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This set has no cross on the king and no mitre cut on the bishop. Neither is an omission. The original pattern was designed in socialist era Hungary in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and religious symbolism was deliberately left out of the design.
What replaces it is pure geometry. The king is a turned finial on a plain shaft, the bishop a smooth dome, and the pieces are identified by silhouette and proportion alone. It is a rigorously secular chess set, and it looks like nothing else on a board.
The originals were built for tournament use with wide bases and no weighting at all. This reproduction keeps the bases and adds the weight, at 1,300g across 34 pieces, in sheesham or ebonised wood against natural boxwood. It sits within our reproduction chess pieces.
Almost every pattern we carry traces back to the 1849 Staunton design, which encoded the pieces as symbols: a cross for the king, a coronet for the queen, a mitre for the bishop. Strip those out and you have to make the pieces legible some other way.
The Hungarian design does it with height and proportion. The king is the tallest thing on the board by a clear margin at 100mm; the queen and bishop sit close together at 90mm and 87mm; the pawn drops all the way to 47mm, less than half the king. The rank reads as a gradient rather than a set of emblems.
It takes a few games to adjust, and some players never do. If you want the familiar symbols, the Staunton chess pieces range is where to look. If you want a design with an actual argument behind it, this is the more interesting set.
The original sets were produced in Hungary in the late 1970s and early 1980s for tournament use. The brief was practical rather than ideological in its details, but the removal of the crown and the mitre reflected the official secularism of the period, and the workshops designed around it rather than treating it as a constraint to work around.
What they produced was equipment first. Wide bases so the pieces stood up on a tournament table, generous height differences so the rank could be read at a glance, and no weighting at all, because ballast cost money and the bases did the job. The reproduction keeps the geometry and adds the weight modern players expect.
The ratio between the tallest and shortest piece is one of the least discussed numbers in chess set design, and it does more work than almost anything else. Here it is unusually wide: a 100mm king against a 47mm pawn, so the pawn is under half the height of the king.
The practical effect is that the front rank sits well below the officers behind it and never obscures them. In a closed position with pawns locked in the centre, the back rank stays fully visible from a seated position, which is exactly what a tournament design should deliver.
The 41mm king base puts this set on 52mm squares, which sits between the two common tournament sizes. A 50mm board will work and will look tight; a 55mm board will work and will leave slightly more space than the design intends.
No board is included with these pieces. Our chess boards collection is filtered by square size, so you can find the closest match to 52mm directly.
This is the most conceptually interesting set in the batch. Removing the cross and the mitre forces the design to carry all the information in proportion, and the wide king to pawn ratio is how it succeeds: the front rank never hides the back one. The caveats are real though. Players who read pieces by their emblems rather than their outlines will find it slower at first, and the 52mm square size falls between the two standard board dimensions, so you are choosing between slightly tight and slightly loose. Worth it for the design.
- Blake Sterling, CEO & Founder, Sterling Chess
Squares of 52mm, from the 41mm king base. That falls between the two standard sizes, so a 50mm board will look slightly tight and a 55mm board slightly loose. Both are usable.
The original Hungarian pattern was designed without religious symbols in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The reproduction is faithful to that. The pieces are identified by height and silhouette instead.
Dimensions, carving and weight are identical. Sheesham is a warm mid brown Indian rosewood with visible grain and moderate contrast against the boxwood. Ebonised is near black with high contrast and little visible grain.
No. The originals relied on wide bases for stability and carried no ballast at all. This reproduction keeps the wide bases and adds weighting, bringing the set to around 1,300g.
