Good for a beginner who wants something better than a cheap toy store set. I put a piece of plywood under it to make moving the board with pieces in place easy. Board folds over and pieces can be stored inside. Pieces are made out of the same kind of wood. The black ones are stained to a nice shade of brown. This isn't a real expensive set up but for the money it is a great buy. It only took 5 days to get to So. Calif. from Slovenia, that impressed me.