ChessBazaar patrons who were ecstatic with their purchases in the Chess.com forums. \u00a0I’m hoping to be in this category.<\/p>\n It arrives !<\/p>\n Opening the set … Very relieved –\u00a0the pieces looked exactly like the images on the ChessBazaar website – and those knights are STUNNING\u00a0! \u00a0This is such an awesome chess set …<\/p>\n [slideshow_deploy id=’7193′]<\/p>\n Well … what do you do at this point?<\/p>\n I kept admiring the beauty of the set. \u00a0Then I lifted pawns\u00a0from my previous set, and … lifted the pawns\u00a0from this new set. There was no getting around it – this new set was lighter.\u00a0\u00a0I was mentally fighting to accept these lighter pieces – because … this new set was stunning in beauty!\u00a0Now, to be fair, other\u00a0pieces were fine … primarily it was the pawns that seemed to be\u00a0light.<\/p>\n Okay, while we’re noticing negatives … I should mention this: \u00a0I have one black knight that has non-level eyes. \u00a0How do you notice this? Well,\u00a0\u00a0you look at the knight at eye-level,\u00a0\u00a0with the front of it’s head facing directly at you,\u00a0\u00a0and you have to be looking for that sort of thing – kind of like a barber not cutting both your sideburns level. \u00a0It would never really be noticed – especially from a top-down chess-playing viewpoint. So, it really does not bother at all – if anything, it shows that these pieces really are hand carved. \u00a0The remaining three knights are perfectly symmetrical! \u00a0Even this one is gorgeous! \u00a0But I needed to mention this – it’s there. \u00a0I rate this as a 1 out of 10 in terms of importance to me.<\/p>\n [ Update: \u00a0Later, after getting some gram scales, I would discovered it was really only a few of the white pawns that were light. \u00a0Ironically, those were the very pieces I was making the comparison – they were the first pieces I picked up. \u00a0ChessBazaar is going to swap out these light\u00a0pawns for heavy ones.]<\/p>\n Finally got the opportunity to do weight measurements.<\/p>\n Light King:<\/strong> \u00a0 78 grams<\/span><\/p>\n Dark \u00a0King:<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a084 grams \u00a0<\/span> \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Light Queens:<\/strong>\u00a0 68 grams, 72 grams<\/span><\/p>\n Dark\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0Queens:<\/strong>\u00a0 74 grams, 76 grams<\/span><\/p>\n Light Bishops:<\/strong> \u00a056 grams, \u00a058 grams<\/span><\/p>\n Dark \u00a0Bishops:<\/strong> \u00a058 grams, \u00a062 grams<\/span><\/p>\n Light Knights: \u00a0<\/strong>64 grams, \u00a064 grams<\/span><\/p>\n Dark \u00a0Knights: \u00a0<\/strong>68 grams, \u00a070 grams<\/span><\/p>\n Light Castles: \u00a0<\/strong> 56 grams, \u00a058 grams<\/span><\/p>\n Dark \u00a0Castles: \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>58 grams, \u00a058 grams<\/span><\/p>\n Light\u00a0Pawns:<\/strong>\u00a0 28g, 32g, 34g, 34g, 34g, 36g, 36g, \u00a038g \u00a0 (combined white pwns:\u00a0286 grams)<\/span><\/p>\n Dark \u00a0Pawns:<\/strong>\u00a0 36g, 38g, 38g, 38g, 38g, 40g, 40g, 40g \u00a0(combined dark \u00a0pwns:\u00a0 318 grams)<\/span><\/p>\n All Light Pieces Weighed Together:<\/strong> \u00a0872 grams<\/span><\/p>\n All Dark \u00a0Pieces Weighed Together:<\/strong> \u00a0936 grams<\/span><\/p>\n Total Weight – All Pieces: \u00a0 1808 grams. \u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n ChessBazaar advertised this set as 1900 grams with a possible error of 10% due to weighing pieces individually. \u00a0The actual weight of this set is 4.8% less than the advertised weights – so within the margin of error that they advertised – but definitely on the LOW side.<\/p>\n ChessBazaar is going to replace my light pawns (there were five) with heavy ones. So, more to come, but I’m very pleased with this stunning set.<\/p>\n Another positive – forgot to mention this one earlier. \u00a0Turns out that I ordered during a promotion where orders over a certain amount get a free bonus chess set. \u00a0I wasn’t worried about that, and I think I was right at the cutoff anyway, but that set was also received – and it turns out to be a very nice 3.75″ set. \u00a0Solid wood, and makes a very nice travel set. \u00a0Have a look<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It did take a while to notice – but every week or so, I’m seeing a continuous white powdery buildup (a residue or oxidation layer) on eight particular Padauk piecess. If left alone, these pieces are horrible looking. To restore these pieces to their original shiny finish, I must polish them with a microfiber cloth. It’s not really all that hard – but it’s a pain to have to shine them up continuously! My problem pieces includes the King, both Queens, both Knights and three of pawns. (All the other pieces are fine). I have dedicated an entire article to my experience with this issue where my battle with Padauk Oxidation – and my solution<\/a> is described.<\/p>\n I am very pleased with this set; it’s absolutely gorgeous. The YouTube video shows the final state of the set after being lacquered in order to fix the residue issue. It’s super glossy and I love it. Concerning the lighter-than-expected<\/em> weight issue – I have learned that this was due to newer regulations that disallow lead to be used in imported items labeled as toys<\/em>. Chess pieces are classified as toys<\/em> as they are game pieces<\/em>. My earlier set, produced back in the 1990’s, used lead. Now that I am not continuously picking up my old pieces – I am not mentally comparing heavy to light pieces – it turns out that it’s not that big of a deal now. If you have made it this far, do be sure to check out the YouTube video below, and view it in HD resolution. Leave any comments you wish, I enjoy reading them.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.richimages.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/dsc_5340.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.richimages.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/dsc_5339.jpg\")
Shopping – Where to Buy<\/h3>\n
Which set to Buy<\/h3>\n
Shipping – A FAST Experience!<\/h3>\n
Review – The Arabian Knight Series<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.richimages.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/dsc_5305.jpg\")
<\/a>
\nAnd yet one more flaw … One of the white knights has a minor issue. The seam where the\u00a0lathed base meets\u00a0the “hand-carved” part of the knight has a very small gap that extends about 20 degrees of that circle. \u00a0Again, probably not even noticeable during game play unless you picked the knight up and examined it thoroughly. \u00a0I would rate this as a 5 out of a scale of 10 in terms of importance. But I believe I can fix this with no problem, perhaps a smidgen amount of wood filler.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.richimages.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/dsc_5336.jpg\")
<\/a>
\nBut back to this weight issue … this is like a 9 out of 10 on that concern scale. \u00a0(10 being highly dissatisfied )!<\/p>\nDay Two:<\/h3>\n
Weights:<\/h3>\n
ChessBazaar Review – Going the Extra Mile<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.richimages.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/dsc_5337.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nTwo Weeks In – I’ve Learned My Set Suffers from Padauk Oxidation<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.richimages.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/img_0971-1500x2000.jpg\")
Summary<\/h3>\n
Update: Here’s my YouTube Video<\/h3>\n