I personally would like to believe if hikaru made a chess set he would want to make it affordable to expand the player base of chess rather then make money but that is just an assumption
you can make a chess set out of household items and a piece of paper, or you can play online for free. The cost of a chess set is not the barrier to expanding the playerbase
@@MrSupernova111 he is not lying. Once me and my friend only had a chess board and no pieces so we LITERALLY tore up pieces of paper and named them by the pieces and played. Did it work? Yes. Was it fun? Yes. Did we need a whole artist to create it, nah.
The "obsession with woolly mammoth" is fairly easy to explain. If you want an ivory chess set (ivory being a traditional material for chess sets) it's now the only legal way to get one in many jurisdictions, since the elephant ivory trade has been outlawed. If elephant ivory were still legal, ivory sets would probably be cheaper, and mammoth sets would probably be rarer.
Elephant ivory is legal only if the item in question is older than 100 years old, because then it’s considered an antique by the law and therefore exempt from the ban on elephant ivory.
@@Gavolak Depends on the jurisdiction. The rules have been tightened a lot in recent years. You can't trade ivory at all in the EU or in the UK, irrespective of age (with some narrow exceptions that don't apply to private collectors), and you can't trade it interstate in the US, or at all in some states. So it's hard to get hold of even antique ivory sets legally.
@@wyrmseyeview26 idk about other states or countries but in Washington state, you can legally buy products containing elephant ivory if they’re 100 years or older.
I pulled up the highest priced sets on ebay that have actually sold. Some weird results but nothing more than a few thousand dollars at least recently. Important to remember that people can list their stuff for whatever price but that doesn't mean anyone is buying it for that much.
@@nothingherezero7182 that doesnt mean its ethical, if you buy an apple pc youre literally just paying for the branding, theres nothing better about apple pc compared to anything else
@@mmfreshmeat2860 the thing is it's not unethical as well by any sort of measure, in most moral frameworks I'd say too, apart from a few that require selflessness and discard the ego?
Mammoth ivory is basically just the rarest material you could possibly make chess pieces out of. Also ivory was the standard material for chess sets prior to wood becoming the standard in the 19th and 20th century.
Mammoth ivory isn’t that rare man… it is decently expensive but they have been finding loads of them in Canada and Alaska near rivers as glaciers melt. They just fly over by helicopter and look for white sticking out of mostly gray sediment. I would say elephant ivory has become more rare than mammoth tbh.
Those expensive chess sets all have the same exact weakness. Whoever owned it would be hesitant playing Blitz, Bullet on it and even Classical when the time reach time scramble.
No collector would ever play on a chess set like that unless it was to flex on his wealth. Collectors normally take good care of their items, as they can be perceived as assets.
If I were to pick a chess set, I really just love the dubrovnik set as it's super iconic and comfortable to use. The design is just pretty beautifully made and definitely one I recommend but I would mostly get the pieces not the board as again they are just super awesome to have. I also would love DGT boards cause it's the modern era and they are pretty cool to have for Analysis and OTB competitions but are really heavy and just not that good for transportation which I dislike
"De gustibus non est disputandum" - honestly speaking, I have never understood where the enthusiasm for the so-called "Dubrovnik" chessmen comes from - in my opinion, by far the ugliest chess pieces imaginable, in particular the chunky, totally undefined knight is a complete disaster. In my view, the most beautiful chessmen ever produced are the classical Staunton ones made by Jaques, preferably an antique set from the 19th century.
The issue with sets you have no one to play with . It's legit worthless. If you plan to buy a chess set the best one is the ones that let's you play with anyone. It's like a online chessbword
I'm just gonna say it... I own the thumbnail set, and it would absolutely blown your mind how much better your rating gets from owning that one. Primarily because you're essentially playing blind...
I make hand carved Purple Heart and Paduk chess sets. Retail for about 5500. Takes weeks to make one set. Beautiful beyond value in my opinion. Will hopefully be my legacy
Before I watched Hikaru I would never in my life have thought I would watch someone talk about chess sets for 23 minutes while high and enjoy THE FUCK out of it
"Classic American set" - exported by a French company. Classic American, I love it. It can never be said that Hikaru doesn't have an epic sense of humour.
