Mastering Chess.com: A Guide to Editing Your Board

Are you a chess enthusiast looking to customize your gaming experience on Chess.com?

We will explore how to edit a chess board on the popular online platform. This includes changing the board size and color, adjusting piece styles, and starting positions.

Learn how to enhance your gameplay through board customization in Chess.com with valuable tips.

What is a Chess Board?

A chess board is a square playing surface consisting of 64 squares arranged in an 8×8 grid of alternating light (white) and dark (black) colors, used for playing chess and checkers. In chess, the light square closest to the right-hand corner is h1 and the other squares are denoted by numbers and letters from 1-8 and a-h. Each of the sixteen white pieces start on r1 to r2 while sixteen black pieces on r1 to r2.

What are the Different Types of Chess Boards?

The different types of chess boards include standard wooden boards, tournament boards, digital boards, travel boards, and 3D boards. The glass covered wooden boards that you see at tournament chess games are called standard wooden boards. Some standard wooden boards are exercise boards, such as the Russian Plywood Chess Board. Standard wooden boards are virtually always 64 squares and used with 3.75 inch tall plastic pieces for a total board length of 18 3/4 inches (or sometimes an interval multiple of a round number).

Some people consider a tournament board and a standard wooden board to be synonymous terms, but one can find boards like the unique Burlington Walnut Tournament Chess Board that meet tournament specifications of the FIDE World Chess Championship but are not made of glass. Standard wooden boards are produced using a variety of patterns, sizes, materials, and quality. The least expensive are made of cardboard, hardwood, and/or plastic and fulfill a more functional purpose. The most expensive are made of rare woods, are handcrafted, and serve as works of art.

How to Edit a Board in Chess.com?

To edit a board on Chess.com, go to the game’s Game Report page. In the mobile app, this can generally be found under the three horizontal bars on the home page. Once there, click on Open Analysis Board. Here you can play around with moves, see your mistake, add variations, and test your different ideas. For teams, administrators have editing access and will find this ability in the team’s Manage settings under Post Games.

Step 1: Login to your Chess.com Account

First, navigate to Chess.com in your web browser. On the home page hover your cursor on Log In/Sign Up at the top right of the screen, then click on Log In in the drop-down user panel.

A login modal will pop up. Now you can either type in your Username and Password, or log in with your Google, Facebook, or Apple account. Type the black-user-pass message in the security screen for this special guide account, unless you are a paying user.

After you successfully log in, you will be greeted with your username and recent notifications in a drop-down panel at the top-right corner of the screen. You are now logged in.

Another feature to help automatically log you into Chess.com is to have your browser log you in. You can do that by following these steps:

1. Go to chess.com
2. Click on the username/email field in the Login form
3. Find the Show Password setting of your browser
4. Click yes when asked if you’d like the browser to save your password for future logins
5. Click submit. The next time you visit the site, the form will be autocompleted with your credentials.

Step 2: Go to the ‘Play’ Tab

Click on the hamburger menu in the upper left to reveal a dropdown which lists all the products and features you can go to. Click PLAY.

The Chess.com home screen will change to show Play chess, without yet showing the board and menu. To get to the next step and view the board when you have no active games going on, click on the EXPLORE button. When you have active games going on that you want to see, click on the desired match from the My Games section.

The EXPLORE screen shows on the right hand column of the screen different options that are available via the Play area, with one of the options being Browse Public Games. Select that and go to the Game Explorer where you can scroll through hundreds of games and view any position on any board that is in-play.

Step 3: Select ‘Create a Game’

After initiating a game, select the Computer or Friend tab from the variety of game options depending on whether a user wants to play against the Chess.com automation or a friend. Then select the Create a Game button. Justus Williams, the default opponent chosen, can be used by selecting this button. Alternatively, any username entered will be searched by the platform, and may be selected. Justus Williams can only play at Daily or Long time controls. After that, other options are selected on the Create a Game screen. Decide on time controls, initial board position, ratings, and other rules as needed, then select Create.

