Friday, March 18, 2016
Arkansas Open This Weekend
Tomorrow is the annual Arkansas Open chess tournament in Fayetteville, Arkansas. I will be finally updating this blog with some chess content. While we wait, here are some pictures of my finished chess boards since I never posted any!
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Progress Part 3!
Thrilled with the red one. There are a couple of minor paint bleeds, but they are pretty easily fixable. I've already fixed one and after the paint dries, I will fix the other one. Then onto the protective coating of polycrilic.
Friday, January 1, 2016
Progress Pics Part 2
Finished up the white squares portion of the paint job on the green and the red boards. No time to do too much since I was leaving town to visit family and barely got this done. Threw some pieces on the boards and didn't notice until too late that I had both(!!) boards oriented incorrectly. No time to fix it so just snapped the pics and then had to run. Literally barely got these taken at all so don't be too hard on me for being an idiot and setting them up wrong.
Really happy with these so far. The black borders should improve them a lot, too.
The green board (2.25" squares) will have a thicker black border I think.
If the orientation really bugs you, here is a mirror image!
Really happy with these so far. The black borders should improve them a lot, too.
The green board (2.25" squares) will have a thicker black border I think.
If the orientation really bugs you, here is a mirror image!
Thursday, December 31, 2015
New Chess Board Project
I've been kicking this idea around for awhile, now. Last night I bit the bullet and went to Home Depot for a few supplies to get started. My last chess board project featured a tabletop with two chessboards painted on, detailed earlier on this blog. I wanted to follow it up with something a little more useful, but still unique. I hit upon the idea of a chess board on both sides, top and bottom, of a piece of wood. The chess boards would be different colors so that before a game, one could choose what colors to play with.
I recently got a chess set for Christmas that turned out to be a little larger than what I like to be comfortable on a 2.25" square board. It still works ok, but I think it would be better on a 2 3/8" board. I didn't want to make my new project that size because that would mean only that one set would work with it. So I decided to compromise. I would make two separate double boards, one with the pair of boards having 2.25" squares, and the other having 2.375" squares. I also decided that I wanted to try a red color with my new set, so one of the two colors on that board would be red. I would decide on the color to go on the bottom of that board based on which of the two other colors on the other board I liked best. I had decided on a green and a blue for that board. Below are the mock-ups of the layout and approximate colors for the boards. Board one would have 2.25" squares on both the top side and bottom side. One of the sides would be the blue and one would be the green. Board two would have 2.375" squares on both the top side and bottom side. One of the sides would be the red and the other side would be decided between either the green or the blue.
I recently got a chess set for Christmas that turned out to be a little larger than what I like to be comfortable on a 2.25" square board. It still works ok, but I think it would be better on a 2 3/8" board. I didn't want to make my new project that size because that would mean only that one set would work with it. So I decided to compromise. I would make two separate double boards, one with the pair of boards having 2.25" squares, and the other having 2.375" squares. I also decided that I wanted to try a red color with my new set, so one of the two colors on that board would be red. I would decide on the color to go on the bottom of that board based on which of the two other colors on the other board I liked best. I had decided on a green and a blue for that board. Below are the mock-ups of the layout and approximate colors for the boards. Board one would have 2.25" squares on both the top side and bottom side. One of the sides would be the blue and one would be the green. Board two would have 2.375" squares on both the top side and bottom side. One of the sides would be the red and the other side would be decided between either the green or the blue.
So, again, last night I bought all the supplies and put a couple of coats of the main colors on one side of each board. I chose green and red to start. After drying all night, I got out a yardstick and pencil and started making the grid for the board. 2 3/8" squares on the red and 2 1/4" squares on the green. I have to wait until tonight to tape it up and start painting the light squares, so here is my first progress picture. Here is the red board. The grid is drawn on lightly in pencil, and I put my new Zagreb 59 chess set on it to preview the color contrasts and spacing. I'm really happy with the way it looks so far and can't wait for the next step!
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:
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
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
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