My grandfather had the soviet one and he tought me to play with it when I was a kid. Pure nostalgia for me. Also they smelled really good for some reason
The thing with wooly mammoths is it's because it's pretty much one of the only way to get "legal ivory". Elephant ivory requires poaching but mammoths you're just digging up fossils. If i remember correctly you can get fossilized walrus tusk and hippo teeth too but the mammoth is closest to elephant ivory.
Ivory is illegal to trade but it doesnt necessarily mean it came from poaching. Some African countries give/sell short licenses to a handful of people to deal with elephant overpopulation
Not just the amount of time they'll spend looking at them, but if they need to blitz out moves then having a knight that's awkward to grab and hold is just stupid. When you've seen Hikaru make FAST moves, the pieces he liked the most were the ones he'd have no trouble quickly getting a good grip on, and with a low center of gravity so they wouldn't fall over. It's such a dumb waste of time when players are blitzing and the board ends up looking like the battle of Somme, so they have to spend precious time picking up stupidly designed pieces.
My favourite chess pieces are the from Lewis set as these were used to teach me the game, and the fact they look medieval. I also quite wouldn't mind having a copy of the chess set Damien Hirst designed which uses medicine bottles for it pieces, but given only a few were ever made and it's Damien Hirst, one would probably cost at least 6 figures today.
If you want to be real fancy, mix and match your favorite pieces, to make your ultimate favorite custom set for yourself. I like the Jaques set but not a fan of those Bishops with the slit down the side, so i'd switch those out. Maybe switch out the Knight with the Sexy Knight sometimes also, depending on my mood ;)
This is the first time I actively noticed that the King from my childhood chess sets do not have a cross on top, whilst newer ones do. It's weird, the cross variation looks more distinct, but it now always feels to me like something is off.
I looked through hundreds and hundreds of sets. There are three sets that stand out to me, that scream buy me! The empire series. It looks so elegant. The Reykjavik II Series, Capablanca edition. The Forever Collection - The Camelot Series With one novelty chess set, Royal Selangor Star Wars Classic Chess Set Sadly I don't make alot of money. So it is all just window shopping.
All you need is a cardboard box cutout, 16 frozen peas, a bottle of red and brown sauce, a salt and pepper shaker, two frozen sausages and 2 frozen fish fingers 👍
You should’ve searched for vintage chess sets. They get even more expensive. Like 50k or more. Of course, there are also sets out there worth millions but that’s another story.
I'd buy that Ebay set if I made my living off of chess. But then I have a signed copy of Kasparov Against the World and I'm not selling that either so might even be something I'm buying if the chess hype dies down a little for a while compared to these peak interests.
Ivory is illegal in most places but Mammoth tusk isn't as it's precured from 'fossils' - this is most likely why Mammoth tusk is so popular, it's probably as close as you're going to get to Ivory.
we can all agree the knights in the soviet set (set 3) look like literal panthers, right? I mean that's a jungle cat pretending to be a pony if I've ever seen one lol
I simply like your standard plastic Staunton/Jacques chess set with the 4" kings that are heavily weighted, but if you can afford it then I'd prefer a wood set that follows this exact same design as the plastic Staunton/Jacques design. You can find this type of wood set with really really great knights for about $225.
i remember learning with a "gothic" set where the knight was not a horse but a helmet with plume kinda like the stereotypical roman helmet. we had a few dubrovnik sets in our high school chess club.
![Gucci Mane & Sexyy Red - You Don't Love Me [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/j7IBqyFKT4c/mqdefault.jpg)
He clearly doesn’t need that. He has a good gaming chair already.
He has a mental chess set already.
And RGB set😎
He dosent even play real chess smh
He has a roof already
Is this underrated or no one gets the genius of it??
A chess set by Hikaru could absolutely sell for a hefty amount.
