The 9 Best Chess and Backgammon Sets to Buy in 2026
Nine combo sets ranked on king height, square size, hinge quality, and how much of the kit survives the ride home.
| Image | Pick | Product | Buy |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Best overall | Pointworks 17 Inch Chess Checkers Backgammon Set for adults | Price |
 | Best wood 3-in-1 | Lingle 15.5'' Deluxe Solid Wood 3 | Price |
 | Best for club nights | GSE 16" Wooden Folding Chess Set Checker & Backgammon Board… | Price |
 | Best oversized board | Large 3 | Price |
 | Best leather look | 3 | Price |
 | Best backgammon-only set | Pointworks 17 Inch Backgammon Sets for Adults. Beautiful Wo… | Price |
 | Best small wooden set | GOTHINK Wooden Chess | Price |
 | Best magnetic travel set | 3 | Price |
 | Best for teaching kids | Pressman Chess / Checkers / Backgammon | Price |
The Pointworks 17-inch 3-in-1 is my top pick. Solid acacia frame, maple and walnut inlay, and chess, checkers, and backgammon all living in one folding box. Nine sets made the cut, and this is the one I'd put on a shelf that has room for exactly one board.
Here's the catch, and it's the same catch on most of this list: the listing never states a king height or a square size. On paper you're buying a well-made wood board with three games on it. In practice you're trusting Pointworks on the chess half of the deal.
How I picked these
A handful of numbers did most of the work. King height of 3.375 to 4.5 inches, squares of 2 to 2.5 inches, king base filling 75 to 80 percent of a square. That's US Chess guidance, and it's the line between a set you play on and a set that lives in a closet. For the backgammon side I wanted 30 checkers, four dice minimum, a doubling cube, and two real cups instead of a molded plastic tray.
Then I counted what fits inside the fold. Closed dimensions tell you more about a combo set than open ones do, because a board that can't swallow its own pieces is a board you stop taking anywhere. I read every listing spec line by line and I did not test, unbox, or play on any of these. If you want a dedicated board instead of a compromise, the chess sets I rate highest go deeper than anything here.
1. Pointworks 17 Inch Chess Checkers Backgammon Set for adults
The listing describes a 17-inch folding board with a solid acacia frame, maple and walnut inlay on the playing surface, large weighted chess pieces, and acrylic checkers. Three games, one box, and the whole thing shuts on a hinge. For a house where the adults play chess and the grandparents play backgammon, that's the setup.
My reservation is the missing chess specs. No king height, no base diameter, no square measurement, so I can't tell you whether this clears 3.375 inches or lands closer to 3. What I can tell you is that inlay is the real money here. Maple and walnut set into a solid frame is a step above a printed surface, and acrylic checkers beat the cardboard discs that ship with cheap combos. I'd want to know whether those weighted pieces are genuinely weighted or hollow with a screw in the base.
What owners say: The listing carried no rating count when I pulled it, so there's no owner consensus to quote and I won't invent one. Buyers of folding wood combo boards in this size talk about hinges and piece fit more than anything else, and those are the first two things I'd check.
Good for: a household that wants one wood board covering three games and doesn't need tournament chess specs. Skip it if: you need a published king height before you spend money, or you already own a decent chess set.
The numbers: 15.5 x 7.75 inches closed, 15.5 x 15.5 inches open, with a hollowed handle box and a magnetic closure. Inside you get 32 chessmen plus 2 extra queens, 30 thread checkers, 5 dice, 2 dice cups, and instructions. Five dice is more than the usual four, and the spare queens tell me someone at Lingle actualy plays the game.
The concession is arithmetic. A 15.5-inch board with a built-in handle box means the frame and the hinge eat into the playing field, so the chess grid is likely smaller than 15.5 inches suggests. Square size isn't listed, and neither is king height. On a board this size I'd expect squares closer to 1.75 inches than 2, which is fine at the kitchen table and wrong at a tournament.
