Made in Poland: Why Our Chess Sets Are Crafted Here
When you see “Made in Poland” on a ChessboArt wall-mounted chess board or table, it’s not a neutral label. It’s a shortcut to a whole story: centuries of chess culture, a country built on woodworking and furniture, and a family workshop where old hand tools meet modern engineering.
This article is our long answer to a simple question:
Why are our Polish chess sets made in Poland – and why does that matter?
If you are looking specifically for Polish chess sets – handmade, wooden and designed as real interior pieces rather than mass production – ChessboArt is exactly that: Polish-made chess boards and wall-mounted sets crafted in our own family workshop.
1. Chess in Poland: From Medieval Sandomierz to Newspaper Columns
Chess has been part of Polish culture for much longer than most people realise. One of the oldest and most important traces is the famous Sandomierz chess set – a nearly complete medieval set discovered in 1962 during archaeological excavations on Świętojakubskie Hill in Sandomierz. The pieces, dated to around the 12th–13th century and carved from animal bone or antler, belong to the oldest surviving chess sets in Europe.
This is not an isolated curiosity. Over the last decades, Polish archaeologists have documented numerous medieval chess finds and even dedicated full conference volumes to the cultural role of chess in medieval and early modern times, with Sandomierz as one of the key case studies. In other words: chess has been here for at least 900 years.
Fast-forward to the 20th century. In communist-era Poland, like in much of the Eastern Bloc, chess became part of everyday life. It was cheap, intellectually prestigious, and strongly associated with the Soviet sports system. Polish newspapers regularly ran chess columns and “chess corners”, where readers could follow games, solve problems and learn from masters. Some of these columns ran for years in regional press, building a quiet but powerful culture of home analysis, club play and tournament ambition.
For many of us who grew up in that time, the experience was similar: a modest flat, a small wooden chess set, a diagram in the newspaper, and a sense that this was not “just a game” but a serious, respected intellectual pursuit.
2. Amber, Royal Gifts and Polish Chess Sets in Museums
If medieval Sandomierz shows the age of Polish chess culture, the Baltic coast shows its splendour.
Poland has been connected to amber for millennia. The ancient Amber Road ran from the Baltic Sea down to the Mediterranean, and amber craft has been documented in this region since antiquity. By the 16th and 17th centuries, the city of Gdańsk (then Danzig) had become one of Europe’s most famous centres of amber artistry, producing cabinets, reliquaries, small sculptures – and chess sets.
One of the most extraordinary examples is an amber chess set attributed to the Gdańsk master Michael Redlin, crafted around 1690. Only a handful of such sets are known in the world; one of them returned to Gdańsk after more than 300 years and is now a highlight of the city’s amber collections. Each piece is carved like a miniature baroque sculpture, proof that chess was not just a pastime but a canvas for the finest artisans.
Amber chess sets and objects also appear in other Polish collections and exhibitions, from Gdańsk to Kraków, where amber shops and galleries still present amber boats, boxes and chess sets as part of a living tradition.
Put simply: Poland has been turning materials into chess art for centuries – from bone and antler in medieval Sandomierz, through baroque amber masterpieces, to today’s handcrafted wooden boards and luxury chess boards made in Poland.
3. A Country Built on Wood: Poland as a Furniture & Woodworking Powerhouse
If you ask a designer or manufacturer in Western Europe where the best wooden furniture in the EU comes from, you will very often hear one answer: Poland.
Modern data backs this up. Poland is now:
- one of the world’s top furniture exporters,
- the largest furniture exporter in the European Union,
- and one of the biggest furniture exporters globally.
Furniture is not a small niche in the Polish economy. It creates a noticeable share of national GDP – a higher proportion than in most other EU furniture-producing countries. More than 80% of production is exported, meaning that Polish woodwork quietly enters homes, hotels and offices all over the world.
Global brands rely on this expertise. In the case of IKEA, a very large share of IKEA Industry production takes place in Poland, and a significant portion of the company’s global assortment comes from Polish suppliers. Behind these numbers stands something very simple: a country that thinks in wood. From small family workshops to cutting-edge factories, woodworking is one of Poland’s strongest industrial traditions.
So when we say that ChessboArt chess sets are made in Poland, we are not talking about an anonymous “Eastern European” origin. We are talking about a country that has spent decades building a reputation for high-quality wooden furniture and craft.
4. From Engineer to Atelier: The Fudalej Family Story
All of this – chess culture, amber artistry, furniture mastery – is the backdrop. But ChessboArt itself starts somewhere much more personal: in a workshop, in a family, and in a small discovery in an old shed.
FM Michał Fudalej is not a typical “brand founder”. He is a:
- FIDE Master with decades of tournament experience,
- automation engineer by education,
- long-time chess fanatic and problem solver,
- and — long before ChessboArt — a kid who won prizes for drawing and visual creativity.
At some point, the worlds of engineering, art and chess collided. Michał set himself a simple but ambitious goal:
to build the most beautiful, functional wall-mounted chess boards in the world.
To do that, he had to truly learn wood – not as a CAD model, but as a living material. And this is where the story becomes almost cinematic.
