The Most Functional & Beautiful Folding Chess Boards of 2024

These folding wooden chess boards provide sophisticated style and ultimate portability.

If you’re a chess player who enjoys taking your equipment to play with friends in the park or get your game on at a chess club, you likely have two wishes for your chess board. First, you’d like a foldable chess board that’s compact and easy to carry around. Second, you’d likely enjoy a chess board that looks nice and will draw compliments from opponents and passersby.

With these two folding chess boards sold exclusively through Chess House, we’ve discovered an unparalleled combination of beauty, craftsmanship, and functionality. Both are put together and broken down in unexpected ways that will lead people to ask you where on earth you found such a board. Read on and we’ll tell you everything you need to know about some of the most gorgeous folding wooden chess boards on the market today.

The Best Folding Chess Boards of 2024:

1. The 21″ Folding Hardwood Player’s Chessboard JLP, USA (349$)

Another Chess House exclusive, this folding chess board deceives the eye. When The 21″ Folding Hardwood Player’s Chessboard is folded open, the middle seam is so tight that it appears to be one solid piece of wood. The seamless effect is also made possible by the “invisible” folding barrel hinge located on the bottom of the board.

Customers absolutely love the visual appeal, but they also appreciate the fact that this seemingly solid design creates no disruption when moving pieces across the board during play. When the game is through, simply lift up on one side of the board and close it like a book.

This brilliantly-designed folding chessboard is handcrafted in Pennsylvania out of solid maple and walnut. Its grooved perimeter, edge bevel, and corner logos add to its overall elegance. The board measures 21 inches square when opened up and 21 x 10.75 inches when folded (customers report that it fits nicely in a large chess bag for transport). The square measurements are 2 inches.

It’s a difficult task to create a chess board that combines sophistication, functionality, and portability, but this folding chess board definitely has it all!

2. The STACK Chessboard (275$ – 350$)

This unbelievable folding chessboard is just as much a work of art when it’s folded up as when it’s put together and ready for play. The STACK Chessboard is stored wrapped in a soft suede magnetic cover. Simply remove it from its cover and put it together (the quadrants will be drawn to each other by the tiny magnets installed on the inner sides of each piece).

Not only does the STACK chessboard feature an innovative folding technique that we’ve never seen from any other foldable chess board; it’s also heavy, high-quality, and simply stunning to look at. It’s available exclusively from Chess House, one of the largest and most reputable chess stores in the world.

Hand-crafted out of maple and walnut by JLP, a company founded by an artisan from Pennsylvania, the STACK is available in three versions. The standard edition is a 16-inch square chessboard with 2-inch squares. The Limited Edition STACK (individually-numbered, as only 250 were produced) comes with a three-sided, dovetailed walnut display box that’s an excellent way to show off this unique folding chess board.

Finally, the Tournament Edition STACK features an 18-inch square chess board with 2.25-inch squares. Each STACK comes with a soft cleaning cloth to remove any particles from the board before stacking it back up again.

No matter which one you choose, the STACK is sure to be a conversation-starter wherever you play!

The Ultimate in Folding Chess Board Designs

It’s a question that many chess lovers have asked repeatedly: if you want to travel with a chess board or have limited storage at home, why on earth would you opt for a flat chess board instead of a folding one?

We’ve heard a variety of responses to this question. Some feel that folding boards don’t look as good and tend to suffer in terms of quality. Others find that the crease in the middle of many folding boards divides the playing field in two and is distracting and annoying. People complain that the two parts of a folding chessboard often don’t align properly, throwing the entire playing field out of whack. Certain players scoff at the idea of taking anything besides a roll-up board to a park, bar, or chess club to play.

We took all of these factors into consideration when researching the best folding chess boards on the market. Indeed, we did find a lot of mass-produced foldable chess boards that suffered from all of the aforementioned problems. That’s when we discovered Chess House’s partnership with Pennsylvania woodworker John Lewis.

JLP Folding Chessboards

One of the cool things we found out while exploring Chess House products is their line of folding chessboards created by woodcrafting genius John Lewis. Founder of John Lewis & Partners (JLP), he sees every chess set through the eye of an artisan as well as a chess player.

It was this perspective that led him to carefully design his folding chess board creations to eliminate common issues with these types of boards. The seams on his STACK and Hardwood Player’s boards are practically invisible. Meanwhile, he worked hard to make sure that the boards lay flat, align correctly, and are not interfered with by exposed hinges or anything that may make them shift or wobble.

Combine these factors with the sophisticated styling of Lewis’s boards and rather than “why choose a folding chess board?”, the question becomes “why wouldn’t you choose one?”

Want to See More?

We hope you love these two unique folding chess boards just as much as we do. If you’d like to see more high-quality portable chess equipment, we’ve got it! For readers who prefer purchasing a foldable chess board with pieces included, check out our reviews of the best foldable chess sets. We highlight some incredibly beautiful sets there that you’ll definitely love.

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