2.25" chess pieces on 1.95" chess board: possible or not?

Hello everyone,

It's now some days that I'm continuosly browsing the HoS website, searching for a nice wooden set to buy. As today, I only have one set that I love, it's a Championship series set with a 3,25" king height and the pieces fits perfectly on the squares of my wooden board that are 5 cm, so a litte less than 2". But searching in the site, I saw that pratically 95% of the sets that I would like to buy have a recommended board size of 5.7 cm, so 2.25". I was wondering if I buy one of these sets, will they still be ok on my 5 cm board? Or I really need to buy a larger board before purchasing one of those sets? Maybe someone here had a similar experience, and I really appreciate if someone could help me. 

Also sorry for my English, I know it's not perfect, but I hope the message that I want to say is clear ahaha

Thank you in advance

I think the best way for you to decide is to look at the board and pieces you have, and ask yourself if you think it looks too crowded? Pay particular attention to the King and Queen. There are some general rules and it’s common to say that the King should fill just over 75% (3/4) of a square and you should be able to fit two pawns diagonally inside a square (some like 4 pawns inside a square). These are recommendations that pleases most people, but in the end, it’s your set and your choice. The sellers who are serious about Chess will mention the diametre of at least the King and pawns (some mention all). So you’d most likely be pleased with a King who’s diametre fills about 74-78% of the square. If you go above or below this range, I doubt you’ll like it as much.

Here’s one of my sets, where I think that the pieces have just the right amount of space:

Here’s a friend’s set, which I think is too crowded, and should have either a larger board or smaller pieces (the King almost fills a whole square):

Hope this helps!

Cheers,

Toby

Thank you Toby, your comment helped me a lot. I completely agree that your friend's set looks too crowded, that's really the scenario that I'm trying to avoid. I will do my calculations with the measures that you gave me, if I remember correctly, the HoS website gives the diameter of the King, I will try to decide with that.

Thanks again Toby, and cheers,

Fabrizio

👍

I liked Izmet Fekali’s recommendation as well... where he placed the King and Queen next to eachother but diagonally. Then you should be able to move the Bishop between them on the opposite diagonal (if only just barely) without touching them.

Cheers,

Toby

Thanks again Toby, I was just measuring my actual set and it's perfect for the size of my actual chess board. When i put four pawns in a square, there is even still a little bit of space. The diameter of my King is 3.1/3.2 cm, and a lot of the HoS chess sets have a King with the diameter of 3.8 cm. So now I'm wondering if that 0.6 more diameter lenght will result on a crowded chess board, unfortunately I don't have the pieces with the 3.8 cm King, so I can't measure them surely on my board. I would really like to buy one of these sets to verify that, but I also don't want to "waste" my money and have a chessboard that looks like a metro station at 12am without social distancing. So I'm really in a dilemma ahaha, but I will try to do my best to erase all of the doubts.

Cheers,

Fabrizio

Just check that I have understood you correctly, please: you have a board with 50mm squares (that you will keep) and wish to buy a new set of pieces where the Kings diametre is 38mm?

If so, I think that will be just fine!! 38 of 50mm is 76% which sounds like a perfect fit, assuming that the pieces are otherwise well proportioned.

Here is a picture of DGT’s plastic pieces on a board with 50mm squares (The Kings base measures 39mm =>78% which is the upper end of what I like):

Exactly Toby, that is exactly what I was trying to say. Glad to hear that! My doubts were all on that, because the 32mm King's diametre is perfect on my board, so I was worried about the 38mm being too big, but apparentely no as you say! Thank you very much, you don't even know how much you helped me, I had these doubts for a week and now I'm really relieved.

Have a great day!

A pleasure! It might be an unfamiliar sight at first with the bigger pieces, but I think you’ll like it once you see it. If your King now is 32mm, that’s just 64% which in my opinion would be too small... but that is actually close the proportions on DGT’s Timeless pieces on the tournament size (55mm) boards (65%):

This would be 76.4% (RCM’s 3.9" Craftsman series pieces (King diametre 42mm on a 55mm board)):

Just one last one, here are DGT Plastic pieces (King stands 95mm tall and 43mm wide) on a 57mm (=75.4%) mat:

So the proportions here and on the RCM’s Craftsman series set above are the closest to match the proportions of what you’ll have with a 38mm wide King on a 50mm board.

/Toby

Firstly I want to congratulate you for all the sets you have, they're all beautiful (I have a soft spot for the Slavic theme, like the Dubrovnik that you posted earlier) and I really wish one day I'll have a nice collection like yours. Secondly, I have to thank you once more for the effort of sending me these photos, they're really really helpful to see the proportions that I would have, because as I said, I couldn't verify that by myself, so that's really kind of you. As I can  see, the proportions would look really nice and not cramped, as you said, maybe I will need a little bit of time to adapt my eyes to the bigger pieces, but I also think that I will like them. So a question out of pure curiosity: the pieces of your friend that look too much crowded, what are their measures if you know them? So I can know what measures I absolutely need to avoid ahaha

Thank you, and you’re welcome!

The Dubrovnik is my favourite design... the Noj Minceta set is marvelous, but of course as the saying goes, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". I also like the BCE (Best Chessmen Ever) Stage 1.

But they’re all very expensive and I can’t afford such luxury at the moment, but it’s always nice to have a goal. 😊

I’ve asked my friend with the crowded/cramped board to measure the King, so I’ll hopefully be back soon with the numbers. 😉

Cheers,

Toby

My friend’s set has 45mm squares and a King with a 40mm diametre base (100mm tall)... so that’s what 88.9% looks like.

Ok now I understand why they look cramped ahaha, but that wouldn't be even remotely my case, so that's a nice sense of relief. Probably you don't imagine the feeling of joy that I have, to know that most of the sets that I liked, and I thought they were too big for me, are instead now available, such a good news you gave me Toby. Talking about the sets that I like, and maybe you could also help me with some advice with that, I'm targeting sets in the 100-200 euros range, as I said before, I like the Slavic style, and I saw this Minsk set that seems very nice for its price:

https://www.houseofstaunton.com/the-minsk-chess-pieces-3-75-king-23185.html

As you can see, the diameter of the King is 3.8, and HoS recommended a 5,7cm board, so that's why I had all these doubts, doubts that fortunately are now erased.

That’s a beautiful set! I think they recommend that size board because that particular set of pieces are slightly taller than many other with that diametre base is.

So even if the footprint is a good match, it may look out of place if they’re too tall. But if you really like the pieces, getting a new board is cheaper than buying new pieces.

Here’s a picture of my old set which I passed on to another friend... they’ve got some space as far as the squares go, but they stand tall. Perhaps not the best picture, but it’s the only one I have of it:

I’ve sent him a text, asking if he can measure the King for me... it’s pictured on a 50mm board.

That King is 96mm tall, 35mm wide on 50mm squares.

Ok so you're saying that maybe it's better to search for another set that has the same King's diameter but are a little smaller in height or do you think that they could fit nicely anyway?

Ah and I also see that the set that you gave to your friend and the Minsk one are basically identical in measurements, the Minsk King is 95 mm and yours you said 96 mm, a bit wider because it is 38mm vs 35 mm, so I think the optic effect would be more or less the same as I would have

I think they will fit nicely!

Another guide that many use, is that the King should be shorter than the width of two squares (and a Rook should be as tall as the squares are wide)... so in your case, less than 100mm.

Based on numbers alone and comparing to proportions I’ve been able to compare with, it sounds good to me!

Toby thank you so much for your kindness and patience to ask all my questions, I'm really grateful. If you know some nice sets in the 100-200 euros range that you want to advise me, in the measurements that now you know by heart ahaha, feel free to tell me, I'll hear your advices with pleasure.