Notation orientation

I just read Shelby's blog post on board notation (from a year ago - yeah, I'm a little slow!) and I absolutely agree!

One additional adjustment I'd suggest is rotating the numbers on white's right 180 degrees so that their baseline is on the board side (rather than the edge).  This change gives consistency with white's left-side numbering and makes black's  (either side) perspective consistent as well.

Your thoughts?

I like the way Shelby prints the notation on his new boards. it makes sense to me.

Haha, board print philosophy, that is great.. !

Let me please give the board in question, with the picture taken from the blog post linked in #1:
 ..and from the black perspective, with a snap from the shop:

The argument given in the blog is: Most people are right-handed, and most scorebooks will lie to the right of the board. Yet, on all common chess boards, the column of numbers on the right side appears upside down, giving the 'righties' a harder time to do their notation!

This reminds me of Chepukaitis' advice for blitz players, to always play your pieces closest to clock

The fair solution tried out by Shelby is to turn the numbers sideways by 90 degrees, so that neither 'lefties' nor 'righties' have to read the numbers closest to their scorebooks upside down.

Shelby even entertains the thought that the common printing may have been designed by a left-handed person. I'm left handed myself, so who am I to judge

e2-e4. c7-c5: It has always made sense to me that we do not use only numbers, like in a coordinate system- where our moves would be 5/2 to 5/4 answered by 3/7 to 3/5- because lines and ranks have totally different functions and meanings.

You might be tempted to read 2e-4e, 7c-5c, but once you get used to starting with the horizontal letters, it is easy to flow from letters below the first (or eighth) rank to the numbers left of the a-file (or h-file). And while at first I was laughing at Shelby's suggestion, I now find that notation is indeed easier for 'lefties' like me on the common printing, because (on our way to learning instinctive or automatic notation) our eyes will go from below our first rank to the left and- just a little bit further will land on our scoresheet. While of course the right-handed, if they want to pick up the rank number on the left side, where it reads fine, they will have to return with their findings all the way over to the right side and their score sheet all the way over there.

I honestly wonder if 'righties' really go through these motions or adopt a habit of picking up the ranks overhead, on the right side, close to their scoresheet early. (In that case, they might even profit from their artistical effort, over all).

But the numbers sideways are good, for sure. I especially like how the letters that we are bringing from below, on one vertical side, they join the numbers to lift them up and drop correctly onto our scoresheets together, while on the other vertical side, the letters join the numbers, the twosomes folding down correctly onto our scoresheets. This is different for playing black or white, but the printing direction of the numbers is fully arbitrary, and how ever it is done is fully arbitrary in regard to fairness. 

Now, finally, to GrandPatzerDave's suggestion to change the way to print the numbers Shelby chose and have all 'feet' of numbers pointing inwards, instead, into the board rather than on one side pointing inwards and on one outwards: I think you are right, it would be more consistent, because we would have the lifting up and parachute effect of the coordinates on any vertical side, regardless of what handedness we have and colour we play. But, of course, printing all numbers feet outwards would amount to the same consistency, bringing us the folding down effect of the coordinates on either vertical side and regardless of handedness and playing black or white, instead.

So, which one of the four possible ways to print the numbers sideways are we to choose? Thinking of lookers-on alongside the board, it would seem more natural to have the numbers facing two ways. Should that be achieved? And if so, to achieve that, should numbers' feet point all inwards or all outwards?

On a side note: To make the perspectives from the sides of the board part of the printing scheme would also very nicely and usefully mark that chess is not a game depending on or best being understood from the individual perspective. 

The way of printing sideways that Shelby chose to start out on this enterprise (per accident, as it sounds) has the quality that every string of numbers reads 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. While, with numbers' feet all pointing inwards, for example, we'd read 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 on the verticals close to our scorebooks as left-handers playing black and as right-handers playing white, while reading 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 as left-handers playing white and as right handers playing black. (Or all of this vice versa, with numbers' feet all pointing outwards). All in or all out for the numbers would be in tune with the letters having their feet all pointing outwards and black reading h, g, f, e, d, c, b, a. Now imagine all letters' feet pointing towards the board, us picking up the line-coordinates at the far side: No gain and all loss, black is still reading the sequence backwards and, what's more, the pieces are getting into the way. It is not our topic to achieve fairness in letter reading for black and white. But these, too, it seems, could use a makeover. We'd have to turn them sideways, with A's feet pointing towards B

But okay, if it is not useful having the letters' feet pointing inwards, this may help to find a winner for what numbering, too: Accepting the importance of the perspective of the lookers-on, one set of numbers should be readable from each side of the board. That leaves us to decide: 'all numbers' feet pointing inwards' or 'all outwards'. And 'all outwards' could win for the same reason it does in case of the letters: because the pieces are not getting into the way for the lookers-on.