Donated to the collection in 1978, the photograph at the left is of a chess board, but it is a multi-game board, for on the reverse side is a Mill board, a popular European row game of long standing. (To learn about the game of Mill, click on the item in the left menu. You will need to use your back button to return to this chess page.)
The game was given to the collection by a donor who received it from Lufthansa Airlines on board a flight in 1978.
Along with playing cards and other games, the airline at that time gave passengers game materials for their use with the notion that these could be retained as souvenirs of the flight.
The board is 15cm square, and appears to be made of a magnetized type of steel. The chess playing surface is 11.1cm square. Note that along the top and bottom of the board, the columns are marked with the letters A though H, while along the right and left sides, the rows are marked with the numbers 1 though 8. These labels are a chess standard, and enable players to identify where pieces have been placed.
The player pieces are 16 beige and 16 brown with beige silhouettes of standard chess pieces pained on brown pieces, and brown standard chess pieces painted on the beige pieces. The 32 pieces are each 1.1cm in diameter and about .2cm thick. The reverse sides are the same two colors, but have no markings for use in the Mill game. The pieces are made of steel which adheres to the magnetic board.
When the pieces are placed on squares of the matrix - they stick to a square! Thus, if traveling and there is vibration from the movement of the plane, the pieces would not move on the board until moved by the players.
Last update February 24, 2010