LCCC Mondays! Speed Tournament Set for March 6! - And What About Chessboards?

The Livingston County Chess Club meets every Monday night between 4pm and 10pm at the Buffalo Wild Wings in the Green Oak Mall in Brighton, MI. 

Stop on by for some friendly chess, good food and 'refreshments'. Everyone of all ages and playing strength are welcome to attend. And free lessons to all beginners!

We will hold the LCCC 2023 Speed Chess Championship at 6pm on March 6. No entry fee! The games will be 5 minutes long, with a 5 second delay! It will probably be a 4-round tournament, but it could be longer or shorter depending on the number of attendees. Each round will be a 2 game match with your opponent, alternating colors for the games. Two wins or a win and a draw gets you a “win” and one point in the round. A win and loss gets you a “draw” in the round.

It is always a fun time and the tournament starts AND is over in time for more chess either before or after the tournament. So be sure to attend on March 6^th!

The last article focused on how many tournament style chess sets should the sane chess enthusiast own. That debate will last as long as the game itself.

Your humble scribe was asked to do a similar review of the same question, but this time about the chessboards themselves. How many tournament size chessboards should the chess enthusiast own?

For that answer, read the previous article and replace the word “sets” with “boards” and you have your answer. But I can give you a review of the types of chessboards available, and some that are not anymore for some reason that defies logic.

Let’s start at the low end of price and work our way up to the insane. Again, we will stick to the standard tournament size board, which has squares of 2 to 2.25 inches (50 - 57 millimeters) and borders around the board can vary from 0 to 2 feet (600 millimeters) in length, although generally the border is around 1 inch (25 millimeters).

1.   1. Paper - Around $2 or less depending on the volume you buy at a time.

Plus side: lightweight, cheap, environmentally friendly, disposable.

Down side: gets dirty easily, wears out quickly, tends to wear out or break down on the edges, and won’t always lay flat as it tends to curl or crease over time.

2.  

2. Vinyl - $7 to $15 depending on the quality, quantity, or special colors or printing you want on your board. This is by far the most popular (and best for the minimalist) option.

Plus side: inexpensive, durable, easily cleaned, will lay flat with proper care and surface, light weight, and close to an unlimited range of colors and designs. Although the standard green and white squares (in varying shades of those two colors also available) is the GOLD standard for these boards.

Down Side: Should always be rolled up board side out so it will lay flat in use. Otherwise, the corners will curl. May look tacky if a nice chess set is used on it.

3.   

3. Mouse Pad - $10 to $20 and comes in almost as many colors and styles as it’s vinyl brother. It was brought on as an improvement over the vinyl board.

Plus side: inexpensive, durable, lays flat, light weight, always lays flat no matter how you roll it up so board in roll up keeps it cleaner longer.

Down Side: Not easily cleaned, and the chess pieces DO NOT SLIDE on this board! You must pick up the chess piece completely to move it. Now to the novice, this appears to be a non-issue. But to the chess enthusiast, the ability to just calmly slide your pawn forward and into the heart of your opponent is one of the reasons why we play chess! Just sayin. They have made improvements on this board to make it more slide friendly, but it is not there yet if you have nice felt on your chess set. And it is still is not easy to clean.

4. 

 4. PVC - $13 - $20 and comes in the square colors of green, blue, red, black, brown, or burgundy. Folds in half for easy storage and carry. It was to be the improvement over #2 and #3 above and #5 below. It fails to do that, but it does the job.

Plus side: inexpensive, sort of durable, easily cleaned, easily stored, lays flat, lightweight. But the pieces SLIDE!

Down side: Tends to crack on the edges and will usually develop a crease with high edges in the center of board over time. It folds in half for easy carry or storage but takes up more room than the roll up board.

5.   5. Linen - $ ???? – folds in half and comes in 0 colors now. Why they stopped making this board is a chess mystery. Anyone who is old enough to remember this style of chessboard would literally kill to have a few of them. They could be used with the cheapest to the most expensive chess sets on the market and look good doing it.

Plus side: all the advantages of the PVC board with NONE of the cracking issues. I still have ONE, it is 40 years old and still looks great! Caveat: doesn’t get much use because IT”S THE LAST ONE I know of in existence!

Down side: Only one color – dark green and beige (perfect! – IM never humble O), but susceptible to damage from dirt and spills, and not easy to clean. Hence, my lack of use with it.

6.   

6. Silicone - $15 - $20 – The “NEW KID on the block and comes in about 10 colors for the dark squares. They are even making these boards with one color square on one side and a different color square on the other. Literally two boards for the price of one if you like changing square colors. This board may someday replace the vinyl board as the most popular. Kids like them, old timers do not - as a rule.

Plus side: You can literally fold or squish this board into your pocket or purse, take it out months later and it will lay flat, lightweight, so the most portable chess board on the planet, inexpensive, durable.

Down side: Hard to clean and the pieces CANNOT SLIDE at all! They are almost stuck on the squares - worse than the mouse pad board. You must LIFT the chess piece and set it on it’s next square. This takes a little getting used to.

7.   

