@zbieraj Very nice review and photos. It helps to hear the story of your experience. It's great that World Chess ships from both EU and US warehouses. In case of issues, it won't be an international shipment for a replacement. That smoooooth surface looks like a pleasure to play on. Not one snag or catch on the felt bottoms. A few questions below:
Did World Chess cover all the back and forth shipping expenses?
It's a shame the hexagon detailed is painted. It's my favorite detail of the board! All the descriptions I've seen say it's "inlaid". Is the paint below the varnish at least?
Does the box indicate the country of origin/manufacture?
PS. thanks for the pronunciation tips on your name. I would've completely butchered it. Zbierajewski = S+beer+a+yeah+ski, is that first part "spear"? I can't get the B sound after the S.
. Of course, this pronunciation is as close as it is possible, although the beginning should be really like "spear" but with "Z" instead of "s" 
. Thanks for sharing that suggestion! I already corrected the signature under the review (I will update it under the other review as well later on).
.
Hi,
I would like to present you my little review of the Official World Chess Board (Maple and Rosewood) which I recently have purchased.
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Below you can find the table of contents, so you can skip to the point that you are most interested in.
1. Unboxing.
2. The board.
3. World Chess Board production/storage issues and professional approach of the World Chess to resolve those issues.
4. Final conclusion.
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1. Unboxing.
This third board came in the World Chess cardboard box (besides the normal additional transportation cardboard box). Inside, the board was additionally secured by a thick plastic foil.
- "Hey, wait, what? Did you write the "THIRD" board?"
Yes, I did. Later in this review, I will explain why.
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2. The board.
The board immediately feels like it is a high-quality one, not like those much cheaper options which feel that they might break easily. The World Chess Board seems to be a solid build. It has 50x50cm with 5x5cm squares and weights 2,4kg. The board has no notation. The wooden panels are made from rosewood (dark wood) and maple (light wood). They are very tightly connected and in addition, the board has one of the thickest amounts of varnish I have ever seen. Thick layer on the sides and double amount of that on the top and the bottom. However, I welcome it as an advantage. Why? First of all, when touching the board it seems to be super smooth. Secondly, it adds additional protection to the wooden finish of the board.
The back of the board is a tricky one. So on the website, you can see that it is very bright compared to the front and the sides. The first and the third board I have got had the back colour almost the same as the dark rosewood in the front, which is great! The second one was brighter, something more towards the light maple. Why is that? Well, you see the wood panels are made from wood veneer. This veneer comes from layers of the wood trunk, where every second layer is darker/brighter. For the back layer of the board, World Chess is using whatever veneer colour of the trunk is available. So this is why you will see that the backsides of the board will slightly differ between their boards. The fronts are the same though.
The board design includes two small hexagons painted on the board, indicating the sides (white/black). This tiny design decision is helping to set up the board faster. You no longer need to check what is the colour of "D1 of the side I am holding". Again, that is a small detail but I think that this should be much more common in the chess world. Just sayin'.
Let's check how the chess pieces look on it. For that, I will use my German Knight Timeless 3.75" set.
This board is replacing my old one seen here on the left which also has 5x5cm squares.
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3. World Chess Board production/storage issues and professional approach of the World Chess to resolve those issues.
I think it is important to be very transparent in reviews. In the beginning, it might seem that this is a negative part of the review but I want to spoil it for you - it is about amazing and professional customer service!
So you see, the review took a lot of time because the reviewed unit is the third one I have got from World Chess. So what happened?
#1 Board.
The first board I have got had a minor issue which I still decided to inform World Chess about since the board is expensive and I would prefer to get a 100% good board. So what was it? It was a crack in the back panel, as you can see here:
This issue had to appear on the production line since the crack is under a thick layer of varnish.
