Best Chess Sets in Australia (2026)

A chess set is one of the few things you can buy for a lounge room that gets used for thirty years and never needs a power point. The trouble is that "chess set" on Amazon AU covers everything from a 24cm magnetic travel board to a 5.5kg walnut cabinet, and the listings rarely give you the number that decides whether it feels right in your hands: king height.

That number matters more than the photos suggest. FIDE, the world chess federation, recommends squares of 5cm to 6cm and a king of about 9.5cm. Most sets sold in Australia sit well under that. They are still lovely to play on, but if you are buying for a club player, a set with a 7.6cm king will feel like a toy the moment they open it.

So we pulled the Amazon Australia chess pool apart on the specifications that change the experience: board width, square size, king height, and whether the pieces are weighted or hollow. Seven sets made the cut.

What is the best chess set in Australia right now?

For anyone who plays chess rather than displays it, the A&A Tournament Chess Set is the answer. It is the only set in this guide whose listed square size (2.25 inches, about 5.7cm) and king height (3.75 inches, about 9.5cm) both sit inside FIDE's recommended range, and the pieces are quadruple weighted so they do not skate around when you bump the table. The board is a silicone roll that flattens without creases and washes clean.

If you want something that looks like a chess set when it is closed and lives on a bookshelf, the A&A 15" Magnetic Wooden Chess Set is the better buy. It is a folding walnut and maple box with 1.6 inch squares, magnetic pieces that hold on a moving car seat, and slots inside so nothing rattles loose.

Spending as little as possible, the Yakiter 3 in 1 Chess Set is the cheapest of our seven picks and squeezes chess, checkers and backgammon into one 24cm folding wooden case with a metal latch. It is a caravan and school holidays set, not a serious board, and it is priced accordingly.

How our seven chess set picks compare

Every set below was in stock on Amazon Australia at the time of writing, with a star rating and review count pulled from the live listing. Tap any name to open it.

How we evaluated these chess sets

• We started from the live Amazon Australia chess pool and kept only listings that are a complete set, dropping boards sold without pieces.
• We read each listing's own measurements: board width, square size, king height, piece material and weighting, and what is in the box.
• We checked the star rating and review count on the day of writing, and required a real review base rather than a handful of ratings.
• We confirmed stock and the Australian price on every pick at the time of writing, and cut anything priced like a reseller listing.

A&A Tournament Chess Set: the best chess set if you actually play

This is the set to buy if the person using it knows what en passant is. It is built to the sizing club players expect: a 51cm (20 inch) board with 2.25 inch squares, and 3.75 inch Staunton kings standing about 9.5cm. Against FIDE's recommendation of 5cm to 6cm squares and a 9.5cm king, it lands squarely inside, which almost nothing else in this price band does.

The quadruple weighting is the part people underestimate. Weight in the base means a piece stays where you put it when someone leans on the table, and it gives a satisfying click on placement instead of a hollow tap. Each piece has a felt pad underneath so they slide cleanly in fast games. There are 34 pieces, including two spare queens, so nobody is turning a rook upside down halfway through a game.

The board is the other clever part. It is silicone rather than vinyl, so it rolls into a bag and lies completely flat again with no crease across the middle, which is the failure point of every cheap roll up board. It wipes clean, the matte finish kills glare under a downlight, and storage is two velvet drawstring bags and a zippered travelling case. Of our seven picks it shares the highest star rating with the VAMSLOVE set at 4.8, backed by more than 2,000 ratings.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The pieces are plastic, not wood, so it photographs like equipment rather than furniture. At 51cm it needs a decent table and is too big for most caravan dinettes. Silicone also picks up dust and pet hair, so it wants a shake out first.

A&A 15" Magnetic Wooden Chess Set: the best all round chess set for a lounge room

If you want one chess set in the house and you are not running a club, buy this one. It is a folding wooden box that opens into a 38cm board with 1.6 inch walnut and maple squares, and closes into something that looks deliberate on a shelf. At more than 3,100 ratings it holds 4.6 stars.

The magnets are why it earns a spot over a plain folding set. All 34 pieces are handmade wood with magnetic bases, tuned so they survive a car boot or a bumpy passenger seat but still lift off without a fight. It means you can leave a game half finished, close the board, and open it later with the position intact.