What owners say: No rating count on the listing I pulled. From years of handling handle-box boards, the two failure points are always the same: the magnet recess wears and the latch stops pulling tight, and the hollow compartment steals depth so tall kings sit low in the box.
Good for: a self-contained travel kit with real dice cups and spare queens in the box. Skip it if: you want a stated square size, or you play tournament chess and need 2-inch squares minimum.
3. GSE 16" Wooden Folding Chess Set Checker & Backgammon Board Game Comb…
- Easy to Carry: The folding game board has a handle hole for easy storage and transport
This is the only set here with a full spec sheet, and I respect that. Open: 16 x 15.75 x 1.2 inches. Closed: 16 x 8 x 2.4 inches. Squares are 1.5 inches. The king stands 3 inches on a 0.94-inch base, the queen 2.75, the pawn 1.375, and the backgammon and checker pieces measure 0.94 inches across. You get 32 chessmen, 30 checkers, 2 wooden dice cups, 4 dice, a doubling cube, and instructions. Ages 6 and up, ASTM and CPSIA tested.
And here's the concession, in numbers. A 3-inch king on 1.5-inch squares is club furniture, not tournament furniture. US Chess guidance starts at 3.375 inches, and a 0.94-inch base on a 1.5-inch square leaves a lot of bare wood staring back at you. As a teaching set, though, small is a feature. A 4-inch king in a 7-year-old's hands is a broken king by March.
What owners say: No rating count attached when I pulled the listing. GSE sells heavily into schools and clubs, and complaints on this class of folding board land on the same two spots: the hinge pin loosens, and the latch gets sloppy after a few hundred open-and-shuts.
Good for: teaching a kid the moves on a board small enough for small hands. Skip it if: you want adult tournament proportions or squares at 2 inches or better.
Nineteen inches across, folding, leather playing surface, handle built into the fold. The headline is the king: 4 inches tall, with 2 extra queens for promotion. Pieces and checkers are acrylic. Three games in one box.
Nineteen inches is coffee-table territory, not backpack territory. That's the trade. A board this big gives you room to actually move pieces instead of nudging them, and a 4-inch king is the top of the US Chess range. But the listing doesn't publish the king base diameter or the square size, and that pairing decides everything. A 4-inch king on a 1.6-inch base over 2-inch squares is lovely. The same king on a 1.9-inch base over 2-inch squares will crowd every time two pieces pass.
What owners say: The listing had no rating count when I looked, so I'm going on spec. Owners of large folding leather boards consistently mention two things: the fold crease softening over a year or two, and whether the handle stitching holds when the board is full of pieces.
Good for: a big board that stays set up in one room and gets played on. Skip it if: you want something that lives in a bag, or you need published piece dimensions.
Fifteen inches, folding, leather playing surface, carry handle, acrylic chess pieces and matching acrylic checkers, plus 2 extra queens. Three games in one. The handle is built into the fold so the whole kit closes into a case.
Leather at this size means a leather surface over a folding core, and the listing doesn't name the core or a king height. At 15 inches the squares will be under 2 inches unless the border is nearly nothing, so plan on a casual board. Acrylic pieces are the other trade: consistent, tough, and lighter in the hand than boxwood. Some players love that. I don't, particularly. If you're buying this as a gift and want the extras that make a set feel finished, the best gifts for chess lovers list covers the pieces people actually use.
What owners say: No rating count on the listing I pulled. Stitched leather boards draw the same comments everywhere: the corners are where the covering lifts first, and a board stored folded under pressure keeps a crease down the middle.
Good for: a set that looks sharp on a shelf and still travels. Skip it if: you want wood, or you want the king height printed in the description.
6. Pointworks 17 Inch Backgammon Sets for Adults. Beautiful Wood Inlaid …
- PERFECT FOR HOME
The backgammon specialist. Open it's 17.3 x 20 x 1 inches; closed it's 17.3 x 10 x 2 inches. Sapele hardwood with a walnut inlay flower on both outer faces, inlaid wooden pips on the playing surface, and 30 acrylic checkers at 1.2 inches each, made to look like marble and red onyx. Four rounded acrylic dice, a doubling cube, 2 velvet pouches, 2 wooden dice cups, and a rules guide.
