Purchased for the collection in 1975 the photograph at the left is an magnetic version of the game of chess.
The board is made of metal with imbedded magnets. The board folds in half and is 41cm square x .6cm thick, and is green on front and back with a number of embossed designs such as the standard playing card suit markers. (More about this later.)
The photograph shows this board with a removable plastic sheet with an 8x8 chess matrix printed on the sheet. Under each of the matrix squares is a magnet imbedded in the board.
The plastic playing pieces for this set are not typical of the 32 standard chess pieces, there are some unique differences. Each piece is the same size - 3.3cm in diameter x 1.1cm thick. They are made of metal which enables them to "stick" to the magnets in the board. As may be seen in the photograph, there are 16 pieces painted black with standard chess piece designs in white, and 16 white pieces with the same designs painted black. Painted on the reverse of these pieces are three concentric circles so they may serve as "checker" pieces on the same board for playing a game of Checkers.
The board has also been designed so that it may be used as the playing surface for any number of games played with a deck of Playing Cards. The covering plastic matrix sheet is removed and the board surface with the playing card designs becomes the playing surface. However, while the board may be used as "just" a playing surface for a card game, for it to function as a "magnetic board", the playing cards must be made of metal, rather than cardboard. This "magnetic" arrangement enables play of a card game in the out-of-doors on a windy day. It also enables a person with some manual limitations to make use of this feature for playing cards as well as chess or checkers. To read about a special deck of playing cards that can be used with this board, and see a photograph of these cards, CLICK HERE.
Last update February 24, 2010