After viewing several different pictures of chess, I have noticed there seems to be a variety of ways in which people face their knights, straight ahead, facing the king, angled towards the center of the board,.  I am curious on how people face there knights?

 

Mine are either straight ahead or facing the king, depending on my mood.

i like mine facing the sides of the board as they are most visable that way.

straight ahead. towards the battle!

Seems like it doesn't matter which way any of the pieces face. I think knights look best, however, when angled slightly so that you AND your opponent can see part of that fierce profile!

When descriptive notation was used, some players placed the knights facing the king and queen. That way they always knew which one was the king knight and which one was the queen knight, except when the knights were not placed facing the original way. That could be all the time.

My knights face straight ahead. For me, it seems like it is the direction all the other pieces face.

I just put them on the board any old way.

I have an obsession about chess pieces.Before starting a game,I ensure my pieces are all placed nicely.Knights look forward(CHAAARGEE!!!!),Bishops turn their back to me(front is the part with the line),King's cross is placed horizontally to me.

For me personally, I like both of my knights facing inwards toward my King and my Queen.  For my bishops, I like the bishop on the left's line facing me, and the right bishop's line facing my opponent.  Yes, I know, I am strange.

knights have to face forwards for me, at the start of the game, and all my pieces have to be in the centre of their squares.  I think my knights will turn around as i play, but should stay facing generally forwards. 

Straight ahead, where the fight is...

I do it the way Lonnie said and for that reason.

I think I read in a chess book somewhere that they "normally" face left, except Brits normally face them right.   I face them left because that's the way I see them in chess book diagrams, and I like to see their profile.  I'm used to it that way now.  edit: what I read probably refered specifically to chess book diagrams; duh!

Haha, a new psych out ploy for OTB.  Face your knigts backwards, facing you.  Or maybe one backwards and one forwards.  Or maybe rotate by 90 degrees each move.  Drive the obsessive compulsive opponent nuts ;).  (I'm kidding.  I'd probably drive myself nuts first.)

When mine start the game, they face straight ahead, then every time they make a move, they finish the move facing directy towards my opponent's king, and stay still till they move again, when they turn to face the opposning king again, lest they lose focus and wonder off aimlessly.

Having read some of the replies so far I am glad to see that I am not the only one who has a slight case of OCD about their chess pieces. If I was to start an over the board game and the pieces werent all just right it would put me off lol. For me the knights face straight ahead at all times.

GreenLaser wrote: When descriptive notation was used, some players placed the knights facing the king and queen. That way they always knew which one was the king knight and which one was the queen knight, except when the knights were not placed facing the original way. That could be all the time.

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For many years I kept my game scores in the descriptive notation and now fide doesnt allow it. Does USCF allow it still ? I was keeping a score in descriptive here in Portugal and the arbiter informed me it wasnt allowed and that algebraic is required now in fide rated events. I will play in the US next month and am considering keeping score in the old descriptive notation.

Facing my king

Straight left or right, always looking to the sides lol

I get totally wound up about it, they have to face sideways towards the centre (or center as the case may be), so king's knight always faces left and queen's knight faces right.  Like Reb I learned with descriptive notation, maybe that's it.  Hate it when people face them forwards..so Aqua Man just as well we're not playing otb lol.

Algebraic notation has been used in the US for decades. In descriptive notation, a move might have been written as KN-Q5 or QN-Q5. The bishops are on different colors, but the rooks can be confused. Ambiguous moves were avoided in the game score by the simple solution, that would apply to a Sicilian with white knights on c3 and d4,  of writing N/4-N5 or N/3-N5. Then it was not necessary to know where the knights started. Descriptive notation's weakness was having two different names for each square.