I bought this leather chess board recently. I’ve been wanting one for some years, but they tend either to be too expensive, of questionable quality, or have features that I don’t want, such as algebraic borders. [I use algebraic, of course, but can do without the prompting.]
This one was from an Etsy dealer who makes them himself. The overall quality is quite good. I could tell from his pictures that there was a line between each individual square, but it didn’t look like much of a line. The pictures were not deceptive, when I go back to look at them again, it was just that it was hard to tell how thick these lines would look when I saw the board in person. These are 2.25 inch squares, and the borders between squares are a full eighth of an inch.
Interestingly, going to the USCF equipment standards in the Official Rules of Chess, the possibility of borders around individual squares is not considered at all, only the border around the board as a whole. Some googling with various search terms doesn’t come up with anything. I’ve seen a few wood boards with very narrow borders around each individual square, but not like this.
Just to be clear, I do like this board, and am not thinking of complaining or returning it, although I will mention this to the maker. I’m just wondering if there have been any rulings on this sort of thing before. I could see an opponent at a tournament complaining that it’s non-standard, and have no idea how a director would rule.
If you know of actual rulings that have been made, let me know. If you just have an opinion, feel free to let me know that, too.
This is a good question. It would not bother me during play (not nearly as much as the grain on the dark squares, anyway). But I think many players would be bothered by a border that exceeds 5% of the square.
The dark squares that look like shutters bother me slightly. The extra (double) border around the entire board bothers me just a bit more, maybe. Not enough that I’d register a complaint, though.
File letters and rank numbers at the edges don’t bother me at all. Neither does their absence. If they’re there, though, I want them to be correct. Please set up the white pieces on ranks 1-2 and the black on 7-8.
Thanks for the replies so far. And although I do like my “ugly” board, it’s always interesting to get other opinions. I’ll take it to my club next time I’m there, and also to my next tournament. Since I have a rather large chess tote, with room for two roll-up boards, I’ll take a vinyl one too as a backup. Even with director approval, I don’t think I’d force an opponent who was sufficiently uncomfortable with the design to use it. And a director, using individual judgment, might not approve.
But like it or not, my main interest is whether this aspect of chessboard design, leaving a visible border between squares, is actually allowable for tournaments. Since it is not even mentioned by USCF rules, I would guess that it’s not something that had even occurred to them.
This is an attractive board. I could play on it. But it’s also enough of a deviation from convention that my opinion is certainly not universal.
I would probably rule it acceptable for tournament play, but probably would not rule it as equally standard to a conventional design if the issue were disputed.
(There are boards and sets that are so awful that I will not permit their use, because they confuse me. How I accomplish that is to have a supply of standard equipment on site. When I see an atrocity being set up, I provide the standard equipment and cite the rule that requires the use of provided equipment.)