7. Wood - $75 to $6000 – Almost at the pinnacle of chess nirvana! Spend what you can afford to with glee or to your retch level, or to your spouse’s tolerance! To own a wood board is to have arrived as a chess player. Your humble scribe has owned as many as 5 wood chess boards. I am down to 3 – a folding wood board purchased at the 2013 US Open that I played in. I use it at the club occasionally. I have a solid wood one in my chess office, used for chess study only. My third is a plain square piece of plywood board I cut, and glued a brown and white vinyl board to the top of it. This is used outside on the deck, lawn or beach and could even be left outside (I didn’t, but I could have). This board is actually perfect for outside play as the ¾” plywood is sturdy enough to stay relatively level in almost any surface.

Plus side: Will last several life times, and the timeless beauty of wood needs no discussion.

Down side. Not easily carried, and dents and dings are inevitable. I literally had my brand new wood board in my office for only a few days when I knocked a small plastic travel alarm clock off of a bookshelf and onto my board. This put a small ding in the right-hand corner square. That was over 20 years ago and I think I stopped crying over it only last week. Several other dings have happed since then as I have dropped heavy chess pieces onto it in use. You can cry about it or tell yourself it adds character to your chess battlefield. I do both.

8. 

 8. Table - $700 - $8000 – The top of the world! Never owned one and IMNHO I don’t think they are practical. Like a Rolls Royce or Maserati. Great, beautiful, but just not practical. 

Plus side: Absolutely beautiful, especially with a high-quality wood set on top of it, and you know where you are playing and studying.

Down side: Not easily moved or adjustable. By adjustable, I mean being able to move the board closer to you or slightly farther away for study purposes if using the set by yourself. And the same dings are inevitable over time!

In conclusion, I own multiples of #2 thru #7, and they all give me great joy!

How Many Chess Sets are Enough? LCCC Monday Night - Come Join Us!

Chess Monday nights between 4pm and 10pm at the Buffalo Wild Wings in the Green Oak Mall in Brighton, MI. 

Stop on by for some friendly chess, good food and 'refreshment'. Everyone is welcome!

The Eternal Queston!

How many chess set are enough for a chess enthusiast to own?

The definition of “chess set” here is:

 A full set of 32 or 34 (2 extra queens sometimes) pieces. The King must be a minimum of 3 inches high and no bigger than 4 inches. We are talking “tournament” size chess sets here.

We will not include chess boards at this time. That is another chess obsession for another day..... like chess books. 

Also not included in this discussion are travel or pocket sets. I have 4 of those but I never purchased them. They have all been thoughtful gifts, but sadly rarely used.

The correct answer for how many tournament size chess sets are enough, as usual is………….”It depends.”

It depends on whether you are you a minimalist (answer is 1) or a collector? Or a hoarder?

Or sane?

For the collector the answer is easy. It is n + 1, where n is equal to the number of sets you currently have. Simple.

For the hoarder it is n + infinity.

For the few that are sane, it may be impossible to answer.

I have been a “collector” of chess sets at times in my life. Confession time – I did hit a peak of 27 sets. To be sure, a huge amount to some, and a mere ‘few’ to others.

When I retired, I was able to spend a lot more time in my little chess room. So naturally, my lovely bride would now wander in there on occasion.

She would come to just "visit", or bring me lunch, or ask me if I wanted something to drink or ask lovingly why I am wasting my time in here? Then after a few more visits, she invariably asked, “What are all these containers, with all these chess pieces in them, doing just sitting around collecting dust? And how much did all this cost?”

When I mentioned the "deals" and "steals" I got on them, and my “perfect rotation schedule of set usage,” she was less than impressed or happy. 

In addition, she began to take a keen interest into the number of chess boards, books and clocks also in my chess room. But as I said earlier – another day for that discussion! 

Hence, with the “incentive” initiated from my better half, the downsizing of my chess set empire commenced.

I tried a counter offensive by mentioning the number of shoes, make up types, hair product types, dresses and knick-knacks around the house, that are in my wife’s collections. But that proved to be an utter disaster.....for me. 

How I lost that battle with so much more firepower I will never know. Maybe others could shed some light on that for me. Or.... maybe not.

I am proud to say (and unhappy to say) that my chess set number is down to EIGHT. Five sets rotate in use at the chess club. Two rotate in my office as study/tournament sets and one is designated for backyard/deck or travel out of town use. 

If anyone takes an interest in any set being used at the club and wants to buy it, I always give a great deal and shrink my inventory further.

I have successfully “removed” 19 sets of my collection by selling on Ebay, selling at the Club, selling to friends, or have given a few to nephews and nieces as gifts. As my grandchildren get older, more sets will be moved to them in the future.

So with my “confession” out of the way, I would like to ask the Peanut Gallery of readers, what is your “correct” number of tournament size chess sets to own? Please comment on the blog!

Here are some answers I have heard over the years in no particular order:

·  > Three. 1 – plastic for travel, 1 – upper scale wood for home study, and 1 – wood for tournaments. And I would add one folding travel set also.

·  > Four wood sets and 3 plastic sets. Seven is a lucky number!

·  > Three. 1 Wood, 1 plastic and 1 analysis.

·  > Forty-five. Any other number is just crazy.

·  > One more. Please, just one more!

·  > Seven. One small magnetic travel set, one pocket set, one tournament plastic, one wooden set for home analysis, one decorative wood set for the living room, one demonstration board set, and one set that costs over $1000 that you keep in a collector’s box and only show it off to guests.

·  > Thirty. All plastic, all different style and/or colors.

·  > Sixteen. Twelve wood and four plastic.

·  > Fifty-four. One for every week in the year and two spares of course. (I can see that logic!)

·  > One cheap plastic set (my wife’s answer).