Student chess sets

Chess is the world’s most popular game. For hundreds of years, civilizations all over the world have enjoyed and appreciated the intricacies of strategy board games like chess to aid in military training and for casual pleasure.

The greatest chess players in history, known as Grand Masters, were some of the greatest celebrated minds to ever be tested by World Class tournament chess. It usually takes many years of challenging experience to become a World Class Grand Master of chess, and you have to start somewhere, so why not with a student chess set. Although tournament chess uses beautiful, often hand-crafted chess pieces that many would consider works of art, learning to play the game only requires simple pieces that you can get any local toy or game store.

Along with a practice board and set pieces, if you want to learn the game of chess, and eventually master it, you should study what the most brilliant minds in history have to say about the game. Benjamin Franklin’s 1779 essay “Moral’s of Chess,” discusses how chess is more than a game of leisure. He continues that although we seem to only play it during times of leisure, it is perhaps one of the most beneficially disposable activities we can commit ourselves to. One of his strongest arguments is that whether or not you win, you still come out victories because you have exercised your thinking processes.

The same could be said, perhaps, about Diego Rasskin’s book, “Chess Metaphors,” in which the author discusses how the game of chess forces us to use most, if not all, of our cognitive thinking abilities. As you study, you can use your student chess set to practice many of the strategies and methodologies you will learn about. For these purposes it is probably best that you acquire something very simple and easy to replace, as these pieces will be getting a lot of use.

Cheap sets are very easy to come by. In fact, you might be able to use an available chess set at a church hall, youth center, or school, if you need practice. For a little more authenticity, you might be able to find something of a little higher quality and a little more integrity at a hobby or game store, or online. There are many chess communities and game societies on the internet that can give you more relevant information.