I would like to underline here that this issue was not a huge problem for me overall since one should expect that rarely such things can happen on the production line of any product. Chessboard, phones, laptops, name it. So I made a claim to World Chess. Typically for them, I have received the response immediately (shout out to the customer service of World Chess - you guys rock!). They said that the same day they will send the new board. Which they did. I think I have received the replacement board within less than 48h (wow!).
#2 Board.
Let's start with just aesthetics. The second board had a light coloured back panel, like on the website.
Since I could compare it to dark colour from the first board, I think it proves that it looks better with the dark panel on the back which looks like the whole board (besides light squares) is made from the same material. But this is just my taste and I guess that it will be the opposite for many people
.
But now let's dive directly to what happened with the second board.
Ok, now this one took me by surprise.
So this board had a whole list of issues:
- Scratches on the back (deep and light ones, where light ones could go through like half of the back panel - I am showing only a few from a lot of them, not showing the light but super long scratches due to the light setup for the images);
- On some edges of the area of the squares there was a slight amount of glue visible.
Besides those issues, the board was fine.
To be clear - the first board and the third one did not have any of those issues.
I contacted World Chess immediately after unboxing by sending an e-mail with all of the pictures. I was shocked by the low quality of how the board was assembled and by the fact that it was scratched on the back. I thought that or the board was thrown a lot in the workshop where it was created or maybe in the storage area before they packed the boards to the foil bags and the World Chess cardboard boxes. The reason why I was shocked was that I already had some experiences with World Chess, which were great. I liked the branding, the customer service, the quality of their products. So you can imagine the look on my face when I have seen such a board which would cost someone $219.
What (very positively) surprised me is that the World Chess customer service not only immediately responded to me, informing me, that within the next few hours another board will be sent to me but also they have informed me that they will quickly start the investigation of what the hell happened. On 12 of October, they informed me themselves that the teams are investigating the issue. Regarding the second board right now the most probable issue was that it "might have been damaged during the delivery and was not checked as expected" but the investigation is still pending.
Now one can ask me:
"- Wow! But then aren't you angry at World Chess with those issues? Do you trust their products less now?"
I am happy with the purchase. I am even happier with the customer service. You see, besides the fact that I could not open the third board for a long time because of my unavailability, it all, together, took less than a week (?). And the customer service of World Chess was very into making sure that I am happy with the purchase. They also decided to investigate immediately what is going to improve any procedures which caused those flaws and delivery of those flawed boards ASAP. They also were sending me updates on that - even though they don't need to do it at all. They just do care.
Because of this, I felt that I was taken care of, that there was someone for me, really trying to help.
"- But would you then purchase another board from them after those adventures?"
Yes. I do. Any time. Because the World Chess proved that they are (again) an amazing company.
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4. Final conclusion.
The Official World Chess Board (Maple and Rosewood) is an amazing product. Yes, it is more expensive than many cheaper options on the market. But in the end, you get what you pay for, including the brand (you can not compare it to a $220 solid wood chessboard from an anonymous brand). The quality of this board is great and I do like its design. Symbols on both sides indicating the sides of white and black pieces are convenient. The contrast of chosen materials is great. The smoothness of the surfaces is amazing due to the thick layer of varnish. It helps move the pieces much smoother than on most of the boards.
I only wish that World Chess were adding the black cover-bag with the World Chess logo, as they do now with the Walnut Boards now.
Overall I am giving this board 5/5 stars.
PS. I mentioned the Walnut Board - since the end of September there is an additional chessboard in their offer - World Chess Walnut Board (with maple for light squares and walnut for dark squares):
World Chess Walnut Board
It is $40 cheaper, however, the walnut is a cheaper and less solid wood than rosewood. Moreover, it gives less contrast in the checkerboard pattern. But still, this might be a slightly better option for those on budget.
- Piotr "Zbieraj" Zbierajewski
[Piotr "Spear+ay" Spear+a+yeah+ski]
Feel free to check my review of the World Chess Official Academy Chess Set here:
Review - World Chess Official Academy Chess Set