“I play against the pieces.”
— Svetozar Gligorić, twelwe times Yugoslav Chess Champion

Chess is a mind virus. The first matches of this beautiful game were recorded in India two thousand years ago. The game spread as fast as ancient communications allowed, which were mostly reduced to trade on established trade routes and occasional war campaigns. Rules of the game were slowly changed. For example, Queen got her freedom of movement around 1450. The first tournament in Europe was held in 1575. Italians and Spaniards clashed…

With the development of communications, the game began to gain global popularity. In the previous sequel, we faced the era of the Industrial Revolution after which world change gained tremendous acceleration. One of the demands of the new, industrialized world was to set standards in everything. Since the ‘chess pandemic’ has spread all over the world, it was quite expected that artistic pieces-sculptures from previous millennia would give way to stylized pieces suitable for practical play. That is exactly what happened in the middle of the 19th century.

In the fall of 1849, a London company owned by John Jacques offered the public an extraordinarily beautifully stylized set of chess pieces for sale. The original design was attributed to Nathaniel Cook in the spring of the same year, and the design was named after the self-proclaimed world champion and the strongest player in the United Kingdom, Howard Staunton. It is more probable, however, that the creator of the pieces (Chessmen) was Jacques himself, who was known for ivory carvings, and to whom, as a businessman, many famous players turned, complaining that the previous shapes of pieces were simply not suitable for practical play. At that time, the so-called ‘Edinburgh Upright sets’ were most often played:

The most famous European producers of chess pieces in the period from the beginning of the 19th century were Thomas Lund, Samuel Fisher and George Merrifield.

They look quite modern, like a good design exercise, but they are definitely not suitable for practical play. John Jacques, as a good entrepreneur, understood that it was necessary to make a completely new design, which would be suitable for play and at the same time cheap enough for mass production. In March 1849, the design was registered to Nathaniel Cook, his cousin, and on September 29th, the new design was offered to the public. The appearance was accompanied by a text in “Illustrated London News”, which was owned by Howard Staunton, and edited by John Jacques.

“A set of Chessmen, of a pattern combining elegance and solidity to a degree hitherto unknown, has recently appeared under the auspices of the celebrated player Mr. STAUNTON. A guiding principle has beеn to give by their form a signification to the various pieces – thus the king is represented by a crown, the Queen by a coronet, &c. The pieces generally are fashioned with convenience to the hand; and it is to be remarked, that while there is so great an accession to elegance of form, it is not attained at the expense of practical utility. Mr. STAUNTON’S pattern adopts but elevates the conventional form; and the base of the Pieces being of a large diameter, they are more steady than ordinary sets.”

Truth be told, the characteristic of the basic set was the cross on the king’s crown, which would later prove to be an important element in the modifications of the design. But it must be admitted that this set of pieces, which at the time seemed completely revolutionary, withstood the test of time characteristic only of great works of art. Here is the original look of the Staunton pieces set:

You can read the whole story about Staunton pieces (in English) on the ‘House of Staunton’ page. Let’s go back for a moment to Grandmaster Svetozar Gligorić, one of the the strongest players in the world during the fifties of the 20th Century, when Robert Fischer said that the only thing he lacked for the title of World champion was ambition. His saying “I play against pieces” referred primarily to the psychological approach to the game of chess, that is, it was a diplomatic expression that he did not care who was on the other side of the chessboard, but his position on it was important. However, it is true that those who are infected with the chess mind virus can play and learn with any pieces at all. Gligorić, for example, had a difficult childhood, he lost his parents early on, and he made the first pieces on which he studied chess theory and played for a long time from cork stoppers for wine bottles. However, when you bring your game to the top level, the pieces become very important.

Staunton design today in its beautiful original form can be found in various materials, marble, metal, ivory, wood, plastic… Wooden figures are a natural choice for tournaments of the highest categories, and for training and casual play you can easily get cheap plastic, but very good, weighted pieces such as these wonderful elegant sets:

It is no exaggeration to say that this great example of design greatly influenced the rapid popularization of the game all over the World. The game progressed and developed, but this characteristic form followed all kinds of changes almost completely intact. In today’s digital age, the Dutch corporation DGT (Digital Game Technology) produces electronic chessboards with matching pieces – of course, Staunton shaped. Here is the match between former World Champion Gary Kasparov and American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, played at the St. Louis blitz tournament in 2017:

Have you noticed that there are certain deviations in the design of modern forms of the Staunton standard? We will deal with interpretations, variants and improvement of standards in the upcoming sequels of our series.

Following in the next part: Staunton standard variations