Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

Idea: why don't the Chess Variants pages order pieces from this
manufacturer, e.g. Elephants, Giraffes, etc. or at least cheap vinyl
boards, 10x10, 8x10, gustavian, etc., and allow the users to buy them
(using PayPal?) from the Chess Variants pages. Certain plastic piece sets
aren't particularly attractive because the white pieces are too white.
The white pieces should be more greyish, I think.
http://www.cnchess.com/en/other_game.html 
/Mats

Ai, you mentioned the unspeakable word! Now we will be sued for sure!

Que?

Didn't you know that moderator policy on this site is to censor every
usage of a certain normal English word, out of fear for lawsuits? Joe
Joyce explained this recently in another thread.

But on topic: How do you imagine the 'Chess Variant Pages' to order anything? Who exactly would do the ordering. The moderators? The webmaster? The members? What would they use for money?

I imagine a business selling Chess equipment that almost no one wants over the internet is not a very viable one. There are already so many doing that. And they offer already so many 10x10 boards for sale that there will be very little market for those, World wide.

With pieces, it is always a problem what pieces to include in the set. I already have that problem software-wise, in WinBoard_F. You don't want the number of bitmaps to explode, especially if you hav to supply them in multiple sizes. When I made my own Ultima piece set, I used abstract designs like cubes and cylinders, so that it does not offend my sense of logic to use them for anything, (like it would when I use an Elephant to depict a Camel, or a Knight to depict a Lion).

My Ultima piece set used commonly available materials, like wooden beads,
broomsticks, square wooden sticks, draught chips:

I even designed diagram symbols to go with it:

The manufacturer you refer to seems to use procedures that are only suitable for
mass production. To make a mold for casting platic requires an investment of $150,000,
I was told. It seems to me like making wooden pieces in a small carpenter shop would
be a much more suitble way to go.

I think an idea for being profitable doing chess variant pieces is to be in
the business of making surplus game equipment for games in general, so
people can get both replacements, and game designers can get equipment for
doing prototypes.  Come up with some standards for universal equipment and
go from there.

I do happen to like the Ultima set, by the way.

This set allows one to get elephant and lion pieces for chess variants, by
the way:
http://www.cnchess.com/en/barcagameset.html

As for why variant pieces aren't done, there needs to be a cost analysis
to be done.  Just a head's up here.  I would like to get an IAGO store
going and provide the ability to buy variant pieces.

$150,000 for making a plastic mould. Wow! For that I could buy a shipping
company!
/Mats

This shows the 10x10 side, the Chess board is on the other side.
It was made by a Chess-supplies company called 'Revanche', I don't know
if they still exist. It measures 47 cm on the side. (A CD is shown in
the photograph for size reference.) Height of the shown King is 81mm.

If I wanted to play on a subset of the squares, I would clip something
over the edges that covers 10, 8 or 6 squares.

One could for instance se the following designs (lower row) to complement
a normal Staunton piece set (upper row).

A variantist who happened to have a wood lathe:

http://www.pennstateind.com/store/TCLPRO.html

with a duplicator:

http://www.pennstateind.com/store/CML-DUPU.html

could make repetitive cylindrical shapes from templates is quantities of
dozens for cost of materials plus time.  They wouldn't be fancy, but the
hard part would be designing the profiles.  Now all you need is a
variantist who is also a turner.

exactly, this is what I had in mind. Except that the one that owns and
operates the lathe doen't necessary have to be a variantist, but could
simply be paid for his time.

But it is upto us to come up with designs. If we could agree on a standard
extension piece set it might not have to be so expensive at all to have
them machined.

I suggested a variantist only because he/she would possibly donate or
discount their time.  An example of what could be done for rather more
money than most would be comfortable with is Henk van Haeringen's Exchess
sets.
http://superchess.nl/indexengels.htm
I also buy any reasonably priced chess set in boxwood and ebonized boxwood
that is an unusual design.  I can then select pieces for whatever I have in
mind.  The costs of that mount up over the years.

I was not aware of the existence of this 'Super-Chess' endeavor at all,
so thanks for the link. (And there are even Dutch Championships!)

It seems this guy is exactly doing what I had in mind. I don't like most
of his piece deigns, though: their style seems a bit frivolous compared to
normal Staunton pieces, for my taste.

So there are three possibilities:
1) Buy his pieces
2) Pay him to make our designs, as he obviously has the equipment and
experience to do this
3) Set up our own production line, and start competing with him

So there are three possibilities:
1) Buy his pieces
     I've bought them all, and he's trying to make the shape mnemonic. 
If you read his book, there are many more pieces than those he
manufactures.

2) Pay him to make our designs, as he obviously has the equipment and
experience to do this
     I think Superchess is a labor of love for him, so I'm not sure that
would be feasible.

