STAUNTON CHESS SET-HISTORY
Even though there are great varieties of chess pieces on the market nowadays, only one chess set design is used in official tournaments and that is the famous Staunton design.
Named after the famous chess player Howard Staunton,
this design is todays most used chess design all over the world. However, things have not been this way from the beginning of modern chess competitions.
In the 19th century there were more than one chess designs used by professional chess players.
This included St. Georges Chess Set, French Regence Chess Set and Barleycorn Chess Set. Knowing all the different styles and individuating the pieces with high speed and precision was a rather difficult task. This resulted in confusions for many chess players, unaccustomed with other chess pieces than the ones they used in daily chess games.
Furthermore, because of the similitude between pieces displayed by all these styles, spotting the pieces was an even more challenging fact for someone who has not played with that type of chess pieces on a regular basis.
This prompted the need of an elegant, yet simple style, that will not only enchant the eye, but will also make the recognition of each piece a less cumbersome action.
This is how the first copy was designed and released on the market. The origins of the design are somehow obscured, as for long time it was thought that the one who has come up with the Staunton
design was Nathaniel Cook. The story says that the sources of inspiration for Cooks work of art dated back to antique Greek and Rome.
