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Opinions on "Plastic Collector" series from House of Staunton
vs. one of their wood sets? For tournaments?




The HOS 3.75" Plastic Collector sets are OK for tournament play, but to my
taste the HOS plastic sets, in general, seem to balance very oddly and
always feel awkward to me. When playing with these pieces, they just
frequently slip out of my hands or I knock them over a lot. For those
reasons my favorite tournament set remains the rather squat, so-called
"Ultimate Staunton" double- or triple-weighted plastic sets.

The wooden equivalent of the HOS plastic collectors set are the so-called
"Classic Series" sets, which were designed allegedly to offer an
alternative to cheap plastic sets in club play. Under no circumstances do
I recommend playing tournament chess with one of these sets. The queens in
particular are so fragile that they sometimes don't even survive the
shipping process without having the little sphere on top of their crowns
broken off. If this design was really intended to be the wooden club set
of the future, then it's a failure.

Other, somewhat more expensive HOS wood sets seem to be more suitable for
tournament use. The Liberty series seems quite durable, and the still more
expensive Players series might be a reasonable choice, though here again
the delicate crenellation (points) of the queen's crown are going to get
chipped or broken quite quickly in tournament use, so you'd have to treat
the set with a great deal of caution.

In conclusion, for frequent tournament use, I'd go with the plastic, and
not necessarily HOS plastic, either. Keep the nice expensive wood at home.
Not only are the weighted plastic sets much more durable for being slammed
around in a tournament setting, and are more cheaply replaced if they
don't survive, but also, after a few tournaments amongst the hygenically
challenged, the plastic is easier to keep sanitary with a bit of
dishwashing liquid or antibacterial cleaner.

--Kevin