Sunday, September 27, 2015

More Chess Board Aesthetics

Some of my music students "discovered" I had a blog and a Tumblr account this weekend.  They were laughing at me for posting pretty chess board colors.  I had a short discussion with them about the importance of chess board aesthetics, after which two things were confirmed to them: 1) I actually do care a lot about chess board aesthetics, and 2) they have a really strange music teacher.  I'd like to think they had confirmed that chess board aesthetics are important, too, but I'm not as sure of that one.

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!

Saturday, September 5, 2015

Chess Board Color Schemes

If you are new to, well, me, you may not know that I'm quite passionate about chess board aesthetics.  In an earlier post I detailed how I made my own board with colors I chose because the combination of blue and gray on a chess board is the most pleasing to me.  I have a particular set of preferences for light square/dark square combinations.  I suspect most people do, too, they just may not spend as much time thinking about it as I do.

On other blogging sites, I have posted some of my favorite color schemes for others to use.  It's time for another one of those.  These color schemes are actually not exactly in my wheelhouse, but they are definitely suitable, and I find them attractive.  I'm posting them here so that others can either use them or base their own color combinations off of these ideas.

Coral
Dark 112,162,163
Light 177,228,185



Dusk
Dark 112,102,119
Light 204,183,174


Marine
Dark 111,115,210
Light 157,172,255


Wheat
Dark 187,190,100
Light 234,240,206


Emerald
Dark 111,143,114
Light 173,189,143


Sandcastle
Dark 184,139,74
Light 227,193,111


Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Joplin Summer Open, Round 1 Annotation