Chessboard Option: Light and Dark Squares - Custom Colors

Hi Everybody,

It would be really useful to have the feature that is already possible in Chess "Variants" (select light and dark square colors) in other parts of the site (live chess, daily games and vs computer chessboard). Any plans to have this option in the near future?

Also, it would be really great to have those pieces Classic and Alpha, exactly like the ones in Variants, because they are really easy to distinguish.

Thanks for the attention.

All the best

+1

Look at my posting history -- I have been asking for this for two years consistently at least once a quarter. What came of it? The leadership doesn't seem to care about colors, that's how I understand it.

Well this time may work. Who knows? I mean please don't bring people hopes down (not trying to be rude, I think it's better if you make the tone sounds more enthusiastic and little bit less faithless, but you can be anything you like, just suggesting)

The site would need to redesign the boards for that to work, since from what I can tell, the whole board is stored as an image right now. To have custom square colors, they would need to have squares set to a it's own element so that the background color could be set.

There may be another way to do it I guess, maybe generating the board image based on the colors or something. My guess is it's unlikely.

Thanks for the answer, Martin. Much appreciated.

I understand. Perhaps in the future it may be an option to define the hue / saturation of the current image of the chessboard, so that the user can select the colors that are more pleasing to their eyes, also the saturation (I already suggested this in another post in the past ). It can be controlled using CSS image filters (hue-rotate, saturation, etc.). Thus, the user can change the appearance of the current chessboard images to a large number of combinations, without the need to upload new images.

All the best

If possible, please consider adding those piece sets mentioned (Classic and Alpha, from the Chess Variants board to Live Chess). They are really great.

+1

Hi there.

I believe the Alpha and Classic piece styles are already available in Live. You can access them either from the settings pop-up on the Live Chess page, or in the global Settings. Am I misunderstanding your request?

In terms of the ability to choose custom board colors (rather than choosing from our list of preset board colors), we appreciate the feedback and will take it into consideration. Can you say more about why you would value this? Is it just that you like the idea of being able to mix and match any color at any time, or is there something missing from our current list of color presets?

Hi @rhymeswithgod

I would like to opine on why having custom board light/dark square colors (like you have engineered for variants) should be

1. made available for all pieces also (not only boards)
2. ported to Android and Apple (in addition to the website).
3. shouldn't be limited to variants but be made available in all playing modes (including puzzles)

For one, it simply looks good, which is a big plus for the platform. You would differentiate yourself from other chess offerings out there many of which provide preset boards with distinct color combinations (I don't think arbitrary light/dark square settings are allowed anywhere else BTW, kudos). Secondly, some of us simply get tired of looking at the same boards, it makes for a dull experience, so change of scenery is a welcome reprieve. Thirdly, not all of the backgrounds and piece sets mesh well together with the boards available in the default selection (including translucent and overlay).

For example, chess.com offers many pieces that are essentially black and white (classic, cases, vintage, book, alpha, modern come to mind) and they couple very well stylistically only with certain other predefined boards. It would have been totally awesome to have green pieces (e.g. black side) which would combine naturally with mango yellow but I digress. The idea is, arbitrary light/dark square color selection is a stylistic device that allows to compensate for the limited selection of pieces styles that we have been given.

Next logical step: enabling custom color selection for pieces. This would unshackle us from having to live with most of the insipid graphical choices -- all should be well then.

BTW, here is another post on a similar theme:

https://www.chess.com/clubs/forum/view/customizable-pieces-suggestion

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but I'd *love* the ability to select custom square colors. My primary reason would be to create less bright variants of the default "Blue" or "Brown" boards. As it stands, these are both a bit too bright when running dark mode or in a dark room, so I end up sticking with Walnut. However, I'd much prefer to NOT have textures.

Thanks for any consideration.

You're very unlikely to get any consideration. Trust me, I've been at it for five long years, hoping chess.com, the most progressive online platform, the best financed, the one that employs the most advanced minds, will give us users an ability to select custom colors for boards squares and pieces, custom board and pieces uploads, at least add some more boards. I pleaded, I messaged, I reasoned, all for naught. I just recently received a reply from member services telling me (essentially), SOL. 

That's a real shame. With all the new stuff going in, it's amazing to me that this sort of minor customization isn't available. I thought for sure with the maturation of their dark mode that they'd add more suitable "dark mode friendly" board colors but alas.

Its likely very significant work to be able to make customizable boards similar to what's available in /variants.

When I say customizable, I'm just looking for the ability to set a hex color code for dark and another hex color code for light. Just something to be able to darken up the Brown or Blue base color boards.