Bridges Across Borders: The Balkan and Socialist Legacy (1950–1991) ♟️

This collection of portable chess sets represents a unique intersection of Balkan, Slavic, Soviet, and Turkish cultures. Rather than reflecting a single political bloc, these pieces illustrate a diverse intellectual landscape where distinct designs flourished from the Non-Aligned regions of Yugoslavia to the heart of the Soviet Union. For Tamer Karatekin, the 2000 National Chess Champion of Turkey and FIDE Master, these sets serve as a personal map of his developmental journey and professional milestones.

• The Bulgarian Magnetic Set: A Balkan design where Tamer first learned the game from his father. It features non-religious symbols, a common characteristic of sets intended for broad regional use.
• The Soviet Plastic Set in foldable wooden box: A classic, durable design that served as the battlefield for countless games between Tamer and his grandfather at their summer house near Silivri, Istanbul.
• Soviet Baku Design Magnetic Travel Set: A Soviet-era study tool Tamer utilized to analyze master games and refine his own strategies.
• The Subotica Design Set (Macedonia, Yugoslavia): The iconic Yugoslavian set Tamer used to study chess in his family home in Istanbul’s Old Town. Tamer practiced many games with his grandfather, Mücahit Korça, learning the intricacies of the game through these very pieces. Korça was a lifelong physics & language educator and pioneering scholar who authored one of the first Yugoslavian-Turkish and Albanian-Turkish dictionaries in the Balkans.
• The Varna 1962 / “Gambit” Set: Originally inspired by the 1962 Varna Olympiad and brought to Turkey by Turkish immigrants from Bulgaria, this specific style was the official set of the 2000 Turkish Chess Championship, where Tamer was crowned National Champion. The same design set can be seen in Tamer’s photo background as a photo of him playing chess at a much younger age. Most remarkably, it was the exact design used in Tamer’s 1997 exhibition match encounters that ended in draws with legends Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov.