Opinions on Jaques chess boards

Wow that looks fantastic cgrau. Even in the pictures you can tell it is a big set.

Is the board too shiny? Can you play on the board without getting distracted by its gloss/seeing your reflection in it?

Not shiny at all. A great board to play on.

A year or so ago HOS upgraded me to an elm burl board when the board I ordered was out of stock. It is a very nice board, molded edge and all, and looks fantastic with my blood rosewood 3.75" Collector set. Mine doesn't look as dark as cgrau's but maybe that's just the lighting. The squares on mine don't have as much figure either. I assumed it was because I told HOS that I ordered the original board because it had very little figure and would go well with a set I have with a lot of figure in the pieces. They may have picked an elm board with little figure for that reason... or I just got a simple one because it was a free upgrade.

It's the lighting.

I was in contact with HOS regarding this board last spring, and asked them when the 2.5 inch version would be restocked. Turned out the factory that made this board had burned down a few months earlier and was out of business. This year, HOS started offering similar boards in solid wood (made by Custom Wood Creations?), but they were retracted after a breif period of time. 

I'm still on the lookout for a nice matte veneer board with a fat, logo-free frame and recessed playing surface. They seem hard to come by.

Facinating. I haven't spoken with HOS about it, but they appear to have it in stock now, manufactured in the UK, it appears. I wonder if it's the same blokes who make the Jaques boards I was complaining about.

Thanks for the info, Bob. That's sad indeed. I really like that board.

We purchased this HOS board, pictured below, some time ago. Is this the one as mentioned ?

Yes!

Thanks cg, didn't know the board was discountinued. It's a very nice board indeed to play on and never have to worry about pieces sliding off. 

It's odd that it is being discontinued. It's a nice board but I say it's odd because they must still have a few available to sell with their dubrovnik combo.

Does anyone know why jaques stopped using holly&maple for their boards and moved to walnut&sycamore? I'm just wondering if the old combination of holly&maple had a richer appearance.

BTW, nice mate!

According to mr. Camaratta, good quality holly is difficult to obtain, at least in the scale required for mass production of chessboards. I would guess the same applies for JL. On a related note, it seems like JLs board selection are being discontinued as well? Only the 23-inch left on jaqueslondon.cu.uk, and few left of the 18-inch inlaid and framed boards in addition to the 23-inch on jaquesamerica.com. 

Thanks for the insight Tambar.  It seems that the 20inch are all gone now as not even jaquesamerica.com are selling the 20 inch, only the 18 and the 23 inch...

It seems odd to me that Jaques isn't offering their 20inch board now - all their 3.5 (and perhaps even 3.75) inchchess sets would suit the 20 inch better than the 23 inch board.