Direction of grain on boards

Is there a direction of the grain, horizontal or vertical, that is considered “correct” for the wood on a chess board? I feel like I’ve seen it both ways, so I was curious. 

I actually care about this, but not in a dogmatic way.  I prefer a vertical orientation of the grains, but I have a lovely HOS maple-mahogany veneer board with horizontal grains, and I like that board a lot, too.

I prefer bords with a wood type where the grain isn't overly linearly striped, but rather more spotted or more whirly shapes. A strongly striped grain tends to annoy me, regardless of whether it's vertical or horisontal.

I have seen it both ways, the old school of the 60's I would say is Drueke made the board run horizontal.  Most I have seen , in the so called "modern" day have it running vertical. I must say I also have seen a couple boards use both vertical and horizontal alternating on the same board. I do not think I would want that but I have seen it, not too common.  Have two boards right in front of me, one vertical and or horizontal. Both made in the past 5 - 10 years. 

I should add the couple boards I have seen in combination were probably made by a woodworker who did not know the game but could make a good looking board.

Horizontal is my preference, vertical is fine.  I saw a diagonal cross grain once, and I thought I went cross-eyed.

Not diagonal I saw but alternating.  I think it was on Etsy where many woodworkers are not chess players.

I've seen this, but I think more from looking at a board for too long. A sort of optical illusion.

Interesting topic.

I have a board with the grain on the light squares running horizontal and the dark squares running vertical.  Looks perfectly fine to me.

More important than the direction of the grain, I think, is the character of the grain -- is it pleasant to look at?  Obviously, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

It can depend on the chessmen as well.  Just like shade or color contrast, you don't want the chessmen to look like they are wearing camouflage (wearing the same grain as the squares).

I think the less pronounced the grain is, the less of an issue grain will be.  When you start using stronger grain wood is when you get the stronger opinions about the grain.  This might explain why boxwood and ebony are so desirable for chessmen, both with very quiet grains.

I like this

In all honesty, though, I prefer a horizontal grain.

wow! vertigo anyone?

I grew up looking at my dad's copies of I.A. Horowitz's openings books, which featured an illustrative position at the start of each chapter.  The same board was used for two different openings books.  This picture is taken from "How to Win in the Chess Openings," dated 1951. 

Perhaps because these images--even in grainy, low-definition black and white on cheap paper, browned with age--made such an impression on me, my formative experiences were of veritically-oriented grains, and that's probably what made me prefer them.  

There is no "right" as noted, but players have preferences.  When I was looking for someone to make a table for me, I was much happier with the guy who played chess and acceded to my preferences for grain direction over the woodworker (who also does nice work) to whom I had to explain that h1 had to be white ...

(Direction? Horizontal of course. But when I play I forget the set and board about move two.)