A Collection of Chess Pins

Remember my post on World Championship Chess Pins? No, I'd almost forgotten about it as well when I received an email from one of the losing bidders on the item. He even sent me attachments to prove that he was a serious collector and that he had bid on the Fischer - Petrosian souvenir.

What to do with that sort of natural enthusiasm on a chess subject? I asked him if he would share some photos of his collection with visitors to this blog. The photos are on the left, much reduced in size.

The top photo is a collection of federation pins, where you can see several FIDE pins to the left of the fourth row. The five similar pins on the top row each represent a different chess piece. The other two photos are of pins from French chess clubs.

My collector correspondent says he has 12 drawers like the three shown, holding more than 450 pins collected to date. He'll be exhibiting his collection in July at the Festival d'Esbarres, a tournament in the Bourgogne region of France.

I get far more mail about my posts on eBay auctions than I get on other topics. I suspect there's a need for an online resource where chess collectors can communicate with each other. Although I'm not a collector myself, I'm always glad to hear from collectors and to relate their stories.