Which Wood for a Chess Set? The Species Compared

A chess piece is held in the hand, set down thousands of times, and has to keep its edges crisp for decades. The ideal wood is therefore dense (for weight and stability), hard (to withstand knocks), fine and close in grain (so that the details of the turning stay precise) and stable (so that it does not split). Few woods combine all four qualities, and those that do are often rare, expensive or protected.

Wooden chess pieces: the criteria that matter

Precious wood

A trade term for rare, often tropical woods prized for their colour, density or figure: ebony, rosewood, bois de rose, padauk. It is neither a botanical nor a regulatory category.

Density is measured in kilograms per cubic metre, for dry wood. Above 900 kg/m³, a piece already feels heavy in the hand before it is even weighted. Hardness is often expressed by the Janka test, in newtons: the force needed to embed a steel ball in the wood. The higher it is, the better the piece resists knocks and marks. Grain, finally, governs the fineness of the mouldings: a coarse grain “tears out” on the lathe and forces the maker to simplify the shapes.

Comparison table of the woods

Densities and hardness: average values for dry wood published by the reference database The Wood Database, rounded. The same wood varies with the tree, the region and the seasoning. Statuses: CITES appendices and IUCN Red List, as recorded in October 2026.

Boxwood, king of the white pieces

Boxwood (Buxus sempervirens) is the wood most closely associated with chess pieces. Its grain is so fine that it seems almost fibreless, which allows very crisp necks, beads and crowns to be turned. Its density, close to that of water, gives the pieces weight. Its pale yellow colour darkens slightly with time and takes on a honey patina that collectors appreciate. The first Staunton sets of 1849 already paired boxwood with ebony. Boxwood grows slowly and in small diameters: it is almost never found in wide planks, which restricts it to small turned objects. For the details, see our page on ebony and boxwood.

The dark woods of the black pieces

Ebony

True ebony belongs to the genus Diospyros. Gabon ebony (D. crassiflora) is the blackest; Macassar ebony (D. celebica), native to the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, is streaked with tawny. These very hard woods polish to a shine without any varnish. They are also under threat: Gabon ebony is on the IUCN Red List, and the ebonies of Madagascar have been listed in CITES Appendix II since 2013, with a suspension of trade subsequently decided for the island.

Rosewood and sheesham

Rosewood is a Dalbergia. Indian rosewood (D. latifolia) gives purplish-brown pieces; sheesham (D. sissoo), more golden and slightly less dense, is widely used by Indian workshops, which often sell it under the trade name “golden rosewood”. Since 2017 the whole genus Dalbergia has been listed in CITES Appendix II, and Rio rosewood (D. nigra) has been in Appendix I since 1992. The nuances between rosewood and bois de rose are set out on the page rosewood or bois de rose.

Padauk

African padauk (Pterocarpus soyauxii) gives a spectacular orange-red straight off the lathe, which turns reddish brown in the light. It is used for “red and white” sets that recall certain antique sets. Like the other African Pterocarpus, it is now listed in CITES Appendix II.

Pale woods and soft woods

Maple, very pale and discreet in grain, is used chiefly for the light squares of boards; it is too light to make heavy pieces without weighting. Beech and acacia, more affordable, turn easily but remain softer: edges blunt faster and the black pieces are almost always stained. They are honest choices for a learning or travel set, not for a tournament set meant to last.

Which wood for the white pieces and for the black?

The FIDE rule is simple: the “white” pieces may be white, cream or another light shade; the “black” ones brown, black or a dark shade, with a clear contrast between the two sides and a matt finish that is not excessively shiny. In practice, four pairings are found:

To compare these pairings on real sets, the Palais des Échecs collection of chess sets in precious woods shows boxwood, ebony and rosewood side by side, with photographs of the pieces from several angles.

How are these woods worked?

Dense woods such as boxwood and ebony demand perfectly sharpened tools and long seasoning, otherwise the piece splits after turning. Oily woods, such as some rosewoods, polish well but glue poorly, which complicates fitting the felt and gluing in the weight. The steps in detail (roughing out, turning, carving the knight, ebonising, finishing) are explained on the page devoted to how chess pieces are made. The board is subject to other constraints: see chessboard woods. And to keep these woods in good condition, the page on caring for a wooden chess set gives the useful routines.

Noble wood, precious wood: what these words really mean

“Noble wood” and “precious wood” are sales expressions, not defined categories. A European beech, a perfectly respectable wood, is never called precious; a sheesham, though plentiful in plantations, often is because it belongs to the rosewood genus. Rely instead on the name of the wood, ideally accompanied by its botanical name. A serious listing also states whether the black pieces are in a naturally dark wood or a stained one.

Sources: The Wood Database (densities and hardness), CITES (Appendices I and II), IUCN Red List, FIDE chess equipment standards (2026).