Best Chess Set Brands: Who Makes What, and Who Each One Is For

There is no single best chess set brand, because the well known names are not selling to the same person. Jaques sells history. House of Staunton sells the high end. DGT sells equipment to federations. The Indian workshops sell hand carved wood at a price the Western brands cannot match. Picking well means deciding which of those you are actually buying.

The brands, and what each is for

How to judge a maker you have never heard of

Most sets are not sold under a famous name, and a name is a poor proxy for quality anyway. Four checks work on any listing:

Do they publish the numbers? King height, base diameter, square size, and the weight of a piece in ounces or grams. A maker confident in the set prints all four. A listing that says triple weighted and gives no weight has told you nothing, because the multipliers are each maker's own scale rather than a standard.

Look at the knight. It is the only sculpted piece in the set and the only one that cannot be made on a lathe, so it is where cost gets cut first. A blunt muzzle, a mane that reads as a row of bumps, no eye: that is the whole set summarised in one piece.

Check the base against the square. The king's base should be around three quarters of the square width. Makers who pair tournament pieces with an undersized board are selling two products that were never designed together.

Read the guarantee, not the marketing. What happens when a piece is lost or a board arrives creased tells you more about a company than any claim on the box. Specifically: do they replace a single piece, or do they want the whole set back?

Who makes the best chess sets for tournaments?

For rated play the answer is duller than the question. Any set with a 3.375 to 4.5 inch king, 2.25 inch squares, weighted Staunton pieces and a roll-up board meets the specification, and the brand on the box is irrelevant to the arbiter. US Chess Sales, House of Staunton and Wholesale Chess all sell sets that do. So do we. The measurements that actually matter are worth reading before you spend anything.

Where we fit

We make two sets and nothing else, which is the short version of our whole position. Best Chess Set Ever was designed by Galen Pyle, who captained the Reed College chess team, is a ranked player, has played in over 30 countries and took Grandmaster lessons in Armenia. The sets are designed in the USA.

What we compete on is the equipment, not the cabinet: quadruple and triple weighted pieces at published per-piece weights, a reversible silicone board that does not keep a crease, 34 pieces so a promotion does not need an upturned rook, and a 12 month guarantee that covers a single replacement piece rather than only the whole set. Over 90,000 sets have gone out since 2020.

What we do not make: hand carved wood, luxury pieces, electronic boards, or a pocket travel set. For any of those, the table above is the honest place to start.

See our two sets.

Common questions

What is the oldest chess set brand?

Jaques of London, founded in 1795 and the company that registered the Staunton pattern in 1849. Almost every set sold today is a descendant of that design.

Are expensive chess brands worth it?

For finish and materials, yes. For play, no. A $600 House of Staunton set and a $60 weighted plastic set both meet the same tournament specification, and the pieces move the same way.

What brand do professionals use?

Whatever the organiser supplies, which at top level events is usually House of Staunton pieces and DGT electronic boards. Players rarely bring their own to a major event.

Are chess sets made in the USA?

Very few. Almost all moulded plastic and carved wooden sets are made in Asia regardless of where the brand is based. Be careful with the wording on a listing: designed in the USA and made in the USA are different claims, and most sets that say the first do not mean the second.