A&A also addressed the classic folding board complaint. Hinged boards bulge along the centre join over time, leaving a ridge down the playing surface. A small bracket underneath props the board flat, the frame uses mortise and tenon joints, and the pieces sit in cut slots rather than rolling around loose.

The king stands 3 inches, about 7.6cm, under tournament sizing but generous for a 15 inch board and comfortable for adult hands. That is the sensible trade: a smaller king means the board folds to a size that fits a bookshelf. For a casual player, a school age kid, or someone who plays a few games a month on the couch, this is the correct set and the tournament board is overkill.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The squares are 1.6 inches, so a club player used to a full size board will find it cramped. The magnets add a faint drag if you slide rather than lift a piece. And the listing recommends it from 8 years.

Yakiter 3 in 1 Chess Set: the cheapest chess set worth owning

Some sets exist to live in a glovebox or a caravan drawer, and this is the one. The Yakiter folds to a 24cm wooden case with a metal latch and holds chess, checkers and backgammon on the same board. It is the cheapest of our seven picks by a wide margin.

You get 32 chess pieces, 30 backgammon and checker pieces and a pair of dice, all magnetic so a game survives a moving car. The board is solid wood rather than printed card, and it is one of the few small sets that prints file letters and rank numbers around the edge. That sounds like a detail until you watch a beginner follow a chess book on a board with no notation.

It is also the only pick here that plays three games. VAMSLOVE gives you chess and checkers; the rest of this guide is chess alone. For a family holiday where luggage space is the constraint, that is a genuinely different proposition to a better chess set.

Be honest about what it is. At 24cm the board and pieces are small, so it is a travel set rather than one for a serious game at home. It carries the lowest star rating of our seven picks at 4 stars and the smallest review base, normal for a newer budget listing. As a first set for a kid, a stocking filler, or the board that lives in the camper, it is hard to beat.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Small pieces are easy to lose and there are no spare queens. The 4 star rating is the lowest here, and with 64 ratings the picture is less settled than on our higher volume picks. Small magnetic pieces also deserve supervision with young kids.

VAMSLOVE Wooden Chess Checkers Game Set: the best chess set to leave out on display

This is the set you buy when the chess board is also meant to be furniture. It is a 15.5 inch solid wood board, 39cm across and about 6.4cm thick, with two drawers that swallow every piece so it sits closed and clean on a coffee table. It is the dearest of our seven picks and, at 4.8 stars, shares the highest rating with the A&A tournament set.

The drawers are what separate it from a folding box set. With a hinged board you either store the pieces inside and repack every game, or leave them out and lose one under the sofa. Here they slide into drawers underneath, so the board can stay set up permanently with the spares stored below.

The pieces are weighted Staunton in wood with felt bottoms so they do not mark the board, and there are 34 of them including a spare queen for each colour, plus 24 checkers pieces for the second game. King height is 3 inches, about 7.6cm, which suits the 15.5 inch board proportionally. At 5.53kg it is a substantial thing.

It is the pick we would choose as a milestone gift: a housewarming, a retirement, a fiftieth. It reads as an heirloom object rather than a game, and because it doubles as a checkers board it gets used by people who never learned chess. It pairs naturally with the kind of surface we cover in our coffee table guide.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It is heavy and will not travel. The 3 inch king is short for the board size if the recipient is a club player. And with 181 ratings it has the second smallest review base here, so the sample is thinner than the star rating suggests.

The Noble Collection Harry Potter Wizard Chess Set: the best chess set as a gift

Ignore the licence for a second and look at the board: at 18.5 inches square, about 47cm, this is the second widest playing surface here, behind only the tournament roll. It is also comfortably the most reviewed set in the guide, with more than 16,600 ratings behind a 4.7 star average.

It is a replica of the giant board from the first film, scaled to a table, and the pieces run from about 5cm to 10cm depending on rank. Despite the licence it is not a fiddly novelty: kids can pick the pieces up properly and adults are not squinting at a miniature board. The trade is materials. The board is card rather than timber and the pieces are plastic, so it will not still look good in twenty years the way the VAMSLOVE will.

Where it genuinely wins is getting a kid to play chess at all. A themed board is the difference between a set that gets opened once and one that comes out every weekend, and this is the only licensed set among our picks. It is recommended from 4 years, so the pieces can come first and the rules later. For Christmas it is the one we would put on the list, and our Secret Santa guide covers the fillers.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The board is cardboard, so it will not take a drink spill or years of being slid across a table. The pieces are unweighted plastic and feel light after a weighted set. Storage is the original box only.

