http://www.ymimports.com/p-1562-wooden- ... o-set.aspx

Chess parts aside, I was wondering if anyone had gotten a good look at this board or something similar. I hate buying site unseen without hearing from someone that's owned the product.

I assume this is just particle board / laminate wood with a veneer finish - just something to use as a beater you toss in a bag and take places. That's all well and good.

I'm more interested in how well something like this hooks together with magnets. I've seen good and bad slotted boards and hinged folding boards. Ideally embedded magnets would give you the two-piece connection without worrying about warped slots, missing tabs, or hinges.

But it could be done poorly, so that the attraction isn't strong enough to hold up under lively play or is slightly misaligned.

Has anyone gotten their hands on one of these? If so, how did connecting the edges work out for you?

- Marty Lund

Used a friend's Amazon Prime account and bit the bullet to by that set at about $35 with free shipping. It arrived in about 2 days and it was a pretty good investment. It game with fairly nice plastic stones (solid, but no heft to them) and your typical low-grade wooden chessmen. The board fit together nicely, well-lined and veneered. The magnets do a good job holding the pieces together during the rigors of play.

That said, I wouldn't want to have to scoot this board around with pieces on it any time soon. The magnets aren't the really strong ones - closer to refrigerator magnets than, say, magnetic latches on furniture doors. You don't get that utter immunity to being pushed apart vertically that hinges or slots give you. They can be pulled apart from the seem very easily without having to fold the seem at all either - so advantage again to the hinged board.

On the up side, there's nothing to break of lose like there is with hinged or slotted board.

All in all at the discount price I feel like it was a nice bargain on something to beat up traveling or gift to a new player. I'm considering going to the hardware store and buying a tiny latch set (the kind you might find on a small jewelry box) and installing out at either end to lock the board against any sudden shocks. It would be a very cheap upgrade.

If they made a model with stronger magnets (like furniture latch strength ones) I think the design would be my ideal traveling board.

- Marty Lund

Thanks for the note about the product.
Do you see any way to conveniently swap out the magnets? If you have a Sonicare power toothbrush system, each of the replaceable heads has two super strong but tiny magnets. Most hobby or woodcraft shops have rare earth magnets for sale in lots of sizes and shapes.

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David Bogie, Boise ID
I play go, I ride a recumbent, of course I use Macintosh.

If I took of the trim in front of the magnet it would be pretty easy to get them out and carve out some space for better ones. The indentations look like they are just those little magnets about the size of a watch battery. I think the best plan would be to cut off the trim from both of the join ends, switch out the magnets, and then seal it by gluing in a new trim - preferably something thin, strong, and with high friction. I'm not sure if you'd need clamps to hold that seal or what. I guess I could find out pretty easily once I get some spare time.

- Marty Lund