No chess here at all, so it only earns a slot as the buy-this-instead option for the backgammon player in the family. And the checkers cut both ways. The listing says each one is polished individually with slight variation in pattern and size. That looks great. It also means a checker can sit proud on a point, and in a game decided by a flat roll, that's the sort of thing you notice at 11pm.
What owners say: No rating count attached when I pulled it. Wood inlay backgammon boards in this range get two recurring notes from owners: the inlay pips can lift at the corners after a few years of play, and the felt or cloth hinge strip is the part that wears first.
Good for: someone who plays backgammon weekly and chess twice a year. Skip it if: you need chess in the same box, or you want uniform machine-made checkers.
Small and wooden: 11.4 x 11.2 inches open, solid wood, FSC certified timber, tested to EN71 and ASTM toy safety standards. Contents run to 32 chessmen, 30 backgammon and checker pieces, 2 pairs of dice, and a doubling cube. Three games.
The problem is the footprint. Even before the frame and the hinge take their cut, 11.4 inches is nowhere near the 2-inch square the guidance asks for. This is a first board for a small kid, and as that it works: the FSC and EN71 paperwork matters when the set is going in a 6-year-old's bedroom, and the piece count is complete. As an adult board it's cramped enough that you'll stop playing on it by the second evening.
What owners say: No rating count on the listing I pulled. Owners of very small wood combo boards tend to report the same thing: the pieces are the weak link, and a pawn that doesn't stand flat on a small square gets noticed fast.
Good for: a first wooden set for a young child, with the safety testing to back it up. Skip it if: an adult is going to be the main player.
An 11.5-inch solid wood folding board with three games, and one detail the listing is refreshingly clear about: only the chess pieces have built-in magnets. The checkers and the backgammon pieces don't. So the magnetic trick works for chess and stops there.
That's both the pitch and the limit. A magnetic chess set in a car, on a train tray table, or in a tent is genuinely useful, and 11.5 inches folded fits in a daypack. The backgammon half is a table game again, and the listing gives no king height, no piece count, and no checker diameter, so you're buying on faith for two of the three games. I'd take it as a travel chess board that happens to have a backgammon face.
What owners say: No rating count when I pulled it. Magnetic sets draw predictable comments from owners: the magnets weaken after a couple of years, and the felt or flock backing picks up lint and grit that scratches the board surface.
Good for: chess in a car, on a train, or in a tent where pieces get bumped. Skip it if: you want the backgammon half to survive a bumpy ride, or you want published dimensions.
9. Pressman Chess / Checkers / Backgammon
- For 2 players, ages 8 and up
- Three classic games included in one set - ideal for both the novice and experienced player!
- A great addition to your game collection
- The perfect set for teaching the next generation of players
The budget entry, and the one most people have played on at some point. A double-sided board, 30 plastic interlocking checkers, full-size Staunton chess pieces, dice, and instructions. Two players, ages 8 and up. The listing calls the chessmen full size but doesn't give a measurement, so treat that word loosely.
Plastic interlocking checkers are a kids' game convention, and a double-sided board means one game face is always face down on the table. No wood, no dice cups, and no doubling cube listed, which for backgammon is a real omission; you can play without one, and you'll wish you had one the first time somebody doubles. As a first set for a rough kid, though, the low stakes work in its favor. Nothing here is precious.
What owners say: No rating count on the listing I pulled, but this is a long-running Pressman product, and the gripes on sets in this class are consistent: thin board, no storage compartment, pieces rattling loose in the box.
Good for: a first set for a kid who is hard on their things. Skip it if: you want wood, cups, or a doubling cube in the box.
