Luxury Chess Sets

Play scale or display scale

There are two different things being sold under the word luxury on this page, and the buyers who are disappointed are almost always the ones who bought the wrong one. The Staunton sets here are built to be played on: kings from 94mm to 123mm standing on 53cm to 60cm boards with 55mm and 60mm squares. The pewter and steel sets are built to be looked at, with pieces from 3.5cm to 13cm on boards of 38cm to 48cm. Both are properly made. They are not interchangeable.

The test is simple. Set the board up and sit back in a chair at normal playing distance. On a 60cm board with a 107mm ebony king you can read the position without leaning in, and the weighting does the rest: the artisan sets here are triple weighted, some beyond it, and a piece that heavy stays exactly where you put it. Do the same thing with a 38cm pewter set and you will be leaning forward the whole game. That set belongs on a sideboard where people can see the sculpting up close, and it is excellent at that job.

The honest caveat is storage. The pewter and Spanish sets solve it: Royal Selangor build a lift-lid board on several of theirs and Ferrer supply a magnetic closure case. The artisan ebony and rosewood sets do not come with a box at all, and 34 weighted pieces need somewhere to live. Budget for a storage case with those, or you will end up with them in the packaging they arrived in.

What you are actually paying for

Four things separate a set at this end of the range from a good mid-range one, and all four are published on every product page here.

• The dark timber, or the metal. Genuine ebony and bud rosewood are the two dark timbers that cost real money, and they are what most of the Staunton sets here are carved from. Ebonised boxwood is a different thing: boxwood stained black, used deliberately on the historical reproductions because the originals were made that way. On the metal side it is satin finish and solid pewter, and hand cast solid stainless steel.
• Weighting. The artisan sets are triple weighted and the Arabian Knight is described as beyond triple weighted. The 1849 reproduction is heavily weighted with lead. The 1924 Bauhaus set is deliberately unweighted with no felt, because that is what the original design specified. Weight is a design decision here, not a quality grade.
• The carving. Knights are where the money shows. The bridle knights carry the strap and browband cut across the muzzle and eye. The Piatigorsky knight is a one piece carving with a long flowing mane. The Arabian Knight has a narrow muzzle with long separated mane locks. These are hand carved and no two are identical.
• What comes in the box. Most of the Staunton sets here ship 34 pieces including two spare queens, not 32. The Bauhaus reproduction is the exception at 32 with no spares, again because the original had none.

Sets built to be played on

If the set is going to see real games, buy on king height and square size before anything else. These are the large format sets in the range.

• Noble Bridle Series Ebony & Boxwood 123mm Chess Set: the tallest king on this page at 123mm on a 48mm base, on a 60cm board with 60mm squares. Genuine ebony against boxwood, triple weighted and hand polished.
• Arabian Knight Artisan Staunton Ebony 107mm Chess Set: 107mm king, 49mm base, 60cm board. The weighting is described as beyond triple weighted with thick green felt on every base, and it is the heaviest hand feel in the range.
• Ferocious Elite Series Bud Rosewood 111mm Chess Set: 111mm king with 65mm pawns, unusually tall in proportion to the king, on a 58.4cm bud rosewood and maple board weighing 5,500g.
• CB Mustang Series 113mm Chess Set: 113mm king in either bud rosewood or ebony. The bud rosewood option ships with a notation board, which is the one to pick if you study your games.
• Reproduction 1963 1966 Piatigorsky Cup Ebony 108mm Chess Set: 108mm ebony king on a solid ebony and maple board with a sheesham border. One of the few boards here cut at 22mm rather than veneered.
• Reproduction 1849 Original Staunton Ebony & Boxwood 95mm Chess Set: the pattern every other Staunton set descends from, at 95mm on a 40mm base, weighted with lead, with the crown stamped on the king side rook and knight.
• Reproduction 1950 Dubrovnik Bobby Fischer V3.0 94mm Chess Set: burnt and natural boxwood, with the short 64mm knight and low 52mm rook that mark the original carving. Fischer's preferred pattern.

Every one of these sets comes with its board. Storage is sold separately, which is covered further down.

Sets built to be displayed

These are collector and gift pieces first. The sculpting rewards close inspection, the boards are compact enough to live permanently on a desk or sideboard, and several solve storage inside the board itself.

• Royal Selangor Star Wars Classic Chess Set: satin finish pewter figures on bonded porcelain plinths, cool grey for the Rebels and matte black for the Empire, over a tempered glass board on brushed pewter feet. Pieces run 6cm to 13cm on a 42.5cm board.
• Royal Selangor War of the Rings Chess Set: pewter against copper plated pewter, 5.5cm to 12cm, on a 48cm wooden board inlaid with pewter marquetry. The largest board of the pewter sets.
• Royal Selangor Lewis Chess Set: an official British Museum collaboration recreating the 12th century Lewis chessmen, each piece marked with the British Museum logotype, on a nyatoh board scorched with the knot motif from the original king's throne.
• Royal Selangor Modernist (Western) Chess Set: Bauhaus influenced geometry in satin finish pewter, 5cm to 9cm, on a walnut and maple board whose lid lifts to a concealed storage compartment.
• Royal Selangor Camelot Chess Set: solid pewter, an alloy of tin, antimony and copper, on a board of alternating wood and pewter squares that lifts to store all 32 pieces.
• Skyline Chess Stainless Steel Paris Edition: the city's landmarks hand cast in solid stainless steel, with the Eiffel Tower as the king, over a hand screen printed map of Paris. Supplied in a black presentation gift box.
• Skyline Chess Stainless Steel World Icons Edition: the most architecturally diverse set Skyline make, drawing landmarks from several cities onto one grid board. The set weighs 6kg.