Agirlgle Retro Metal Chess Set: the best chess set with metal pieces

Metal pieces change the game physically. They are heavier than weighted wood, they sit dead still, and they make a distinct sound on the board. This set puts 32 zinc alloy pieces in bronze and silver on a 38cm folding board, and holds 4.6 stars across 676 ratings.

The storage is smarter than most folding sets. Rather than a felt lined cavity where the pieces tumble around, the board has moulded compartments so each piece sits in its own recess. Nothing shifts when it is closed, which matters when the pieces are metal and heavy enough to chip a painted surface.

Aesthetically it sits between the two extremes in this guide: not a plain timber set, not a licensed novelty. The bronze and silver finish reads as decorative in a way a tournament roll never will, and it suits someone who wants a set that looks like something on a shelf without committing to a 5.5kg cabinet. The listing does not publish king height or square size, so we cannot tell you where it sits against FIDE sizing and we will not guess. On a 38cm board it is in the same class as the wooden folding sets here.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

No published king height or square size, which is frustrating at this price. Metal pieces are cold in winter and loud on a hard board. And there are no spare queens listed.

LuckyWish Walnut Chess Set: the best first wooden chess set

Not everyone needs a cabinet or a tournament roll. This is the plain, correct, inexpensive folding wooden board most households actually want: 15 inches across, 38cm, with a felted interior that stores all 34 pieces inside when it closes.

It sits at 4.6 stars across 531 ratings, a solid base at this price, and the construction is the traditional hinged walnut box. There are 34 pieces, so you get the two spare queens budget sets usually skip, and the interior is felt lined. At about 1.3kg it is light enough to carry between rooms.

What you give up against the A&A magnetic set is the magnets and the anti bulge bracket. Without magnets, a knocked board means resetting the position from memory. On a stable dining table that is a non issue. We would put this in front of anyone buying a wooden chess set for the first time, or for a kid who has outgrown a plastic travel board. If you are building a games shelf rather than just buying chess, our board games guide covers what else earns a spot.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The listing is thin on specifications: no published king height, square size or weighting, so you are buying on the photographs and the review base. There are no magnets, and walnut finish varies between units, so the colour may not match the photo exactly.

Which chess set should you buy?

Match the set to the person and the room rather than to the price and it gets simple.

What should you look for in a chess set?

Three numbers decide almost everything: board width, square size, and king height. Get those in proportion and a cheap set feels good. Get them wrong and an expensive set feels off.

The rule the industry works to comes from FIDE: squares of 5cm to 6cm, a king of about 9.5cm, and each piece's base measuring 40 to 50 per cent of its height. The practical version is simpler. The king's base should be a bit over three quarters of the width of a square, so two pieces can sit on adjacent squares without touching. A king that fills its square looks impressive in a photograph and is annoying to play on.

Here is how our seven picks measure up on the specifications their own listings publish. Where a listing states no figure we left it out rather than estimating.

Weighted or hollow pieces?

Weighted pieces have metal in the base. They cost more, feel like equipment, and stay upright when the table moves. Hollow pieces are lighter, cheaper and tip over. If two sets are a similar price and one says weighted, take the weighted one. Among our picks the A&A tournament set is quadruple weighted, the VAMSLOVE uses weighted wooden Staunton pieces, and the Agirlgle uses solid zinc alloy.

Magnetic, folding, roll up or cabinet?

Magnetic sets are for movement: cars, planes, a game paused mid position and closed for later. Folding wooden boxes are the default household format because they store their own pieces and look tidy shut. Roll up boards are what clubs use, because they pack flat and come in full tournament sizing. Cabinets with drawers are furniture first. Whichever you choose, count the pieces: thirty four means two spare queens for pawn promotion, and anything under 30cm is a travel board whatever the listing calls it.

How do you look after a wooden chess set?

Keep it out of direct sun and away from ducted heating vents. Timber boards are the one thing here that Australian conditions genuinely punish: a hinged walnut board left on a windowsill through a Perth or Brisbane summer will lighten unevenly and the join can move. A shelf out of the light is all it takes.

Dust with a dry microfibre cloth, not a damp one. Timber boards are usually finished rather than sealed, so water sitting in the grain or the hinge line will raise it, and spills want blotting rather than wiping across the squares. The silicone tournament board is the opposite: it is designed to be washed, so warm water and a rinse is fine.