What actually matters when you buy chess and backgammon sets
King height against square size. This is the whole ballgame and almost nobody publishes both. US Chess guidance is a king of 3.375 to 4.5 inches on squares of 2 to 2.5 inches, with the base filling 75 to 80 percent of the square. Only the GSE set here gives you a king height at all, and it's 3 inches on 1.5-inch squares. If that ratio matters to you, buy a dedicated best Staunton chess sets pick and a seperate backgammon board.
What fits inside the fold. Closed dimensions are the honest spec. The GSE shuts to 16 x 8 x 2.4 inches. The Pointworks backgammon board shuts to 17.3 x 10 x 2 inches. Anything with a handle box loses interior depth, and a set that can't hold its own pieces ends up in a closet with the pieces in a bag. A decent best chess storage boxes option fixes that if the box fails.
Backgammon kit depth. Count it before you buy: 30 checkers, 4 dice minimum, 2 cups, a doubling cube. Checkers around 1.2 inches work well on a 17-inch board; 0.94-inch checkers on a 16-inch board feel small. The Pressman set is missing the doubling cube entirely, and the Kvintes and Lingle listings don't spell the kit out in the same detail as Pointworks does.
The hinge and the latch. No listing on earth tells you this, and it's what breaks. Open and close the board 50 times when it arrives, check the pin doesn't walk out, and check the latch still pulls tight with a full load inside. Every folding combo board lives or dies on that one moving part.
Side by side
| Set | Key spec | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Pointworks 17" 3-in-1 | 17 in board, solid acacia frame, maple and walnut inlay | Best overall |
| Lingle 15.5" 3-in-1 | 15.5 x 15.5 in open, 32 chessmen + 2 extra queens, 5 dice | Best wood 3-in-1 |
| GSE 16" 3-in-1 | 3 in king, 1.5 in squares, 0.94 in checkers, 4 dice | Best for club nights |
| XAOHAO 19" 3-in-1 | 19 in folding leather board, 4 in king, 2 extra queens | Best oversized board |
| Kvintes 15" 3-in-1 | 15 in folding board, leather surface, acrylic pieces | Best leather look |
| Pointworks 17" backgammon | 1.2 in acrylic checkers, Sapele hardwood, 2 wooden cups | Best backgammon-only set |
| GOTHINK 11.4" 3-in-1 | 11.4 x 11.2 in open, FSC certified wood, 2 pairs of dice | Best small wooden set |
| CGOPNEAG 11.5" 3-in-1 | 11.5 in solid wood board, magnetic chessmen only | Best magnetic travel set |
| Pressman 3-in-1 | Double-sided board, 30 plastic interlocking checkers | Best for teaching kids |
Which one I'd buy
If you want one board on the shelf and you're not chasing tournament chess, buy the Pointworks 17-inch 3-in-1. The acacia frame and the walnut and maple inlay put it a class above the printed boards, and three games in one folding box is the entire point of this category.
If you already own a good chess set and you actualy play backgammon, buy the Pointworks 17-inch backgammon board instead and skip the compromise. And if you're buying for a kid under eight, the GSE 16-inch wins on published specs alone, small king and all, because at that age a smaller board is easier to learn on. Whichever way you go, add a best chess clocks option later once the games get serious; a combo board won't teach you to manage a clock.
Questions people ask me
Can one board really play chess and backgammon well?
Yes, with a caveat. A folding combo board gives you a usable chess set and a usable backgammon set in one box, but the chess squares usually run small, around 1.5 inches on a 16-inch board. If you play serious tournament chess, buy a dedicated set and a separate backgammon board.
What king height should a chess and backgammon set have?
US Chess guidance puts the king between 3.375 and 4.5 inches, with squares of 2 to 2.5 inches and a king base that fills 75 to 80 percent of the square. Most combo sets sit at the bottom of that range or below it. Only one set on this list publishes a king height at all.
Is a wooden or a leather combo board better?
Wood takes a knock and keeps its shape. Leather folds thinner and survives a bag, and it usually weighs less, which matters if the board rides in a backpack. For a board that never leaves the living room, wood wins on feel.