Sunday, January 28, 2018

Remembering Drueke Company Chess Sets

Today I was thinking about how I learned chess by using a compact peg set from the Drueke Company (pronounced droo-key).  Here is a photo of my set.  I bought it in a Piggly Wiggly store on Canal Street in New Orleans.  What a surprise to find a nice chess set in a grocery store, but then Mr. Drueke was a salesman.
The chess set has a lid with a hinge and latch.  There are groves deep enough to store the captured pieces.  The set is 6" x 4.5" x 1.5".  The 6" dimension is the distance between the two players.  The 1.5" dimension is with the set closed.  I used my peg set mostly to study chess in conjunction with chess books.  Here is a photo of a Drueke peg set off the internet.
I also use a magnetic set to study chess because the pieces are bigger, yet the set is still small enough to use for study.  Here is a photo of the magnetic set:


You can still buy this fine magnetic set!
https://www.chesshouse.com/products/8-drueke-gift-magnetic-chess-set



Finally, I will mention the "Player's Choice" tournament chess set.  It is plastic, but very handsome and heavily weighted.  It is a pleasure to play with the "Player's Choice".  Here is a photo from the internet:

I found a nice video describing Drueke chess sets at this website:
http://blog.chesshouse.com/drueke-chess-games/
Here is a PDF of a very nice 12 page long history of the Drueke Company:
http://www.peterspioneers.com/druekepohlarticle.pdf

Drueke was a positive influence in my life.

Robert

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