Where Ferrer and Dal Rossi sit

Both make a full size Staunton set that plays properly and carries a longer warranty than most of the range. Ferrer build the 50cm sets here with 94mm to 97mm kings on 50mm squares, boards finished matte to kill reflection, and a magnetic closure case included. Their warranty is two years, the longest on this page. The Queens Gambit set is the officially licensed product from the Netflix series, and the Black Olive Deluxe pairs olive wood light squares with black tulipie, which is the most distinctive timber combination we stock.

The five Dal Rossi Staunton sets are the entry point to this page. A 95mm king, double weighted with felted bases, on a 50cm board with genuine inlaid timber squares rather than a printed surface. If you want a set that looks the part on a desk and still plays at full size, this is where to start.

How to choose

• Start with the board, not the pieces. A 60cm board needs 60cm of clear table and reads across a room. A 38cm board fits a bookshelf. Measure the space before you fall in love with a set.
• Match king base to square size. The base diameters here run 29mm to 49mm and the squares run 45mm to 60mm. Choose a square a little wider than the king's base so the piece sits inside it with a visible margin, which is how these are already paired.
• Decide whether it will be packed away. If it lives out permanently, storage does not matter and you can buy on looks. If it gets put away between games, choose a set with a case or add one.
• Genuine ebony or ebonised. Ebony is the deepest and most uniform black and costs accordingly. Ebonised boxwood is the historically correct choice on the reproductions and is not a downgrade on those patterns.
• Buying it as a gift. The pewter and steel sets present better out of the box, several arrive in a presentation case, and they do not require the recipient to own a chess table.

Boards, pieces and tables to go with them

If you already own pieces you are happy with, our luxury chess boards range covers the same tier in boards alone, from 12mm veneer up to 45mm thick ebony. If the board is the part you already have, the luxury chess pieces range lists king height and base diameter on every listing so you can match them properly. For a set that will live out permanently, our chess tables give it a permanent home.

The sets on this page are a selection from the wider catalogue. The full wood chess sets range includes the mid-range and travel formats below this tier, the Staunton chess sets range covers the pattern across every price, the reproduction chess sets range covers the historical patterns on their own, and all chess sets is the full catalogue.

Frequently asked questions

What makes a chess set a luxury chess set?

Material and hand work, mostly. Genuine ebony and bud rosewood cost several times what a stained hardwood costs, and they are carved by hand rather than turned to a template, which is why no two knights in a set are identical. On the metal side it is the casting and finishing of solid pewter or stainless steel. After that it is scale: the sets here are larger and heavier than mid-range equivalents, and the boards are built to match.

Does every set on this page include a board?

Yes. Every product here is pieces and board together. If you want the board on its own, see our luxury chess boards range, and for pieces alone see luxury chess pieces.

Do these sets come with a storage case?

It varies, and it is worth checking before you buy. The Ferrer sets include a magnetic closure case. Several Royal Selangor sets store the pieces inside the board under a lift lid, and the Skyline sets arrive in a presentation gift box. The artisan ebony and bud rosewood sets do not include storage, and each product page states this directly.

Why do some sets have 34 pieces instead of 32?

The extra two are spare queens, supplied so you can promote a pawn without borrowing the queen from the other side. Most of the Staunton sets here ship 34 for that reason. The 1924 Bauhaus reproduction ships 32 with no spares, because the original design did not include them.

What king height should I buy?

For a full size set that plays comfortably at a table, 95mm to 110mm on a board with 55mm or 60mm squares is the range most club players settle on. Above that, at 113mm to 123mm, the set reads as furniture and works in a larger room. Below 95mm you are moving into compact and display territory, which is where the pewter and steel sets sit.

Are the pewter and steel sets playable, or just for display?

They play. The pieces are weighted and the bases are felted or feltless by design. The limitation is scale rather than quality: on a 38cm to 48cm board with pieces under 13cm you will be playing closer in than you would on a 60cm board. For a set that lives on a sideboard and gets used a few times a month, that is not a problem.

How should a set like this be cared for?

Keep timber sets out of direct sunlight and away from heating vents, which is what dries wood and lifts veneer, and wipe with a soft dry cloth rather than any chemical cleaner. Pewter and stainless steel need nothing beyond an occasional dry buff. Store weighted pieces so they are not resting against each other under load.

What warranty do these sets carry?

Ferrer sets carry a two year limited manufacturer warranty, the longest here. Royal Selangor, Dal Rossi and our own artisan and reproduction sets carry twelve months, and Skyline carry one year. All of them are backed by Sterling Chess with 100 day free returns.

Backed by Sterling Chess

A set at this end of the range is bought once and kept, so every figure on this page is the maker's own rather than a rounded estimate. We handle, weigh and set up each of these before it goes into the catalogue, and we are an authorised Royal Selangor reseller, so the pewter sets here are genuine and carry the full manufacturer warranty.

Australian stock, local support and 100 day free returns on everything here. If you are deciding between two sets, or matching one to a board or a table you already own, call us on (03) 7037 0931 or email and tell us what you have. We will tell you which of these actually fits.