The Complete Guide to Chess Board Woods

This is your first stop in selecting woods for chess boards. Whether you are building or buying, the wood you select will affect the appearance, durability, sound, and quality of the board. 

Read on to learn about the best woods for chess boards, good pairings, different price points, and other useful information.

Intro to Wooden Chess Boards

Wood is a favorite material for making chess boards for obvious reasons. Wooden chess boards don’t just look classic; they are of excellent quality. The color, texture, and solidity of the right wood can last long enough to become heirlooms, antiques, or even historical artifacts.  

These works of art are made from two types of wood with contrasting colors to create the chequered pattern. Sometimes, a third wood is used to make a border or base. Chess boards are made through two main processes:

Solid wood construction, in which craftsmen join wood blocks together. The less common method, but considered to create the highest quality boards. 

Veneer construction, in which they layer thin sheets of wood on a base, creating a seamless final appearance.

While wooden chess boards require expert craftsmanship, finishing, and coating, the right wood is always the beginning. It needs to be a durable hardwood, with a pleasing appearance, and an appropriately light or dark color. 

Chessboard Woods

These short descriptions should help you to understand the benefits of the most common woods for chess boards. We’ll look at appearance, durability, price, and any other features that make a wood unique.

Maple 

This pale, white-yellow wood is the most common choice for the light-colored squares. It also happens to be excellent quality.

Maple has a very fine grain, so the squares have a consistent, smooth appearance. Depending on the finish, it can be satiny, matte, or glossy. It’s extremely hard and durable, which is a key consideration for chess boards. The goal is a strong surface and a clicking sound for the pieces.

Depending on their pairing, Maples are generally in the lower price range, but certain types can be more expensive. For example, Bird’s Eye, Curly, and Superior Maple.

Walnut 

The dark-square woods vary more widely, but a very common and fairly affordable option is walnut. It has a rich brown color and a more noticeable grain, which can vary from straight to wavy. 

As you can see here, it pairs well with maple. The more pronounced grain and rich color contrast nicely with the smoothness of the lighter wood. 

Ash

Ash is another interesting choice for the light squares on a chessboard. Much rarer than maple, it has more grain and varies quite widely in color. Naturally, the paler wood is used for the light chess squares. It is quite affordable, but the appearance is more unique, giving what some describe as a rustic look. 

Rosewood 

As the name suggests, rosewood has a slightly reddish hue. The grain is often slightly wavy with darker streaks. It finishes very well and is slightly more striking than walnut. 

A dense hardwood that is also extremely workable, it is a popular choice for dark squares. Variations you might find include Golden Rosewood, Indian Rosewood, and Burmese Rosewood.

Ebony

Ebony is one of the most valuable woods for a reason. Its pure, dark colors are what people first think of, but it is also extremely dense, heavy, and strong. It can also be polished to an almost mirror-like sheen. The tree grows slowly and in specific areas, making the genuine article rare. It is an excellent choice for a luxurious and high-contrast chess boards. 

Take this option of genuine ebony and maple. The dramatic contrast and the pureness of the colors make a beautiful pairing.

Mahogany 

Mahogany is a darker wood used for chess board squares. However, it is also an excellent choice for board frames. A classic furniture wood, it has a rich, solid color and a very straight grain. Mahogany develops a lovely patina over time, explaining why it is so often the material of prized antiques. 

Olive Wood 

The wood from olive trees is well-known for its ability to withstand wear and tear. It has a unique swirling grain and pleasant honey color. When paired with a very dark wood, it works well as the light squares.

It is also an ecological choice. Olive trees are never grown for their wood; instead, when they stop bearing fruit, become old or damaged, they are pruned or cut down, and their wood is repurposed. 

Blackwood 

For a pure black square, blackwood is an excellent alternative to ebony. More common and less expensive, it is still of premium quality. It is technically a species of rosewood and retains that density and heaviness. Like ebony, it can also be finished beautifully.

