Novelty sets like these are deeply unpleasant for regular chess players, because they interfere with normal pattern recognition. There's a huge difference betwe

Novelty sets like these are deeply unpleasant for regular chess players, because they interfere with normal pattern recognition. There's a huge difference between being able to tell the pieces apart and being able to read the board at a glance. It's like reading a book in bad handwriting instead of clear type - you can decode it with enough effort, but you can't read fluently or scan the text.