Skyline Chess London vs New York Special Edition Chess Set

Chess is already a game in which two people can sit quietly while conducting a low-level diplomatic incident across a table. Skyline Chess has at least had the decency to make the diplomatic incident explicit with the London vs New York Special Edition. There are easier ways to choose a chess set, naturally. They are also rather less likely to provoke a conversation before anyone has even sacrificed a bishop.

We think this is a pleasingly specific addition for the person whose idea of a sensible home object includes a board game with a geographical thesis. The product’s identity is clear: London versus New York, presented as a special edition rather than a generic set that could have wandered in from any waiting room. That makes it more of a deliberate object, and less of an emergency present purchased by somebody who has just remembered that their brother “likes chess”.

The validated UK listing also specifies a folding playing board. This matters because a chess set that must occupy a permanent patch of table can turn a flat into a museum exhibit remarkably quickly. A folding board gives the set a clearer place in ordinary life: out for a game, then away again before dinner, paperwork, or the usual accumulation of chargers and unopened post takes over.

There is a trade-off, as there usually is with a themed special edition. The London-versus-New York idea is not background decoration; it is the reason to choose this version. Our verdict is therefore uncomplicated: pick it for the city-facing premise and the folding-board practicality, not because you merely require something on which to play chess.