House of Chess Yugo (Zagreb) 4" Set, Question

I just pulled out my House of Chess Yugo (Zagreb) 4" Bud Rosewood set considering if I would use it tomorrow night for a rated game and what board I would use with it.

Here is what I ended up with.  It is on a HoS folding linen 2.375" board.  I first put the set on a 2.25" board and while it looked alright, it just gave me a weird feeling like being a bit cramped.  Here it is on that 2.375" board:

The King base diameter is 1.6", making the percentage of King base to square size about 67%!  Yes, it is that low.

But the massive size of the pieces, to me, makes the set a bigger fit.

What do you all think?

And Lou Balch, you have the numbers in a spreadsheet.   Do we have a way to take any other size numbers into account to pick the best size square for a set?

Ron, the other cardinal point to consider is the diameter of the pawns, which make up half of all the pieces on the chess board. How the pawns scale is critical in determing how the set will look on a given size board. Because the Zagreb pawns are oversized, their scaling factor on the larger 2.375" board is still a comfortable 56%, very close the 58.6% ratio recommend by my sizing scheme.

Because of this, and the fact the diameter of the queen and king are nearly identical, the set does not look disproportionately small on a 2.375" board.

To illustrate the point, set up the boxwood pieces on the 2.375" board and take a picture of the set "as is." Then replace the Zagreb pawns with some 1.18-1.2" diameter pawns from one of your other sets, and see if the set still looks as good on the board. The results may surprise you. And, for the purposed of show and tell, post both pictures and see what other members think.

Lou

I use a 2.25" board with my set, but given your preference, you could step up to 2.375" board like Eyechess is using, or step down to a 2.125" if you prefer a cozier arrangement.

You could try, but since the set conforms to USCF regulations, the only argument left is one of personal preference. Of course, if the arbiter is a friend or relative you might get away with it.

Eyechess,

I use my HoS 4" Zagreb set on a 2.25" board all the time.  Yes, it does seem slightly "cramped", but not to the point that it is distracting or unplayable.  I do not have a 2.375" board to try the pieces on, but I have set them up on my new 2.5" board, and it's quite spacious!