Types of chess sets, sizes, among other things are clearly specified in the rule book. I did play against someone that prefered his plastic chess set over my wooden set, but it was triple weighted and very hard to tip pieces over in a time scramble. (And I have to admit, triple weighted chess pieces do have a nice heft to them.)
In any event, I’m extra easy going, since I just play occasionally at chess clubs and haven’t played rated games in many years. 
It’s better than equipment made out of live animals.
Such as an exhibition game using live person-type animals for the pieces?
Now that I’ve done several times, with prescripted games at Renaissance Faires.
In these Renaissance Fairs, people recreate the Renaissance era, true?
I am sure they used animal products in their lives, like leather, horns, etc.
How do you deal with that? Surely you don’t use synthetic materials. And the hog that is roasted, do you have a tofu hog?
Just because other people are eating meat, it doesn’t mean I join them. I’m a vegetarian whether I’m at Ren Faire or not.
I was a vegan for a little under a year, then an ovolacto vegetarian for over 4 years. Currently I do eat fish and poultry and definitely abstain from pork. So I certainly empathize with you.
What I came to was that cow skin is and will continue to be available in its tanned form called leather, whether I eat meat or not. Leather is a very nice product with suppleness and also has strength and staying power. The current vinyl boards do not come to the level of quality of product of the leather roll-up boards the House of Aragon produces. The leather is dyed and the boards lie flat and perform well in chess playing conditions. While I usually use wooden boards, there are times where roll-up boards are preferable.
I was jibing you as well, but I am sure that most all period costumes and such in the Ren Fairs use leather. There is one held annually in the Peoria area and I certainly recall leather being used often there.
Yes, I’m aware that leather’s everywhere, especially at Ren Faires. I even have some myself, from before going veg, that I haven’t managed to replace. I was mostly exaggerating my response to the leather board, though I really do think that I wouldn’t want to play on one, nor would I buy such a thing. I see nothing wrong with most of the vinyl roll up boards on the market. But I’m also not that hung up on equipment quality - I’ll play with just about any set and board, and my own set is a cheap vinyl board with plastic pieces.