Old Tools in a Polish Shed
In an old family shed, Michał and his father Marian Fudalej found something unexpected: a small treasure of wooden hand tools belonging to Michał’s great-grandfather – hand saws, a manual drill, and wooden hand planes that had shaped wood decades earlier.
Only then did the full picture emerge: Marian’s own familiarity with wood was not an isolated talent – it was part of a longer family tradition. Three generations of Fudalej men had, in different ways, worked with wood.
The result was a natural partnership:
- Marian, bringing classical woodworking instincts – how to read grain, how to glue, how to avoid warping.
- Michał, bringing modern engineering and design – automation, precision, magnet systems, wall mounting, and interior-design thinking.
Old hand tools from the shed became a symbol: ChessboArt would not be mass production. It would be craft, supported by technology.
Today, ChessboArt is still essentially a two-person atelier: Michał, the founder and designer, and Marian, the master of wood and detail. Modern machines help with repeatable technical work and engraving – but the final touch, selection and finishing are always done by hand.
5. How We Build Chess Sets in Poland Today
Poland today is a modern EU economy with strict environmental and labour regulations. That matters for chess boards more than most people think.
Working from Poland means:
- Certified wood only – traceable, legal and responsibly sourced.
- European safety and labour standards – people are not “cheap labour”; their skills are valued.
- Access to top-class woodworking suppliers – from glues and finishes to hardware and CNC services, developed for Europe’s leading furniture exporters.
Inside the ChessboArt workshop, this translates into a deliberate hybrid:
- Automation where precision and repeatability matter: cutting, milling, drilling magnet pockets, engraving, ensuring that magnet arrays sit exactly where they should.
- Handwork where value and character are created: wood selection, matching grain patterns, gluing, sanding, edge softening, oiling and final inspection.
Whether a board is cut with a hand saw or a modern blade no longer changes the physics of the game. What matters is how the wood is chosen, joined and finished – and that still relies on human eyes and hands.
At ChessboArt, most of the time in each project is still spent on non-automated work. That is why each board and each set has its own subtle uniqueness – and why we are proud to sign and number many of our pieces as handmade chess sets from Poland.
If you want to see how this looks in practice, explore our collection of vertical & wall-mounted Polish-made chess boards, designed as both game equipment and interior design objects.
6. Why Choose a Polish-Made Chess Board from ChessboArt?
If you want more than a generic “chess set from the internet”, here is what you actually get with a Polish-made chess board from our workshop:
- Authentic Polish chess heritage – designed by a FIDE Master who grew up in the same chess culture he now builds for.
- Real wood, not veneer gimmicks – solid, certified European timber, selected and matched in our own atelier.
- Hand-finished in a family workshop – most of the work is still done by Michał and Marian Fudalej themselves.
- Wall-mounted and vertical options – unique functional art that turns your game into part of your interior.
- Limited, small-scale production – no factory lines; each Polish chess set feels like a one-of-a-kind piece.
That is why customers who choose our luxury chess boards made in Poland often describe them not just as equipment, but as heirloom objects and special gifts.
For a complete furniture perspective, you can also look at our handmade chess tables and tabletops from Poland, which extend the same philosophy into full-sized functional furniture.
7. From Workshops to Galleries: Polish Chess Sets in the World
Polish chess craftsmanship does not live only in private homes. You can find Polish chess boards and sets in museums, galleries and major chess events, from medieval Sandomierz to baroque amber sets in Gdańsk.
ChessboArt continues this tradition in a contemporary way. Our vertical boards have already travelled across Europe and the Americas and have been shown in carefully curated, prestigious contexts – from national galleries to elite tournaments – always as a blend of functional chess equipment and wall-mounted art.
For us, this is not a marketing gimmick. It is a natural consequence of treating chess sets as objects of design and culture, not just equipment.
8. Why “Made in Poland” on a Chess Set Truly Matters
“Made in Poland” can mean different things in different industries. In the case of wooden chess sets, we believe it should mean something very specific:
- Centuries of chess history – from medieval bone pieces and amber masterpieces to modern elite tournaments.
- A living woodworking tradition – one of the strongest furniture and woodcraft industries in Europe.
- Family workshops – where knowledge is passed down quietly, tool by tool.
- A blend of old and new – great-grandfather’s hand plane next to a CNC spindle.
- Human-scale production – not an anonymous factory, but real people signing their work.
At ChessboArt, we chose Poland not by accident, but by identity. We make chess sets here because this is where our family is, where our tools are, where our wood comes from, and where the cultural weight of chess still feels very real.
When you hang one of our vertical boards on your wall or run your fingers along the edge of a wooden table we designed, you are not just buying an object. You are connecting to:
- medieval craftsmen from Sandomierz,
- amber masters from Gdańsk,
- generations of Polish furniture makers,
- and a small workshop where Michał and Marian still argue over which plank has the better grain.
That’s what “Made in Poland” means to us.
9. Want to See How This Story Looks on the Wall?
If you’d like to see how this heritage translates into real pieces, start here:
- The Complete Guide to Vertical Chess Boards: Choose Your Ideal Model
- ChessboArt Story – From Engineer to Atelier
And if you ever hang a ChessboArt board next to a piece of Polish art, an heirloom table or a family photo, you will be doing exactly what we hoped for: making chess part of your own story.