No. This listing is for the 34 pieces only, including the two spare queens. Boards are sold separately across our chess boards collection and no storage box ships with the set.
|
Spec |
Detail |
|
King height |
100mm (3.93 inch) |
|
King base diameter |
41mm (1.63 inch) |
|
Queen height |
90mm (3.57 inch) |
|
Queen base diameter |
37mm (1.49 inch) |
|
Bishop height |
87mm (3.43 inch) |
|
Knight height |
76mm (3.02 inch) |
|
Rook height |
58mm (2.30 inch) |
|
Pawn height |
47mm (1.86 inch) |
|
Officer base diameter |
35mm (1.40 inch), bishop, knight and rook |
|
Dark pieces |
Sheesham or ebonised boxwood, by option |
|
Light pieces |
Natural boxwood |
|
Design |
No cross on the king, no mitre cut on the bishop |
|
Weighting |
Weighted, thick green felt bases |
|
Piece count |
34, including two spare queens |
|
Total set weight |
1,300g approximate |
|
Recommended square size |
52mm |
|
Origin |
Hand carved in India |
|
Board |
Not included |
32 chess pieces in the timber option you select
2 spare queens, one per colour
Chess board not included
Storage box not included
All products sold by Sterling Chess are backed by a 12 month limited manufacturer warranty. This covers manufacturing defects and cracking, and ensures every product is 100% genuine. If you need assistance, our team is only a call or email away.
Is shipping really free?
Yes — we offer free standard shipping on all orders across Australia, with no minimum spend. The price you see at checkout is the price you pay.
Are there any exceptions to free shipping?
No exceptions. Every order ships free, regardless of size, weight, or order value.
How long will my order take to arrive?
Orders are typically dispatched within 1–2 business days, with delivery times depending on your location. You'll receive tracking details by email once your order is on its way.
Do you ship to all areas of Australia?
Yes, we deliver Australia-wide, including regional and remote areas — all at no shipping cost to you.
Can I track my order?
Absolutely. As soon as your order ships, we'll email you a tracking number so you can follow its journey to your door.
What if I need my order quickly?
Get in touch before ordering and we'll do our best to help. Standard shipping is free, and we'll advise on the fastest available option for your area. To contact us, simply email us at support@sterlingchess.com.au, call (03) 7037 0931 or open the live chat.
Changed your mind? You can return unused, unopened items within 100 days of your order date, provided they’re in original packaging and resaleable condition. Sterling Chess will cover the cost of shipping return items under our 100-day free returns policy.
All Sterling Chess products are backed by Australian Consumer Law and include a minimum 12-month Australian warranty. If there’s an issue with your product, our team is here to help and will work to make it right.
Click here to view our full returns policy.
If you're shopping for a new chess set, you're in the right place—and here's why.
1. We know chess inside and out
At Sterling Chess, we're not just another online store. We’re chess lovers, players, collectors, and game night fanatics.
That means we care about quality, balance, and feel—and we only stock sets we’d use ourselves. From tournament-grade boards to handcrafted wooden pieces, we’ve got what real players want.
2. Unmatched variety for every player
Whether you're just learning or a lifelong grandmaster, we have something for you.
Looking for a folding set for travel? A stunning showpiece for your home? A kid-friendly set for your budding chess champion? We’ve got it all—and more.
3. Fast and FREE shipping on all orders
Shipping is FREE on all Sterling Chess orders.
We ship quickly from local and international warehouses, so you’re not waiting weeks to get your game on.
Most orders are packed and sent within 24–48 hours. Plus, you’ll get tracking updates every step of the way.
4. Customer support that actually helps
Have a question? Need help choosing a set? Our friendly team is ready to help—no scripts, no bots, just real people who care about your experience.
You can call our team anytime between business hours on (03) 7037 0931 or email us at support@sterlingchess.com.au. Alternatively, you can use our live chat during business hours to contact our helpful support team.
5. Thousands of happy customers
Don't just take our word for it—our reviews speak for themselves. Sterling Chess is trusted by thousands of players who keep coming back for more. Great products. Great service. No hassle.
6. Classic games, too
We're all about chess—but we also carry backgammon, checkers, poker and other timeless strategy games. If you love the classics, you’ll feel right at home.
Ready to make your move?
Choose a chess set that fits your style, skill level, and space—and enjoy the Sterling Chess difference. You’ll love how it looks. You’ll love how it plays. And you’ll love buying from a team that loves the game just as much as you do.
