I just played in my first tournament. I am new to chess notation and have been practicing notation online at home before the tournament date. I played 4 rounds in the tournament (2) times as black. Because I have not purchased my own equipment, I had to use what the white side brought. Both times the chess board that was being used only included chess notation on the two sides for white. Sometimes it was difficult to see over the pieces on the back row of white to see the letter designations. I sure which the chess letters and numbers were on all 4 sides of the chess board. So later, when I get home and read my USCF rules book: section 41D. Boarders. the way I read it, is chess boards without the letters or numbers on any sides are acceptable in a tournament. Does this rule need to be updated? my own opinoin as a beginner/new chess player, is it would be nice if there was a requirement for all sides of the chessboard to have the letters and numbers. I know (you will say black has choice of equipment) I read this rule also. But this was my first tournament: I assumed that all chess boards in tournament play had the numbers and letters on all four sides. I am shocked that no letters or numbers on the chessboard border are acceptable for tournament play. thanks,
And I’m shocked that a tournament newbie would try to impose conditions possibly helpful to a neophyte on all experienced players. Once you get familiar with using notation, you’ll probably never look at those algebraic hints again. They’re just noise.
BTW, a cheap but serviceable board and men probably will cost less than the rule book which you’ve already bought. Just buckle down and play over a couple dozen games from Chess Life. 
Welcome to the forums, and to tournament play!
I agree with you that it would be easier for those new to notation if all boards had coordinates running down all sides of the board. However, among other reasons, wood boards I’ve seen rarely have the coordinates printed on them. And there are players out there who still bring wood to tournaments - someday I hope to be one of them. 
Also, many players as they gain experience with recording will stop looking at the coordinates entirely. (I never have, but now I use an e-Scoresheet…)
That doesn’t mean the rule couldn’t be changed to indicate coordinate boards are “more standard” than non-coordinate. But there are a lot of players who might be upset with that.
As you’ve suggested, you might consider purchasing your own equipment so that when playing as Black you use your board. And then if you are playing White you could ask the other player to use your equipment if their board isn’t that way - the most they can do is tell you, “no.”
BTW, most excellent that you have a rule book!
I’m not shocked. It’s called being new and asking questions. Then again, I’ve always lived my life believing it’s better to ask and learn why things are. Even at the risk of getting bitten.
Questions, yes. Demanding changes to the rules after one’s first event – well, then expect a chomp or two.
It also should be pointed out that if you don’t supply equipment, you pretty much have to use whatever your opponent supplies. Even a Civil War chess set.
Alex Relyea
I understand any new person wishing for specifics like the letters and numbers on all borders. It’s true that most all experienced players learn and know the “names” of the squares and don’t necessarily use the letters and numbers at all.
Saying that it should be a rule to have these on all borders is little more advanced to saying it should be appropriate for the rules of how the pieces move, castling and en passant should be printed and available for all players at all times. Once these things are learned such aids aren’t necessary.
I remember a time when I actually sought after and purchased boards that specifically did not have the algebraic numbers and letters on the borders. When playing as Black, my opponent would need to know the square “names” without the aids. If that made his game a little more difficult, then my game might be easier. Of course this logic doesn’t work very well and is not good thinking anyway.
I have and still bring wooden sets and boards wherever I play. I did sell a few of my nicer boards and replaced them with a couple of the folding, European, Bundesliga wooden boards from the House of Staunton. These boards have the letters (all in capitals, even) and numbers on their borders. It doesn’t really matter, they still look nice. I actually took strips of clear vinyl and attached elastic to them and affixed some adhesive numbers and letters so I could put them on my nicer wooden boards for the players that wanted the numbers and letters. I have even offered to put them on for my opponent when I’m playing Black. So now, I have 2 of the European boards as mentioned above and one of the House of Staunton Signature Traditional Boards for my nice, Morphy Series Set, without the letters and numbers (yes, I still bring the add-on capability of letters and numbers for this board).
I just bought a couple of nice, roll-up, leather boards from the House of Aragon. They have a smaller footprint than the wooden boards. I got the Green colored ones, one with 2 1/4 " squares and one with 2 3/8" squares. When mentioning to Joel Aragon, the owner, my nicer sets I would be using with the 2 3/8" squares, he said he had a limited number of boards without the letters and numbers. I did get the larger square size board without the letters and such. I must say the board does look nicer and more aesthetic without such things.
Of course, I will admit that insisting the letters and numbers be on all 4 borders is a bit extreme.
I don’t like them. They are too distracting. I think it is a bad idea. BTW I have gotten them wrong (ie rank 8 is used instead of 1) and that upset people too.
Greetings, NewportNews. I hope you enjoy your chess career. This is a great place to be, if you enjoy chess. It’s a great organization, a great message board, just keep your arms and hands inside the ride at all times. 
OK, set the Way-Back Machine (gotta be gettin’ old to get that reference) to when you started out playing tournament chess. Being a “newbie,” NewportNews made three faux pas.
The first was not understanding that all the nerves and tension of the first couple of tournaments will one day be washed away and part of his history. The square designations will soon be second nature to him.
The second was thinking that a game with such a dense volume of rules would specify equipment requirements that only benefitted newbies. It is logical to think that the rules would be that specific because a game with such few rules in maneuvering pieces has a rule book that is comparatively large to the inexperienced eyes. We should be able to put ourselves back in that position when we first discovered this fact. When I ordered my first handbook of rules, I expected it to be pamphlet sized, thinking I already knew how to play chess.