Felt pads under the pieces are the part that wears out, thinning after a few years on the pieces that get moved most. Self adhesive felt dots from a hardware shop fix it in ten minutes. Store pieces in their bags or drawers rather than loose, since loose pieces chip paint on metal sets and round off the finials on wooden knights.

You'll also want

A chess set is complete on its own, but a few additions turn it into a setup someone will use every week.

• A&A Digital Chess Clock Timer is the single upgrade that changes how a household plays. Once games have a clock on them they stop dragging, and it has 38 tournament modes for when someone gets serious.
• LEAP Tournament Chess Bag is sized for a 20 inch roll up board plus pieces and a clock, which is exactly the A&A tournament set with room to spare. For a club or a park, this is the carrier.
• Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess remains the fastest way to take a complete beginner to competent. It is a programmed puzzle book rather than a theory text, so it works for kids and adults.
• How to Win At Chess is the modern companion to it, written for the exact audience buying a first proper set and heavy on diagrams.
• Chess Scorebook with 100 game sheets teaches notation, the skill that unlocks every book and app. Write the game down, replay it afterwards, and improvement stops being random.

The competition

Plenty of good sets did not make the list, and a few popular ones are worth avoiding. Marble sets are everywhere in the Amazon Australia results and photograph beautifully, but they are the wrong buy for most households: heavy, cold, and prone to chipping if a piece hits a tiled floor. If you want a decorative set, the Agirlgle metal set gives similar visual weight and survives being dropped.

The A&A Premium Natural Walnut folding set is good and close to our LuckyWish pick, but it was not consistently available when we checked. The A&A travel set with the 15 inch silicone board is also excellent, but it overlaps almost completely with the tournament board.

Themed pewter and bronze ranges sit well above every pick here on price and are collectibles rather than playing sets: the pieces are hard to tell apart at a glance and too fragile for regular play. Glass sets have the same problem for different reasons, since clear and frosted pieces are difficult to distinguish under indoor light. If the real goal is a games night rather than chess specifically, our card games guide is a better place to start.

Chess set questions Australian buyers ask

What is the best chess set in Australia?

For anyone who plays seriously, the A&A Tournament Chess Set is the best chess set in Australia on our list, because it is the only pick here whose listed square size and king height both sit inside FIDE's recommended range. For a single household set that lives on a shelf and gets used casually, the A&A 15 inch Magnetic Wooden Chess Set is the better buy.

How much does a decent chess set cost in Australia?

A set you would happily play a real game on starts from about $55, and most sets worth owning sit between about $55 and $125. Below about $30 you are buying a travel board rather than a home set. Above about $150 you are usually paying for materials such as marble, or for a licensed design, rather than for better play.

What is the best brand for chess sets?

There is no single dominant chess brand in Australia, but A&A appears twice in our seven picks because it publishes real specifications and builds to tournament sizing. VAMSLOVE is the pick for wooden cabinets with drawers, The Noble Collection for licensed sets, and Agirlgle for metal pieces. Judge the published king height and piece weighting rather than the brand name.

Where can you buy a chess set in Australia?

Amazon Australia carries sets across all of these price points, and every set in this guide was in stock there when we checked. Specialist retailers such as Chess World and Sterling Chess stock higher end tournament and luxury sets, and Games World stores carry a smaller range if you want to handle a set first.

Is a wooden chess set better than a plastic one?

Not automatically. Wooden sets look better and last longer, but a quadruple weighted plastic tournament set feels more like real equipment than a light wooden set with hollow pieces. Weighting and sizing matter more than material. Buy wood if the set will be on display, and weighted plastic if it is going to be played on.

More lounge room and games guides

• Best board games in Australia for the rest of the shelf.
• Best card games in Australia for something four people can join.
• Best coffee tables in Australia if the board lives out in the open.
• Best foosball tables in Australia for a games room.
• Best table tennis tables in Australia for the garage or the back deck.
• Best gifts for men in Australia if you are still deciding on the present.
• Best Secret Santa gifts in Australia for December fillers.

About the author

Anish Puri founded NestPath in 2026 after going through the Australian first-home-buyer process himself. NestPath focuses on Australian first-home buyers because the existing review sites are American, generic, or both. Anish handles editorial selection across the homeowner hub. Reach out: hello@nestpath.com.au