Floppy Board Tiles

This page was prompted by Fergus Duniho's Chess Variant Construction Set page. I wanted to add some details about my set, along with a photograph (see bottom of page).

Back in in September 1999, I purchased four floppy boards from the US Chess Federation. The catalog number was S602GR, and the description was Floppy board - Green. It seems that this item is no longer available from their web site. They do offer vinyl boards, but I have no experience with those.

I sliced the four boards up into the following configuration of tiles:

Tile Size	Count	Total Squares
1x1	21	21
1x2	2	4
1x3	1	3
1x4	5	20
2x2	20	80
4x4	8	128

Don't ask me why I created a 1x3 tile -- I can't remember. I didn't put a great deal of thought into creating the optimal partition of tiles, but I think what I have is fairly flexiable and convenient.

Cutting up these tiles was somewhat difficult. I used an exacto knife, but found it difficult to cut a perfectly straight line because the flexible material of the floppy board would shift when pressure was applied.

The big advantage of these boards is the rubberized backing which will resist slipping and sliding when placed on a flat surface. Also the tiles are flexible and always lay flat. A small disadantage is the thickness of the rubber backing makes it difficult to cut in straight lines, and causes the tiles to take up more space.

1x1 Tiles

1x2 Tiles

1x3 Tiles

1x4 Tiles

2x2 Tiles

4x4 Tiles

Photo

Here is a photograph of the tiles positioned to form a 16x16 board.

Written by David Howe.

WWW page created: November 18, 2001.

For author and/or inventor information on this item see: this item's information page.
Created on: November 18, 2001. Last modified on: November 18, 2001.