Wood grain of chess board - what's your preference?

1. Vertical (runs up/down along files)
2. Horizontal (runs (left/right along ranks)
3. It doesn't matter

Vertical so that the grain follows the same line as the pieces as they advance down the board towards the opponent's territory.  Every chess board I've owned had the grain in this direction starting with a 1960s Drueke.

I prefer horizontal for whatever reason.

You know a horizontal grain slows the game down... 

Doesn't matter to me as long as the graining isn't too pronounced.

horizontal by far

Never thought much about it. I assumed, for some reason, that the grain would be horizontal, because of a gut feeling that a vertical grain would make it (ever so slightly) harder to see the boundaries between squares.

I just checked my chess board, and it's horizontal. But now that the issue is mentioned, I think it's obvious how chess boards should be made - and apparently, this hasn't even been tried!

Having the grain horizontal really distracts only slightly less from the boundaries between squares than having it veritcal. The boundaries between squares should be reinforced rather than blurred!

So clearly, despite presumably the potential danger to the board in the event of the wood warping, the grain of the light squares should go in one direction, and the grain of the dark squares should go in the perpendicular direction! That would minimize the distracting effect of the grain.

Horizontal. Vertical distracts me immensely. In fact, it's at least the second or third aspect I consider when buying a board, the other qualities being form factor and wood choice.

diagonal

I played baseball and basketball on some of the poorest kept parks in NYC both softball and hardball for baseball games and on poorly painted and maintained hoops in parks, sometimes they weren't hoops inside parks so the neighborhood teens had improvised with a makeshift hoop affixed to a street light pole on a relatively quite traffic street and we played half court games there. None of those factors in the least altered what my physical game was all about I had played about as well or the same most of the time. There were times when slumps occurred but were few and far in between games . A chessboard for me is no different, for me it doesn't matter on the orientation of the lines of the wood grain present going vertical or horizontal. What was and still is most important to me is how I play the game. I have this board that was disliked by some members but everyone has an entitled opinion and I'm ok with that aspect. You can only change yourself, not what people believe in or have a strong opinion of certain controversial subjects no matter how well you  present your case. I like what I had purchased and in no way does it affect my game one way or another by square grain orientation which is a moot point as you can see with my chaotic patterned  board. It suits me just fine. C'est la vie!

@QtoQlevel3 is that board by mtmwood? I follow him on Youtube, it looks like his style

Yes, made by wood craftsman Andrei Muntian owner of MTM wood. I have 3 of his boards, all extremely well made and will last long enough to be gifted to the next generation and beyond,  in my family tree.

I've never really paid attention before. I just checked my three boards and on two of them the grain is horizontal and the third board alternates: light squares vertical and dark squares horizontal. The grain isn't all that pronounced on any of them so that must mean my preference is that the grain remain subtle.

Cool, he is a master craftsman and produces great work

Yes, the grain should be subtle - it's distracting, and so the grain orientation is chosen to minimize the distraction. It's nice to know that there are boards where the grain direction alternates!

The marble is nice but that one dark square at c5 is really distracting

I didn't even see it until you pointed it out.

Aaarrggg.

Unplayable!

Horizontal for sure.