Best Chess Sets:

The game of chess can be very challenging and is certainly a mind provoking pasttime which people of all ages can play. I was taught chess by my father at the age of 5 and still play recreationally today. Buying a chess set is pretty easy if you take into account a few basics. If you are shopping for a beginner player, then go with a straightforward, traditional wooden chess set. These wooden chess sets have folding boards and drawers for storage of the pieces. Stay away from the themed chess sets for beginners, since the pieces don't always look familiar in terms of knights, castles, etc. If you are buying a chess set for a more advance player look into a quality chess set with marble, wood, or glass pieces. An avid chess player will appreciate the fine craftsmanship of high end chess board/set. A Staunton chess set is the perfect style with weighted pieces that are hand crafted and unique. Someone who is a collector of chess sets probably has all the basic sets you might find, but there are new theme sets entering the market all the time. Get wildlife animals, Army vs Navy, sports teams, Civil War, or medieval Camelot themes. The best chess sets are crafted from woods like Ebony, Rosewood, Boxwood, and Bubinga.

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Chesssets.com is a great online resource for buying chess sets, pieces, boards, storage boxes, chess tables, chess software, and chess teaching aids. The best selling chess sets on their site are the Classic Wooden Chess and Checker Sets ($69.99), Oversized-Large Chessmen w/ Storage Box ($39.99), Traditional Black & White Chess Board ($39.99), Kasparov Travel Chess Computer ($19.98), Polished Burl Wood Chess Board ($39.99), Camphor Chess Set ($139.99), Black & Cream Chessmen w/ Storage Box ($49.99), Multi-Colored Glass Chess Set ($25.98), Large Plastic Travel Chess Set ($39.99), Legends of Camelot Chess Set ($119.98), Glass/Metal Base Chess Sets in Gold and Silver ($49.98), Wood Frame Chess Set ($39.99), and the Black and Green Marble Chess Set ($129.99). Quality, hand crafted chess pieces can make up to 50% of the prices in a set. Our personal favorite is the North & South Civil War Chess Set ($149.99) - great for American History or Civil War enthusiasts, pieces have detailed uniforms, made of durable resin, complete with oak chess board. Their Staunton Metal Chessman collection goes for $139.99 - made in Ital Fama workshop in Florence, Italy, these traditional Staunton chessmen are made of the finest Italian metals. Thechessstore.com is another chess related site with lots to choose from including new chess sets, Staunton wood chess sets, theme chess sets, travel chess sets, chess clocks, marble chess sets, chess boxes and chess bags (perfect for tournaments or your school chess club), chess books, and the Golden Collection Series chess sets.

Chess Pieces and Boards:

Often you have a nice chess board, but the pieces have become lost or broken over the years and you just need to replace certain pieces or you may want to buy a whole new set. For the best selection of chess pieces, we suggest going to Wholesalechess.com and search their inventory of 100's of chess pieces like colored basic club specials, Executive Staunton Chess Pieces, quality club chess pieces, heavy tournament chess pieces, Super Staunton collector chess pieces, Hastings Staunton chess pieces and countless more. The average price for a set of French wooden chess pieces is about $40 (where the King is 3 1/2"). A qaulity wood chess board goes for about $40 while a basic vinyl chessboard sells for $3. If you plan on traveling with your chess board, go with the Soft Mousepad Chessboard for $6.

Chess Strategy and Rules:

You can't win at chess without knowing the basic rules of the game as well as how each piece moves. Secondly, you must have a strategy to beat good players. A chess game can last hours since each player is going over in their mind all the options on each move. They need to anticipate their opponents moves and adjust their strategy accordingly. There are chess books and chess videos/dvd's that go over different chess playing styles and strategies that are proven winners. The best DVD we found was the Kopec: Complete Kopec Chess collection which includes 22 hours of chess instruction and covers the opening, middlegame, and endgame. Learn how to play pawns, visualize chess combinations, analyze chess positions, and develop advanced concepts. The DVD is $149.99 and is offered at Wholesalechess.com. A nice piece of chess software is the Shredder 10 ($47.99) which offers extensive training for beginners, club players, and grandmasters. With the price of the software you get access to the ChessBase Playchess.com website for 1 year where you can play chess games online against people from all over the world for free.

Play Chess Online - Yahoo Chess:

Playing chess online has become quite a popular as sites like Yahoo have developed a chess game that people can play for free on the Internet or download it to their computers to play offline. Internet chess is available at more sites than just Yahoo, do a search for "free chess online" and go to one of the sites that comes up on Google. You can usually download chess for free or play a flash version online for free. All sites that we found with chess downloads offer rules/strategies/tournaments and more for your experience. There is a great chess theory PDF file that can be found at Chess-theory-pdf.blogspot.com/. Instant Chess is another site located at its namesake Instantchess.com and allows you to play chess on your computer or on your cell phone. Enter online chess tournaments, development skills against players of your level (beginner, intermediate, advanced), and have fun. Chessmaster is one of the top chess software games available online or in stores. Ckeck out the free download at Chessmaster.com or buy the 10th Edition online for $19.99.

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