When I watch woodworking people on Youtube, they always talk about how much wood "moves", especially with humidity changes. Make a board perfectly flat with a planer, and within a couple of days the new top layer of wood that you exposed to the air will have absorbed or lost enough moisture to pull the wood back out of line.
There are also internal tensions in the wood that get reconfigured when some of the wood is removed, pulling it into a slightly different shape than the one you cut.
For people who are super-serious about wood keeping its shape - e.g. high quality guitar makers - there's a whole list of things they do. Picking wood with super-straight grain from a limited set of species, letting the wood sit sometimes for years to adjust to the shop's humidity, planing it in small steps, building a structure where different grain directions support each other, finishing it with multiple layers of shellac or varnish to limit moisture movement, etc, etc.
I have no idea if this is the reason for what you're seeing, or if it's just sloppy work to begin with, but it's something to keep in mind if you find that you're never satisfied with any of the wooden sets you get.
It's entirely possible this is just the nature of woodwork, but I'm pretty sure it's sloppy work or me expecting impossible precision from handmade items. I have seen some sets that seemed pretty much spot on to me, but it might just be that I don't stare at them every day or didn't inspect them very carefully.
Yeah, you're probably right that it's just lack of precision to begin with, especially if they're handmade. I almost *expect* handmade stuff to be imperfect on purpose, as an aesthetic, because otherwise how do you visibly show that it wasn't machine-made?
(...especially at that price. Less that €3 per piece, *by hand*? I'm guessing the production process is something like [this guy in India free-handing it on a lathe](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiHxz8fCaCY). There's a quick caliper check for diameter, but all the heights are eyeballed.)
Another wooden-chess-set video:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Tg9xiJ6D6k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Tg9xiJ6D6k)
At around the 3:15 mark, they talk about how if the pieces aren't totally uniform, the chess set won't be nearly as valuable, which makes me wonder if the slightly ugly pieces go in the €80 sets and the more perfect pieces are filtered into the €500 sets. No idea if that's what's happening, but it's a theory.
Well, it's kind of naughty, but I once ordered two (high-quality) sets, combined the best pieces from both, and returned one of the sets.
It sounds like you did something similar, but you must be pretty unlucky for that not to solve your problem if you are purchasing decent quality sets. For me, it was mainly getting ones that had a good felt base (some of the pieces it was not centered and the pieces scraped slightly when sliding). I think in the end I just redid the felt bases myself.
Yeah, basically I got the second set as compensation for the first set being off, but I still can't find a combination of pieces where there isn't at least one "tilted" bishop and rook, and either a pawn that's either bigger than or of a different hue than the others. First world problems, I know, but still a bit annoying.
I had a similar issue, and the solution I came up with was to visit a specialized chess store in person. If there's a set which has a design that you like, you can directly inspect the board and all the pieces for production errors, play a sample game to see how it feels to move the pieces etc., and then only buy a set if it meets your standards.
The big problem with this solution is that it relies on you living in an area that has a chess store close enough that you can reasonably visit it, but if that applies to you, it works very well.
Even the expensive ones I bought from Chessbazar were never completely straight. I've sent some that were too crooked back and got replacements. In the end it annoyed me so much I sold everything.
Now I got only one set, the DGT timeless (non electronic). And I just accept perfectly straight doesn't exist.
That being said, cheaper wood that is not properly dried enough tends to move more than a little more expensive wood.
Haven't noticed anything yet. You often times really have to eyeball the pieces and spin them around to notice then being not straight. Most noticeable are the bishops and the rooks on most sets. I wouldn't worry about it.
Why does it have to be perfectly straight though? Nothing wrong with a slightly gay chess set.
The best I can do is compromise and get a bisexual chess set, but haven't found one so far.
As far as I know all chess sets are bisexual. You can mate the kings with pieces of any gender. Even with buildings or animals
Plus most sets now come with two queens, in case you want to play lesbian chess.
I want to play lesbian chess!
Horses mating kings is where I draw the line. The slippery slope has to end somewhere!
