World Chess is introducing a new default board — brighter, more familiar, and designed to test how players respond. Some will welcome the change, others may resist it, but everyone will notice. Here’s why we made the switch, and what it means for your next game.

World Chess has always been about design. The Championship set, the club interiors, even the way we broadcast games — we like to push, provoke, and sometimes annoy the purists. But soon we are shipping a new default board that is brighter, greener, and a little bit like the one you already know from elsewhere.

Why? Because design isn’t just about originality. It’s about usability. Players told us they want a board that feels familiar, comfortable, and easier on the eyes after a long blitz session. UI research agrees: brighter contrasts make for faster recognition, fewer misclicks, and smoother games.

This is an experiment. Maybe the new board will become beloved, maybe people will beg us to switch it back. That’s the fun of running a platform with hundreds of thousands of games a day — we can learn in real time, from the people who matter most: the players.

So open World Chess today, play a few games, and tell us what you think. Did we just kill originality, or did we finally make the board you actually want to use every day?