Originally posted by RBHILLThat's spoiled the surprise.
I got a Christmas Chess Set today. Santa=King, Mrs. Clause=Queen, Christmas Tree=Bishop, Rain Deer=Knight, Stack up Presents=Rook, Elfs=Pawns, and there are two elfs that you place one on each side watching.
$50 I think my mom got it at Cosco.
If the board is set up so there's a black square on your right, just take all the pieces off, swivel the board 45 degrees, so the white square is at your right, and put the pieces back.
Or am I missing something? Are you just talking about the picture on the box?
My personal hobby is collecting images from advertising of the way they frequently set up chessboards wrong for the catalog.
Originally posted by ChessMomI'll bet you have a large collection of images!
If the board is set up so there's a black square on your right, just take all the pieces off, swivel the board 45 degrees, so the white square is at your right, and put the pieces back.
Or am I missing something? Are you just talking about the picture on the box?
My personal hobby is collecting images from advertising of the way they frequently set up chessboards wrong for the catalog.
Swing the board 90 degrees, and the elves can help you play. But as spectators they are badly placed.
I referring to how the board was set up in Costco; I believe they set up as in the picture on the box.
Certainly this set is not as bad as the one I see every X-mas season in a children's store: it has the notation written around the side of the board, but wrong.
Teach bad habits, and you can harm kids immensely.
People who manufacture chess sets should make certain they know the game.
2 edits
Excellent! 😀 Score another one for the collection.
http://store.yahoo.com/priority-store/chwochset.html
Christmas Wooden Chess Set.
Each wooden game piece is handpainted
2 decorative elves sit on the sides of the board
All game pieces store neatly inside of chess set
There *are* two extra elves, that apparently just lounge at the side of the board.
Listed at $79.95.
Originally posted by WulebgrHar! That's funny. People who manufacture chess sets, and do their advertising promos, are in the main just capitalist grunts who are only out to sell chess sets, not preserve the sport, or educate anybody.
People who manufacture chess sets should make certain they know the game.
My collection is a hard-copy one, that I mainly tend to clip out of Christmas catalogs every year, and then I print out the occasional Internet gaffe, like this one.
The next most common mistake, after not having the white square in the right spot, is that they'll have the king and queen swapping places. Esthetically it's probably more desireable from a "graphic arts" POV, to have the taller piece closer to the reader, so it evens it out visually next to the shorter queen which will be farther away, but chess-wise...er...
http://www.areyougame.com/interact/item.asp?q=chess&qmethod=0&itemno=FD100281&sa=0
Also, whenever some Art Director said, "It's boring to have them set up in rows facing each other--set 'em up so it looks like they're playing a real game..." you get a box like this.
http://www.boardgamesexpress.com/images/large/chess.jpg
Asthetically it's more pleasing to have the two black rooks standing in the corners like that, but chess-wise...why isn't that black rook making itself useful on the g-file? And notice White's knight back there on the 8th rank... I mean, huh? And Black better move his Queen, huh. And how on earth did Black manage to capture one of White's rooks so early in the game? Teleportation? Or just extreme stupidity on White's part?
And one of the WORST ideas I've ever seen for a supposedly "educational" chess set is the Cardinal Chess Teacher.
http://www.boardgamesexpress.com/images/large/chessteacher.jpg
It has the instructions for "how to move this piece" printed on the base of each piece--so naturally the kid is going to PICK UP THE PIECE, to read what it said. (And then is he going to remember where he picked it up from? I doubt it...) Games with this kid are going to be "J'adoube, j'adoube, j'adoube" without end.
Also notice how you absolutely cannot tell which way this chess board is supposed to be set up--they've got the pieces scattered out there apparently at random, to "make a nice effect".
And, if the Black king may be taken to be on Rank 1, then...how did the black pawn manage to move BACKWARDS a rank?? Or maybe the black king and the white king have both managed to cross the board...? But then the board is set up wrong for that...
Anyway, it's fun spotting this stuff. I do notice that the serious chess websites never have this sort of problem--it's invariably the "Board games for sale, we gotcher board games for sale here, folks!" websites that do it.
There was this chess table set up in the KB toys window yesterday. It had a chess problem set up on it. So I went over and solved it. Later, (about an hour or two) i come back to the store and the board was set up with white's d-pawn out. So i went over and made a move 1..Nf6 and walked away. About 15 minutes later another move had been made by white, c4, so i went over again and played e6. This happened until it reached a critical position in the game. I walked over near closing time in the mall and made my move and waited for a loong time to see if the mysterious player would return. Finally, I gave up when nobody was in sight and returned to take one more look at the board. On my opponent's move he had a mate in 4, and on the board was a sticky note saying "good game, merry xmas."
Weird huh.
Originally posted by SbecspeledrXOf course, but most kids quickly learn "queen on her color" and will have their sense of justice violated when you mess with that. Your rule appears simple, but only if you precede it with a discussion of algebraic notation. If adopted, all the books that refer to light-squared bishops and dark-squared bishops must add the "light on right" explanation to reduce confusion. It is easier to teach a room full of second graders the existing rules, and preferable to making up new ones.
Surely it doesn't matter? They're only colours - could be pink and green squares for all the differencve it makes. SO long as the black queen is on d8 and the white queen on d1 who gives a flying what the colour of the square is?
Current USCF rule 2C states, "The chessboard is placed between the players in such a way that the nearer corner to the right of each player is white." 2B explains, "light squares are referred to as white squares."
Pink and green squares in the right hues work fine; the light pink square should be on the right; a1 should be green.