Chess Board Makers- Look

[Carry Pine]

Hi,

I'm just back from the Sydney Wood Show and there was this very good looking coffee table with a chess board set into it. it was a fairly long table so playing end to end was not possible.

What some people don't realise is that chess players have the board a certain way. The white square is always on the right of the player. It seems a pity that people would go to an enormous amount of effort to do something and make a basic mistake through not knowing something.
Drafts players have the black square on the right by the way.

I'm not being picky (I hope) but it would be sad to lose a sale because the setup was incorrect.

Carry Pine

[ian]

Maybe it was intended for draughts?

[RedShirtGuy]

Fantastic tip!!! (For makers and not players)

I'm not sure about the draughts players having the bottom right square black though. I'm finding conflicting rules. Most of the few different sites I've just checked out are either showing the draughts board positioned as for chess or the text explicity says "the same as for chess". I've only found one site so far that says (and shows) that a draughts board should be positioned with a black square in the bottom right (and using an 8 x 8 board).

Damn confusing


Something else I've found in my sleuthing tonight...

English draughts (American checkers) is played on a chess board (8 x 8 = 64 squares).
International draughts is played on a 10 x 10 board.

There are other board and rule variants, including some that use a 12 x 12 board. Wikipedia has a nice list here.

[tea lady]

Something to keep in mind. Lining uop to put a chess board in my next table project. Maybe I could make it so the board can be lifted out and moved around.

Playing Draughts on a bigger board could be interesting. The 8 x 8 boards are too small. (I've been playing a bit with Small Boy. I try not to always let him win. )

[Carry Pine]

I hope no one was offended in this post. It's just that a lot of time and effort goes into those coffee tables and some of them are worth a mint. They are almost worthless to serious players though if they have the wrong orientation. And you don't want some smart a#$ telling you that your $3000 table is 'all wrong'.

Graham

[RedShirtGuy]

There's nothing offensive about the truth

You offered a really good point that maybe not all board makers know. It was something I certainly didn't, and wouldn't have thought to look up. If someone is going to make something that a serious chess player would want, it had better be right on the money or they won't ever buy it.

[Rattrap]

I agree completely with Redshirt. Thanks so much for pointing this fact out Graham. A chess board is on my list of projects i'm wanting to try my hand at & i never thought for a minute that there would be an issue of tile orientation.

[Carry Pine]

I agree completely with Redshirt. Thanks so much for pointing this fact out Graham. A chess board is on my list of projects i'm wanting to try my hand at & i never thought for a minute that there would be an issue of tile orientation.

'Tile orientation'. I love that term. I'll use it tomorrow.

Graham