This set has no cross on the king and no mitre cut on the bishop. Neither is an omission. The original pattern was designed in socialist era Hungary in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and religious symbolism was deliberately left out of the design.
What replaces it is pure geometry. The king is a turned finial on a plain shaft, the bishop a smooth dome, and the pieces are identified by silhouette and proportion alone. It is a rigorously secular chess set, and it looks like nothing else on a board.
The originals were built for tournament use with wide bases and no weighting at all. This reproduction keeps the bases and adds the weight, at 1,300g across 34 pieces, in sheesham or ebonised wood against natural boxwood. It sits within our reproduction chess pieces.
Almost every pattern we carry traces back to the 1849 Staunton design, which encoded the pieces as symbols: a cross for the king, a coronet for the queen, a mitre for the bishop. Strip those out and you have to make the pieces legible some other way.
The Hungarian design does it with height and proportion. The king is the tallest thing on the board by a clear margin at 100mm; the queen and bishop sit close together at 90mm and 87mm; the pawn drops all the way to 47mm, less than half the king. The rank reads as a gradient rather than a set of emblems.
It takes a few games to adjust, and some players never do. If you want the familiar symbols, the Staunton chess pieces range is where to look. If you want a design with an actual argument behind it, this is the more interesting set.
The original sets were produced in Hungary in the late 1970s and early 1980s for tournament use. The brief was practical rather than ideological in its details, but the removal of the crown and the mitre reflected the official secularism of the period, and the workshops designed around it rather than treating it as a constraint to work around.
What they produced was equipment first. Wide bases so the pieces stood up on a tournament table, generous height differences so the rank could be read at a glance, and no weighting at all, because ballast cost money and the bases did the job. The reproduction keeps the geometry and adds the weight modern players expect.
The ratio between the tallest and shortest piece is one of the least discussed numbers in chess set design, and it does more work than almost anything else. Here it is unusually wide: a 100mm king against a 47mm pawn, so the pawn is under half the height of the king.
The practical effect is that the front rank sits well below the officers behind it and never obscures them. In a closed position with pawns locked in the centre, the back rank stays fully visible from a seated position, which is exactly what a tournament design should deliver.
The 41mm king base puts this set on 52mm squares, which sits between the two common tournament sizes. A 50mm board will work and will look tight; a 55mm board will work and will leave slightly more space than the design intends.
No board is included with these pieces. Our chess boards collection is filtered by square size, so you can find the closest match to 52mm directly.
This is the most conceptually interesting set in the batch. Removing the cross and the mitre forces the design to carry all the information in proportion, and the wide king to pawn ratio is how it succeeds: the front rank never hides the back one. The caveats are real though. Players who read pieces by their emblems rather than their outlines will find it slower at first, and the 52mm square size falls between the two standard board dimensions, so you are choosing between slightly tight and slightly loose. Worth it for the design.
- Blake Sterling, CEO & Founder, Sterling Chess
Squares of 52mm, from the 41mm king base. That falls between the two standard sizes, so a 50mm board will look slightly tight and a 55mm board slightly loose. Both are usable.
The original Hungarian pattern was designed without religious symbols in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The reproduction is faithful to that. The pieces are identified by height and silhouette instead.
Dimensions, carving and weight are identical. Sheesham is a warm mid brown Indian rosewood with visible grain and moderate contrast against the boxwood. Ebonised is near black with high contrast and little visible grain.
No. The originals relied on wide bases for stability and carried no ballast at all. This reproduction keeps the wide bases and adds weighting, bringing the set to around 1,300g.
