Customer Reviews

Da Vinci 16" Wood 3-in-1 Chess, Checkers, & Backgammon Set

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This set is reviewed as a toy, which I would hardly call a chess set, but that's Amazon's call, not mine.

After almost fifty years (gulp) my first Drueke chess set died of old age. I wanted to replace it with a nice stone set, but could not find one I liked at a decent price. This is a very attractive set, with the added bonus of a backgammon board on the reverse, the backgammon markers allow you to play checkers as well. I was amazed at what I received, nice veneered board, wood pieces, at a ridiculously low price! The set is probaly not durable enough for rambunctious kids, but then you shouldn't be hitting your little brother over the head with it! I can't think of a better learning medium to develop young minds than chess, and this set is a bargain for beginners and masters alike!

I've looked at virtually all chess/checkers sets sold on amazon.com for less then $50 before placing an order for this one. The price was actually on the higher end of the inexpensive range, so I hoped for a reasonable trade-off between having three games - chess, checkers, and backgammon - in a board that can hold all the pieces and can be carried and the build quality. In the end, I was disappointed by how cheap every part of the set looked and felt. I paid $35 for it and it feels like it was $20 more than it should have cost. There are too many problems to list, so I'll just give examples: pieces are uneven - many checkers are oval or have irregular shape; chess pieces are rough; felt on the bottom is easily stripped off; lighter and darker backgammon points are very difficult to distinguish; the board is very crudely put together; one of the magnetic bars that hold the two parts of the board together when closed fell out right away and had to be glued back in; virtually none of the squares fit together evenly; wood is covered very unevenly and is very rough in places. All-in-all, look elsewhere for a product that you would enjoy having around without having guilty for throwing money to such a shoddy manufacturer and keeping them in business to perpetuate the misery they inflict on their customers.

This product is cheap looking. The pieces are small and unimpressive. I love to play chess with my husband, and this does the trick. However,it is not something I would buy again if I knew what it looked like.

The overall quality of this product was poor. Using the pieces as checkers doesn't work because they are smooth and don't stack without falling over. I am assuming that backgammon pieces must have been intended for checkers because there were no others. The chess/checker side of the board is not protected in any way and it will scratch when you are playing backgammon on a hard surface. The instructions had errors in them. I didn't open the chess pieces to look so I can't comment here.
I ended up returning the product within 15 minutes of opening. I should have been more careful before buying this.

For this price including free shipping I can;t ask for anything better. I mean, if you want a high quality chess set be prepared to pay $80 to $100 for it. But at $25 including shipping and no tax, it is hard to beat. Good quality chess board, and good size chessmen. The handle is a great feature for carrying the set around and the board size is just right. Very happy here.

This was disappointing and poorly constructed. The corners didn't even line up. The wood was dirty and scuffed. A poor value!