I brought up my "nightmare" chess board to them and told them I had a picture of it somewhere, but I wasn't sure where. It's a stock photo of an absolute abomination. It ticks all the boxes of horrendousness for me:
[x] Solid black pieces on solid black squares
[x] Solid white pieces on solid white squares
[x] Pieces way too big for squares
[x] Vinyl board curling up on the edges
If the vinyl board were curling up inside the playing area, it would be even worse, but this photo doesn't have that. I have seen a photo that had that, too, but I instantly closed all the tabs, uninstalled my browser, slammed my laptop shut, and punched the person sitting next to me instead of saving it.
Anyway, I told them I would write a short blog post if I found where I had saved that nightmare chess set photo. So here it is. And, here is the photo:
Gross!