Old English Staunton Series Chess Pieces in Ebony & Box Wood - Chessbazaar - Chess Set Review

[@AlSuChess]

What's going on my good chess friends! Found a moment to sit down and catch up on all the great comments you guys leave! These comments, people watching is what it's all about, if it wasn't for social media, I don't think I would be surrounded by so many great people such as yourself with similar interest to mine, out to build a true chess community. If you happen to come across this comment, I wanted to update you guys as to the recent changes I see happening with KZbin. If you have started to see ads run prior to my videos, it means that KZbin started to run ads for my channel, however, not until I hit the 1000 subscriber mark and 4000 hours of viewing time, can I monetize. Some of the more elegant and cooler chess set I so much wish to show you are outside of my budget so my intention is when I finally hit those numbers and youtube starts to pay me for the ads, then I can use those funds to get better chess sets, and show you guys so much more, find time to travel and even perhaps go to some chess events. Before I hit those marks though, you will see ads on my channel but the funding from ads is going to KZbin only, which is fine, they need to be able to justify the HUGE amount of space that they have to make for all of my videos. With that being said, lets all make an effort to get subscribing and watching so we can get to the point where the ads you guys have to skip would translate to pennies for newer and better chess merchandise instead of just going only to KZbin! If you like this channel, share it with your friends if they also enjoy chess, if they don't enjoy chess don't share otherwise I'll be swarmed with dislikes lol. Have a wonderful day everyone! Stay safe and enjoy being in the moment! P.S. I'll drop this same comment in some of my other chess videos so more people have a chance to see it! Cheers!!

[@slasanj]

Happy birthday .. and keep up the good work - from Malaysia....

[@AlSuChess]

Thank you thank you! Definitely will do my best, as long as people show an interest I will find time to get more content on here!

[@obezeanu]

Happy B Day ! All the Best for You and your family .Thx for beautiful video!

[@AlSuChess]

Thank you very much!

[@marcellotrove489]

Happy birthday!!!!! Keep up whit the great content:)

[@AlSuChess]

Thanks a lot, I will do my best!

[@Yornek1]

Happy Birthday, One love from Jamaica. Keep up the good work.

[@AlSuChess]

Thank you thank you! Birthdays aren't what they used to be when you get older, but it's up to us to make them special!

[@larryforman6390]

Happy birthday, my brother! Good work!

[@AlSuChess]

Thanks Larry!

[@alejandrolara1138]

Congratulations!!! Always enjoy your videos, thanks for sharing and doing so very detailed comparison.

[@alejandrolara1138]

Saludos desde Nicaragua, BTW 😁

[@AlSuChess]

Thank you for watching! I make videos for you guys, no reason to make them for myself, so if you enjoy, then I am happy!

[@AlSuChess]

Thank you!!

[@tank.4496]

Great set for that price. 👏

[@AlSuChess]

Yeah I agree, especially considering that you are getting Ebony Wood.

[@viet7201]

Hi, love your videos! this is a large set, may I know what is the size of the square of the chess board shown in the video?

[@AlSuChess]

The board I generally shoot a lot of my pieces is the spanish veneer board with 2.5 inch squares. I know there are larger boards available, but so far I haven't encountered chess pieces that I would feel looked to cramped on a 2.5 inch square board that I have, on the contrary, most of the pieces I review seem to have space, especially the pawns.

[@viet7201]

@@AlSuChess Thanks for sharing, and looking forward to more of your very detailed videos. :)

[@lorenzo6553]

Do you have lichess / chessCom / USCF / FIDE elo?

[@ericb252]

Very interesting comparison. Excellent video!! The staunton one looks like a Picasso work of art. For example. 1. Bishop mantle cut for CB is done with a straight line. But look inside the HOS Bishop, its curved inside. This is not easy to do 2. The queen crown looks so wrong for CB, there is a huge bump in the crown. 3. Proportion on the HoS looks artistic. No extra lines, each piece compliments the next. Not the case with CB 4. CB looks mass produced because every piece looks cut with straight lines where the HoS is a work of art. I guess it depends what the budget is and which HoS set you conpare against. But this Paulsen set is a work of art

[@AlSuChess]

Thanks a lot! I agree, the Paulsen set is definitely a lot more fine tuned!