It is also dark enough that it goes well with less pale woods, like olivewood, without losing the necessary contrast. 

Wenge 

Wenge is another attractive dark colored wood with an interesting grain. It meets all the key criteria for a chess board: heavy, hard, and highly durable. The dark color means it can pair well with a wide variety of woods for the light squares, even if they are not extremely white. These lower contrast boards are also very popular. 

Holly

Holly is another option for the white squares. It has an extremely pure, pale color, so it pairs well with many darker woods. While it has excellent aesthetic qualities, the wood itself is less durable than the others mentioned. However, with proper finishing, storage, and care, it can last perfectly well. 

Palisander 

Technically, another type of rosewood, African Palisander, is a premium chess board wood with a dark, rich appearance. It often has a rippling type of grain that can look almost like tiger stripes in certain cases. Often a little more expensive, it is a less common but excellent choice for chess boards. 

Other Woods 

The above are typical woods for chess boards, but there are many less common choices. This includes teak, paduak, elm, amboyna, bacote, bubinga, cocobolo, bloodwood, vavona, hornbeam, birch, sycamore, and more. While some of these are rarer, all can help form exceptional-quality chess boards. 

Types, Grades, and Colors

Often, the names of these woods include their origins or specific types. Otherwise, dyed woods may be named after their coloring.

Burls and Bird’s Eyes

You will often see these words accompanying tree names like burl and bird’s eye. 

A burl is wood sourced from an unusually shaped growth on the tree. When trees grow in abnormal ways, the grain of the wood takes on an attractive swirling pattern. This twisted and knotted grain makes the wood rare, beautiful, and a wonderful choice for chess boards.

Bird’s eye is an even rarer wood formation, making it highly sought after. Common in certain types of maple, it refers to a circular grain pattern that repeats naturally.

Origins & Grades

Not all maples, mahoganies, and rosewoods are made equal. Certain types of these trees are rarer and of higher quality. Wood that is specially selected for its strength, appearance, and quality is sometimes marked as superior. Additionally, the origin or type may be specified. You may look out for examples like Indian Rosewood, Macassar Ebony, or Superior Maple

Colors 

Some specialty woods have a naturally bright color or are dyed. For example, purpleheart and bloodwood have amazingly vivid natural colors. Greenwood, on the other hand, gets its bright color from dye. Many quality woods can be dyed, so it is a perfectly good choice for quality.

Wood Pairings

Now that you know the basics of the woods, the next step is to find a good combination.

Excellent Common Pairings

Classic wood combinations are well-known for a reason. These woods are generally used to make quality, but reasonably priced chess boards. Classic pairings include:

• Maple and Rosewood. The red-brown color is a classic color to pair with maple, giving a very natural chess board look.

•  Maple and walnut. A classic and affordable pairing, the light brown and soft grain is a natural companion to maple. 

• Blackwood and Olivewood. For a different option on the light squares, olivewood can be paired beautifully with blackwood

Combining Rare Woods

If you want to spend more on a luxury or custom chess board, you can look for rare and pricier woods. A board, for example, that has pure ebony black squares and an ebony frame will be more expensive. Similarly, burls, special grains, and superior woods will cost more. 

If you have a substantial budget, some great options include combinations of ebony, African palisander, or walnut burl with bird’s eye or superior maple.

For truly unique colored pairings, you can explore coloured options like purpleheart, bloodwood, and red amboyna. Paired with a quality maple, all of these make for unique coloring and extremely luxurious chess boards. 

Making the Final Pick

Decide on your chess board priorities first – Unique? Long-lasting? Aesthetic? All quality chess boards will be some combination of these factors, but selecting your specific woods is easier if you know what you want. If you are starting out in chess woodworking, finding workable woods like walnut and maple is a good idea. If buying, after a good search, you will often find a pairing that is naturally appealing and within your budget. 

Take a look at our selection of chess boards and see what stands out to you.