It seems very likely that the market cap for high-end wooden sets is not large enough for automation. It makes sense that for this particular niche, they'd be h

It seems very likely that the market cap for high-end wooden sets is not large enough for automation. It makes sense that for this particular niche, they'd be hand made. To fill in some other bits: The pieces need to be rather precisely formed, because the players' pattern matching can be greatly bothered by anomalies in their shapes. I can only speak of the lower ranks of competitive chess, but you'd generally get tons of practice with good quality plastic sets, which are extremely uniform. If you are not used to playing on a variety of different types of sets, the quality of your play could easily be impacted. I recall looking for a new set many years ago with my brother, and having reviewed dozens of hand made sets with a variety of irritating issues, we ended up specifically hunting for a set that wasn't hand made, for this very reason. Another good question is why they need to be made out of wood for high-end competitions. I am guessing it's just a fashion / elitist statement.