VENTUREBOARD 6 Inches Magnetic Unique Chess Set Board Game - 2 Extra Queens - Folding Board, Portable Travel Chess Board Game Pieces - Orange/Grey

Such a cool thing to be able to take with me anywhere I might get bored. The pieces are clearly printed on the flat tops and the magnets are strong but not in a way that makes you feel like you have to pry them apart to play. The fold is nice and you can mostly save a game in process if you have to but the pieces on the home rows will bump into each other a bit when fully closed. They don't move too much though and they don't fall off completely so the positions can be easily fixed. It's lightweight and made to travel so I don't feel like its trying to fall apart in any way. The pieces are small though so if you have eyesight issues, you might want to look for a set with the pieces printed larger or shaped like the classic pieces.

I own both the VentureBoard XL and the smaller 6-inch Black & Gray version, and both are excellent travel chess sets with their own advantages. If you have larger or thicker hands, I would recommend the VentureBoard XL. The larger playing surface and pieces are more comfortable to handle, and the recent update to the XL piece design makes it much easier to distinguish the king from the queen during play. The 6-inch Black & Gray version feels slightly more solid and less flimsy when opened. Its compact size makes it ideal for playing in a car, while traveling, or almost anywhere space is limited. Portability is where this model truly shines. The VentureBoard XL offers a more comfortable playing experience but is naturally less portable due to its larger size. My only suggestions for improvement would be: Add felt pads to the bottom of the chess pieces to help prevent scratches on the board. Add a non-slip material or rubber feet to the underside of the board to prevent it from sliding on smooth surfaces. I've owned the 6-inch version for about a month, and I have noticed that the board can develop scratches if the pieces are regularly slid across the playing surface. Overall, both sets are well-designed and highly enjoyable. The 6-inch version is the better choice for maximum portability, while the XL version is the better choice for comfort and ease of play.

This chess set can be readily rolled-up and put-away. Conversely, it’s easily re-deployed when required. But will it preserve the chess piece positions? To a large extent, it will. Some of the positions will shift if this chess roll-up is bounced around in say a backpack. However, the preservation of the state of play is good enough. Yet, this isn’t its greatest strength. The important bit here is that it’s actually difficult to drop or loose a piece and there’s more. - The size and proportions of the set fills your perspective when this chess set is held in your hand. To your mind’s eye, it appears as a full-sized board thus making the game-play easier to appreciate. - Extra queens and two other extra pieces are included. - I’ve had the kit for two weeks now and it appears to be sturdy and well made. The inclusion of a tie-bag is a nice touch. - Delivery from Columbus, Ohio to my place in Europe was under three days - utterly amazing!

First of all, this is my go-to board when I'm reading my chess books or traveling. The idea for this magnetic, rollable, place-saving, size of a water bottle travel chess set is genius! I'm so glad I bought this as it's way better than trying to move tiny magnetic discs on a checkbook style pocket board. That being said, there are a few things I think could make it even better. The good: - When I first received my Venture Board a handful of the pieces had magnets that has fallen out. I reached out to the company (on a Saturday night no less) and they responded instantly! Sent me replacements for the pieces with magnet issues. That is an A+ for customer service. - Magnets are pretty strong. The pieces don't stay perfectly in place when in storage mode and in my backpack, but they aren't all over the place either. Just some little piece adjustments here and there and we are back to the saved position. A must for going through chess books a little bit at a time. -Build quality feels solid! I'm not worried about this board at all. The wish list: - I wish the print on the pieces stood out more. Especially the white print on the black pieces. I don't have the greatest eye sight so that contrast/pop of maybe a thicker line for the image or a brighter white on the black pieces would be extremely awesome! - As they come, the pieces can't slide across the board because of the bottom corner being a sharp "90°" angle (it might not be exactly 90° but you get what I mean). The sharp corner catches on the groove of the folds. This can be easily fixed with rounding the bottom corners (which I did with some light sanding) or adding a camfer. That way the corner doesn't get snagged on the lip of the folds. - I think the file notations on the board should be lower case. a, b, c... instead of A, B, C to follow the algebraic notation on most boards, in most books, and websites out there. Capital letters are for pieces notation, not file notation. That's just a design preference though. All in all I would absolutely buy this again, but it could be even better with some small, subtle changes. Great travel chess board. (Also, the photo showing off the shape of the pieces with the bishop outlined is set up incorrectly. White King doesn't start on d1. I'm sure that was mistake on the photographers part, but I'd Photoshop that real quick so chess players aren't put off)

