How championship chess pieces are made

by Frederic Friedel
7/21/2021 – An inexpensive chess set can sell for $20, but a handcrafted wooden set certified for the World Chess Championship costs $500. Much of the set's value lies in just one piece: the knight. Making this one piece takes two hours, and there are fewer than ten people trained to carve knights for the championship chess sets. It is fascinating to watch the high-end pieces being made.

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So, how are these chessmen made? And why are they so expensive? Watch this video to find out why.

Watch the process of making fine chess pieces. It is strangely fascinating.

And if you are interested in artistic, hand painted chess sets, like the ones made by Purling, are made, here are some more videos showing you the design process:

As I said before – strangely fascinating! 

Editor-in-Chief emeritus of the ChessBase News page. Studied Philosophy and Linguistics at the University of Hamburg and Oxford, graduating with a thesis on speech act theory and moral language. He started a university career but switched to science journalism, producing documentaries for German TV. In 1986 he co-founded ChessBase.

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