I personally would like to believe if hikaru made a chess set he would want to make it affordable to expand the player base of chess rather then make money but that is just an assumption
@@August_is yeah if many people buy it he still makes very good money
you can make a chess set out of household items and a piece of paper, or you can play online for free. The cost of a chess set is not the barrier to expanding the playerbase
no it wouldnt
@@elibaumann9718 yeah
Does Hikaru need it? Yes, I really want to see a GM waste a lot of money.
Sry I ruin ur 69 likes
no nice anymore
I never want to see anyone waste money
LOL
He is literally one of the richest GM ever.
“Before we go on, I HATE THIS SET TERRIBLE CHESS SET” LMAOOO
The same guy who mocked the chess artists that make the championship set because in his view, before this video, it makes no difference.
some random guy: bE mOrE gRaTeFuL 🤪
Timestamp??
@@mithinthegamer69 1:45
@@MrSupernova111 he is not lying. Once me and my friend only had a chess board and no pieces so we LITERALLY tore up pieces of paper and named them by the pieces and played. Did it work? Yes. Was it fun? Yes. Did we need a whole artist to create it, nah.
The "obsession with woolly mammoth" is fairly easy to explain. If you want an ivory chess set (ivory being a traditional material for chess sets) it's now the only legal way to get one in many jurisdictions, since the elephant ivory trade has been outlawed. If elephant ivory were still legal, ivory sets would probably be cheaper, and mammoth sets would probably be rarer.
Elephant ivory is legal only if the item in question is older than 100 years old, because then it’s considered an antique by the law and therefore exempt from the ban on elephant ivory.
@@Gavolak Depends on the jurisdiction. The rules have been tightened a lot in recent years. You can't trade ivory at all in the EU or in the UK, irrespective of age (with some narrow exceptions that don't apply to private collectors), and you can't trade it interstate in the US, or at all in some states. So it's hard to get hold of even antique ivory sets legally.
@@wyrmseyeview26 idk about other states or countries but in Washington state, you can legally buy products containing elephant ivory if they’re 100 years or older.
@@Gavolak literally says "in many jurisdictions" in the original comment
@@wyrmseyeview26 damn, stupid laws
Karpov did have a workshop. There's a chessbase interview with him and he talks about it: it's called "Anatoly Karpov tells all"
Karpov did in fact have a workshop or in his own words an exhibition area where they worked with sculpting masters to create chess sets 🤔
Turning Chess Masters into Chess sets. Awesome
Imagine being Karpov and see Hikaru trash talk you over something you actually did, saying "It's obviously not true".
"Who knew a chess set could be polarizing"
"I HATE this chess set"
Yes, he assumed everyone else agreed.
The reason for the obsession on woolly mammoth ivory is that it is one of the very few forms of Ivory that is legal in the US and most of the world.
My elo rating is a function of how expensive the set I'm playing with is.
3400 elo with ivory set
Same here.
I pulled up the highest priced sets on ebay that have actually sold. Some weird results but nothing more than a few thousand dollars at least recently. Important to remember that people can list their stuff for whatever price but that doesn't mean anyone is buying it for that much.
In all honesty Hikaru could probably sell any chess set he purchases for a profit
Yeah but would it be ethical to sell things with a huge markup just for your name being on it
@@mmfreshmeat2860 yes
@@mmfreshmeat2860 that how brand names do it
@@nothingherezero7182 that doesnt mean its ethical, if you buy an apple pc youre literally just paying for the branding, theres nothing better about apple pc compared to anything else
@@mmfreshmeat2860 the thing is it's not unethical as well by any sort of measure, in most moral frameworks I'd say too, apart from a few that require selflessness and discard the ego?
Mammoth ivory is basically just the rarest material you could possibly make chess pieces out of. Also ivory was the standard material for chess sets prior to wood becoming the standard in the 19th and 20th century.
Maybe the rarest but not the most valuable. There should be chess sets made out of gems like diamonds and rubies
@@animefreak3010 sounds heavy and uncomfy
Really? My dad has like 3 of them in a storage room. Need to call him to see if they in good condition. 😂
@@animefreak3010 diamonds are a scam. theyre so easy to make
Mammoth ivory isn’t that rare man… it is decently expensive but they have been finding loads of them in Canada and Alaska near rivers as glaciers melt. They just fly over by helicopter and look for white sticking out of mostly gray sediment. I would say elephant ivory has become more rare than mammoth tbh.
