Chess Board Storage/Maintenance

Hi Folks, 

I will be picking up a new FULL solid wood chess board soon - Walnut and Maple with natural finish.  I plan to keep this board out on display in a spare bedroom/game room with a little be of direct sunlight in the room but not on the table/chess board.

Questions:

1. Do I need to maintain the board in any way shape or fashion?  Wood oil (light), Furniture polish or butcher's wax?

2. Should I keep it covered?

I'm leaning against #1 because I don't want to ruin the surface of board but am worried about maintaining the condition since it's not sealed...  Your thoughts/advice?

You need to keep the room properly/consistently humidified, keep both sides of the board equally exposed to the properly humidified air, and you should really eliminate exposure to any sunlight (or artificial light containing UV, for that matter), even if the light is indirect; other than that, probably just a light dusting from time to time with a 100% cotton cloth. When you say "natural finish", I'm not quite sure what you mean, but you mention the wood is not sealed which means you probably need to be twice as vigilant about all the above; it's also possible you may need to maintain/treat the wood with something if it's not sealed, but I have no knowledge about wood treatment.

Hi MGT88 - Thanks for the advice, greatly appreciate it.  I am assuming that you don't leave your chess board out for display when not playing?  I like keeping the set out as a beautiful art piece and invites my guests to join in a casual round or two of chess when stopping by.  If it's stored away, then the opportunity doesn't seem to present itself...?  I guess I may be the only that thinks this way...  

Another issue you may get if you leave it out with the pieces on it is that in time there board will be lighter where the pieces have been blocking the UV rays and air from getting to the board. For an example of this, see: https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/how-can-i-fix-theses-white-spots

I keep my sets/boards in my home office, which I temperature/humidity control (it sounds more difficult than it really is); I store my boards vertically (just leaned up against a wall with a spacer). Personally, I wouldn't trust anyone to handle my equipment (it's just too expensive), and the common areas of my home are just too unstable (e.g., living room connected to kitchen area, etc.).

One idea would be to store your board in a stable location and take it out into your common area when you expect guests, however, I assume this is probably a bit too tedious for your liking. It really comes down to how expensive the board is and how OCD you will be about it's condition (e.g., would slight warping or discoloration bother you?); I am an extreme perfectionist and even the slightest warp in a board bothers me.

Here are some posts I wrote about piece/board care:

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/humidity-research-and-questions

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/heating-season-humidifier-hygrometer-recommendation

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/psa-store-your-chessboards-vertically

yep

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Thank you VERY much to MGT88 and to IpswichMatt, that UV discoloration is certainly something I was ***NOT*** aware of...   

No problem; sunlight is the real danger but artificial light containing UV (e.g, incandescent bulbs) can also have some effect (this is why they use LEDs in art museums); I purchased some LEDs for my home office (they last longer anyways).

MGT88 - Reading through your posts now and its FASCINATING information, thank you very VERY much exactly what I was looking for...!!!  

No problem at all; I've had a board warp on me (one of my first ones) and it's definitely no fun; if you have any questions feel free to post or inbox me

Now if you said that you had cherry in your board. I would highly suggest putting it in direct sunlight. It aides the darkening process of cherry. Oxygen and Sunlight or UV light it great for cherry. 

I kind of like walnut/maple boards where the light exposure faded/lightened the dark squares and made the light squares more yellow-ish. You can see the effect when you google on vintage walnut maple boards. 

At least, I always assumed that it was because of aging and light exposure.  

Because of this I would never leave the pieces on for display. I think marble boards are better for that. 

If I had only known this in the past I would have been more careful with my board.   Thankfully I discovered this issue early on and it's barely noticeable.   I **NOW*** know to take all pieces off when not playing just to avoid this fading issue.