The third was not knowing that while the Internet is an excellent place to get answers to questions and factual information (sometimes), it is never a place to look for sympathy for one’s plight.
While it’s OK to take a chomp or two out of guys like me, we should be understanding or slightly comforting to newbies who have just introduced themselves to competitive game and made themselves familiar with this forum and organization. US Chess (and ourselves) are benefitted by nurturing new members, an assumption on my part.
That being said, NewportNews, expect that competitive chess is an almost full-contact sport. See chess boxing. :mrgreen: This includes the message board. 
And do it using a board that has the letters and numbers on no sides. It’s the best way to learn.
Furthermore, do it at least half the time by looking at the board from black’s point of view. That’s what you’ll have to do in tournaments anyway.
There are always the old memory aids, e.g. knights are Bold and Gallant, bishops are religious figures like the Cardinal and Friar, there is always king Edward, and in some languages queen is Dame. And if you can’t remember A and H, you shouldn’t be playing chess.
Bill Smythe
Remember Bill - as the most powerful piece, There is nothing like a Dame. I am singing, aren’t you glad we can’t post audio?
I was miss quoted several times above, let me quote myself from my first post: I said: “my own opinion as a beginner/new chess player, is, it would be nice if there was a requirement for all sides of the chess board to have the letters and numbers.” end of quote. I think that I said that as nice as I could, very un-demanding. If I could take back a word, I would exchange “shocked” with “surprised”. I really did not know that others had a different opinion so strongly. Thanks for responding. I have ordered and received my green/buff chess board, when I placed the order, I was given a choice of colors but not a choice of if I wanted the notation helpers. Board manufactures must think most people like the notation helpers. In the tournament I played in I did make an observation, because remember at that time I had no board or chess pieces. I noticed one wood board and the rest of the chess boards were the roll up type, some with different colors, but green seemed to dominate. Assuming the wood board had no chess notation, and that the roll up boards had chess notation on at least 2 sides. Then I can state for this tournament I was in, 97 percent of tournament chess players prefer the boards with chess notation. There could be other reasons such as a wood board is bulky or heavier or something else but evidently the chess notation on the boards was not that much of a concern considering everyone had a free choice on what board to bring and 97 percent of them went with the boards with chess notation. At your next tournament you might want to notice what other players are using and see if this is the norm? I will make note on my next tournament to see what is being used. I believe anything that can be done to help new people and to expand the love of chess to more and more people is more inline with the USCF mission statement. The only way for all chess clubs to expand is with new people joining, and like me most new people that play chess with friends only, are not use to chess notation. All this is my opinion, except the 97 percent is a fact of math.
thanks,
Marvin
I have to agree that the House of Aragon boards are great – I love mine. I think the notation on the border looks very good on these boards (much nicer than some of the cheap, fuzzy printing you see on some boards). I don’t think the notation makes the board look less “aesthetic”, though this may be because the printing looks so much nicer than that on the poorly done boards. (and the House of Aragon boards look great with HOS sets, IMHO)
If you’re looking for a set that’s a little more down to earth in price, be careful to get one from a good source (USCF Sales, for example ) or you might be disappointed in the quality of the printed notation.
I’ll just echo what others are saying – get your own board and set as soon as you can. Get used to using it. It’s actually a very small (but real, IMHO) advantage to be playing on your own equipment.
I just saw a nice image in another thread, so here are pictures of the 2 wooden boards I have from the House of Staunton:
Note both have the letters and numbers on all 4 sides, and it is very nice looking as far as the quality of the wood squares and so forth.
I do have both of these boards in the folding style.
I use the lighter colored one with my Blood Rosewood Zagreb '59 set and the Mahogany framed one with a Rosewood Proline Series Set.
I know NewportNews and he is a very nice person. As with many newbies, he is questioning how we do things. Perhaps he has a point. To help our newcomers to chess, it might be nice to have algebraic boards. Not mandated, but perhaps like the digital clock with the bordered board preferable.
I don’t remember who, but I remember a player who actually cut off the borders from his board to get any possible minute advantage over his opponent. I thought this was poor sportsmanship.
I suggest the following ADM. Chess boards with borders are preferable over those without. Chess boards with both English descriptive and algebraic on the boarders are the most preferred. 
Gee, there is somebody else who uses descriptive besides me. I even get an unintended benefit when my opponent is trying to look across the table to read my notation and gets a little confused. It could be even greater except that I don’t write down my move until after making it.
I understand there’s a proposal to mandate that Tournament Organizers must furnish MonRois or similar devices to any player that has trouble keeping score. There won’t be any need for notation and it will actually be distracting for the players, so the proposal also calls for banning notation on the borders of chess boards.
Another proposal is mandating that all players have cell phones so that they can get text messages from the TD during their games.
And a new rating system improvement will update players ratings DURING each game based on how they’re playing – no more waiting for some lazy TD to submit a report.
If that’s the reason you use descriptive, couldn’t you achieve your purpose even better by using Smythescript?
Bill Smythe
In the summer of 1968, someone who was starting a separate correspondence group advocated “Numbered Notation” in which the squares were numbered from 1 to 64. AN vs DN was being debated in letters in Chess Life here and he put in a plug for NN. That would really confuse them.
You are probably referring to “international correspondence notation”, mentioned on page 221 of the 5th edition rulebook. The squares are numbered, not from 1 through 64, but from 11 through 88, omitting any numbers ending in 0 or 9. The first digit is the file (a-h becoming 1-8), the second is the rank (1-8).
Bill Smythe