Is it difficult to play chess on a 4" to 6" board?

I was looking at a 6 inch board on ChessUSA and a 4" board on Chesshouse. The thing is my dorm room is very small and I want to analyze my games.

Is the board too small for that purpose? Would it not even be worth it? I keep seeing in the description of these products that the larger (8" and up) boards are marketed as ideal for analysis, but honestly, even an 8" board would be a huge commitment of table/floor space.

Does anyone have such a small board and gets a lot of good use out of it? Or is it very frustrating to use?

I used a 6.5" magnetic folding set by Drueke (" Little Jewel") for years when traveling. I loved it.

But honestly the analysis is so much easier on a phone or laptop.

If your dorm room is really that small, I would save the space for a bag of Doritos.

I've got a "Little Jewel" set, it's a great looking set. My only issue with it is that you can't store the pieces on their squares when you put it away with my set. With some travel sets you can, if you're short of space I imagine you'd want to be able to do this - so that you can have a position set up, and put the set away with the position preserved for later.

I have The Little Jewel, in still as new condition. It's a wonderful set but, I just got Chess U.S.A.'s 9.5 inch travel set. It's very nice and really a bit easier to follow, when studying, as well as being quite playable.

Good luck

I have a small magnetic set that has been my analysis board for 55 years. The board is about 5 inches by 5 inches. The pieces stand from .5 to 1 inch high.

i have found this to be much more user-friendly than a full-sized set, which takes more time to reset, or a nonmagnetic set, which has pieces that get knocked over. I can play through variations and then reset the position in just a few seconds.

players are used to seeing diagrams in chess books, so the size of my set is not an issue. And playing through variations on a real board—albeit a small one—is helpful. I can hold a book in one hand and move the pieces around with the other, with the board on my lap.

Exactly what @mikewier stated, we are used to seeing positions on a book, so a 6” set (I have both of the ones you have mentioned, and prefer the 6”) is quite useful for analysis.

@VBerriz @mikewier Thank you so much! That's exactly the advice I was looking for. I can feel confident in purchasing one now!