What do you like in a Chess Board?

Your boards are very nice especially the ones with wide borders. I prefer wide sides or borders so there is a place for the captured pieces. I prefer the playing surface to be either flush with the sides or or lower. I prefer natural woods with the grain not too bold as bold grain is distracting. Grain direction can be either along the pawn play direction or across. I prefer in the pawn play direction but it should be the customer's choice. The greater the color contrast between the light and dark the better. Tropical walnut and maple are good choices.

I made my first board, which is also my current board in high school over 50 years ago. I understand what goes into making a board, especially getting the squares to match up. I suggested Tropical walnut instead of American black walnut as it tends to be darker. Finish product choice is important since varnishes can age over time. I recently refinished my over 50 year old playing surface since the varnish had yellowed reducing the contrast between squares. Polyurethanes did not exist back then.

I trust this will help you in your work.

I think integrating the board into the table makes it a much nicer looking piece of furniture. It will expand your market beyond the chess lovers niche toward something all home owners would want. Of course, targeting upscale luxury markets will also drive up the sales price.

Other than that, I think your woodwork looks stunning. It will have to look non-standard with grandmaster-size pieces. Walnut is great, maybe something like suar wood if you can obtain it from a sustainable source.

Personally I think the one Richcolorado posted at the top of his post, saying 'i love this board', is the most beautiful one color-wise. So for me it would have to look modern, with the board flush to the frame and tabletop. Also consider smaller sizes for small apartments, dorm rooms, non-US homes, etc. My small European house, for example, literally has no more room for anything the size of a chessboard.

@F1Lightning, thank you for the great feedback. I prefer the wide frames as well for the same reasons. Great tip on "Tropical walnut". I have been frustrated by the lighter shades of walnut - black walnut is supposed to be dark! I finished this board with EMTech's EM6000 water-based lacquer - a superb non-yellowing lacquer. I chose it specifically because it stays very  close to clear on the maple. Thanks much for  your helpful insight. 

@zone_chess - thanks for the sizing tip. You're absolutely correct that smaller boards will accommodate small environments better than the full size boards. Perhaps I can feature something like that in the future. 

Timo1177,

Here is a source for the tropical walnut.

https://www.woodworkerssource.com/tropical-walnut/tropical-walnut-44-lumber.html

I have a very nice piece for my next chessboard project which I purchased at their local store. I am still sourcing the material for that project and there are a couple of other projects ahead of it. Thanks for the tip on the EM Tech's water-based lacquer. The chess board will fit into a chess table top with an opening to fit both the new board and my old board. The tables in our house get used a lot so a special chess table is needed for the chess sets. I am also working on plans for compartmented trays for the chess sets so they can be stored inside of a drawer of the chess table.

@F1Lightning - thanks for the great resource for the tropical walnut! I'd love to buy some 8/4 but the 4/4 will do - especially for boards. 

@Timo1177 Awesome board! It's cool that you asked for suggestions and actually followed through with it. Have you considered an uncommon Wenge and Padauk (black and red) combo? 

Do all your boards use a plywood backer? I'm guessing this is for durability and stability, to help in preventing warping? Mike McCrory is using plywood in his board construction as well.

It might be cool to take it one step further and have the frame raised on one side. And completely flush on the bottom side. So there's no hollow area underneath. 

@Pawnerai, usually I use a hardboard backer. I think I’ll go back to that in the future. Both the plywood and hardboard offer stability and resist flexing due to moisture avoid but I think, in retrospect, the hardboard looks better. The plywood has too much pattern.

Thanks for your compliment! I really appreciate everyone’s input.

Timo1177,

I've gone completely away from American plywood and started using European Baltic Birch plywood instead. The birch is more stable and has more plys than typical American plywood. Also the surface plys are smoother and show virtually no grain compared to the typical Douglas fir plywood. It also holds screws better. It is also available at Woodworker's Source.

Tim, this is gorgeous!

I own 6-7 boards, but I’m coming to you next year (after my remodeling is done draining my wallet!) for a black walnut/maple Jacques, 55mm. I might request something unusual for the border wood, trying to get the grain to align with the board square grain, rather than be perpendicular. In order to do that, it will require some clamping and mating of smaller pieces, let me ponder if it’s worth the loss in rigidity.

Incredible board! 

@VBerriz - Glad you like the Jaques board. I look forward to working with you on another one once you're post-reno. Good luck on that, may it be all that you hoped for! 

Re colors, I'm a little surprised how much everyone seems to naturally go for high contrast between squares.

There's a strong argument to be made that the ideal situation is to have four easily distinguishable colors between the two colors of the board and the two colors of the pieces.  Most often overlooked, imo is the need for contrast between dark squares and dark pieces so you don't visually 'lose' dark pieces on dark squares. Lighter pieces and light squares tends to be less important - eg. it's still easy to see maple pieces on maple squares.

This means if you're making boards, a board with very dark squares may be a problem with some sets but not others - eg. walnut squares and ebonised pieces work, but black squares with ebonised pieces or walnut squares with walnut pieces may be less than ideal.

Personally, I would go for lighter dark squares to make a board work for all pieces.  Currently, I'm looking for a wood board for maple and walnut pieces and I think for example sapele with maple would work well if I were going to buy one, or maybe maple or ash with cherry if I build one myself.  A lighter and redder tone will create greater contrast with the dark pieces. For the light squares, ash creates more contrast with maple pieces, but the visible ash grain is more distracting so I think I'd prefer maple.  

As for grain, discreet grain or figuring on the squares is beautiful, but too much is distracting.  I'd keep it plainest there, and save the exotic stuff for the border around the outside.  The border on the board in the first post is absolutely beautiful (especially with both heartwood and sapwood), and I have also like boards I have seen with more exotic woods, or even the ones with a live edge from JLP.

One more thing - A little bit of edge treatment on the border goes a long way towards making your board jump out as something 'custom' (and therefore valuable).  I was in London last week and walked into a chess shop and one thing that stuck out was how much a board with even just rounded corners stands out in a room full of Rechepados Ferrer-style boards with square edges (to allow for veneers and edge banding).

Veneer is probably the right way to go (yes even for high-end boards) if you're not going to allow for seasonal wood movement, but it's nice if the borders are a little more interesting than just edge banding to cover plywood.  

On that note, it would be important to allow for seasonal wood movement - if you make a board with 57mm squares out of solid wood and then fix a frame around it with no room to move, it's going to crack. Seems to me its important to 1) make the grain on all squares run the same direction, and 2) give the board room within the frame to expand across the grain (like you attach a tabletop or build a frame and panel door).

Where does the St Louis Chess Club gets its chessboards and tables? They seem to have the lowest profile boards I've seen at a professional tournament.