Those expensive chess sets all have the same exact weakness. Whoever owned it would be hesitant playing Blitz, Bullet on it and even Classical when the time reach time scramble.
No collector would ever play on a chess set like that unless it was to flex on his wealth. Collectors normally take good care of their items, as they can be perceived as assets.
don’t worry, his net-worth is 50 million, that’s like children’s play money to him
Monopoly money though.... :)
Yeah 50 million.....
@@PHeMoX Not really
@@ppmpyae1152 it says so on google
@@cloaking111 So? What does it have to do with reality?
7:40 don’t forget that front-facing eyes indicates the animal is a carnivore and a hunter
I'm a chess carver and designer of unique pieces and boards. It's interesting hearing your comments. I'm learning a perspective.
16:35 I expected him to start singing Halo's theme song
True that will be legendary if he did that
If I were to pick a chess set, I really just love the dubrovnik set as it's super iconic and comfortable to use. The design is just pretty beautifully made and definitely one I recommend but I would mostly get the pieces not the board as again they are just super awesome to have. I also would love DGT boards cause it's the modern era and they are pretty cool to have for Analysis and OTB competitions but are really heavy and just not that good for transportation which I dislike
I believe that was Fischer's favorite chess set as well. A beauty indeed.
@@MrSupernova111 I believe that he said that in the video
@@Agent-uj8ud . Ok. I missed it then. I did some online research after the video and I think it would be nice to such a set one day. Cheers!
"De gustibus non est disputandum" - honestly speaking, I have never understood where the enthusiasm for the so-called "Dubrovnik" chessmen comes from - in my opinion, by far the ugliest chess pieces imaginable, in particular the chunky, totally undefined knight is a complete disaster. In my view, the most beautiful chessmen ever produced are the classical Staunton ones made by Jaques, preferably an antique set from the 19th century.
The issue with sets you have no one to play with . It's legit worthless. If you plan to buy a chess set the best one is the ones that let's you play with anyone. It's like a online chessbword
I'm just gonna say it... I own the thumbnail set, and it would absolutely blown your mind how much better your rating gets from owning that one.
Primarily because you're essentially playing blind...
I make hand carved Purple Heart and Paduk chess sets. Retail for about 5500. Takes weeks to make one set. Beautiful beyond value in my opinion. Will hopefully be my legacy
Would love to see them in a video or pictures
Before I watched Hikaru I would never in my life have thought I would watch someone talk about chess sets for 23 minutes while high and enjoy THE FUCK out of it
Dude got hit with the bongcloud...
Stop doing drugs.
@Dylan amen brother
yikes
@@trumppence3834 okay "Trump"
"Classic American set" - exported by a French company. Classic American, I love it.
It can never be said that Hikaru doesn't have an epic sense of humour.
9:00 all I want in life is for someone to call me sexy the same way Hikaru calls this knight sexy
“How do i know the king and the queen” had me in splits 😂
I just want to see a video on the Meissen sea life chess set a $75000 beauty. One day…
Surprised you didn’t mention the Queens Gambit. A lot of people (me too) want a Russian/Latvian/Tal set like the one used in the series’ final game.
when you ask your crush out and she say yes 0:01
Why would a dude that can play simultaneous games in his head need a physical board at all?
Because they're pretty
Because they’re sexy
He is actually playing in his mind too while doing this vid.
Brings up a good question - what set is he visualizing when playing blindfolded.
imagine playing bullet chess with the samurai set
Wear gloves to prevent impaling yourself.
I didn't know people cared this much about the style of chess sets, damn. The Jaques set is definitely my favorite.
My grandfather had the soviet one and he tought me to play with it when I was a kid. Pure nostalgia for me. Also they smelled really good for some reason
The thing with wooly mammoths is it's because it's pretty much one of the only way to get "legal ivory". Elephant ivory requires poaching but mammoths you're just digging up fossils. If i remember correctly you can get fossilized walrus tusk and hippo teeth too but the mammoth is closest to elephant ivory.
