Why Championship Chess Sets Are So Expensive | So Expensive

An inexpensive chess set can sell for $20, but a handcrafted wooden set certified for the World Chess Championship costs $500. Much of the set’s value lies in just one piece: the knight. Each knight must be carved by hand to look exactly the same. Making this one piece takes two hours, and there are fewer than 10 people trained to carve knights for the championship chess sets. So, how are these chessmen made? And why are they so expensive?

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Why Championship Chess Sets Are So Expensive | So Expensive

390 Comments

  1. The chess sets are cute and all, but this video is incredibly pretentious.

  2. I'm sorry, but 500 dollars per set is ridiculous. They are fine pieces, but there is no reason it should take 5 years to learn to carve a knight. Seems like nonsense to me. They are standardized pieces and not even that intricate.

  3. A CNC machine is easily capable of producing identical pieces, and that includes a perfect knight.
    Why isn't this mentioned?

  4. “From the hair on the knight’s tail-“
    Girl you mean a mane?

  5. So where can I buy the full championship set with trackers etc.? It will be $1200 right?

  6. ✝️Repent from your sins🙏, turn to God before it’s to late⏰, for tomorrow is not promised ❤️

  7. If this were in a English speaking country they would make 💰

  8. @2:33 “each carving is intentional from the hairs on a knights’ tail.” Then video cuts to an artisan carving the mane and withers for the horse . There is no tail on this piece.

  9. Knight: is misshapen

    Chess Caster: "And now we have Player 1 making a move with the Rook!"

  10. Artisans don't work in 'factory'. They work their craft in their pace. This is one your videos that surely raise some eyebrows. Other videos of yours, although not coming from high socioeconomic background, we're pretty confident that what they're doing is art and not being forced by some corporate entity.

  11. Welcome to the next episode of “things you didn’t ask for but thoroughly enjoyed”

  12. I'm still waiting for the day I'll actually be able to buy one of these..

  13. How many times have i mistaken the queen as the king and vice versa..
    Costing so many mistakes.. holy macaroni who knows..

  14. Very Well Done and Crafted Chess Set and Pieces. Well worth the usd$500.
    I love to play online and onboard Chess, especially Openings: THe English Opening, Sicilian Defense: Accelerated Dragon and King's Indian Defense : Gambit Accepted Etc.
    I am going to be a Grandmaster in 12 months.

  15. Those 10 knight piece makers should band together and unionize

  16. imagine how angry Baljeet Singh would be if you broke the knight during the WCC

  17. "it can actually affect the outcome of the game"
    is one Bullshit sentence i will never forget

  18. If I win lottery I will invest into chess piece making woodworking factory

  19. this set sucks, if it had custom pawns or bishops and rooks it’d be better

  20. Meanwhile you can play with bottle caps with names written on them? Like why do they need special sets?

  21. The evil producers of this video "forgot" to mention that the sets are made via cheap labor and terrible working conditions to the employees. Hence why the chess sets are not made in Denmark or Norway where workers have rights to living wage, good working conditions, fringe benefits, and vacation time. I feel bad for these "artisans" being exploited by FIDE and ACP. Sad, just sad!

  22. This seemed like a highschool student just saying things to fill a word count on an essay. A whopping 2 hours! wow! lol

  23. Wait $20 dollars for a plastic set? I got an wooden set for $5 this is messed up

  24. "Some chessmen must be dyed black and dried for ten days"

    Yes. About half of them one would think.

  25. Gotta be the worst script for a yt video ever

  26. A machine could replace all of them pretty easily

  27. Those artisans need to run away to another company that values them or to a different country

  28. why would you call it a „champion set“ only because it is expensive? There are no „championship sets“ in my oppinion only „luxuary sets“. The quality of a chess set has nothing to do with the outcome of the match, it doesn’t matter at all. You could even play chess with different lego bricks or colored stones, still nobody should care about it in a professional game. i understand that there are champion basketballs for example as the quality of the ball (how it fell, how it bounces) affects the game. that is true for may sports. But calling unnecessary expensive wood figures „championship sets“ makes no sense to me

  29. how does the king being 94mm going to make hikaru blunder checkmate

  30. Answer: Because pretentious nerds will spend any amount of money as long as you slap an 'artisan + handmade' sticker on it.

  31. I have played this game for 20 years and have never heard a piece referred to as a "chessman".

  32. This episode was especially fun to make after watching “The Queen’s Gambit”. One thing we didn’t have time to include is that the board alone for the full set (worth $500) costs $220. Thanks for watching this episode! What other expensive things do you think we should cover?

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