Major investment to transform future of English chess announced

[Mick Norris]

Bolton also getting 2 chess boards

[Paul Habershon]

Assuming these tables will have a permanently inlaid board, I hope there will be a check on the orientation.

[John Upham]

Assuming these tables will have a permanently inlaid board, I hope there will be a check on the orientation.

Are there chairs to be associated with the tables?

[Richard Bates]

Apologies that I probably haven't read enough to understand what's going on, but do you have to bring your own pieces? …

Use your imagination.

[Nick Burrows]

Apologies that I probably haven't read enough to understand what's going on, but do you have to bring your own pieces? …

Use your imagination.

In that case, the tables won't be needed.

[Mick Norris]

Farnworth, Bolton

A chess board has been set up in Farnworth in hopes it will encourage young people to take up the game.

A table and two chairs with a chess board glued to the table has been installed at Farnworth Park.

Last year, it was announced the council had won a £5,000 grant for two chess boards and chairs in the borough, but chess pieces will not be provided under the funding scheme.

Now, one has been installed at Farnworth Park and another on Bradford Street in a playing field.

There's photos for those wanting to check if the board is the right way round

[Stewart Reuben]

Personally I prefer giant sets and boards fixed to the ground, as can be seen at such places as Hastings, Twickenham, Lanzarote, Sydney.
Normal sized tables with byo sets are highly successful in Washington Square and Central Park in NY. I don't know how Clapham Common works, but it was/is highly successful for many years.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Farnworth, Bolton

A chess board has been set up in Farnworth in hopes it will encourage young people to take up the game.

A table and two chairs with a chess board glued to the table has been installed at Farnworth Park.

Last year, it was announced the council had won a £5,000 grant for two chess boards and chairs in the borough, but chess pieces will not be provided under the funding scheme.

Now, one has been installed at Farnworth Park and another on Bradford Street in a playing field.

There's photos for those wanting to check if the board is the right way round

From the local news article, a quote from a local councillor:

Chess is a worldwide game but is it [sic] not often played in the UK, so this creates awareness.

(I mean, compared to Russia, yes, but I thought the UK was quite high up the per capita ranking of chess-playing nations?)

[Ian Thompson]

Farnworth, Bolton

A chess board has been set up in Farnworth in hopes it will encourage young people to take up the game.

A table and two chairs with a chess board glued to the table has been installed at Farnworth Park.

There's photos for those wanting to check if the board is the right way round

Do you have to bring your own wellington boots, or are they provided? I'd have expected them to at least have put gravel on the ground, if not concrete or paving.

Is it correct that the chess board is glued to the table? If it is, is it of a material that is weather resistant and will last? Or is it likely to peel off, or fade, over time?

[Derek Sinclair]

They need to get chess back on tv if only in a highlights type of set up. Eurosport could show it or something.

Never going to get the glory days of channel 4 back I don't think.

[Mick Norris]

Farnworth, Bolton

A chess board has been set up in Farnworth in hopes it will encourage young people to take up the game.

A table and two chairs with a chess board glued to the table has been installed at Farnworth Park.

There's photos for those wanting to check if the board is the right way round

Do you have to bring your own wellington boots, or are they provided? I'd have expected them to at least have put gravel on the ground, if not concrete or paving.

Is it correct that the chess board is glued to the table? If it is, is it of a material that is weather resistant and will last? Or is it likely to peel off, or fade, over time?

I have been to Farnworth today, the park is opposite the Library, so maybe there's a possibility of having a chess set in there

The Park was opened by William Gladstone

The board is an integral part of the table, not glued on

I will post a photo when I get time, it no longer looks like the photo in the paper, the grass come mud has gone, so maybe someone has agreed with your Wellington boots comment

[Mick Norris]

2024.03.03 chess table Farnworth Park.jpeg

[Christopher Kreuzer]

[Matt Mackenzie]

I've seen better.

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

One of these was put in my local park (Bury Knowle in Headington) ten years ago:

I didn't see anyone play on it except on the odd occasions when I managed to convince some friends to give it a go. After about two years some kids managed to dislodge the solid concrete tabletop and it broke into several pieces. The council replaced it with a very ugly wooden top with no chessboard.