Chess Boards
If you exclude travel chess sets or compendiums with built in boards then you are going to need a board for your chess men. Under five pounds will get you a folding board made of card suitable for sets with Kings between three and four inches in height. Ten to fifteen pounds will get you a basic wooden board in twelve or fifteen inch size with a lithographed playing surface resembling a wooden board and suitable for kings between two and a half and three and a half inches. Laminated tutorial boards around eighteen inches square with the added bonus of a Nine Mens Morris (or Mill) layout on the reverse will set you back about seventeen pounds.
But our main range is the superb product range of chess boards from Marigo of Spain all of which feature inlaid hardwood veneers for the dark squares with a contrasting sycamore veneer for the white squares. Sizes are fourteen inches square up by two inch steps to twenty four inches square and in five different colour ways. Thus, cross-cut rosewood and sycamore, natural walnut and sycamore, natural mahogany and sycamore, wengue and sycamore and, for the traditionalist, jet black dyed walnut and sycamore. Rosewood and boxwood playing pieces generally look good on a natural walnut board; black and white boxwood pieces on a wengue board; vivid red and white pieces on a jet black walnut board, hand painted chess men best displayed on a plain walnut board.
To decide whether your chess set will fit the board, not look too crowded or not look too lost and insignificant, a good rule of thumb is to measure the diameter of the base of the King – the largest piece. It should be no larger than eight tenths of the size of the square. Don’t forget to check if your board will fit your furniture without overhanging; most furniture such as sideboards, work tops, coffee tables are designed around a two foot (610mm) unit. Check where you will put your chess set and board before you buy. |
|
|
|
|
