English Chess Forum

Here is a picture of the free sets and board. As you can see its a quality set, with a 3.75 inch king and a 7mm plastic "solid" board. I think these are a class piece of kit.

I hope it comes up to stratch, because I would use them at the British if they weren't going to schools only.

And before anyone says anything, we know the boards set up wrong. Chess players Eh! First ones in on a mistake.

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Charles W. Wood
Captain of Legion

Nice glare, what would Fischer say?



p.s. more seriously these sets look great. I imagined some dodgy pieces stuffed in a bag with some cardboard boards. V nice job.

I was more worried about the carpet if I am honest

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Cheers
Carl Hibbard

So was I , but lets hope the taste in decor matches. I think they are fab, the black edge around the board looks classy.

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Charles W. Wood
Captain of Legion

Peter Wilson has just asked me a daft question, but I like the answer.

If you put the boards end to end across its longest point how far would they go?

Heres my maths: board corner to corner is 66cm. Thats 250,000 x .66 metres = 165,000 metres / 1000 = 165km. (Correct me if I'm wrong)

Can someone work out the milage out of that, I can't be bothered, and whats 165km big, long, high or whatever?

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Charles W. Wood
Captain of Legion

Here are some that I've been emailed, Bradford to Birmingham, Bradford to Peterborough and London to Bristol. Wow! And one from a car fan, 1 hour of travel at full speed in a VW Beetle (new one) or 17 minutes at full speed in a Bugatti Varon.

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Charles W. Wood
Captain of Legion

The board and pieces look great but one thing is missing.
If these are to be used to teach kids how to play chess then they will also probably want to know how to notate their games. Most modern plastic boards have A-H and 1-8 along the sides. I think it's rather important for junior chess!

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Hatch End A Captain (Hillingdon League)
Harrow 2 Captain (Middlesex League)

I think alot of coaching staff will agree with you, me and Nick always try and train juniors without the notation hinters around the edge, BUT if they are really needed a letraset (or however its spelt) would do the job, there is enough room.

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Charles W. Wood
Captain of Legion

I assume you mean a letter set - those little stick-on things, but they would have to go on the playing squares themselves and wouldn't last more than a week in the hands of kids!

All the squares could be made 1-2mm smaller which would give an "edge of about 8-16mm. This would be sufficient to print the letters and numbers correctly along the sides.



I took this picture from this website
http://www.ukgamesshop.com/Merchant2/me ... de=cheqset
(I hope that's ok Carl.)

Obviously the manufacturer would have to be informed of how a chess board is set up:-
white square in bottom right, letters and numbers facing each player as shown in picture.

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Hatch End A Captain (Hillingdon League)
Harrow 2 Captain (Middlesex League)

Look closer at the board, there is a black edge, I used white letters and numbers, it worked fine and not even touched any squares. These boards aren't printed they are infection moulded. A tool to injection mould something like this is a good couple of grand. There is only two used on this board, to put the letters on makes an extra 16 sets of tooling peices. On top of the 16 piece tooling peices as well thats ok cost for the company. Each school is only getting ten, easy to adjust for coaching staff who need to use the notation hints on the edge.

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Charles W. Wood
Captain of Legion

I couldn't tell if that was an edge or the 3D view of the depth of the board. It's a bit tiny to put notation on.
Still, it's better than nothing I suppose.

Good Luck

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Hatch End A Captain (Hillingdon League)
Harrow 2 Captain (Middlesex League)

Additionally, I was thinking ahead that if these schools do eventually take up chess more seriously and take part in school leagues, then they might need notation on the boards and would also probably appreciate some consistency. Let's not forget that the kids are likely to be complete beginners. Notation is hard enough with it on the board let alone without, especially as black.

Just something to consider...

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Hatch End A Captain (Hillingdon League)
Harrow 2 Captain (Middlesex League)

Yes looks fine - if ever anyone want's me to attach photos to posts then just drop me a line

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Cheers
Carl Hibbard

I think we may need sponsorship from W H Smith. Lets see what we can do. Thanks for your thoughts on this, it all helps.

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Charles W. Wood
Captain of Legion