Dubrovnik - Bobby Fischer's favorite chessmen
More than 75 years have passed since the famous Chess Olympiad in Dubrovnik in 1950, yet the event is still spoken of as if it happened yesterday. It was on this occasion that a new chess piece design was born, one that has survived to this day under the name "Dubrovnik".
If you wish to learn more about the Dubrovnik Olympiad in detail, we invite you to visit our website dedicated entirely to this event, www.dubrovnikchessmen.com. A brief overview follows below.
Political tensions, world-class players, the fierce summer heat, surprising moments over the board and above all — the iconic chess pieces named after the city where it all took place, declared the finest pieces of all time by none other than Bobby Fischer himself — are the reasons why the name Dubrovnik has been written into chess history forever.
In 1950, Dubrovnik hosted the 9th Chess Olympiad, bringing together teams from 16 countries. After 480 games of intense competition, first place went to the Yugoslav team (Gligorić, Vidmar Jr., Rabar, Puc, Trifunović, Pirc).
A special arts commission was established in Belgrade for this purpose, and after careful deliberation it selected the design proposed by academic painter and sculptor P. Poček, himself a passionate devotee of the royal game. But this was only the beginning of the Dubrovnik saga. The first series, known as Dubrovnik 1950, was produced exclusively for the Olympiad in a run of just 50 sets, most of which were later distributed among the players. Several variations followed. Among the finest are the designs known as Dubrovnik II (by Andrija Maurović), Minčeta (inspired by the famous tower of the Dubrovnik city walls) and the so-called Fischer set (featured in a celebrated series of photographs of Bobby Fischer).
Petar Poček, author of the most famous chess pieces
Woodturning and carving were widespread crafts across Yugoslavia at the time, and no precise records exist identifying the masters behind these sets and their other, lesser-known variations. However, Zagreb craftsman Vjekoslav Jaković certainly stands out as one of the finest, with numerous Dubrovnik-design chess sets produced in his workshop.
Our own workshop first encountered the Dubrovnik pieces back in 1998, but it took a good ten years before we completed our first set, based on plans from the Zagreb publisher Šahovska naklada (Dubrovnik II). Some years later, we were given the chance to examine original Olympiad pieces, which served as the basis for our Dubrovnik 1950 set. A few years after that, we added the Minčeta design to the Dubrovnik series, produced entirely from photographs of the pieces circulating online.
But times change, and so does technology.
Custom-made metal badge bearing the text "IX. šah olimpijada 1950 Dubrovnik – Jugoslavia". The badge was inserted into original maple and walnut chessboards with 60 mm squares.
OFFICIAL SERIES
Between 2008 and 2022, we relied on traditional hand-crafting methods to replicate these historic designs: metal gauges, scissors, cardboard templates, and freehand tracing from photographs. The arrival of precise 3D scanning technology changed everything. This is the approach we used in 2025–2026 to produce the sets we have officially named Dubrovnik Official.
Yet even as accurate scanning became fairly accessible, borrowing original mid-twentieth-century sets proved a difficult task. Our sincere thanks go to everyone who entrusted us with their precious pieces for scanning in Ljubljana, those who arranged professional scans in their own regions, and the owners who sent detailed photos of their sets. After all, who could easily part with pieces so eagerly sought by chess collectors around the world?
LEGACY SERIES
By introducing this new Official line alongside our existing sets, we are expanding our collection to give enthusiasts even greater choice, bridging traditional artisan craftsmanship with the highest level of digital precision.
This does not mean, of course, that we are abandoning our original versions of the 1950 and Minčeta sets. On the contrary: because these sets are a core part of the history of the Noj brand and deeply connected to our family workshop, we decided to group them under the name Legacy. Just like the chess pieces made decades ago in the workshop of master Jakopović in Zagreb, our sets have been warmly welcomed by clients all over the world, and we will gladly continue to make them in the future.
Whether you choose a set from the Official or the Legacy collection, rest assured that it will be crafted with great care and attention by the Novak family in our workshop in the heart of the Ljubljana Marshes.
Our chess sets are available in the following combinations: maple, walnut, red-stained and brown-stained maple.
Every white king has the Noj workshop logo printed on its felt pad.
Each set comes with a numbered certificate issued in the owner's name.
The chess pieces are packed in a black box bearing the Noj workshop logo.