3) Set up our own production line, and start competing with him
     It looks like he contracts the production.  The quality is pretty
high, and the pieces seem to be turned on production duplicators, based on
the toolmarks.  I believe he is only interested in Superchess, not variants
in general.

Having tried it, it is quite difficult, at least for me, to design a
decent-looking chesspiece, let alone one that can be turned economically.

I've been using different style sets in boxwood and ebonized boxwood.  I
have all the Superchess Exchess sets as well as:

Sets similar to ones I own:
http://www.thechessstore.com/product/RSB400/Royal_Staunton_Chess_Set_in_Ebonized_Boxwood_Boxwood__4_King.html
http://www.thechesspiece.com/G2000135_the_modern_staunton.html
http://www.thechesspiece.com/G-223-KDF_the_berliner.html
http://www.thechesspiece.com/AR01_the_arabic_chessmen.html
http://www.chessforum.com/sitm.asp?itmID=340

Ones I would like to get some day:
http://www.thechesspiece.com/G778105_the_staunton_wein.html
http://www.thechesspiece.com/G-275-KTF_antique_repro_chess_set.html

So you see I have a significant investment in chess pieces!

Wow! I like that 'modern Staunton set!' AAre these wooden pieces? Sure
looks like it. (I hate plastic pieces.)

So it seems there is actually plenty of choice: some of these pieces are
very different from normal Chess pieces. As for 'Super Chess': from the
description on his website, it seemed to me that Super Chess pretty much
encompasses any variant, and is synonymous for 'Fairy Chess' in general.
The guy just likes to rename everything in his own way (including the
entire piececlopedia).

I also have some (not all) of these:
http://history.chess.free.fr/images/staunton/karpov-set.jpg

Yes, they are all wood.  Boxwood or ivorywood, black pieces are ebonized. 
(I would prefer ebony, but money matters.)  If you wish to see chess sets
I'd love to have but can't afford go here:
http://www.houseofstaunton.com/Store/category=House+of+Staunton+Antique+Reproduction+Chess+Sets&exact_match=exact
http://houseofstaunton.com/Store/product_name=The+Empire+Series+Luxury+Chess+Set+-+4.4+inch+King/exact_match=exact

In my old house, I kept them in glass-door cabinets on display in the game
room.  I haven't gotten to setting that up in my new house yet.

Sorry about the 'serial posting'. I thought it would be a worthwile
addition to have a picture of a high-quality piece set, which is quite easy to make, for some of the more important variants, (Xiangqi, Shatranj, Knightmate, Capablanca, Janus, Courier. So I posted such a picture in he comments to these variants, so that people will easily find it.

The only tools needed to make these Staunton-style representations of
Amazon, Chancellor, Archbishop, Commoner, Cannon, Ferz, Alfil and Royal
Knight is a not-too-course saw and some glue. and of course a sufficient
number of identical wooden piece sets to provide the raw material.

When done carefully, the quality of all the new pieces will be as high as
that of the original pieces. And with erfect unity of style. Perhaps I shuold write a separate page in the 'crafts' section as well.

Yes, I think the crafts section would be the place, rather than scattered
in random commments pages.

Dr. Muller, did you intend for a single piece to have multicolored
components? If so, what is the purpose of this?

This mixed color is not intended, but caused by the fact that this was a
cut-and-past job on a photograph that did display the piece type
alternately in black and white. (I didn't mind too much, though, as the
olor difference hep to reveal how the piece is put together.) I don't
have this particlar piece set, and the same construction applied to my own
pieces would not nearly give such an estheticaly pleasing distribution of
heights of the combination pieces as this one.

In fact, sets where it works so well are rare: most of the time the Rook
is too tall, or the Knight base too low. Sometimes King and Queen do not
have their collars at the same height, or the Rook top is too narrow to
stably invert it, or make credible Cannon barrels. The Rook should extend
to the height of the K and Q collars to get the nice regular progression
of heights towards the center seen in the setup of the unspeakable
variant.

I have already been looking around for piece sets in shops over here to
actually do this, but so far without much luck.

Currently I have a design which I do like, and which should be nearly as easy to manufacture as
other pieces. As I do not own a lathe, I made a clay model, to make sure it would work in
3 dimensions (in particular the attachment of the tusks). Never mind the finishing looks ugly
and the color is all wrong! I think it sould be about 10% smaller, though, to match with the Knight:

I was able to buy Chess pieces at €0,50 a piece in a Chess-materials shop here in Amsterdam,
so that I could actually put together my design for the Cannon. Add the Elephant, and I would be
all ready for Xiangqi (the piece in the background is a Veteran fom the Superchess set):

Chancellor and Archbishop were even easier: