Chess Board

Hi Chess Members,

                    I am looking for recommendation on size for a board I am looking to buy. I currently have Chess Pieces with the King's base being 3.5cm. According to official Fide standards, what should be my board square size? Thanks

Most of the local/city tournaments employ the 3.5 or 3.75 inch King w/ a 1.5” base. Board size = 2.25”  (mostly).

FIDE rules:

For a FIDE board, it is reccomended that the board be 5 to 6.5 cm. There is some leeway, if both parties agree.

 For the size king that you are referenceing, I would reccomend that you stay closer to 5 cm.

 Bradford - Chess Sets

Staunton standard:

(from: http://www.houseofstaunton.com/KingCart/faq.html#001)

"The minimum square size for a set of properly proportioned Staunton Pattern Chessmen is such that the width of the base of the King should be 78% of the width of a square. In other words, you should  divide the King's base diameter by 0.78 to determine the ideal square size for the Chessboard."

so 3.5cm / 0.78 = 4.49cm

That is minimum, so I guess about 5cm square should be optimal.

How well a set fits a board depends on not just the diameter of the base of the pieces. I have both the Collector and the Collector II. The latter has the same diameter bases as the standard Collector but has much more bulbous bases and much stouter stems on the king, queen, and bishop. As a result it needs a larger square to get the same sense of space. Not a big deal you might think but if you are buying an expensive wood board you might want to have an exact idea of what size square you will stay happy with as you pair it with your pieces.