My husband and I bought a beautiful chess set in Mexico last week --
marble and soapstone board with 6" matching pieces, not quite staunton
but very similar, elongated almost. Gorgeous.

We of course had to unpack it to play while we were there then in
packing it up to ship 6 of the pieces broke -- one broke just because
the piece got knocked over on the board.

My question to those of you who may own stone/marble sets -- are they
just too fragile for normal play / existence in the world, or did we
just buy a substandard board with weak stone?

HOS sells/sold a stone board, granite I believe it was. They touted the
toughness of the board.

Okay, so I can accept that the board is tough, but everyone knocks over
pieces all the time--we just do--and if those pieces are wood then they
will take some ongoing damage v. a stone board, and I hope that isn't a
nice wood set.

I'm not sure if there is a similarly tough stone set.

It's just problematical in my eyes if one is using a set one values a
bit.

I have a stone chess set that's seen three generations of light use
without any breakage, and it's taken more punishment than falling over
on the board. I would question the authenticity of the materials in any
products you buy in a foreign country, especially if they were bought
in a tourist district or a market where you had to haggle over prices.

House of Staunton sells excellent wooden sets. I highly recommend
buying an 'affordable' one for everyday use. It beats the hell out of
cheap plastic, and you won't have to worry about taking out a second
mortgage if you eventually manage to break a piece.

I bought a couple of those in Mexico too, they are not for playing much
too fragile.. They are for looking at as something pretty. They
certainly aren't for investment because they are worthless.