Guide
Choosing your board.
Which size, which material, which pieces. Three questions, honestly answered.
1. Where will it live?
Under 30 cm is a travel board: it lives in a bag and comes out on trains and at friends' houses. Between 30 and 39 cm is the living-room size, generous enough for a comfortable game and composed enough to stay out. From 44 cm you are in full-size territory, the scale of proper games played by the rules.
2. What should the pieces be made of?
Timber for warmth and quiet. Metal for weight in the hand and the sound of a move. Crystal for light, and for a board people stop in front of.
3. Magnetic, drawers or folding?
Magnetic if the board will move mid-game. Drawers if it stays on one table. Folding if it travels. Several of our sets combine two of the three.
At a glance
Sizes, explained
Board size is the single measurement that matters most. Everything else follows from it.
Travel. Lives in a bag, comes out on trains and at friends' houses. The Voyager 24 and 29, The Duet 24, The Consul.
Living room. Comfortable to play, composed enough to stay out. The Vault, The Sovereign, The Oslo, The Prism, The Duet 30 and 38, The Voyager 34 and 39.
Full-size. The scale of proper games. The Regent (45 cm, 9 cm queen), The Voyager 44 and 49.
Where we publish it, it is in the specifications on the product page. As a rule, a king around 9 cm suits a 45 cm board; smaller boards carry proportionally smaller pieces.
Divide the board size by roughly eight and a half to allow for the border. A 45 cm board gives squares of about 5 cm, the size most clubs use.
Magnetic if the board will move mid-game. Drawers if it stays on one table. Folding if it travels. The Duet and The Vault combine magnets with drawers; The Voyager combines magnets with a folding case.
For the room
Oslo, Prism, Sovereign
Every dimension in centimetres. Tap a board for its full specifications.
35 × 35 cm
37 × 37 cm
30.5 × 30.5 cm
Solid oak
Mirror-polished squares
Mahogany
Sculpted hardwood, two-tone
Crystal, amber and smoked grey, weighted
Weighted cast metal, silver and copper
No
No
No
None, made to display
None, a centrepiece
Integrated drawer, 2 spare queens
No
No
No
The room
The room
The permanent fixture
Magnetic & storage
Vault, Duet, Voyager
32 × 32 cm
24 · 30 · 38 cm
24 to 49 cm, six sizes
Maple
Walnut and maple
Walnut
Magnetic hardwood
Magnetic, two-tone
Magnetic, stored inside
Yes
Yes
Yes
Integrated drawers
Integrated drawers
Closes into its own case
No
No
Yes
The living room, games in sessions
Travel to full-size, three sizes
The road, and the table
Folding & metal
Regent and Consul
45 × 45 cm
30 × 30 cm
Solid wood
Solid wood, baize interior
Electroplated silver and copper, 9 cm queen
Cast metal, gold and copper, 6.3 cm king
No
No
Fitted compartments
Fitted baize compartments, brass clasps
Yes
Yes
Full-size play
Desks and weekends away
Still deciding
Three shortcuts
The Prism, if their set is timber. The Regent, if theirs is small. The Voyager, if theirs never leaves the house.
Go full-size: The Regent, or The Voyager in 44 or 49 cm. Serious players notice proportions before anything else.
Choose the object, not the game: The Oslo or The Prism. They are chosen for the room first.
The collection
The boards