[@-johnny-deep-]

The eyes on the black knight seemed mis-carved, like you show at 10:37? But it's not bad. Those imperfect sets are tempting, but my luck even with non imperfect sets from CB is about 50%. And it's a pain dealing with them since they seem to take a few days to respond to emails. Also, it's amazing that 95% of their imperfect sets are sold out! But perhaps that's not normal and it's only because of the "Queen's Gambit" effect.

[@AlSuChess]

I agree with you, actually just finished watching the Queen's Gambit and I could see how a show would inspire a lot of people to look into chess, at least for a short time!

[@ragnorak56]

Happy Birthday. That is a huge knight. Except for the knight the Bishop and other pieces look similar to one of the sets used in Queens Gambit, the Mexico City Tournament IIRC.

[@AlSuChess]

Thank you for the wishes! Yeah, the knight seems a bit too big for the set in general, would be a little too big for any set really. I like the way the bishops are shaped, just wish the pawn tops were a little bit bigger. Thanks for watching as always!

[@ragnorak56]

@@AlSuChess I actually don't mind the size of the knights. While it is unusual I don't find it distracting or unattractive. I'm with you on the pawns thoughs in this specific set would've benefited from larger spheres.

[@chriswalker810]

Happy Birthday Alex! The set somewhat reminds me of a set Used in The Queen's Gambit. I really don't like the diamond shaped eyes for the Knights. Too big and really out of place. The King's finial cross seems too fragile and thin to not snap off. Otherwise the set looks nice. The Rooks tapper design is common to Russian sets and the Bobby Fischer’s Dubrovnik set. That stinks that the finish got chipped off. It is probably colored lacquer. This shows me another good reason not to get antiqued Boxwood sets. Hopefully you can get a color match to repair the finish or replacement Pawn.

[@AlSuChess]

Thank you Chris! I would have the agree with you about the Knight being a little different from what you would expect to be the proper knight for this set and I am not sure yet how I feel about the carvings of the face. The king's finial seems sturdy enough from first glance, but I would probably not risk throwing a set like this in a big pile on top of each other as I could see the potential for finial separation. Better to have a ball instead like the Dubrovnik Sets. The angular bishops I feel like possibly popped up in the second game of Harmon Vs Borgov in episode 8 where they played in Paris, but I didn't look closely enough at the set.

[@samsaiter1644]

Awesome stuff! I really like the angular bishop look. Checking out the imperfect section of ChessBazaar and this might be a game changer...

[@AlSuChess]

Yes, I think these bishops are unique. Thanks for watching! If you happen to get something you like, be sure to let me know, I'd be interested to hear what you got!

[@King-pv3wc]

Just curious, what is your real job, and happy birthday!!! Love from india

[@AlSuChess]

Got a video out about that this weekend!

[@alejandrolara1138]

I think the price for that chess set is reaaaaally good, in comparison to what you will get from the House Stauton for the same price. For the bishops, it's not quite my to go shape, as for the knights, I think it would come to if it's comfortably playable.

[@AlSuChess]

It is a pretty good price I agree! The only issue is not knowing what you'll get with the imperfect sets! The Bishops feel really nice in hand, but look different on video than what we are used to! Thanks for watching!

[@kiwichess]

To me it always felt awkward when the top of knight is bigger (wider) than the base. First that doesn't look aesthetic. Second that makes the piece less stable and easier to be accidentally knocked over.

[@AlSuChess]

Oh yes I agree with you, some knights do push that boundary where the top gets larger than the base and if it's too much, it doesn't look exactly aesthetic!

[@gabxp3095]

The king and knight are my favorite pieces

[@AlSuChess]

I am glad you like the set! I think it's well made too!

[@renannascimento2423]

👍🏽👍🏽

[@AntPDC]

There's a reason Cooke's original Staunton design is timeless. "Old English" is just marketing BS - this design has zero provenance AFAIK. BTW, belated birthday greetings!

[@richardrothenberg170]

You are beginning to sound like a house of staunton salesman