I want to specifically address the one commenter that left a 1 star review, stating that the pieces required stickering and that no extra queen or pieces were added. This person admits they didn't even open their pieces, and must have not glanced very hard at the clear holder either, just assuming that the pieces had no faces since stickers were included. The faces all face inward due to the admittedly gimmicky packaging, but one could easily open it without disturbing the pieces or breaking any seal. Had this reviewer done so, they would have seen the game comes with an extra queen for each color, and an extra blank piece which you can apply a sticker to if you lose any of the other pieces...excellent forward thinking for a chess maker, especially a travel set at that where pieces could potentially go missing. It annoyed me so much that this reviewer left a 1 star I had to counter it with my own. The pieces are solid, the mechanism for closure works well and looks quite edgy/mechanical, and the pieces stay in place. All magnets seem very secure (even if they became lose or slip out due to heat, which can happen if stored in cars or backpacks in summertime, you can easily just glue them back in or get replacements). Have played on these boards and have no complaints other than it's hard getting used to seeing the up-side-down faces of the opponent when I am so used to seeing them all facing towards me online. My one other complaint is the orange board doesn't seem as vibrant for mine as others I've seen posted in reviews...rather drab. I bought the blue set from Ventureboard's site and this one looks much better. Will most likely get the standard black and white edition soon too. I'll be stuck if they come out with other colors because I'll just want them all (especially if they do green or something crazy like purple next) so I can have sets stashed everywhere. Totally happy with my purchase. The extra blank piece also acts as a turn marker if you stack it on top of another piece to determine whose turn it was the last time you opened the board.

This cool mini magnetic travel chess set has a “wow-factor” that my students can appreciate. I lead the chess club at the private school that I work at. The boards we have a various and vast, but this small board keeps getting requested at every one of our meetings. I believe it is popular because of the pros: it can roll up into the shape of a soda can, it rolls up like an armadillo to be all sturdy and solid, it can save the game pieces in place, it comes with 2 extra Queens and 2 blanks (and the stickers for them), and the set just plain looks cool. I found the cons to be: the pictures on the pieces are designed to be visible to the using player, making all the opponents piece pictures viewed upside down (and therefore making it less beginner-friendly), the pieces are somewhat hard to grab for people with thicker fingers and they sometimes stick together when lifted, the pieces are not able to slide across the files because of the gaps between the segments, the pieces shift around significantly while the board is in the rolled-up travel mode if it is moved around fast, shaken, or dropped, and lastly, replacement pieces are not cheap. Okay, maybe the last con was a bit of a stretch, but they should be less expensive for what they are. In conclusion, this board may still be a travel chess set and is not at all the ideal or perfect chess board, it may be steep in cost for what it is, it may not be the easiest to use or even work the way it should. But, wow, is this board cool. Most fans of Chess will agree that this set is the best travel board for any chess enthusiast to have.

This board is quite possibly the best travel/analysis board. When rolled up, the pieces do not move. If you have any towards the center, they can push each other to the side a bit but you can still tell which square they were on to begin with. The magnets are quite strong actually and I was hesitant because of them moving around, but I rolled it up, shook it like heck in all directions like I would shake a soda can and when I unfolded it, the pieces hadn't budged. In addition, the 3D pieces make this set shine over the flat wafer magnetic sets because they are easier to move around without having to pry them up. I was hesitant to buy at first because of the drastic price difference between the $10 flat boards, but honestly it is so much more durable and ergonomic than cheaper sets. My only critique/desire is that Venture would come out with a few scaled up larger sets in the line. The 6" here is about the size of a 12oz can of soda folded up, which was their intention i know for travel purposes, but if they came out with a 12" or even a full size 20" board I wouldn't hesitate to buy it as I think the design is far superior and would destroy those silicone "mousepad" boards that are out there now

Very nice and compact set. The pieces are a little smaller than I thought they would be and are sometimes hard to grab with big fingers, but I love how it rolls up mid game and the pieces stay in place.

So expensive but the concept is great. The game doesn’t stay perfectly in place if you throw it like it shows. But with regular moving around, the pieces do stay in place. I wish the bigger size were available. I’d probably get a second one so more of our kids can play simultaneously.

El imán pega fenomenal, aparte que vienen piezas adicionales por cualquier cosa, muy buen producto, quizá elevado en su precio, pero lo vale si te gusta el ajedrez.

The magnet can come out very easily. Don’t recommend

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Tiene la estructura de un tablero profesional, las piezas se adhieren muy bien. Es perfecto para dejar una posición, guardar y después seguir sobre ella!! Excelente calidad precio