Ivory is illegal to trade but it doesnt necessarily mean it came from poaching. Some African countries give/sell short licenses to a handful of people to deal with elephant overpopulation
@@crusaderACR "elephant overpopulation"?
5:15 I'm living for populist Hikaru 😂😂😂
His politics are trash as fuck so......
The best chess set ever made is the Jaques Staunton with the 4.4" king.
One of my "if I won the lottery..." purchases.
I have never seen someone fuss over how a piece feels. Is this what it means to truly master chess?
if your going to spend 8 hours with your set a day, feel matters ;)
If I spent 8 hours lookin at an ugly unbalanced wood I think I would be moderately pissed aswell
Not just the amount of time they'll spend looking at them, but if they need to blitz out moves then having a knight that's awkward to grab and hold is just stupid. When you've seen Hikaru make FAST moves, the pieces he liked the most were the ones he'd have no trouble quickly getting a good grip on, and with a low center of gravity so they wouldn't fall over. It's such a dumb waste of time when players are blitzing and the board ends up looking like the battle of Somme, so they have to spend precious time picking up stupidly designed pieces.
3:42 Thanos after watching the queens gambit
My favourite chess pieces are the from Lewis set as these were used to teach me the game, and the fact they look medieval.
I also quite wouldn't mind having a copy of the chess set Damien Hirst designed which uses medicine bottles for it pieces, but given only a few were ever made and it's Damien Hirst, one would probably cost at least 6 figures today.
you actually like Hirst?
Ivory produced before the ban on trading is ok, so a mammoth tooth would be older than that
I inherited a porcelain chest set, everyone I show has never seen anything like it. Has an ancient Egypt theme. love it
Doesn’t need it but… yolo 😂
If you want to be real fancy, mix and match your favorite pieces, to make your ultimate favorite custom set for yourself. I like the Jaques set but not a fan of those Bishops with the slit down the side, so i'd switch those out. Maybe switch out the Knight with the Sexy Knight sometimes also, depending on my mood ;)
Imagine using a historic rook piece as an ash tray. 😂
Weird. Almost a year later he watched a "How its made" of the first set and he didnt mention how much he hated the FIDE championship set at all
Bro doesn't need a chess set. Bro needs to produce his own signature chess set asap
This is the first time I actively noticed that the King from my childhood chess sets do not have a cross on top, whilst newer ones do.
It's weird, the cross variation looks more distinct, but it now always feels to me like something is off.
"without cross" is more politically correct and international.
Karpov did indeed design chess sets and have a shop that designed and carved chess pieces from mammoth tusks
I always associate the English word bishop with the Polish word 'biszkopt'. I really like eating sponge cakes. Bishops are tasty.
I just started making chess boards and pieces. You sign them we sell them for $10,000 a pop. Sound good
I have the set in the thumbnail for my 6-years-old and he loves it!
1:12 Chess speaks for itself
Look at the value of the Lewis chessmen… that will shock you (the earliest chess set known I believe)
I looked through hundreds and hundreds of sets.
There are three sets that stand out to me, that scream buy me!
The empire series. It looks so elegant.
The Reykjavik II Series, Capablanca edition.
The Forever Collection - The Camelot Series
With one novelty chess set, Royal Selangor Star Wars Classic Chess Set
Sadly I don't make alot of money. So it is all just window shopping.
Hikarus pronunciation of Dubrovnik kills me
Could you imagine playing blitz with that samurai set? All those swords sticking up every time you go to grab a piece.
Best set: quality plastic Staunton pieces; a rolled up green/white mat.
All you need is a cardboard box cutout, 16 frozen peas, a bottle of red and brown sauce, a salt and pepper shaker, two frozen sausages and 2 frozen fish fingers 👍
Tip. If you are confused where to put the queen and the king , play the Scandinavian
Bro the “Mammoths don’t even exist” killed me for some reason.
