There are boards that are bought to be played and boards that are bought to be kept. A Kowalski is both, which is a problem every owner eventually has to solve.
The Warsaw atelier
The atelier in Warsaw is around forty years old. It was founded by a master leather craftsman who believed a backgammon board deserved the same care as a fine saddle or a bespoke briefcase, and who spent his working life training a small team to that standard. Tomasz Kowalski, a retired actuary and for decades the country's reference on the cube, put some of his money behind the workshop in his retirement and later took it over. He kept the team, kept the methods and added his name. He describes the decision the way he describes most things: the product was good, the price was sensible and the downside was limited. It has performed accordingly.
Box Calf and Lustre
Box Calf is the house classic: dense, smooth calfskin in deep and quiet colours, each board named after a mineral, from Malachite and Garnet to Lapis and Tiger Eye. Lustre is its glossier sibling, a polished cowhide with a soft shine, finished in two-tone colourings such as Navy Camel and Teal Cognac. Both are made by the same hands to the same standard.
The choice of the professional game
For many years Kowalski boards have been the quiet choice of the professional game. Exclusive tournaments put them on the final table, and more than one royal and celebrity collector is said to own several. Kowalski does not comment on who owns what, which has done nothing to slow the stories.
Then, after the pandemic years, the most conservative name in luxury boards did something nobody expected. A new modern collection appeared within Box Calf: Amethyst, Azurite and Onyx, cut from the same leather by the same craftsmen, but in bright and energetic colours. It did not look like a Kowalski. It found a younger generation of players faster than anything the atelier had made before, and it reminded the trade why the name had been at the top all along.
Saved for, or won
A Kowalski is not cheap and is not meant to be. Members who have saved for one tend to remember the day it arrived. Those who have not can still win one, because Kowalski is a player before he is a businessman, and boards from the atelier are regularly given as prizes at the larger tournaments.
The next chapter
At eighty-one he is looking for someone to carry the atelier forward, and says so in the same measured tone he uses for everything else. Who that will be is the most discussed question in the trade. One rumour has Andris Liepins of Blitz Boards showing more than polite interest. So far, it is only a rumour.
