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Straight Up Chess

The Original Wall Mounted Vertical Chess Boards

They hang on the wall like Art but are designed for a casual game of chess.

As you pass by, make your move, mark it "Last Move" and go on your way.

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    Complete Standard Sets

    Standard size boards are for 3" kings. These sets include the chess pieces, all for one price. Normally ship in 1 to 2 days.

    Average overall size 22x34".

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    Small Complete sets

    Small complete sets with 2 to 2.5" kings. Ship in 1 to 2 days.

    The average overall size for 2.5" king boards is 20x30". And for 2" king boards is 19x26"

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    Design Your Own

    Here you can design a board sized for your own chess pieces from 2 to 4.5" kings. Custom sizes for 3.25" to 4.5" sets ship in 2 to 3 weeks.

    Or select a board background, frame, and one of our sets to design a complete set to fit your decor.

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    Chess Pieces

    Most of the sets we offer are 3" king sizes for my Standard size boards,

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    Cribbage Boards

    This link will take you to my Etsy page where I keep all my cribbage boards. Here are a few of my designs, from travel size to Large peg versions and many custom options.

My Straight Up Chess Story

Many many years ago my hobby was woodturning. At one point I wanted to make a large project and decided to turn a chess set. The kings are 11" tall, the table is 44" square and I turned the push sticks to move the chess pieces around the table. It takes up a lot of room, especially when you have a high-back chair on both sides. It has been in my parent's home, my home, my office, and sometimes an office belonging to someone else. Late in 2007, I was looking for another option. One day while sitting on eternal phone hold in my office, I had an idea that maybe I could put shelves on the wall to display the pieces, my next thought was “What if I could put it on the wall and still play chess?". I hung up the phone and went to Google. Wall Chess was the brand name of a company that made chess pieces and Vertical Chess was a monster 5-foot square board that sit on the floor with glass shelves. I was not able to find any chess boards that were mounted on the wall, so I started designing one. My first thought was a square board but standard chess pieces did not fit the spaces very well. For 3 weeks I was consumed with trying to figure out a way to make short wide chess pieces to fit the square board. Then my wife and I were driving back home for Thanksgiving and designing those chess pieces had been going through my head for 4 hours while driving and I was getting frustrated and then thought there are so many nice chess sets, I wish I could just use those! And just like that, my next thought was, "Maybe I need to make the board fit the chess pieces"! I put on my flashers and pulled to the side of the interstate because I had to get out my calculator. And my design for vertical wall-mounted chess boards was made. Four months later I incorporated and started working on my patent. I am a one-man operation and make every chess board and cribbage board. It has become my full-time hobby. I have made close to 10,000 Straight Up Chess boards, shipped them all over the world, have sold them to World Chess Champions, for high-end professional offices, actors and to an Architect on the French Reveria who builds turn-key homes for the VERY rich and famous.