By
Dewain Barber
November 28, 2014
On my trip to India I found shops with a great number of tourist treasures: Ceramic pieces that were hand painted, T-shirts with many colorful themes and wood that was carved by hand. These were some of the interesting things that caught my attention. It also can be said that I had an interest in chess pieces and boards that were handcrafted.
The set that appears below was in an upscale shop in New Delhi, our first city in India. This glass set was hand painted and has a Staunton design.
As I walked through many shops I was particularly interested in anything that I had not seen before. Below you will see some of the sets that were displayed:
Carved Camel Bone Set
Carved Wood Set, Jodhpur
Udaipur was another place where I found chess and had an opportunity to play a short game. I walked into Rajasthan Art School & Albeli. They had all kinds of miniature paintings, antiques, sandalwood, textiles, and hand embroidery. As I moved to the back of the shop I came across a chess set that was already set up as you can see below. I asked if anyone played and Mr. C. P. Bhatt replied, “I know how to play.” I asked if we could play a brief game on the beautiful hand carved set that was before me. My wife, being busy looking at hand paintings of elephants, gave me the opportunity to begin a game.
C.P. Bhatt & Dewain Barber
As with every excursion the time we can spend in any one place is always limited. I was not able to finish my game with Mr. Bhatt, but it was a pleasure to meet him and play on a very beautiful set. The set had camels as bishops and elephants as rooks.
Hand Carved Chess, Udaipur
Agra is one of the most interesting cities in India. The board that appears below is from a shop that specialized in marble inlay work. As you can see it has a beautiful floral design with large squares that would work for a nice Rosewood set.
Marble Inlay Board, Agra