I bought a Mordovian (“Latvian”) chess set!

Below are photos from the seller; I don’t have the set in my hand yet as I only ordered it last night. But I’m so excited about my acquisition! It’s a Zvezda set from 1953.

Most of these sets feature considerable wear from use, but this one seems remarkably pristine to me. I was considering painting whatever set I would get to restore it to its original condition before I would gift it to my stepson for Christmas, but this set looks so beautiful as it is, I see no reason to alter it—ahh except for the knights.

I still haven’t quite decided on whether I want to touch them up or leave them in their original state, but I do think I will touch up the knights and the finials of the black king and queen. Probably sacrilege to some of you, but I think it will present better—assuming I will do a good job. I’m going to do my research and test it out on a random piece of wood first.

When I saw the brown padding though, I had to overcome my initial shock and disappointment. I was so excited to see that these sets tend to come with red padding, which seemed Soviet-appropriate and a nice change from the standard green.

But comparing this set to other ones with red padding, I realized the brown padding is actually ideal. First off, it offers a contrast with both the red and black pieces, which the red padding didn’t. But also, the red padding was visible when seen from above, whereas this brown padding isn’t. That probably has more to do with how far to the edge the padding comes, but the color is less obtrusive as well. I feel it allows your full attention to go to the beautiful black and deep red pieces—whereas with other sets, I kept seeing this relatively distracting bright red edge on the black pieces in particular.

So yeah, the brown padding has really grown on me. And I haven’t seen a set of this design that impressed me as much as this one. I love the glossy finish, and the deep red color as opposed to the slightly orange-leaning color on most other sets I looked at.

Congratulations. It looks like a great set.

Congratulations! This is a very beautiful set, I would love to have one myself one day. I would not touch them up, but if you do, let us see the results.

Thank you!

Thanks! I’ve decided to gift the set to my stepson the way it is, and give him the choice to allow me to touch it up—or better yet, find someone who can do it professionally. But he may very well want to keep it in its original condition.

I have a couple of these from the same era; they are my favorite. Congratulations and enjoy that gorgeous set.

Oh that’s great to know! Some fascinating sets on his website as well.

I heard from my wife today that her son would be horrified with receiving a restored set. He said something about the wear encoding its history. So yeah, I’m glad I didn’t go ahead with a potential restoration.

I do find the set almost suspiciously pristine apart from the knights though. It makes me wonder if it hasn’t been restored at some point already. Although the seller stated that it hadn’t been.

I’m surprised how you can get such considerable wear on the top of the knights but virtually nowhere else on the pieces. And the finials of the king and queen! Who even touches those? I guess it’s wear from putting them inside a wooden box without a fabric to protect them.