Marble, Onyx, Glass: Chess Sets in Mineral Materials

The FIDE standards provide only for pieces in wood or plastic and boards in wood for competitions. Mineral materials therefore follow a different logic: that of the work of art or decoration, which is displayed as much as it is used. That does not stop you playing on them, provided you know their particularities.

The glass chessboard: elegant but demanding

Glass chessboard

A board in glass, most often toughened, whose squares are differentiated by frosting, screen-printing or a tint, and generally accompanied by pieces in clear and frosted glass.

Glass appeals for its light: set on a pale table, a glass set seems to float. But it has three drawbacks in use. The pieces, often hollow or of simplified form, are light and slide on a smooth surface. Glass against glass produces a clink at every move. And the distinction between the two sides (clear against frosted, or light against smoked) is less sharp than between boxwood and ebony, especially under bright lighting. Toughened glass withstands knocks far better than ordinary glass, but a chip on an edge is always possible.

Crystal, heavier and more brilliant, is found mainly in decorative pieces. It scratches less easily than some stones but breaks cleanly if dropped.

Marble: weight and prestige

Marble is a recrystallised limestone, dense (about 2.7 tonnes per cubic metre, nearly three times a hardwood) and relatively soft: it can be scratched with a steel blade. The most famous, Carrara marble, from Tuscany, is white or grey with veining; other marbles offer green, black or pinkish tones. A marble board is made of 64 tiles fitted together and set in a frame, or sometimes cut from a single block.

Marble pieces are turned and then polished. Their weight gives them remarkable stability, but a fall onto a hard floor breaks or chips them. Marble above all fears acids: a drop of lemon, vinegar or wine leaves a dull stain that can only be removed by repolishing.

Onyx and alabaster: the transparency of stone

In the trade in decorative objects, “onyx” most often means a banded, translucent limestone with green, honey or brown veins. It has the hardness and acid sensitivity of marble, with in addition a transparency that makes it spectacular in raking light. Onyx in the strict sense of mineralogists, a variety of chalcedony, is much harder but rarely used for chess pieces.

Alabaster is softer still: gypsum alabaster can be scratched with a fingernail. Translucent and milky, it made the reputation of Volterra, in Tuscany. It is very sensitive to water, which dulls it and can dissolve it at the surface: it is never cleaned with water.

Table: mineral materials and wood compared

Usual physical values of the materials (rounded averages); a given piece may differ depending on the variety of stone or glass.

Can you really play on a stone set?

Yes, with a few precautions. Glue felt under the pieces if they have none: it protects the board and removes the clatter. Prefer pieces whose two sides contrast clearly (white marble against black marble rather than two onyxes of neighbouring tones). And plan a fixed place for it: a 40 cm marble board can weigh several kilos, which discourages moving it for every game.

To see these materials on complete sets, Le Palais des Échecs presents marble and onyx chess sets as well as glass chess sets, whose photographs allow you to judge the contrast between the two sides.

Wood remains the benchmark material

Warmth to the touch, silence, relative lightness, natural contrast, ease of repair: for frequent play, wood keeps the advantage. It is also the only natural material accepted by FIDE for competition sets. To choose a wood, see our comparison of woods; for care, caring for a wooden chess set.

Sources: FIDE equipment standards (2026); usual physical data for minerals (Mohs scale, densities).