How well does ebonized chess pieces stand up to frequent play? I know when new, they really do look like ebony pieces (or at least very close).
I’m debating on buying a Boxwood/Rosewood or Boxwood/Ebonized chess set as a tournament set. I love Rosewood, but I love ebony even more.
EDIT: Ok, I was chatting with House of Staunton, and decided to get the rosewood set. The black will definately wear off over time.
I got a boxwood / rosewood set when ebony (REAL EBONY) would have been the same price as the rosewood. This was over 30 years ago. I decided I wanted a bit of wood grain there. Little did I know that I was making the wrong investment choice!
Back then we would have called “ebonized” pieces “painted black” and for sure I would prefer natural wood to painted.
I love to surf House of Staunton website. 
Being a guitar person, rosewood and ebony are the two most common materials used to make guitar fretboards. On a fretboard, I love it when there is ‘marbling’ or light grain in the wood of ebony so you can see the grain in places. This, however, is not looked on favorably in chess pieces. So if you are going to buy ‘ebony’ make sure you go with a reputable company like HOS that doesn’t repaint their ebony because they have marbled ebony with visible grain. A lot of the lower grade companies paint their ebony (might as well buy the painted boxwood!!) to make it solid black and get rid of the grain.
I remember a while back (mid 90’s if I remember), there used to be “zebra” ebony sets available. I always thought “zebra” ebony looked really nice.
I think zebra ebony is different from striped ebony. Stripped ebony is more brownish in color and comes from a specific tree. If I recall, zebra ebony is made from the dark wood adjacent to the lighter wood, and still has some lighter banding in the wood. (technically its considered inferior to pure ebony, but still very nice looking in my opinion).