Umbra Wobble Chess Set Review: Pretty Board, Small Squares

15 inches is the whole board, frame included, and that one number decides who should own the Umbra Wobble Chess Set. It's a prize-winning design object that happens to play chess, not a chess set that happens to look good. I'd put it on a coffee table in a heartbeat. I wouldn't take it to club night. Give it an inch of border per side and the squares come in under 2 inches, which is travel-set territory.

What it is and who it's for

The listing describes a 15 by 15 inch board in maple and walnut wood with plated chrome detailing and weighted playing pieces. The trick is the surface. It's concave, so every piece sits in its own shallow dip and wobbles when you touch it. Umbra took an Award of Merit at HOW Magazine's 2008 International Design Award competition for the idea.

Who it's for: someone buying decor that guests can fiddle with, or a gift for a casual player with a nice apartment and no chess clock. Who it isn't for: anyone with a rating, anyone who plays blitz, and anyone who wants to know the king height before paying. On that last point, the listing gives no king height, no square size and no piece count. For a chess set, that's a car ad that skips the engine. If you want the wider lay of the land first, my chess sets section covers the categories.

What the specs actually tell you

Do the arithmetic on the 15 inches. A framed board loses an inch or two to the border, so before you even measure a square you're looking at a playing surface under 2 inches across. US Chess guidance puts squares at 2 to 2.5 inches and the king base at 75 to 80 percent of a square. A sub-2-inch square is a travel-set square. It's playable. It's tight.

Run the king-base rule the other way and it gets worse. At 75 to 80 percent of a sub-2-inch square, a king base lands around 1.5 inches across, and the king on top of it is going to be short. I've set up enough club sets to know how that feels under the fingers: fine for a casual game, cramped for anything with a clock. If your hands are used to a 3.75-inch king on a 2.25-inch square, this reads as a hotel lobby set.

The weighted bases are the part I like. Owners keep mentioning that pieces don't drift or tip, and the concave dips do the same job from underneath. Bump the table and nothing falls. That's a real advantage in a house with kids or a cat. It also means every move begins with a small lift out of a divot, which is the opposite of what you want in fast chess.

Chrome plating on pieces you handle is a commitment. It looks sharp under a lamp and it holds every fingerprint. The listing says plated chrome detailing; it doesn't say which parts are plated. If you're a wood-only person, the best wooden chess sets are a better fit.

What owners report

I haven't unboxed one of these, so I'm working from the listing plus what buyers say in their reviews. Two themes come up over and over, and the first is size. Photos make the Wobble look like a centerpiece. Fifteen inches is not a centerpiece. It's about the footprint of a laptop, border included, and people are suprised by that in person.

The second theme is the wobble itself. It's fun for a week. After that it's a quirk, and some owners find it slows them down. The most common complaint I see is that the set reads as decor that plays chess rather than a player's set, and the small squares back that up.

The gift angle is worth spelling out. If you're buying this for someone who already owns a tournament set, it's a nice second object to have in the room. If it's their only set, they'll end up playing on it eventually and wishing the squares were bigger. Twenty casual games a year is my guess at the ceiling for most households.

Credit where it's due: nothing in the owner chatter suggests the pieces topple or the surface wears through. The mechanism does what it claims. It's the scale and the novelty that divide people.

Pros and cons

Pros

• Maple and walnut board with plated chrome detailing, per the listing.
• Weighted pieces plus a concave surface, so a bumped table doesn't scatter the position.
• Award of Merit from HOW Magazine's 2008 design competition.
• A genuinely unusual look. Nobody else at the table has one.

Cons

• 15 inches overall puts the squares under the 2-inch mark US Chess suggests.
• King height, square size and piece count are all missing from the listing.
• Chrome plating shows fingerprints on every piece you touch.
• The wobble fights quick play and punishes anyone who moves with pace.

Specs at a glance

Alternatives worth a look

One honest note first: only the Umbra listing came through in the data I was handed, so I'm not going to invent ASINs for competitors. Here's where I'd point you instead.

If you want a set that plays as well as it looks, start with the best tournament chess sets. A roll-up with 2.25-inch squares and a 3.75-inch king is the standard club answer and it will survive a hundred club nights without complaint.

If this is a gift for someone with a nice room and no interest in ratings, look at the best luxury chess sets. Bigger boards, heavier pieces, and specs printed in the listing so you can check before you pay.

Should you buy it

Buy it if you want a design piece that gives guests something to touch and you'll play maybe twenty casual games a year on it. At 15 inches with weighted pieces and a surface that stops them sliding, it does that job, and it looks like nothing else on a side table.

Skip it if you play seriously, play fast, or care about king height, because the listing won't tell you and the squares are small. Given the choice, I'd rather have a proper Staunton set from my best Staunton chess sets list with a plain wooden board under it.

One last practical thing: check the return window before you order. Fifteen inches sits nicely on a side table and not much else, and listing photos flatter the size of the thing. If it shows up smaller than you pictured, you want the option to send it back without an argument.