Where can I get a nice chess board?

Have a skilled craftsman make one for you out of top-grain leather.

It is foldable, portable, and complements a nice set of wooden pieces.

You want full-grain leather, not top-grain. Top-grain is junk. "Top" in this context doesn't refer to "top quality", it refers to the top side of the leather, which gets sanded away and then an artificial grain pattern is pressed into it. It is a method of making low-quality and/or damaged leather look better.

There are two ways to make a roll-up leather chessboard. The first way is to make it the same way as roll-up vinyl boards are made, i.e., with the checker pattern printed onto the leather with ink, like so:

The second way is to stitch individual squares of different colored leather together, like so:

For the stitched method, any competent leatherworker could probably do it. For the printed method, you need someone who knows how to screen print on leather, and is set up for printing on something 20" x 20" (which means they need a big screen, and a method of making a big film positive, and a big pallet on their press (sign printers will probably have all these things, with the likely exception of specific knowledge about printing on and selecting leather, while T-shirt printers probably won't).

Lately I've been considering making some leather boards (screen printed). I have a background in screen printing, and in leather, though I've never specifically screen printed on leather. Through research I've been able to find out what ink works best on leather, what mesh count screen to use, and various other things, and I don't think I'd have any problems doing it. The only question is: is there enough demand for such a thing to justify printing up a batch of them?

There you go!  Thanks!

BTW, I had the pleasure of tournament play on a beautiful full grain board and the owner had precision turned and milled an exqusite Staunton design set out of (the very highest quality) polyurethane I have ever seen.  You would not think a "plastic" could mimic ebony wood and ivory, but it did.  It even made the cover of the Dupont Company Magazine.  The maker has probably passed away by now, but if I could locate the board and set I would pay a high price to buy it.

Thanks for your opinion, Maxim.  I'll go tell the 3 boards we made that they're made or at least glued wrong and shoud either warp or fall apart.  At 13+ years I am sure the boards will be relieved to know they can break at any time now.

ipcress, that sure looks like a Drueke board.  Anyone interested might want to call Your Move Chess and Games to find out how these compare to the Drueke made boards.  A year or two ago I bought one of the last Drueke boards from them, so they will be able to tell if and what the differences might be.

I didn't present any opinions. I presented strictly facts.

I'll go tell the 3 boards we made that they're made or at least glued wrong and shoud either warp or fall apart.  At 13+ years I am sure the boards will be relieved to know they can break at any time now.

You can tell them of your reading difficulties while you're at it. I said:

"That's simply false. Endgrain-to-endgrain glue joints are inherently the weakest type of glue joint; that's a fact; not debatable. Now, endgrain-to-endgrain glue joints may be strong enough for the purposes of a chessboard, but regardless of that, they are certainly weaker than sidegrain and topgrain glue joints."

Does the bolding help?

Eyechess: FWIW the boards do have a Drueke seal on the bottom and are sold as the craftsmanship of Drueke's grandson. I can't imagine ChessUSA saying the quality is any less than the original.

Of course. the proof is in that pudding. I'd love to hear from anyone who ponies up $300 for a board and gets back to us.

Drueke's grandson posted on this forum, you can read his post here,

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/drueke-chess-board-on-ebay

Also there is an extensive discussion on Drueke boards in this thread,http://www.chess.com/forum/view/community/drueke-chess-set

Rishi9: Good stuff! Thanks.

I must admit I'm tempted. I loved that board we gave my grandfather.

Unfortunately he thought it was too grand to play on and stuck with his folding board.

Speaking of which -- are there any good folding boards around any more?

I'm not talking about any fancy wood (or leather for that matter) boards, just something nice. I had the Newell Banks linen board way back when and thought it was great.

I now have a vinyl folding board which is mediocre and does the job, but not inspiring. However, it's not for sale any more either.

I like a folding board because you can flip it around or carry it to another room with the position intact.

House of Staunton still sells their tournament boards as folding.  These are the Bundeliga style boards that they produce in Maghony, Maple and Palisander.  I still have the Maghony and Maple board that I use with my Proline Series Rosewood set.  These folding wooden boards fit nicely in their Deluxe Tournament Bag.

HOS is OK, but the Rochester Chess Center has folding tournament boards with the proper lower case letters.  Mahogany (on sale) for $60 and palisander for $80.  Looks like they come out of the same factory that supplies HOS.  I have one and it's that rare combination of good quality and great price.  Did I mention it has the proper lower case letters? 

http://www.chessset.com/folding-chess-board.html

Have a look on the Fritz Patrick and Weller lumber site they sell a nice Chess board made out of Hard Maple and Cherry for $94 :) Made in NY.

Just the board no set of nice pieces!

The chessset.com link is a good example of what I'm talking about: tons of vinyl boards, some in ridiculous colors, designs and sizes, and a few wooden folding boards, but nothing in between.

I'm not asking for much -- just a couple rectangles of robust cardboard covered with vinyl or linen in regular 2 1/4" green/cream squares suitable for tournament use.

Does anyone really play chess on boards with red, blue, pink, silver or gold squares?

This is a nice folding board from Rechapados.

http://www.coolchesscanada.ca/collections/chess-boards/products/folding-walnut-and-maple-chess-board-1-96-squares

Do people use folding wooden boards at tournaments? I never saw one back when I played.

A folding wooden board seems like an odd niche.

People who want a beautiful wooden board and wooden set seem like they would go for a straight flat board. People who want a board for regular use, especially in tournaments, would want something inexpensive and durable. Or so it seems to me.

Well, thanks a lot baddogno.  I just had to order one of those from the Rochester Chess Center.  A note, if you use the promotional code, "USCF1" you will get a 10% discount for being a USCF member.  Of course you need to supply them your USCF ID# in the comments area for it to go through, but that's not a problem.

ipcress12, a folding wooden board works quite well at a tournament.  The HOS deluxe bag holds the board, a set and a clock with no problems and carries easily with the shoulder strap.  And it is nice when the game is over to just put the clock and scorepad on the board with all the pieces and just carry the whole thing off to the skittles area for the post mortem.

I also acquired a couple of the old Drueke linen folding boards with the robust cardboard you mention.  The only problem is when I play a lower rated opponent and they want the letters and numbers on the board for their notation purposes.  That's when I like the, just now, Rochester Chess Center folding wooden board with the "correct" letters and numbers on it.

Like this?

http://www.wholesalechess.com/shop/chess-sets/travel-chess-sets/folding-chess-sets/quality-folding-pvc-chess-board

Well, I have purchased one of those in the above link and also a PVC folding board from Chess Central.

They aren't expensive and they don't have that great of a finish either.  I would not suggest one for tournament or rated play and I have never seen one of these used for that either.

MR: Yes, that's the board I have. Last time I checked it was out of stock. Glad to see it's back.

It's not as nice as my old linen board, but it's adequate. I use a rollup over it to cover the seam and because I like the colors better.

As fars as I can tell, it's the only decent non-wooden folding board on the market.