A&A Premium Natural Walnut Folding Chess Board Game Set, 15" Wooden Chess Board & 3" King Height Staunton Chess Pieces with 2 Extra Queens, Portable Travel Chess Set with Storage Bag for Adults & Kids

Begin at the Beginning: This set comes very nicely boxed. The cardboard box containing the set is enclosed in a good quality slipcase. Within the box is the protective carry bag containing the board, with the chessmen safely ensconced in their fitted flocked holders within the folded board.The protective carry bag is very well made with a sufficient area of velcro closure to ensure easy and secure closing...not a thin strip of velcro, as some products have, but a wide and sufficiently long strip.I examined each chessman, searching for defects in carving. They were all uniformly carved, and without structural damage. I was happily surprised by this as I was not anticipating quite such good quality for wooden chessmen in a set in this price range.The chessboard is sized appropriately to the chessmen. (In a properly-sized chess set, 4 pawns should be able to fit within one square, with the edges of their bases barely touching the lines of that square.)I did find 3 flaws in the chessmen not relating to structure, but each flaw was readily and satisfactorily amended. The felt on one white pawn had been misapplied, folded in half. I carefully unfolded it and the original glue was sticky enough that I could reapply the felt properly and without difficulty.The two black queens each had several white spots visible on the serrated edges of their coronets. (The matte black stain of the black chessmen is apparently applied over a very light wood.)These were readily covered by a black Sharpie pen and the repair is unnoticeable even at a close viewing, the ink of the pen matching the black stain precisely..The white chessmen appear to be also made from the same light wood, with a light yellow ochre stain applied over that. One pawn had a spot of white showing at the top of its ball, and a small band near its base where the stain failed to take. This was readily remedied with a brown colored pencil, lightly worked on the wood and blended into the wood with a thumb.. Again, the repair was satsfactory and sufficient, unnoticeable upon close inspection.The board is very nicely made. It indeed lies perfectly flat as advertized, with four minute metal feet contacting the table it rests upon.The instruction manual is very nicely done, with a clear presentation of the rules of play even down to mentioning the relative point value of the chessmen, which valuation closely accords with world chess champion Emanuel Lasker's assessment. A number of chess openings are detailed with diagrams showing the first several moves for each side.And, for the kiddies, three sheets of attractive stickers were included. While I am uncertain if it is wise to include stickers in a chess set which some of the younger players might be tempted to desecrate the nice wooden chessboard with, only to regret having done so five or ten years later, the stickers are fun and will doubtlessly find their use.(Please note that this is not a tournament sized chess set. You would need the permission of both your opponent and of the Arbiter to use this set in a rated tournament. It is perfect for any other play-situation, though. )This is a very good chess set for the price. I have played chess for over 55 years and in that time have owned both plastic and wood sets, some costing several hundred dollars. Despite the few readily amended flaws mentioned above, I am quite happy with this set. I hope to buy copies of it in the future to give as presents to friends and to new converts to chess 😊. I also anticipate that the manufacturer will have a bright future and wish them every success.

I bought two sets of chess pieces from A&A at the same time, this one and one with a pasteboard storage case (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B8NRS8YB). The pieces are quite uniform between the two sets, as expected, and so meet my intended purpose. I have replacement pieces for every piece when one is inevitably lost or broken. I grew up seeing many games with small pieces such as pawns, a checker, dice, etc. replaced by something close. By buying two identical sets of pieces that will never be a problem.The pieces are quite as nice as expected, and perfect for recreational play. But after reading many reviews I thought I would check the dimensions... Well, the kings were slightly taller than 3 inches, but the base of the king was more like 1.2 inches rather than 1.4 inches. The pawns had bases that were more or less 0.8 inches, with only slight variations, but were only 1.4 inches tall rather than 1.5 inches. Not a big deal, really, unless you are trying to find replacement pieces to match your missing or broken piece later on, or are looking to buy this set to replace a piece in your set. Another thing I noticed was that every single piece had a oval base -- not dramatically oval, but enough to realize these either were not turned on a lathe, or were sanded unevenly.The case which came with this has a nice wood frame with panel sides which will form a playing surface if the case is opened and turned upside down. The panel looks to be a engineered wood product rather than wood, but is thin, light, and durable. I have no intention of using the case as a board, but will use a separate board (one piece) to play on. Inside is a flocked plastic tray with molded spots for each piece. Makes it quite easy to check that you have picked up and put away all 34 pieces, minimizing the chance of leaving a piece out to get lost. I only hope the plastic is heavy enough to be durable over many years.The wood case added twenty dollars to the cost over what I paid for the set with a pasteboard case, which is not a bad price when I priced other wood storage boxes for chess pieces. This case is quite nicely finished.Bottom line: it is an elegant set of chess pieces with a good case that will be a pleasure to play with for decades, but could be difficult to replace a piece some ten or twenty years from now.

My grandsons are becoming interested in playing chess, lately. So, I was looking for a well-crafted foldable set and found this A&A Premium Natural European Ash set. It is a lovely chess set, with simply designed pieces and a smooth-as-silk board which folds neatly and houses the pieces. The price was reasonable for his beautiful set - which I'd venture to say, is a 'work of art' in itself. I recommend it - and suggest that it would make a great gift for anyone interested in chess.

I love the looks of this set, very nice and one of the only ones I could find with black pieces. It’s good quality and the board lies flat and lines up. BUT I have nice wood tables and the 4 pins they have to hold it square when closed are also the feet the board sits on. I showed them in the pics. I do see a tiny Philips head screw inside which I might have been able to remove but there are more in the latch system that also hit the table first. I wanted a board that just had the wood as contact with my wood table so it would scratch it. Sadly I have to return for this reason. So I deduct a star for this.