24 November 2013

Carlsen - Anand, Signed Board

It was slim pickings for this edition of Top eBay Chess Items by Price. The only item that was even a little out of the ordinary was titled 'Capablanca & Alekhine Chess World Champion Signed Autograph Stamp 1939'; it sold for US $1499.99, 'Buy It Now'. Since I wasn't certain of its origin ('Historic document autograph. National tournament 1939 with 46 signeds of all chess man who participated in this event'; NB: it was a cover, not a 'stamp'), I decided to look elsewhere.

The Carlsen - Anand World Championship match ended just two days ago, so I followed the same path as my previous post about 'Top eBay Chess Items', Anand - Carlsen Autographs, and looked for Carlsen - Anand items (Carlsen won the match, so he gets top billing from now on). Once again the top item from the last two weeks was an autographed item, pictured below. It was titled 'RARE signed chess set with Vishy Anand and Magnus Carlsens [sic] autographs - mint cond' and sold for US $249.99 on a single bid.

The description said,

This is an unused chess set. Signed by Vishy Anand and Magnus Carlsen on the tournament Arctic Securities Chess Stars Rapid 2010 in Kristiansund - Norway. The chess set has been stored in my closet since then.

It's a pity that the seller misspelled Carlsen's name in the title (or left off the possessive apostrophe). The item didn't appear in my search on 'Carlsen', and this in a period of intense interest in the Norwegian grandmaster. The board could have sold for much more, even though it had nothing to do with the great match. In the coming months I expect to see a flurry of auction items related to the match.

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