Harald Korneliussen wrote:

It isn't just the boards. Strategy books are also almost completely
unavailable in English (or any non Russian/Dutch/French language).

Personally I like to learn about games by playing them, but I do realise
there's plenty of folk like to read up on how to do better so fair comment.

Improvised boards are not good enough. They might be good enough for
me, but I'm just one person, and one person can't play a game on his
own. I need to convince people to try, and for that, the visual appeal
of a "real" board is essential.

Since "nice" Go boards are expensive a pal of mine looked into creating
some for our club via local laser cutting and etching services,
available via the Yellow Pages. He got some fairly respectable ones
made up at a much lower cost than commercial equivalents. This suggests
to me that in this day and age anyone close to a large town in a
developed country should be able to do something similar if they really
want to. It remains the case that we're not in the realm of
unobtainable rocket science.

Harald Korneliussen wrote:
It isn't just the boards. Strategy books are also almost completely
unavailable in English (or any non Russian/Dutch/French language).

Personally I like to learn about games by playing them, but I do realise
there's plenty of folk like to read up on how to do better so fair comment..

This suggests to me that in this day and age anyone close to a large town in a developed country should be able to do something similar if they really want to.

One of the most appealing things about checkers is that it is a game
with a community, and a history. Regular international tournaments,
official titles, newspaper columns, etc.

Checkers / draughts is fragmented, and the
same thing is not true.

But I think I really just want to get a board and some pieces, play
some games with my friends, and see if this is something worth going
further with first.

On Jun 10, 12:28 pm, Quadibloc <jsav... at (no spam) ecn.ab.ca> wrote:
On Jun 10, 10:14 am, "chipsc... at (no spam) gmail.com" <chipsc... at (no spam) gmail.com
wrote:

Unfortunately it may be a very small market. Even 8x8 checkerboards
that meet American Checker Federation specifications are uncommon
enoug, though not quite impossible to find.
Rich Hutnik raised this point before - basically, just as Fischer
preferred a white and dark-green chessboard, similarly, the official
colors for a checkerboard are now buff and dark green, or something
like that, to minimize eyestrain - not the traditional red and black,
which tends to maximize eyestrain.

The checkerboard that came with the Transogram 52 Game Treasure Chest,
though red and black, at least had the numbers from 1 through 32 on
the black squares!

My memory was right - green and buff for Checkers. Also, the pieces
need to be red and *white*, and the squares 2 inches in size, and the
pieces from 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inches in diameter.

For Chess, the squares can be from 2 inches to 2 1/2 inches; as to the
size of the pieces, the guidelines are complicated, (3 3/8" to 4 1/2"
height for the King, and a base from 40% to 50% of that height) but
one manufacturer recommends the base of the King should be about 75%
of the size of the square for a good match.

I have learned from this thread:
there are people in the US who want to buy 10x10 checkers boards
they don't know how, or are unwilling, to find a supplier outside the
US
such boards can be manufactured in the US, for little effort

This suggests a business opportunity.

Unfortunately it may be a very small market. Even 8x8 checkerboards
that meet American Checker Federation specifications are uncommon
enoug, though not quite impossible to find.

So that means I don't play Chess when I use my rather smaller bone
pieces, often on a smaller board?

But why do you need to worry about what the American Checker Federation
thinks, unless you're playing their game in one of their tournaments?

Unfortunately it may be a very small market. Even 8x8 checkerboards
that meet American Checker Federation specifications are uncommon
enoug, though not quite impossible to find.

Then it'll be pin money rather than a business in its own right. Still
means more beer...

But why do you need to worry about what the American Checker Federation
thinks, unless you're playing their game in one of their tournaments?

Harald Korneliussen wrote:
But I think I really just want to get a board and some pieces, play
some games with my friends, and see if this is something worth going
further with first.

If it's just you and your friends then all you need is a piece of board,
a rule (preferably a square, so the squares are, errrr, square) and a
magic marker.

I do feel that with chess sets it can make a larger difference. Some
chess sets are unpleasant to use, and some of the more outre designs
cause confusion. (Is that a Bishop? Or what is it anyhow?)

As I said, I've got to convince them to try first, and that should be
_much_ easier on the board I have ordered from the Royal Dutch
Draughts Federation...

There was a Hex tournament on a local boardgame convention nearby some
years ago. They played on pen and paper. Although it had a lot of
participants, they haven't held it since. Bits matter.