Why are there numbers and letters on the edges of the chess board?

In chess, there is an easy system to be able to write your moves and your opponents moves down. It is called algebraic chess notation. If you ever play in sanctioned chess tournaments, as I like to, both players (white and black) must write down all your moves on a special sheet supplied by the tournament directors. The system kind of compares to, say, a bingo board, or a battleship game board. The chess board is to always be set up with the white pieces at the side of the board marked a through h, and at the side of the board marked "1". Black to be at the side marked "8". If you look at the board, you'll see that every square has a letter and number designation unique to that square. For instance, the 4 central squares are marked e4, d4, e5, and d5. Let's say white opens by pushing the pawn in front of his King two squares. So, it would be written as 1.e4. Black replies by moving hid pawn in front of his Queen side Bishop two squares. We would then have: 1.e4 c5 When you move a pawn, you don't have to designate the pawn, just the square it ends up on. When moving a piece you first designate the piece with a capitol letter thus, King=K, Queen=Q, Bishop=B, Knight=N (since the K is reserved for the King) , and Rook=R. A capture is designated by an "x", and a check by a +. So, here is a short game I played with a young student. I was playing white: 1.f4 e5 2.g3 exf 3.gxf Qh4++ with the double ++ meaning checkmate. There is more to it than this, but this is the basic rundown. The algebraic system is much better than the older descriptive chess notation. The small case a through h designates the files, and the 1 through 8 designates ranks. You can ignore all this if you like in friendly games, but remember that the board must alway be set with a white square (or light square) at each players lower right side corner of the board. If you don't do this, then the piece orientation is not correct. Have fun!!

The King and Queen pieces have opposite color dots on their crowns. Why so? Does this not lead to distraction or confusion?

This set really would not meet USCF (United States Chess Federation) specs. The size is too small. Also, the design of the pieces doesn't follow the basic "Staunton" design. For me, old geezer that I am, I think the Kings and Queens might be distracting to me. I am a USCF tournament player, and wouldn't take this to a tournament. Still, there is something about the set that appeals to me....

How much is the set with the board weigh ?

I'm not sure but I think like 1 to 1.5 lb , it is not so heavy.

Is the board pretty big? I have custom chess pieces and I want to make sure they can fit on the board

The dimensions are listed on the amazon ad, about the board and squares dimensions. If your custom pieces have bases larger that 1.54 inches then you might want to shop around some. I don't recommend glass boards. Maybe it's because i am such a klutz. Plus, I like the look of the wood a lot more, and it's portability.

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