Step 4: Choose the ‘Custom Game’ Option

To edit a board in Chess.com, the next step after choosing the board size, squares, and colors is to choose the Custom Game option. Custom Game is chosen when at least one player can move the pieces in the starting position with the values chosen in the initial board configuration. To activate Custom Game, make the player that is able to start with the chosen board configurations White and set the Opponent Type to Human. To choose the Custom Game options, a user must make sure that their board features are TURNED ON. Featured Game Options is the button on the right side of the menu that pops up when clicking on a date.

Step 5: Click on ‘Edit Board’ Button

The fifth step of going to ‘Play’ and clicking on the drop-down arrow near the analysis board of any game and then clicking ‘Edit board’ is really just the process of opening the maze door. You have now completed the magic operation and are able to edit the board. Clicking on the ‘Edit board’ portion of the final menu choice means you are done and prepared to jump into exploring the information and suggestions provided by the engine in your game.

Step 6: Make Changes to the Board

Chess.com boards and pieces can be tailored to individual preferences, as shown by the revamp of the game settings theme Menu. Users can adjust the board scale, the color scheme of the board, squares and arrows, as well as the style and size of the pieces. The theme alters both the board and the pieces.

For example, if you are a free member, you can choose the Chess.com light theme, which has a light reddish square color against a light yellow square. Members can choose from green, brown, purple, blue, and gray squares and see the effect in real-time, as with the Chess.com dark theme with gray squares. The board is a significant part of a chess player’s enjoyment of the game. Being able to modify the appearance to individual tastes enhances the experience.

Step 7: Save Your Changes

Save your changes after editing the board on Chess.com by clicking on the Update button. When you have finished editing your board, select the OK button near the top to save your changes. If not everything has saved, there will be a yellow notification popup near the OK button giving you more information. Clicking on the Board Editor box will provide a preview of what the board will look like with your new settings. Once you have clicked OK, Chess.com will automatically bring you back to the Analysis Board where you can begin adding moves to the board. The top navigation will appear to show you the changes you have made such as the labels from white and black to initials, but only until you refresh the page again. Your changes are automatically saved after the Ok annotation so you can just continue working and modifying the board or start another game.

What Can You Edit on a Chess Board in Chess.com?

You can edit multiple aspects of a game on a chess board in Chess.com. This includes promotion targets, flipping the board, changing the player’s color, printing the board, and undoing the game. These options help to give users an optimal experience that allows precise game control and flexible settings, adapting to user habits and personal preferences to maximize enjoyment when playing chess on Chess.com.

Board Size

To change the size of the board, you must have an active subscriber account. The quick and advanced analysis boards contain a few more settings that have to be adjusted by the administrator.

Board Color

You cannot edit the board color in Chess.com. According to staff member DanielRensch in a question asked on November 9, 2016, the company is considering adding this feature to both web and mobile platforms, but it is not currently available. Almost all users therefore cannot set the board color as requested. Instead, you can change the video background and select from one of the colors provided from hues of gray, introduce your own pattern, or enable a dark mode.

Piece Style

The Piece Style dropdown allows selection from 19 different chessboard piece models that can be sorted by those that come standard (Standard, Xiangqi,](#youX4x110m2) Dubrovnik, Xtreme 2…), or those that come with an active or recently created DLC (Downloadable Content). Piece style indicates the Texture or 3D model of the chess pieces. Choosing a new piece style is instantly applied to the board. The description below the piece style changes the appearance of the description details in the Pieces tab on the Player Sidebar. Chess.com only uses a Point of View (POV) of Black or White. There are no options available to change the piece style between primary and secondary colors for the opposing player’s point of view. To change the piece style in chess.com Settings – Board Appearance – Piece Style. Select the desired piece style from the dropdown menu. Some piece styles are marked with “in-game currency needed meaning that a Premium or Diamond membership and possibly additional V-Bucks are needed to access the piece style (though not all are on the list such as the Mocha Learning Pack board).

Piece Color

The piece color setting changes the color of pieces to play with. Piece reality must be selected. When set to white, one party’s pieces will be dark, and the other party’s pieces will be light. When set to brown, or on reality mode, the pieces color will change and appear similar to wood. If reality is the goal, both parties must play with the same setting. This option is useful for streaming or creating study material for certain audiences to visualize a specific style or tournament. In certain countries, distinct colored boards are used for chess scholarship tournaments. The piece color feature on Chess.com makes it easier to exhibit such tournaments.

