The House of Staunton The Grandmaster Chess Set, Box, and Board Combination - Ebonized Boxwood

To be completely honest, the pieces for this set are fantastic. The board on the other hand? There is an ever so slight warp in the board itself.. Enough that when viewed from below, you can see light from the other side. This does not impact usability, and is not noticeable when the board is on a table and one has to really get down close to the board to notice at all. I did contact House of Staunton who did offer to replace the board, but the customer service rep I spoke to did a check of other boards and said all of them have some very very slight warping, and this seems to be the "norm"? This does present some concerns and questions. Does House of Staunton store their boards in a climate-controlled area? Are these boards coming from the manufacturer like this? House of Staunton as a business does charge a bit of a premium for some of their nicer sets, as they are partners with the United States Chess Federation, and they have a bit of a built-in customer base. And, I must say.. This IS a nice set. But, when paying somewhere in the neighborhood of $160.00-$180.00 for a nice wood set and board... One would sort of expect everything to be "perfect" yes? All in all, I am happy with the product. I did try to find a nice set locally before resorting to an online purchase, so, when buying something that is something of a piece of art online, I must hold my expectations down to a certain level. I would definitely recommend this product, but had to take one single star away as an illustration that, if you buy in person, you can often demand (and get) perfection. When buying online, this often is not an option.

It is nice but the photo of the board is Deceiving though it is not as cherries it looks and the edges are not beveled at a slant there’s just lines in the wood to make it look like it is. But it’s a nice set for the price.