Foreign Service Life – Hunting the Elusive Finnish Chess Set

Visit the home of any diplomat who has had more than a few years in his or her career, and you will see something of a museum reflecting the course of that career.  It may be masks from West Africa, painted scroll hangings from China, matryoshka nesting dolls from Russia and so on, sometimes organized in separate rooms (if the home is big enough) and sometimes all mixed together.  And in my case, you will see chess sets.  My father and his youngest brother taught me to play chess when I was very small.  My mother gave me my first chess set (standard Staunton-design plastic pieces on a cardboard chess board) when I was about twelve years old.  And a few years later I was given a green-and-white onyx chess set from Mexico.  I bought a few interesting chess sets from other countries during my college years.  And then I joined the U.S. Foreign Service, so I have been able to expand my collection, adding locally made chess sets from different countries on several continents.

When I arrived in Finland two years ago I had already accumulated 34 chess sets after 20 years as a diplomat, from countries such as Germany, Denmark, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Peru, Tanzania, Kenya, Armenia, Croatia, Poland, France, etc.  The materials of the pieces and boards are plastic, wood, stone, metal, plaster, porcelain, glass and leather.  Some I bought myself, but, since people know that I collect chess sets, others were given to me for birthdays or Christmas.  I received three more Russian chess sets and one from Ecuador as presents while here, and bought a chess set made in Sweden that I found in a book store in Espoo.

In a number of countries where I have lived or visited, I have found a selection of chess sets to choose from in the tourist market or in tourist shops.  But search as I might, I couldn’t find a chess set made in Finland.  Not in the Kauppatori, not in Stockmann, not in any of the tourist shops I looked in.  I can think of several possibilities for a Finnish chess set – carved from different colors of Finnish granite or other stones, carved from birch wood, carved from reindeer antler, or based on Finnish themes such as characters from the Kalevala or wild animal figures representing Finnish nature.  I did find one company on-line that sold stone chess boards, and another site (that I could never find again) with a wooden set, varying a little on the standard Staunton design, created by a Finnish chess master.  But still, I couldn’t find a set to look at in Helsinki or the other cities that I visited in Finland.

Moomin chess set

But now I have two Finnish chess sets!  A small Finnish design company put out a fancy (and expensive) set a month or so ago, and I was able to find one in Helsinki.  I also took matters into my own hands.  I went to the Moomin Shop, bought 32 figures, and glued their feet to a set of white and dark-brown checkers (which I already had) to make up the two sides.  You can see the results in the pictures, with the pieces arranged on the original chess board that my mom gave me all those years ago.  My Finnish colleagues tell me that the set is so cute, it’s a great idea, and that I should patent it – which I obviously can’t, since I used Moomin figures.   Maybe some Finnish company or craftsman can take this as an inspiration – although I suppose not many visitors to Finland will have the same hobby of collecting chess sets that I have.

Moomin chess set - A closer look