Review: Finding a Jaques of London chess set for learning to play chess

As a new term has started and many London children will be back to playing chess after school to boost pattern recognition and memory retention, we’ve also taken out the chess board again and expect to be using it more and more.

Traditional games and sports company Jaques of London, which was founded in 1795 and popularised chess with the creation of an easily produced and instantly recognisable set of Chessmen in 1839, kindly sent us a travel chess set to review in the autumn.

When the chess interest first started in our house, I wasn’t sure if there would be much time to play this traditional board game as the weekday schedule feels pretty packed, but the chess set we received soon became a permanent feature on the kitchen island and has been used relatively regularly.

The Jaques of London premium hand-carved chess set with folding walnut and sycamore board turned out to be a perfect fit for our home, and the fact we can keep it out means there’s more interest in playing chess and ensuring it’s always set up correctly. We’ve found that Daddy T can multi-task and play chess and cook at the same time, making dinner time on weekends an ideal time for someone to jump up on a bar stool and play against him, escaping the often loud and energetic play that regularly takes place in the living room.

I had been looking at chess sets online before receiving one from the family-owned Jaques of London to review, and I could never decide on what to get as I wasn’t quite sure what we needed and the price differences took me by surprise. Jaques of London also offers luxury sets that cost several thousand pounds, but for a family learning this much-loved game, I think the £22.49 set is a good choice.

I like the quality of the set and that it can be folded and put away –which is what we did over Christmas. Most of the time, I’m happy to have it out, which makes the game easily accessible for everyone too.

This is exactly what we needed right now–pretty, practical and great for practising.

Tags: Back to school, Board games, Chess, Chess set, Jaques of London, Learning chess