Just buy a Chess Set at the Dollar Tree. smh my head
You should’ve searched for vintage chess sets. They get even more expensive. Like 50k or more. Of course, there are also sets out there worth millions but that’s another story.
Not so much an "obsession" with woolly mammoth but instead perhaps the only legal way to create ivory chess sets.
Lewis Chessman and the normal British set are my favourites.
I love how he says, “it’s just not doing it for me” lol
Truest statement…. You cannot like a chess set if you don’t like the knight in particular.
That samurai chess set looks fantastic 🤌🏾 19:54
20:47 "Buy it? Yeah, maybe I'll set a sub goal guys."
I still have my Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring chess set and I love it. Don't use it that often, but it's class
It's sad that all those mammoths had to die just for chess sets
im not sure if you troll or serious but dont worry that was made from fossils dont worry
The lardy knight immediately made me happy because it is also smiling.
I'd buy that Ebay set if I made my living off of chess. But then I have a signed copy of Kasparov Against the World and I'm not selling that either so might even be something I'm buying if the chess hype dies down a little for a while compared to these peak interests.
“The rooks look like they have ashtrays on them” hahaha I lost it 😂
> Is surprised that chess sets can be polarising
> Expresses a strong opinion on a set's design immediately
Hikaru is the greatest GM to follow, Bong Cloud is my favorite opening.
Ivory is illegal in most places but Mammoth tusk isn't as it's precured from 'fossils' - this is most likely why Mammoth tusk is so popular, it's probably as close as you're going to get to Ivory.
20:29 The Rooks are literally towers!
Like if you learned your first chess moves on the Yugoslavian Dubrovnik Chess set !
(especially without the padding under the pieces, makes the sound)
i knew he would like the dubrovnik set, its the best, it became my favorite too since i learned fischer used one. maybe fide should consider it
Members oh hikaru oh my good hikaru
Remember those Civil War Chess Set commercials? "Genuine Pewter" ... Oh Boy!
Im making a bog oak chess set, the oak is pure black from thousands of years being under the bog. Its amazing material
He's the coolest chess player on the planet. He can have whatever he wants
man hikaru came a long way from getting triggered by chat to triggering chat intentionally, he learned alot from twitch gm xqc
we can all agree the knights in the soviet set (set 3) look like literal panthers, right? I mean that's a jungle cat pretending to be a pony if I've ever seen one lol
"It has a certificate, the creator signed it himself - not a third party"
I dont understand why champion sets dont include a person on a knight, normal chess sets look kind of childish now that i think about it honestly
None of the pieces includes a person
@@ysaackfranco2825 I know but they should like the viking sets
cuz that would look dumb
@@quearaeoquazhkn3728 No it wouldnt it would look grown up, current chess pieces look childish
@@sigurdh.s8320 Yeah the horse looks childish it would look more esteemed with a rider
I simply like your standard plastic Staunton/Jacques chess set with the 4" kings that are heavily weighted, but if you can afford it then I'd prefer a wood set that follows this exact same design as the plastic Staunton/Jacques design. You can find this type of wood set with really really great knights for about $225.
Hikaru needs to play with a simpsons chess set, he'd have the psychological advantage ;)
That Samurai set is reaaaaally gooood tbh
It's a little funny that Hikaru talks about himself in third person in these titles
Hikaru:
Medieval chess set
:/
Medieval chess set, Japan
:0
If you break that mammoth set you have to take it to a paleontologist to get it fixed.
i remember learning with a "gothic" set where the knight was not a horse but a helmet with plume kinda like the stereotypical roman helmet.
we had a few dubrovnik sets in our high school chess club.
Vintage Ganine Sculptured Gothic Chess Set Salon Edition
"sexy knight" hitting the biggest mew
I mean he's one of the best players in the world and makes a living off of chess... get whatever chess board you want lol
No need, Hikaru has the ceiling
3:10
I love how him saying he doesn't like a design gets somehow twisted into "GM Hikaru Nakamura hates minimum wage workers"
Hikaru on his way to buy 6 different chess sets to mix e match the pieces designs
world's top 10 chess player; "is ivory illegal?"
I despair