Larry Jaques wrote...

Heck, it wouldn't take much of your spare time, not more than
two or three hundred hours. Maybe less if you used a Foredom
Dremel, or HFT rotary tool for the fine details.

A chess set was my very first turning project, so I had no experience or
skill starting out, but I did keep track of how long it took to do the
job.

The pawns averaged about 20 minutes each; a bishop or rook needed 30
minutes. The kings took about an hour; the queens slightly less. The
walnut knights took two hours apiece; the maple ones took around two and
a half to three hours.

These times included sawing the lathe blank from the lumber, turning,
sanding, and applying one coat of oil, but not boring the base, pouring
the lead ballast, felting the bottom, or applying the second (final) coat
of finish. Oh, the times do include that lost on the half-dozen or so
that I ruined with dig-ins and various other goofs.

I did not carve much detail, really, but that was a design choice. I
suppose it would have taken perhaps another twenty or thirty minutes on
each of the knights, and something less on the queens and rooks to bring
the level of detail reasonably close to what is common for wood Staunton
sets. I think it would be quite difficult to get it to what is common for
the plastic sets; the material just isn't as suitable for such fine
detail.

So, something in the range of 25 to 30 hours to get the basic pieces out,
plus another five or six hours for weight, felt and final finish.

Jim
http://www.paragoncode.com/woodworking/chess_set