Unforgettable Story of our customer “Istvan Szabad”

Istvan Szabad
2026-03-20T17:39:14+05:30

A customer story by Istvan Szabad from Australia.
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Once upon a time there was an 8-10 year old poor boy who lived in a small European country. He was always very happy when he had summer-vacation because he spent it with his grandfathers and uncles who lived in a tiny dusty village, far from the noisy towns. The summer was hot, so the simple hard working peasants often went to the tavern to “clean the dust from their throat” with 1-2 (or maybe more) mugs of cold beer. His uncle did the same and every time bought the boy some cold soda. Usually the tavern was full of cigarette smoke (and sometimes drunk guys too). One day the boy saw 2 guys who were playing some game at a table. On a black-and-white wooden board there were many strange-looking wood-carved pieces. Some of them looked like Christmas tree, some looked like horse, others like some kind of bastion. The board and the pieces were very old and shabby-looking. This was the first time when the boy saw a chess set. He did not know anything about the rules of the game but he was very amazed of the game and the pieces. One night a fairy appeared in his dream and said: One day you will move to a huge, remote country and you will have your own brand new chess pieces, exactly the same like you saw in the village’s tavern. The chess pieces will come from the opposite side of the world from a seller, called “Chessbazaar”. A nice person will send it to you whose name will be “Sapna”.

The time was passing; the boy grew up and never saw any of that old chess set. Everyone was playing with new, different chessmen. But one day everything what the fairy had said came true. Well, this story sounds like an incredible childish fairy tale, but (except for the fairy) everything was true and real. I was that boy in the story! I was born and lived in Hungary, later immigrated to USA and the Chessbazaar really sent me the mentioned chess pieces (December 2013). It is called: Reproduced Antique Series Austrian Coffee House Old Vienna Chess Pieces – M0076 (long time ago Hungary was part of Austria).You can imagine the emotion I felt when I was holding those chessmen in my hands (from my childhood’s memories, after almost a half century)!

Incredible (but real!) story isn’t it?

My emotion was about the same when I saw the mentioned chessmen in the book of Edward Winter (Chess Explorations). On the picture is the outstanding Austrian grandmaster Rudolf Spielmann (1883-1942), in front of him on the board the same chessmen!

Nowadays, I have 13 different kinds of chess sets from Chessbazaar (out of the almost 50 what I have). The pieces always were wrapped thoroughly and arrived very fast (3-4 days) from the “opposite side of the world”! Chessbazaar offers so many kinds of chess sets (from the economy class till the luxury or antique class) that surely everyone can find one (or more) he or she likes.

The House Of Staunton is a well known trade mark, but the Chessbazaar is right behind it. Maybe soon we will call it “House Of Chandigarh” or “House Of Mohali”?

Thank you again Chessbazaar for all the emotions your products gave me!

Way to go!

Istvan Szabad (USA)