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!