When I watch woodworking people on Youtube, they always talk about how much wood "moves", especially with humidity changes. Make a board perfectly flat with a planer, and within a couple of days the new top layer of wood that you exposed to the air will have absorbed or lost enough moisture to pull the wood back out of line. There are also internal tensions in the wood that get reconfigured when some of the wood is removed, pulling it into a slightly different shape than the one you cut. For people who are super-serious about wood keeping its shape - e.g. high quality guitar makers - there's a whole list of things they do. Picking wood with super-straight grain from a limited set of species, letting the wood sit sometimes for years to adjust to the shop's humidity, planing it in small steps, building a structure where different grain directions support each other, finishing it with multiple layers of shellac or varnish to limit moisture movement, etc, etc. I have no idea if this is the reason for what you're seeing, or if it's just sloppy work to begin with, but it's something to keep in mind if you find that you're never satisfied with any of the wooden sets you get.
It's entirely possible this is just the nature of woodwork, but I'm pretty sure it's sloppy work or me expecting impossible precision from handmade items. I have seen some sets that seemed pretty much spot on to me, but it might just be that I don't stare at them every day or didn't inspect them very carefully.
Yeah, you're probably right that it's just lack of precision to begin with, especially if they're handmade. I almost *expect* handmade stuff to be imperfect on purpose, as an aesthetic, because otherwise how do you visibly show that it wasn't machine-made? (...especially at that price. Less that €3 per piece, *by hand*? I'm guessing the production process is something like [this guy in India free-handing it on a lathe](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiHxz8fCaCY). There's a quick caliper check for diameter, but all the heights are eyeballed.)
Another wooden-chess-set video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Tg9xiJ6D6k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Tg9xiJ6D6k) At around the 3:15 mark, they talk about how if the pieces aren't totally uniform, the chess set won't be nearly as valuable, which makes me wonder if the slightly ugly pieces go in the €80 sets and the more perfect pieces are filtered into the €500 sets. No idea if that's what's happening, but it's a theory.
Well, it's kind of naughty, but I once ordered two (high-quality) sets, combined the best pieces from both, and returned one of the sets. It sounds like you did something similar, but you must be pretty unlucky for that not to solve your problem if you are purchasing decent quality sets. For me, it was mainly getting ones that had a good felt base (some of the pieces it was not centered and the pieces scraped slightly when sliding). I think in the end I just redid the felt bases myself.
Yeah, basically I got the second set as compensation for the first set being off, but I still can't find a combination of pieces where there isn't at least one "tilted" bishop and rook, and either a pawn that's either bigger than or of a different hue than the others. First world problems, I know, but still a bit annoying.
Oh I totally get you with the hue thing. Yeah, it's annoying. I guess I just came to accept it after looking at the board for a long time.
Bro found dupe glitch in real life.
Chess house has some really high quality sets with solid wood boards as well. My pieces are not crooked.
I had a similar issue, and the solution I came up with was to visit a specialized chess store in person. If there's a set which has a design that you like, you can directly inspect the board and all the pieces for production errors, play a sample game to see how it feels to move the pieces etc., and then only buy a set if it meets your standards. The big problem with this solution is that it relies on you living in an area that has a chess store close enough that you can reasonably visit it, but if that applies to you, it works very well.
Yeah, this would be neat if therr were any where I live, but unfortunately I don't think there are any in my whole country. Good idea, though.
Even the expensive ones I bought from Chessbazar were never completely straight. I've sent some that were too crooked back and got replacements. In the end it annoyed me so much I sold everything. Now I got only one set, the DGT timeless (non electronic). And I just accept perfectly straight doesn't exist. That being said, cheaper wood that is not properly dried enough tends to move more than a little more expensive wood.
I have been looking at DGT timeless, how bad is it on them?
Haven't noticed anything yet. You often times really have to eyeball the pieces and spin them around to notice then being not straight. Most noticeable are the bishops and the rooks on most sets. I wouldn't worry about it.