* VURNIK * maple & walnut chess set designed by Janez Suhadolc

Janez Suhadolc is a full time professor on the Arhitectural university . He is also known as a designer and manufacturer of unique furniture products, especially chairs, of which 3 creations were made for Pope Woytila. During his work he made this statement :» If I am a Slovene, it makes sense to design and express myself artistically in a Slovene way.« With several published books (Arhitectural freehand drawing, Chairs I, II, III) he has received several importat rewards for unique designs.

In addition to that, Janez Suhadolc is also a passionate chess lover. He has inharited the love to the royal game from his father, who worked with the famous Slovene architect, Jože Plečnik, for a long time and has designed one of the first slovenian chess sets. Who can be more appropriate for designing unique, but still very playable and useful set, than a designer and a chess player? In honour of important architects he looked up to, the decision to name his set by their names was made.

The Vurnik chess set design was inspired by one of many works of Ivan Vurnik, who was an architect, namely the Sokol house (picture above), created in 1925. This building was designed under strong influence of Slavic art tradition, while the set also has some details that remind of famous Russian »babuško«. Ivan Vurnik (1884-1971), was a co-founder of the arhitectural university studies (along with J. Plečnik), and has proven himself in many different architectural objects home and abroad (Trieste).

Official presentation was held in ARS Gallery on 11.06.2010. Opening round was played by former school minister, now EU congresmen, dr. Zver and GM Pavasovič, the Slovenian national champion on several occasions (more pictures in gallery).

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- natural combinaton - high quality maple & walnut
- king's height 100 mm, base diameter 44 mm
- hand turned and finished pieces(gallery)
- detailed hand carved knights
- weighted pieces
- felt cushioned
- several layers of special coat and final polishing
- housed in a box
- every set comes with certificate of authenticity, which is made to recipient