Drueke 877.10 Magnetic Chess Set
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List Price: Our Price: $22.49 You Save: $0.51 (2%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Category: Sports See more product details |
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Description of Drueke 877.10 Magnetic Chess Set
This easy-to-transport set allows you to play chess anywhere, anytime. The Magnetic Chess Set is perfect for long car and plane rides. The plastic chessmen are equipped with a magnetic bottom so they won't move or slide when you encounter some rough terrain. The magnetic set is also perfect for when time is short. Squeeze in as much chess as you can during break, place it away when time is up, and then return to your game with the pieces exactly where you left them during your next free moment.Sports reviews of Drueke 877.10 Magnetic Chess Set
Customer Review: drueke chess set review
Sport shop rating: 4 Stars
it's a nice set. i love that you can save your game, unlike the other boards that fold in half. the magnets are fairly strong. it's somewhat hard to tell the pawns from the bishops. a tiny dab of white paint would fix that.
the lid doesn't really lock onto the base when you close it. so far this hasn't been a problem, but i feel that it should 'lock' on there somehow.
it's the best travel chess set i've had.
Customer Review: Great little travel chess set
Sport shop rating: 4 Stars
Nice (very) little magnetic chess set. The pieces stay put. You can even box up the set midgame, stow it away and continue later.
Cons:
It may be a bit TOO small. The pieces tend to all look the same when they're this tiny. The magnets don't always stay on the pieces too well.
Customer Review: Great Set Except The Pieces Look alike
Sport shop rating: 4 Stars
I am quite satisfied with this product except for the fact that the bishops and the pawns are hard to tell apart. It's a good set for travel but not one that I would like to use all the time.Customer Review: Set works, but quality control problems with the pieces
Sport shop rating: 3 Stars
I'd been using a small chess computer (ancient Radio Shack model that died long ago) as a portable set that would transport with a game in progress set up; the pieces have pegs and stay in place well, but are very tiny. So the Drueke set looked like a good replacement.
It does work OK for my purposes, but transporting or storing a game or study in progress runs into a couple of problems.
I was disappointed that the cover just fits loosely over the board, that there are no extra pieces (computer sets usually have an extra Queen & Pawn), and that if you line up captured pieces on the "sidelines", the lid won't fit properly because the lid is only recessed inside to clear the tops of the pieces over the main board area.
So you have to just leave the captured pieces loose in the box, and the magnetic force doesn't prevent loose pieces from dislocating the ones in play. Also the magnets on the bottom of the pieces repel each other, so they can tip each other over, especially the pawns & rooks. It would have been better to have the magnets under the board instead of on the pieces.
The company also has a terrible quality control problem with the pieces:
Both of the Queens were very sloppy castings, with "feathers" of plastic hanging off the the points of the crowns (I cleaned them up with an Xacto knife), both had globs of plastic at the base where the casting sprue was attached, and the black Queen actually has a big chunk torn out of the edge of the base where a worker just tore off the sprue. (The pieces are probably made in sheets of multiple copies and cut apart, or in this case, just torn apart.)
Others have complained that the board gets scratched easily. I have identified the source of this (quality control and poor design again):
The problem is the peg on the bottom that the magnet is fit around. The pegs all have a sharp messy tip with extra plastic that sticks out past the surface of the magnet, and that's what is scratching the board. I trimmed the worst of the points off and flattened the remaining plastic with a metal spoon handle so that it clears the bottom surface of the magnets. (And oddly, on the Pawns, this "peg" isn't centered, so the magnets aren't centered either, and that makes the Pawns and Rooks tippy.)
In addition, bits of plastic from the messy casting, and from the hole punched in the center of the rubber bottom surface were clinging all over the pieces, and since both materials are static-y, getting rid of it all was a pain, and the bits are hard enough to scratch the board, also leave nasty black marks on the white pieces where the magnets made them hook up with each other in the shipping bag.
Another reviewer remarked that the magnets also become loose, so they slide down the pins (or fall off) when you pick them up off the board (if you slide them the board gets scratched as noted above). I'm in the process of gluing all the magnets on, and filing down the pegs too, to make sure they don't stick out past the surface of the magnet, and cleaning off all the little plastic fragments that also contributed to scratches on the board. (My board only had a couple of scratches before I figured out what was causing it).
Design: Since all the pieces are about the same height, it is very easy to confuse Pawns and Bishops, especially the black ones. I ended up making the notch in the Bishops' miters bigger and deeper so that it is more visible, but still confused them occasionally if they weren't facing me. My "fix" for that was to paint the knob on top of the Bishops bright red (I used nail enamel) and this has worked fine.
I also doubt that the paper label on the lid will last long, and even with the bottoms of the pieces fixed, I wonder how the board will hold up with its painted squares.
Still, it works better than the sets where the board is on the outside when folded and the pieces have to be stored inside. And the size is good, and having a rim around both the board and the lid is handy, because you can stash the captured pieces in the inverted lid while playing.
I would only recommend this set to someone who isn't picky about their things, or else is handy with tools. And I'd give them a full disclosure of the problems. A decent product idea, but very poor execution.
Customer Review: Solid but Pieces are Stubby and Surface Scratches Easily
Sport shop rating: 3 Stars
The set overall seems to be of good quality, but I was disappointed with the pieces. They have very wide bases which crowd the board, the pawn's bases are more to scale with the squares on the board. The pawns are the same height as the bishops, and for that matter all of the pieces are basically the same height.
The magnets are strong, but they have a center hole which the pieces plug into and they come loose easily. It's often best to move a piece by grabbing the (fat) base. It's all but impossible to move a piece by grabbing only its top. I plan to glue the pieces to the magnets one day.
The magnet's strength also causes some sliding when moving and in only maybe eight uses the board's thin surface is dotted with scratches. I worry the black squares won't be all black for too long if the board gets much use.
The lid is plastic and used as a cover, it does not secure in any way to the base.
This set may not be best suited for playing against someone, but better suited to hold a position for study or for games where only a few moves are made in a sitting. The visually crowded board and common height of all the pieces and pawns are my major complaints.
The magnets are strong enough to hold the position upside down and surely over bumpy roads. Just put a rubber band or two over the lid if you travel with it.