Starting Position

If you want to go back to the starting position during a game, simply use the `Takeback` option which you can find as a hatch arrow on the side of the chessboard or by pressing `Ctrl + Z`. The game will automatically move pieces back to their starting positions. This cannot be undone. Skip to the heading entitled Directions to use the takeback feature. to learn more about it. Alternatively, reset the board by starting a new game.

If you lose track of the initial board layout, open a new board from any challenge or with a friend or the computer, and examine the default %75 view board. To create the starting board by resetting the board, click on a new chess game by selecting the new game button at the top of the site under the Create New Game header. When the sliders pop up ensure the board is set to 1.0 (or the middle, `board appearance`, slider is selected under the more options menu granularity for the board attributes sub-section).

Board Labels

Here is a screenshot of the Labels chess board editor section. You may select the letter and number size from the dropdown menu. The space between the labels may be controlled by cursors with a minimum of 14% and a maximum of 86%. The color of the labels may be changed from the Color #1 color picker. When board labels are turned off, the top bar with game information sets the tone for the labels. If you turn off the board, the labels above the squares in the top bar automatically turn off as well, irrespective of your preference.

An application of turning off all labels is shown above with an automatic setting. Fen labels are used in chess to describe the current state of a chess board and are sometimes useful for study purposes. Although the FEN representation of a board state may still be accessed when this setting is turned off, the FEN labels are simply the image of the current board state’s FEN string that loads in real-time and are not permanently saved. It is not possible to save or edit the save styles of the FEN labels.

Board Orientation

Board orientation deals with changing the angle at which board is presented on the Chess.com website. There are two orientation settings, 3D view and 2D view. In 2D view, the board is viewed from above. In 3D view, the players’ pieces stand in three dimensions above a white reflective plane. Players can see underneath the pieces, sides when they move and be struck by the beams of sunlight that pass through the little window in ChessCom’s wood chess board towards their opponent’s side. They can use the orientation utility under their accounts to change from 3D to 2D and back. The default orientation is determined by the user’s preference settings during registration.

Because of the three-dimensional depth they provide, some players find 3D mode highly helpful, while others find this distracting and confusing, and so prefer 2D mode.

Tips for Editing a Board in Chess.com

Five key tips for editing a board on Chess.com are the following. Click Move to editing mode. Under Chess.com game settings, there is an option to move to editing mode. Selecting this option causes the board to enter editing mode, which allows one to make edits before clicking Done editing to return to standard board view.

Use the white and black piece editor to create custom board setups. After selecting Customize board, Chess.com provides the option to edit the white pieces and black pieces. Clicking on a piece allows one to move it to a different square on the board.

Utilize Chess.com Settings or Profile Info. If looking to edit settings or customize colors and themes, simply click on the user icon on the right-hand side and go to Profile or Settings.

Learning to edit via the UI. Just hover and click. There are actions that appear when hovering are key indicators of actions to simply click or click and hold for the context. This can toggle background, pointers, animations, and even SOUNDS!

Use the Let’s Practice on Chess.com Labs to try out customization tools. Learning to edit the board in Chess.com may mean you may not want to impact your current or upcoming games. Let’s practice on Chess.com Lab is fantastic for this.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How do I access the board editor in Chess.com?
To access the board editor in Chess.com, click on the “new game” button on the top left corner of the screen and select “board editor” from the drop-down menu.

2. Can I change the board color and design in Chess.com?
Yes, you can change the board color and design in Chess.com by clicking on the “board” tab in the board editor and selecting your desired options.

3. Is it possible to add custom pieces in Chess.com?
Yes, you can add custom pieces in Chess.com by going to the “pieces” tab in the board editor and choosing “custom pieces” from the list of options.

4. How do I save my board edits in Chess.com?
To save your board edits in Chess.com, click on the “save” button on the bottom right corner of the board editor. You can also give your board a name for easy access in the future.

5. Can I edit an existing board in Chess.com?
Yes, you can edit an existing board in Chess.com by selecting the board from your “saved boards” list and clicking on the “edit” button.

6. Is there a way to reset the board to its original state in Chess.com?
Yes, you can reset the board to its original state in Chess.com by clicking on the “reset” button on the bottom right corner of the board editor. This will undo all your board edits.