No. This listing is for the 34 pieces only, including the two spare queens. Boards are sold separately across our chess boards collection and no storage box ships with the set.
|
Spec |
Detail |
|
King height |
100mm (3.93 inch) |
|
King base diameter |
41mm (1.63 inch) |
|
Queen height |
90mm (3.57 inch) |
|
Queen base diameter |
37mm (1.49 inch) |
|
Bishop height |
87mm (3.43 inch) |
|
Knight height |
76mm (3.02 inch) |
|
Rook height |
58mm (2.30 inch) |
|
Pawn height |
47mm (1.86 inch) |
|
Officer base diameter |
35mm (1.40 inch), bishop, knight and rook |
|
Dark pieces |
Sheesham or ebonised boxwood, by option |
|
Light pieces |
Natural boxwood |
|
Design |
No cross on the king, no mitre cut on the bishop |
|
Weighting |
Weighted, thick green felt bases |
|
Piece count |
34, including two spare queens |
|
Total set weight |
1,300g approximate |
|
Recommended square size |
52mm |
|
Origin |
Hand carved in India |
|
Board |
Not included |
32 chess pieces in the timber option you select
2 spare queens, one per colour
Chess board not included
Storage box not included
All products sold by Sterling Chess are backed by a 12 month limited manufacturer warranty. This covers manufacturing defects and cracking, and ensures every product is 100% genuine. If you need assistance, our team is only a call or email away.
Is shipping really free?
Yes — we offer free standard shipping on all orders across Australia, with no minimum spend. The price you see at checkout is the price you pay.
Are there any exceptions to free shipping?
No exceptions. Every order ships free, regardless of size, weight, or order value.
How long will my order take to arrive?
Orders are typically dispatched within 1–2 business days, with delivery times depending on your location. You'll receive tracking details by email once your order is on its way.
Do you ship to all areas of Australia?
Yes, we deliver Australia-wide, including regional and remote areas — all at no shipping cost to you.
Can I track my order?
Absolutely. As soon as your order ships, we'll email you a tracking number so you can follow its journey to your door.
What if I need my order quickly?
Get in touch before ordering and we'll do our best to help. Standard shipping is free, and we'll advise on the fastest available option for your area. To contact us, simply email us at support@sterlingchess.com.au, call (03) 7037 0931 or open the live chat.
Changed your mind? You can return unused, unopened items within 100 days of your order date, provided they’re in original packaging and resaleable condition. Sterling Chess will cover the cost of shipping return items under our 100-day free returns policy.
All Sterling Chess products are backed by Australian Consumer Law and include a minimum 12-month Australian warranty. If there’s an issue with your product, our team is here to help and will work to make it right.
Click here to view our full returns policy.
If you're shopping for a new chess set, you're in the right place—and here's why.
1. We know chess inside and out
At Sterling Chess, we're not just another online store. We’re chess lovers, players, collectors, and game night fanatics.
That means we care about quality, balance, and feel—and we only stock sets we’d use ourselves. From tournament-grade boards to handcrafted wooden pieces, we’ve got what real players want.
2. Unmatched variety for every player
Whether you're just learning or a lifelong grandmaster, we have something for you.
Looking for a folding set for travel? A stunning showpiece for your home? A kid-friendly set for your budding chess champion? We’ve got it all—and more.
3. Fast and FREE shipping on all orders
Shipping is FREE on all Sterling Chess orders.
We ship quickly from local and international warehouses, so you’re not waiting weeks to get your game on.
Most orders are packed and sent within 24–48 hours. Plus, you’ll get tracking updates every step of the way.
4. Customer support that actually helps
Have a question? Need help choosing a set? Our friendly team is ready to help—no scripts, no bots, just real people who care about your experience.
You can call our team anytime between business hours on (03) 7037 0931 or email us at support@sterlingchess.com.au. Alternatively, you can use our live chat during business hours to contact our helpful support team.
5. Thousands of happy customers
Don't just take our word for it—our reviews speak for themselves. Sterling Chess is trusted by thousands of players who keep coming back for more. Great products. Great service. No hassle.
6. Classic games, too
We're all about chess—but we also carry backgammon, checkers, poker and other timeless strategy games. If you love the classics, you’ll feel right at home.
Ready to make your move?
Choose a chess set that fits your style, skill level, and space—and enjoy the Sterling Chess difference. You’ll love how it looks. You’ll love how it plays. And you’ll love buying from a team that loves the game just as much as you do.
