15 Inch Marble Chess Sets
Fifteen inches is the size at which a chess board stops being an object on a table and becomes the reason the table is arranged around it. It is the largest board we cut, and it is meant for a room where it can stay set up — a study, a library, the corner of a drawing room — rather than one where it has to be cleared for dinner. It is the top of our range of marble chess sets, and the size most often bought when the board is the point rather than the game.
Every set carries thirty-two hand-polished pieces, most add two extra queens for pawn promotion, and most come with a storage box so nothing sits loose between games. Some of the square sets also include a felt-bottomed pouch for each piece, which helps stop a stone base marking a stone board over years of play.
A few of the boards are round rather than square, and the difference is larger than it sounds. A round board reads as sculpture when it is not in use, and it changes how the set sits against a rectangular table. The pieces on the round sets are listed precisely — the king stands 2.83 inches, the queen 2.42, bishops, knights and rooks 2.3, and pawns 1.85 — so you can judge the scale before it arrives rather than after.
Stone is where the sets separate. Black and white is the sharpest to read from across a room and the safest choice when you have not seen the space. Oceanic is cool grey-blue, coral runs warm against black, red or dark brown, white and green and white and grey are softer, and black and golden is the most dramatic pairing in the range. Every board is cut from natural stone, so the veining on the one you receive will not repeat anywhere else — the colour family will match the photograph, the pattern will not.
Fifteen inches is not the right answer for every room, and the most common mistake is buying for the board rather than the surface. Our marble chess set size guide works through all three sizes against real desks and tables, with the measurements you actually need.
If this size is more than the space allows, the 12 inch marble chess sets keep the same stone and the same finish on a board that can share a desk with a lamp and a laptop. For a side table, a shelf, or a first marble set, the 10 inch marble chess sets are the most compact format we make.