I bought a chess set

I don't really have anyone to play with but FUCK IT! I've always wanted a nice set of weighted pieces so I went out and bought some. There is a chess board on its way as well. I figured I'd start with the pieces as that selection would be more subjective to my personal tastes and I could play with them on my crappy vinyl roll-out "board" to find out exactly what square size I'd need for a board. Plus I could be more flexible in my choices instead of buying a "set" with both pieces and board in one price (that was usually higher).

Shortly after checking amazon.com, I discovered that I really like the aesthetics of a set that I began to see referred to as the "Leningrad." Who knows if that is an accepted name, but it was the knight in particular that caught my eye. Its bowed head looked honorable and respectful as opposed to the more traditional knight I've seen with its head pointed forward.

I ordered them from a store called Staunton Castle and it shipped from India. The packaging was great and the pieces feel amazing. Nice and weighty. Substantial. Good felt on the bottoms.

The one set I had when I was younger was a cheap magnetic travel set that had approximately 1 inch squares. I bought a vinyl and plastic tournament set two years ago and I was surprised at how much larger the pieces were. It took me many games to get used to the size. The board alone was about 21 inches wide! Quite different compared to the travel set. I started to see that the chess pieces the professionals play with are quite large as well and most of the quality sets for sale online are similar size. The king in my set is around 4 inches tall and the base is about 1.625 inches. I got the ebonized set so the black pieces are quite dark. Thanks to amazon points, I only had to spend $81.78 on these pieces.

For the board, I decided to go for a 2.25 inch square to match the vinyl board I'd been using to practice. I found that boards looked too crowded if you didn't get a large enough square size. Between watching the 2019 Sinquefield cup on youtube and reading comments about the board (the table is amazing) and also getting inspiration from /r/chessporn, I was settled on a 2.25 square. Then of course is type of wood, color, border, etc. I didn't want a huge border and I wanted completely solid wood but those are hard to find and expensive. Most options were veneer but reviews sounded good so I settled with chessusa.com.

I went with a mahogany board. Click here to go to the store's page. As for price, I took advantage of Chess USA's new customer discount and only had to pay $103.96.

I will post a picture of the board and pieces when I put everything together!

It is a bit overkill since I rarely play anyone OTB at my house but I'll be super excited to see this on display and to use it for practicing opening memorization and playing through master games.